Bike for Africa

It's been a while since my last post. Too long. But there's a good reason for this so I hope you'll forgive me... For the past month, my team and I have been working furiously on a big event for our non-profit organization, Bikes Without Borders. If you're anywhere near the Toronto area, please read on. And if you're not, skip a couple of paragraphs and I can tell you more about what Bikes Without Borders has been up to.

BIKE FOR AFRICA
The 2009 Bikes Without Borders/Virgin Mobile Bike for Africa will take place on May 30 on Toronto Islands from 1 pm to 8 pm. Join us and help raise $100,000 for our Pedal Powered Hope project in Malawi, providing bikes and bicycle ambulances to HIV/AIDS and community care workers. It's 2 hours of inspiring, fun biking or walking, followed by a BBQ picnic and an afternoon with Toronto's hottest bands!

Early bird-registration closes on April 17 - sign up before then and pay just $20/individual, $50/family, or $175/team. This includes BBQ dinner and an afternoon of kickass music with Toronto's hottest local bands!

Please help spread the word - e-mail your friends or invite people to the Facebook event page!

Pedal Powered Hope - Malawi
Bikes Without Borders is working with a Malawian-based NGO (YONECO) to establish a program that will provide Community Health Workers in 7 districts with 400 new bikes and 100 bicycle ambulances. Providing a bicycle or bicycle ambulance to a CHW allows them to reach up to 5 times as many patients, reach remote communities with patient support and HIV/AIDS prevention education, and do their work more efficiently and with greater impact. 400 bikes and 100 bicycle ambulances will allow our network of CHWs in Malawi to reach an estimated 15,000 additional people with lifesaving medication, prevention education and additional support services.

Just $150 purchases a reliable, durable bike for a Community Healthcare Worker in Malawi. $400 is enough to purchase a bicycle ambulance. Visit our donations page to make your investment in the future of African healthcare!

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I hope to see you at Bike for Africa,

Mike, owner/president,
Sacred Rides Mountain Bike Adventures

founder/director
Bikes Without Borders

Do you love mountain biking? Your love could get you a free trip to Peru worth $4500!

At Sacred Rides, we eat, sleep and dream mountain biking. And we want to share that love of mountain biking with you and we want you to share it with us. So we're inviting you to show us your love with our new 'I Love Mountain Biking' video contest.

The winner of the contest will walk away with an all-expenses-paid MTB trip to Peru or British Columbia worth over $4500. The grand prize includes a spot on one of our trips in Peru or British Columbia, return airfare from North America or select spots in Europe, and the use of a DeVinci bike for the duration of the trip.

For contest details & to enter your video, please visit
www.sacredrides.com/ilovemountainbiking

The sooner you enter, the better your chances. Your video could be 1 to 3 minutes of anything: footage of you riding your home trails, a song and dance, a music video. However you express your love of the sport.

Good luck!

Mike Brcic, president,
Sacred Rides
http://www.sacredrides.com

Flying on the Cheap

Because our mountain bike trips occur all over the globe and our customers typically fly to their destination, I thought this was a great article to share with you.

If you have any tips of your own, please send them to me via the comment box below.

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FRUGAL FLYERS SHARE THEIR TICKET TIPS
from MetroNews Toronto, Mar. 6, 2009

Want to fly cheap? Time to break some bad habits. Like buying the first cheap ticket you see or waiting until the last minute to book a fare.

As the economic slump continues and both business and leisure travel declines, fares are getting cheaper as airlines try to fill seats. But even though there are more bargains to be found, travellers still need to know a few tricks to get the very best prices.

First, don’t hurry. Matt­hew D. Weyer sometimes spends hours researching fares online. Knowing what a ticket usually sells for allows him to spot cheap fares almost immediately.

Weyer sets up email alerts for prices on the route he’s shopping for at fare-watching sites like Kayak.com or Farecast.com. He finds out whether discount-carrier Southwest Airlines Co. flies a route. He also checks the ticket on booking sites like Travelocity or Orbitz.

Weyer recently shopped for a flight from Greenville, N.C., to Chicago, a ticket he said commonly runs around $410 US. He was tempted at $280. He eventually paid $180 on Priceline.com. Weyer figures he spent about two hours spread over a couple of days searching for the ticket.

Weyer starts shopping as far in advance as he can but doesn’t book right away. He considers it safe to book between one and three months ahead of time. Legacy carriers generally show their schedules for about 11 months out. The window is shorter for discount carriers.

Southwest’s window is currently six months, and AirTran’s is nine months.

The 24-year-old Chicago college student and software programmer once flew for only $9 on Spirit Airlines from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and says the most he has ever paid for a ticket is $240.

Having a price in mind is good advice. A sense of timing helps, too.

If you tend to make travel plans during weekend down time, reconsider. The best time to shop is late Monday or early Tuesday, some fare experts say. Airlines often start fare sales on Sunday night or Monday morning, said Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com.

Those sales alone are fine if they include the flight you want. But other carriers generally match the fare sale by Monday evening or Tuesday morning, giving you more choices.

