On April 7th, I will set off on the bicycle to ride from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL. My ride will be largely self-supported (my wife will meet me at our motel at the end of each day), and I will be riding solo. My route is known as the Adventure Cycling Association’s Southern Tier and it will traverse California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas (one third of the distance), Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The mapped distance is approximately 3,100 miles but will likely creep up to closer to 3,200 miles as I make side trips to secure lodging and other needs.
My goal is to complete this distance at a pace of just over 200 miles per day, which depending on weather, will amount to 13 to 18 hours in the saddle each day. While this sounds hard (and it is), it pales in comparison to the loss and struggle that many have experienced in Western North Carolina as a result of Hurricane Helene on September 27. It is for this reason that I am hoping that you will give me mental support by donating to MANNA FoodBank. Despite the fact that their main facility was destroyed by the storm, they have continued step up to support Asheville and our surrounding mountain communities. I have volunteered with them in the past and I can vouch their organization and their tireless response to this disaster.
Please donate what you can and volunteer if a donation doesn’t currently fit in your budget.
With Gratitude,
Tony Hauser
The Southern Tier Bicycle Route offers a wide variety of terrain, vegetation, climate, and people all the way across the nation from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The route is rich in human culture and history — ranging from the Spanish and Mexican influences in California, to the ancient indigenous pueblo cultures in Arizona and New Mexico, to the imprint of the Spanish conquistadors in Texas, to the bayous and French influences of Louisiana, to the Old South of Mississippi and Alabama, to a four-hundred-year-old city in Florida.
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