Radio Appearance

Tom and I are going to be on an Atlanta radio station tonight. The show is called "Following Passions," and it is hosted by Bernard Kearse at 8:00 pm EST. Here is the link if you want to listen online:

Following Your Passions

We did an interview with Bernard while we were in Massachusetts in July, and he invited us back for a follow-up. If you happen to be in Atlanta, you can tune into AM 1620.

~ Austin

Team update

We are finally home after three months. Tom and I are spending this week with my parents resting, sleeping late, etc. Nick and Chelsea are in Atlanta finishing up work for the documentary. Matt is in school in Iowa, Claire returned to nursing school, and Mary Beth (who did all of our PR) is working in Nashville. Alas ... the team is busy doing other things.

Tom and I spoke at my church's youth group on Wednesday, and we went to the Rotary club yesterday. Next week we have a few speaking events also ... so we're going to keep Rallying On for the time being. In the meantime, job hunting has commenced - I caught Tom emailing his resume out yesterday. As for me ... I'm going to keep draggin my feet.


Here are our Vanderbilt articles:

Recent grads bike cross-country for cancer research
How I spent my summer vactaion

~ Austin

Finale(s)

So in the past two days, we've had two finales. Our first one was in Nashville, where we had a bunch of people show up at Outback to show their support for our cause. We raised a little more money, and we got to see Anthony, Gabe, and Amelia! They were a lot of fun - Anthony spent most of the time trying to creep up and scare me, Gabe ran around and showed off his somersaults, only stopping to hug everyone he met, and Amelia had fun when Austin picked her up to help her fly. It was a great event.

Then we headed to Atlanta. The Olsons threw us a big wrap-up party, inviting their neighbors and a bunch of other cancer families to welcome us. We ate a ton of food - there was barbecue, a huge cake, and a large assortment of other goodies. It was a lot of fun, but Austin and I looked at each other and realized we're still eating like we were when we were riding. Time to get back on the bikes!

~ Tom

Top 10

Austin and Tom's top 10 reasons for biking across America:

10. Great tan lines
9. Riding in lightening storms
8. Drinking water out of mildewed camel packs
7. Seeing new places
6. Yelling at cows
5. Sleeping on couches
4. Meeting chicks (actually we didn't do this very often :(
3. Learning how to read a map
2. Changing flat tires
1. Avoid getting jobs.

So ... that is the list for today. It is subject to change depending on our mood, but No. 1 will always remain the same :) Tonight we had dinner with some college friends, and we are all sleeping on couches and blow-up beds - enjoying being in one place. Tomorrow we will again dawn our uniforms for a visit to Vanderbilt Children's. Our final hospital hooray.

We are finished riding for the time being, but we are going to hop back on the bikes on Saturday for one last ceremonial ride through Nashville. So for those of you that followed our blog like over-zealous NASCAR fans waiting for the next wreck, don't stop reading now ... more adventure to come. Who knows ... perhaps we will meet Bruise Lee?

~ Austin

Nashville!

We've made it to our final city: Nashville, TN. We left Columbia fairly early to make it to campus in time to coincide with a Vineyard Vines trunk show. We arrived at about noon and got a great reception. We hung out for a little while and handed out invitations to our event on Saturday.

After that ended, we went to our hosts, the Leas (their son, Graham, was Austin's and my roommate) to change, and then we visited the places in Nashville we haven't seen since graduation. We introduced Chelsea and Nick to the bacon cheeseburger at Sportsman's, stopped by Bongo Java, and met up with some old friends at McDougal's. It was a fun day.

~ Tom

Finish line

We've covered over 500 miles in four days. It's 11:30 now, and Tom and the crew are sound asleep. Tomorrow we are getting up at 5:00am so that we will have time to ride to the finish line at Vanderbilt by noon.