Seaney said Wednesdays are generally the cheapest day to fly. Tuesdays and Saturdays are also good days to fly because demand is low and the airlines are trying to fill seats.

It’s natural for travellers to book their flight when the workday is done or the kids are asleep.

But the airlines are posting fares on their own schedule. They file fares to the computer system that shares them among websites and travel agents three times each weekday — 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern time, and 5 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays and Sundays. That means fares can change at those times, so when you do see a fare at the price you’re looking for, grab it.

Former New Yorker Jill Gott of Providence, R.I., spent 2-1/2 weeks checking American Airlines’ website several times a day before snagging a $109 round-trip ticket from New York-LaGuardia to Atlanta. She said it was only available for about three hours before jumping back up to $250.

“I just decide what I want to pay for something, and I just keep clicking away until I get it,” she said.

But shopper beware. Fares start to rise again seven to 10 days before a flight — sometimes as long as 14 days or more, depending on the airline and sale offer. Airlines raise fares closer to the departure date because last-minute seats tend to be bought by business travellers and others who must fly at certain times.

Roger Johnson, director of revenue management at New York-based JetBlue Airways Corp., notes that it can be risky for a flyer to delay buying a ticket in hopes it will be even cheaper. He says there’s no good way for customers to know whether a fare sale will show up in their market.

“They would be gambling that this would happen and would probably lose out more than they would win,” he said.

AirTran Airways spokesman Tad Hutcheson said his advice is simple: “I would follow the Moscow rule of shopping — you see it, you like it, you buy it.”

Where to buy also matters. For an airline ticket only, your best bet is an individual airline’s website because you’ll skip the extra fees some travel Web sites charge. Also, while Orbitz will show you a handful of round-trip flights from Baltimore to Austin, Texas, for instance, a key option is missing. Southwest doesn’t sell on those sites.

That means checking its website is a must if you’re flying near a city they serve. For instance, on Feb. 24, Southwest was offering tickets on the Baltimore-Austin route for as low as $99, while Orbitz’s cheapest offering was $193.

If you’re packaging airfare, hotel and a rental car, however, consider Orbitz and Travelocity, which often discount such bundles.

Like Weyer, you can also try Priceline, where users can bid for tickets. A customer may end up with an undesirable itinerary, like flying in the wrong direction to make a connection, but the fare can sometimes be cheaper. Not all airlines, however, participate in Priceline’s “name your own price” offer.

Everyday Adventures

Today's post comes to you via Matthew at Adventure-Some. It's all about finding the adventure in everyday experiences. It resonated with me - yesterday morning I was taking a shower and the morning sunlight was streaming in through the bathroom shutters. I looked up and the water vapour was dancing around in the light in the most amazing way. It was the coolest effect, and it made me pause to think. Remember that scene in American Beauty when the plastic bag is floating around in the air, caught by the wind?

It's so easy in our hectic lives to keep looking ahead to the next big 'adventure' or experience, and totally miss out on the small, quiet moments that take our breath away. Like when my 10-month-old daughter smiles at me.

What are your everyday adventures?

Thanks, Matthew. Live the adventure!

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Often when I tell someone that I am going on a trip, they comment “what a great adventure!” And they are right. However, I think that people often have the mistaken idea that adventure = travel, which is not the case. Traveling might get you to the adventure, it might even be an adventure in and of itself, but adventure can be found wherever you are.

I think that the biggest reason for this mis-belief is because people don’t realize what I said in my first post, that “an adventure is something that is exciting or new to you.” They think ‘adventure’ and picture some grand excursion. In reality, an adventure can take place in your back yard, at your local park, or in your home town.

It all depends on your mindset. When you are looking for adventure, you can find it in the most surprising, dare I say everyday, places. If all it takes is doing something new or something exciting, you can do that in your nearest grocery store. I can wander over to the cheese section and find some very interesting looking specimens. I have never tried any of them, and know nothing about them. For a quick culinary adventure, I could pick out one that looks interesting and ask someone behind the counter what they recommend that I try it with. Pick up their recommendation and go home to sample. I might feel safer to do a quick search online for recommendations [do search for cheese, side and wine combo]. I found this… in less than five minutes. If you’re already a cheese fan and have tried everything offered locally, check out the other aisles, I’m sure that you can find something new.

If you are short of inspiration, spend some time with a 5 year old. Any child will lead you on a constant stream of adventures, if you let them. You will explore with a prince or princess, discover exciting worlds and otherwise have an amazing time. All of these amazing adventures to be had in familiar, everyday settings. (Don’t have a 5 year old that you can borrow? I’m sure that if you ask your friends, family, and neighbors you will find someone who could use a babysitter, even if it is just for a few hours of peace during the day.)

As a blog about everyday adventure, I will be mentioning all different kinds of adventures that are available, not just the ones that involve travel. Don’t become discouraged because you don’t have the time or money to go somewhere for a week-long getaway, you can have adventures anytime, anywhere, as long as you are looking for them.