With our first 70+mile ride/team campout just a couple of days behind us, I feel like I have finally gotten a taste of what the summer has in store for both myself and the rest of the team. I am not yet completely sure how I will end up filling this space throughout the ride. I want to be able to stay connected and to share my experiences with my friends and family, as well as with all those who will visit our team's words as supporters in our fight against cancer. However, because what I will eventually see, do, and learn along the way will become so vast that I could not possibly share it all, I hope that I will be able to provide small snapshots of my excursion. These snippets of our transnational trek will, I'm sure, become a compilation of my progression as a cyclist, my ponderings as I pass stretches of changing (and seemingly unchanging) scenery, observations of both the similarities and differences between the 17 states that we will travel through, and a newfound understanding of how cancer impacts Americans and the attitudes that surround this impact.All that said...This past weekend as I pedaled, I realized that the only possessions I had with me at any given moment on the road, for the most part, were the clothes on my back, a helmet on my head for safety's sake, some hydration and nourishment, and my set of wheels. It got me thinking about just how much "stuff" I left behind, and how unnecessary it all is. I am very much looking forward to becoming comfortable living with a lack of all the extraneous items that surround me daily. There will also be difference in the amount of resources available to us (showers, a wide variety of foods, constant internet access...etc.) This idea of a lack of resources can be connected to the main reason for participating in this ride in the first place. Our choice to give up some of the inessential resources that we have grown attached to will bring awareness about more important and much needed resources that will serve as tools for furthering cancer research and providing support for patients and their families....90 miles next time :)