I can't believe that we are almost done. After three months, this has become quite a habit. It's going to be an odd thing for us - being finished. We have grown so used to all of this:

sleeping on couches, drinking warm gatorade, coping with saddle sore, fixing flat tires, eating stale granola, staying with people we don't know, getting bike grease on everything, getting lost, asking strangers for directions, having people honk at us, having people yell at us, traveling over 30 mph under the speed limit, traveling over the speed limit (once), riding on backroads, riding on the interstate (once), looking for silverware in people's houses, wearing the same clothes every day, forgeting various things at various homes in various states, begging guys at bicycle shops for discounts, asking people for donations, reading the label of a twinkie and deciding it is a good snack, explaining ourselves, etc.

Man, I'm gonna miss this job. So ... tomorrow is the big day. We're not sure what will happen on campus ... all we know is that we have to be there by 12:00 ...

~ Austin

place to crash

updating by phone tonight - forgive the typos:

We are in Jackson, TN staying with Lewis, one of the managers at the local Outback. Because of the holiday weekend, we had not been able to find anyone that could host us, but the people at Outback came to our rescue. We told them all about our ride, and they found us a place to crash.

Saw a sign today that read, "Nashville 124." I told Tom, "Dude, we're getting close." He said, "I know." (it was a thilling moment despite our thrilling dialouge).

~ Austin

for Christi

When we were with the Thomas family in Ohio, Christi put a whale tattoo on her forehead. At the time, I thought . . . "ha ha. Who would ever put one of those on their forehead?!"

Christi just went into hospital in Philadelphia, and she needs all of our prayers and support (visit Christi's journal). We are staying with the Horruck family in Memphis whose daughter Bella is also cancer warrior. Me and Bella wanted to do something for Christi, so we put on pink whales tattoos in her honor. I put mine on my forehead - we're riding for the Thomas Team today.

~ Austin

Put on my blue suede (biking) shoes

Today we made it to Memphis. Well, Millington, actually, but it's pretty close. We left Cape Girardo at about 6:30 thinking that we had to go about 190 miles. As Austin's constant updates show, it turned out to be 199, so a couple miles short of our longest day. Nick said we should ride up and down the street until we hit two hundred, but since we've already got one official double century under our belts, we figured we could live with 199 miles.

And as Austin's pictures show, today was pretty eventful. We rode through four different states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Kentucky was new, Tennessee we haven't ridden in since we were doing our training. But reaching Tennessee means the end is in sight, nineteen states and one district later. Today's journey is only one step from our final event in Nashville.

And today's journey was certainly eventful. I got three flat tires (one was only a slow leak, so I didn't need to change it), and Austin got one. While we were in St. Louis, Elizabeth, who works at St. Louis Children's, had showed us around her city. In the midst of sightseeing she braved a downpour and took us to a bike shop so we could get some new tubes. It's a good thing - we went through all of them.

Shortly after my third flat tire, at about mile 150, Austin and I picked up the pace a little. It was the first time I ever hit 37 mph on flat ground. I wish I could keep up speed like that, but since I can't, we didn't make it to Millington until after 10:00.

Our hosts were great. They stayed up and made us dinner when we arrived, introduced us to their new puppy, and let us play with their kids until bedtime. With all this good treatment, we should be ready for tomorrow's ride. That should only be about 100 miles, so hopefully we'll be rejuvenated and ready to go by morning.

~ Tom

Day in reverse

The following four posts are from today on the road. We updated by phone every few hours. So you can scroll down and view our day . . .
in reverse:

10:30pm . . .

Made it to Memphis, 199.07 miles ... had to stop for twinkies around mile 180 for extra energy . . .

9:23pm . . .

Austin working on ... another flat tire (in the dark) ... mile 172 ...

5:18pm . . .

another flat rear tire for Tom ... 135 miles ...

3:40pm . . .

flat rear tire ... front tire flat also ... 115 miles ...

1:20pm . . .

Tennessee!! ... 1:18 ... 83 miles ...

9:30am . . .

KY ... Tom ... 9:15am ...

