Good morning! I am back from the 150 mile bike ride and I am feeling great! I posted last week what this was about and why I was involved. If you did not have a chance to read that post, I encourage you to do so here. The post explains what I knew going into this event… but coming out of it… I am so thrilled to have been a part of such a great cause.
The weather was fantastic! Sunny and mid 80’s both days of the ride. I LOVED it! I met so many wonderful people from our team who bikes to support the camp that Connie started. Not only is Connie’s story one of true amazement (that is in the post I mentioned earlier) but talking to her throughout the weekend really was an eye opener as she shared her journey with me about what it was like to be a woman with Aids through a blood transfusion for 28 years – from the early days (which were painful and hard to see people turn their back on her) to now…. (Yeah I know that was a run on sentence but I had a lot to say there …LOL)
I had a bit of trouble on Saturday when my bike was hit by another bike. I was ok but my bike took a serious hit and the back tire rim was all bent up. At first look the team thought I was done unless I had another bike to ride (which I did not). Thanks to Pete on our team (who works in Brainerd at Trailblazer Bikes) he was able to fix the tire well enough for me to continue the ride.
Thank you to those who sent me well wishes on this ride. I cant even begin to describe how fantastic is was to meet the Team of Rhinos (our team name) and to just hang out with friends for the weekend. I feel good – a little sore but nothing too bad and I cant wait to be a part of this next year!
This post will remain at the top of this blog through Sept 18. All new posts are below! 🙂
Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week ! There will be much going on here this week so make sure you stop by often! I have book reviews and giveaways…. watch for posts with the gift box on them – these are giveaways (they will be sprinkled throughout the BBAW week) and by clicking on the gift box you will be taken to the giveaway page of what is being offered!
Starting today I am having a comment contest – earn one change per comment on any post on this blog from now until midnight (central time) on Friday, September 18. I will draw at that time a name using random.org, the winner will receive a $15 Amazon Gift Card emailed to them on Sept. 19. EARN 5 extra entries by taking my new blog logo (upper right corner of my blog, and adding it your blog). Top Commentor for the BBAW will receive a $15 Amazon Gift card emailed to them on Saturday the 19th. Be sure to let me know if you did this so I can give you the bonus entries. **Gift card winners can be anywhere in the world.
Still biking – day two now and as of the time this post is up I should be biking from Hinckley Minnesota to Duluth Minnesota…. the last 75 miles of this ride. I wonder what I am thinking right now? LOL (Read about this ride I am doing here).
During my usual morning stride through the blogesphere with the ever full, ever wonderful Coffee Cup, I had recently read another great review on a blog called Bibliophile By The Sea. The book is called Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls. This is the author who also wrote The Glass Castle which has been on my shelf for over a year and I still have not read it. have heard wonderful things about the Glass Castle and now seeing this book – I want to read it too!
Please take a moment today and stop over at Bibliophile By The Sea and read this wonderful review.
**I will be back in town tonight… hopefully after a successful (and not too wet) bike ride and a little reading time as well! ~Sheila
I am out of town… by the time this post is up I should be on my way Biking from Blaine Minnesota to Hinkley Minnesota. (see post about this here).
I wasnt sure if I was going to be able to 1) Have time to post anything and/or 2) Have access to internet, so I have prepped a morning meandering for today and tomorrow and if I do get time to post again that will be bonus!
Recently in my meanderings (which can usually be described as an early morning – pre shower but not pre coffee, slipper clad version of me traveling with oversized steamy coffee cup in hand around the blogesphere) I came across a book that sounded… well…
powerful.
Over at Jo-Jo Loves To Read I found a review for a book called The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne. I found myself rushing through the review trying to see where it was going with almost a sense of anxiety. I had to go back and read it again more slowly.
Stop over at Jo-Jo Loves To Read and see this book, the review, and of course another lovely blog!
For those wondering…. “Did she take a book with her on this bike ride?” The answer is absolutely! I have brought with NORTH! Or be Eaten (which is appropriate as I am biking North…. and I also brought Dreaming Anastasia – both of which are blog tours I am doing next week.
It is noon here in Central Minnesota and I just plugged in the comment numbers at Random.org and have my winner. 🙂
WORDLILLY!!!
Congratulations! I will email you the code for the certificate today! 🙂
Thank you to everyone who commented in the last three days – this was a lot of fun and I met a few new people! Do not be discouraged – we are doing something similar to this starting Monday for BBAW! There will be more chances to win and more prizes!
The Giveaway was: This week I posted my 100th book review! I am pretty excited about that! Of course, I always like an excuse to celebrate and this is a great one! I am offering a $20 Amazon gift card to one lucky reader of One Persons Journey Through a World of Books!
To enter – all you have to do is a leave a comment on any post on my blog. Each comment will count as one entry to this. 10 comments through out my blog = 10 entries and so on. Comments of course must actually be a comment and not just a word or two.
This celebration giveaway will start now and end Friday September 11th at noon. I will calculate all comments, assign them a number and draw using random.org.
I voted and wanted to remind all of you wonderful Book Bloggers and Non Book Bloggers (but book readers!) that the poles are open and currently there is no line to get in and vote!
I am heading out of town pretty quick here so I wanted to get in my votes and found myself spending a lot of time visiting the blogs of the short lists and knwing that when I have more time I need to go back and do some more browsing as there are some wondeful blogs here that I had been to before, and many I had not.
Stop on over at the short list to see the blogs that are up for the awards. Then make your way to the voting booth and vote away! 🙂 Remember that the voting booth colses at 11:59 pm on saturday September 12.
I am so excited to be a part of this years BBAW Celebration. I have been sweeping and dusting around here… hanging streamers and a few balloons in preparation.
