Network Announcement (Halfway!)

Dear friend of Ride:Well,

The odometer on the ’09 Ride:Well Tour just hit 1600 yesterday. That’s a lot of pavement traveled. From the seat of our bicycles, we’ve seen beautiful beaches, daunting mountain peaks and bleak deserts. We’ve climbed for hours at a time, and once in the Sierra Nevadas we made a harrowing, 11 mile descent and hit over 50 mph!

In every way, this has been a Tour of extreme highs and lows, in temperatures, elevations and emotions. As we shrug off our exhaustion, every new day is another chance to learn how “love and pain and life” go together, as cyclist Erin Morris puts it. We wish you could ride with us for a day. Despite the hardships we face, we’re having the time of our lives out here!

To learn more about life on the road, read blogs and see pics and videos from the ride, visit http://www.ridewelltour.org. We so appreciate your words of encouragement. You can also make a secure, tax-deductible donation through our site. We ask you to consider how much you’d like to give . Remember, $1 provides clean water for one African for an entire year!

Dallas Benefit

If you live near Red Oak, Texas, we invite you to join us this Friday, July 10, for an art auction/benefit concert hosted by the Oaks Fellowship and the Gathering. In addition to several visual art pieces worth checking out, we’re stoked to present a bill that includes Derek Webb, Christopher Williams, Joy Williams, Bethany Dillon and special guest Dan Haseltine. You may recognize the last artist as the lead singer of Jars of Clay. Did you know he and his band founded Blood:Water Mission, the amazing cause we’re riding for? This is a free event—no cover—but please bring a donation because we want to raise a bunch of money for our friends in Marsabit, Kenya! Oh, by the way, if concerts aren’t your thing, walk a mile in an African’s shoes at our July 11 Water Walk.

Nashville Benefit

It’s been rumored ’08 R:WT alum and bestselling author Don Miller is riding again with the Team this year. Although that would be superb, Don isn’t with us! However, we’ll see our old friend again in Nashville. Don will be lending his speaking talents to our July 24 benefit Event. Along with Don, the Nashville benefit features author David Dark (Everyday Apocalypse, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything); filmmaker Tom Wills (Belcourt Theatre); and musicians Matthew Perryman Jones, Sarah Masen, Justin Caldwell and Sandra McCracken.

Featured Sponsor

We’d like to give a big shout-out to our friends at North Central University in Minneapolis. North Central is our title sponsor this year, and we love their tagline “Your life. Our mission.” A few of the founding members are NCU alums, and we're proud of our school, which is in the heart of Minneapolis. Visit the school at http://www.northcentral.edu.

Ride:Well,

The Ride:Well Tour Team