I am taking a break from work (and blogging) to do my annual bike ride from Pittsburgh, PA to Gaithersburg, MD. It’s about 300 miles over four days with a bunch of friends who have been doing this trip now for eight years. There’s nothing quite like being driven to Pittsburgh and left there, with just your bike and your stuff, with only the task of getting home.

As I said before, we are raising money for a charity with this ride. The group is called Operation Second Chance and they support wounded soldiers recovering at Walter Reed. We’ve actually raised close to $50,000 so far (but still need more to hit that mark, hint hint!). Not bad for twenty guys doing this on our own.

If you want to give, click here. It will take you directly to Operation Second Chance’s site, and you can donate online. There should be a place in the process where you identify it for Ride Allegheny.

If you want to follow my updates from the trail, with the occasional picture, you’ll have to follow my twitterstream, and you can read the daily reports on our Google Group site. I doubt I’ll do any moblogging.

If you want to pray for sunshine on our ride, I will gladly accept it!

Jamie Notter