I am not ready to reveal all I have planned for the week but I will give you these hints. I will have giveaways for books and gift cards! There will be a daily chance to win and there will also be an accumulation of the week grand prize. The gift box below will link to the prizes available and as we have winners I will put their name next to what they have won!
You will be able to identify my give away posts as I will have the gift box (gift box is a clickable link) in the corner. I am just so excited to be a part of this with all of you! I hope to see you all here throughout the week, I look forward to seeing my regular visitors and also am excited to meet those of you who are new to One Persons Journey Through a World of Books. Dont be shy – be sure to say hi while you are here and help yourself to cake and coffee as well!
Today I want to share with you my weekend plan. You may have heard me through Twitter or through random posts this week that I have a 150 mile bike ride this weekend. I am kind of nervous, kind of excited – but really want to share with you the what and the why of this ride.
I have done bike tours for about 10 years now. A bike tour is not a race, just a ride at your own speed with many other bikers. There is usually a small entry fee that includes a t shirt, rest stops about every 12 miles that provide water, and snacks. I think the one thing I like most about these rides is the people you meet – the biking community and we as book bloggers can understand the importance and the fun of community! 🙂
So last year my cousin tells me about this ride…. not 50 miles like I usually do…. but 150. I thought I heard him wrong. Nope, 150 miles… a two day ride, 75 miles a day.
Your kidding, I thought.
This is Connie
Connie Statz is a good friend of Jarrod’s wife’s mom. Connie was given a blood transfusion in 1981, that 5 other people also received. Through this transfusion, Connie as well as the other 5 contacted the Aids virus. 28 years later, Connie is the only remaining survivor of the 6 who were infected. Connie has fought long and hard and has started a camp called Camp Benedict, which is a camp for Aids education and support for Minnesota families in which one or more members of the family is infected with HIV.
Connie says,“I contracted the AIDS virus in 1981, which puts me in a small group of folks who have had this 28 years. When I contracted AIDS, AIDS affected my family, and there was nothing to help people deal with a member of their family having AIDS. When I first started the camp 15 years ago in 1994, the funding was from the Benedictine Nuns, so I called it Camp Benedict. What I started because I needed it isn’t about me anymore. We serve thousands of people. Now, it’s about helping others who feel like I did”.
So this is what I know. I know that Connie is someone who I have recently met and I find to be an incredible woman. She is a fighter, and her team that will ride in the Minnesota Aids Trek this Saturday and Sunday are called The Rhino’s. In Connie’s words, Rhino’s slogan “Born With Horns” means being tough and getting up to charge every day. 28 years later, Connie is still fighting and her team Rhino’s money raised goes 100% to help the Camp. After I heard about Connie, I knew I wanted in.
This afternoon I will ride with my cousin Jarrod, Farrah, their 4 month old son Tripp, and friend Brian, to the cities to stay overnight. We ride Saturday 75 miles from Blaine to Hinckley, stay over night, and then Hinckley to Duluth.
I am new to this ride, and I am excited to be supporting a wonderful cause… and nervous as I have never ridden this far before. Laptop will be going with me so if I have a chance to check in Friday night and through the weekend – I will. 🙂
Team Rhinos 2008
If you would like to help make a difference, simply click on the Donate Now! button. I am helping raise money for the camp.
Your donation is tax deductible! Our tax identification number is 41-1933994.
Check to see if your company has a matching gift program.
100% of the money raised by Trek participants is given to the beneficiaries.
Designate the Trek participant’s name when making your donation.
Thanks everyone! I’ll be talking books again soon and I am excited for BBAW week! 🙂
There is a magical feel to this book… from opening the cover to the first page I felt almost like holding my breath as the words whisked me inside! ~ Sheila
Bran Hambric was found locked in a bank vault at six years old, with no memory of his past. For years, he has lived with one of the bankers, wondering why he was left behind — until one night, when he is fourteen, he is suddenly confronted by a maddened creature, speaking of Bran’s true past and trying to kidnap him.
Bran finds that he is at the center of a plot which started years before he was even born: the plot of a deadly curse his mother created…and one that her former masters are hunting for him to complete.
Haunted by the spirit of his mother’s master and living in a city where magic is illegal, Bran must undo the crimes of his past…before it is too late.
Can a book feel like magic? I think it can. Actually – as I think about how the idea of Bran Hambric came to be… that’s a bit of magic in itself, and you will read more about that in my author interview with Kaleb Nation today! When this book arrived in my home I was itching to get into it… I felt it was something special before I ever opened it and that scared me a bit… what if I was wrong? Did I seriously just judge a book by its cover? I think I did a little, and along with the small buzz through the internet that I was hearing about the book, I could not wait tog et started.
The first part of Bran Hambric felt very Rowling like… there were a lot of similarities to Harry Potter and while I adore the Harry Potter series I was a little saddened that this may be a book that followed a bit too closely to that outline. A couple more chapters in, Bran Hambric felt as though it found its own path and off we flew together – book and reader, into an adventure I will safely describe as magical.
This was a book that I could not put down, and for the two days I was reading it (over Labor day weekend) I had my nose stuck in it every chance I could get. I think it is a wonderful YA read and fans of YA fantasy should definitely invest the time time into reading this book. For a first book, that was started when Kaleb Nation was 14, it has a lot of potential I think his follow up books will become even better.
I look forward to what comes next not only for Kaleb, but also for Bran. Be sure to read my interview with author Kaleb Nation here.
and why I was involved. If you did not have a chance to read that post, I encourage you to do so here. The post explains what I knew going into this event… but coming out of it… I am so thrilled to have been a part of such a great cause. 
Book Journey 
