From Tauru:

I'm back in town (Phoenix, AZ) and Christi is flying in from Hanoi, Vietnam tomorrow afternoon. So we'll be in full force to get the project under way! We'll be pedaling in about three months!

Special THANKS to the trio of guys here in town: Eric Brandt, Andy Heerdt, and Dale Mallison. They're helping out in the "transformation" of the tandem bike from a boring brown to what will be a frame filled with signatures.

Andy helped coordinate getting the bike disassembled, Eric did the disassembling a couple of days ago and Dale of 1offpowdercoating.com is in the process of stripping the old paint and powder coating it.

New color? Well, since our primary objective is to raise awareness (okay, to do this awesome trip, too!), we're having it powder coated white. In less than two weeks, we'll be at the Scottsdale Cycling Festival with an exhibition booth in partnership with Research to Prevent Blindness. We'll be sharing our story and our desire to raise awareness about blindness, and we'll have people sign the bike's frame to show their support. This event is on Sunday, October 2nd in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Wouldn't that be cool? A white frame with tons of signatures from people we meet ...especially along the way during the 16,000-mile journey! We'll continue to post photos of the bike as signatures fill it.

Here's the "Before" photo of the bike -- this was taken back in July 2009 in Huntington Beach, California on the day we left the Pacific Coast headed for the Atlantic. Here I am with the frame and forks. Eric just disassembled the bike. Next step ...Dale will be powder coating it white.