~Austin and Tom

Coolest Bathroom Ever

Had to share this most awesome bathroom experience with all of you. We found this handsome unicyclist in the restroom of the Crystal City Cyclery today in Crystal City, MO. Very impressive.

In addition to the bathroom excitement, we were witness to a vast yard sale spanning 61 miles. The communities lining old route 61 had organized the event for today and tomorrow, and every person for 61 miles had set up shop for the weekend. What fabulous timing! We managed to ride the length of the entire sale without buying a single thing - www.61yardsale.com.

Tonight we got lost on the way into town (suprise!), and Mr Toole had to come and find us. We are staying with his family in Cape Girardeau tonight, and tomorrow we'll head to Memphis.

~ Austin

The Little Engine that Could

Today we're visiting St. Louis Children's Hospital, and we're going to get Jacob to help us hand our goodie bags to the other kids. His parents sent us his story, and I wanted to share it with all of you:

When Jacob was 2 he was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, Choroid Plexus Carcinoma. The tumor was 10cm in diameter; about the size of a grapefruit. Jacob underwent an intensive brain surgery only to remove 90% of the tumor. After several rounds of chemotherapy the tumor shrank enough for total resection in June 2005. Last fall Jacob had a bone marrow transplant and is currently tumor and cancer free!

Jacob's favorite line is "I think I can." We can't wait to meet him today - The Little Engine That Could!

~ Austin

Rest Day

Today we got a bit of a break. Jan told us that we could sleep in, and when we finally did get up she made us a big breakfast: pancakes, bacon, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts (it reminded me of running to Krispy Kreme on reading days at Vandy). With breakfast out of the way, we took care of a few errands; sorted out some deposits, stopped by the post office, and made some calls to get ready for Nashville (along the way, Jan made sure we got some Ted Drewes custard). Afterwards, we headed off to our new hosts, the Muchas. They also made sure we could relax. This mini-vacation has gotten us ready for our visit to St. Louis Children's Hospital tomorrow and for the last few hundred miles into Nasvhille.

~ Tom

A Salute to Missouri Hosts!!

We just rolled into St. Louis . . . our penultimate city! Today on the road we had 3 ham sandwiches, countless granola bars, 4 camel packs, some grapes, a banana, stale candy, and three flat tires. We rode about 115 miles, and we are staying with Janey the Firecracker :) She is the twin sister of a lady in Atlanta who knows Alexa and her family. Jan greeted us with hugs and lasagna - a great host . . . and with that I wanted to salute all of our Missouri hosts thus far!

We stayed with the Sauciers last night in Jefferson City. They have 6 grown children, so taking care of two worn out cyclists and their support crew was no problem for them. We had a Capital time:



In Columbia we stayed with my relatives,the Robinsons. Paul and Susan rode with us for the first 10 miles of our trek, and Paul's step-Dad, "Grumps" (not pictured) egged us all on from the house:



In Warrensburg we stayed with a friend of a friend, Rod. Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture with Rod, but we did become friends on facebook . . . so I grabbed this one off of the internet:



I think I'm going to introduce Rod to Claire of blogs past . . .

~ Austin

Bike killers

About fifteen miles into the trail this morning, we ran into six cyclists from England. Apparently, they were biking from San Francisco to New York to raise awareness for HIV prevention (the website is www.universitychallenge.org.uk). They carried their own gear, had camped a few times, and had been traveling the past five weeks. Apparently, they hadn't really been bikers before this either, and they had one cool story about "killing" a bike by running it into a car. After trading a few stories, we rode on to Sadalia. It was a good start to the day.

Unfortunately, the trail slowed us down a little bit. Austin got a flat tire a few miles after meeting the other cyclists, and it was a lot harder to fix that with the little pumps we carry around on our bikes. And the sand kept our pace down to about 12 mph. Still, we managed to get to Sadalia about 5:30.

There, Austin got two more flat tires. We were only carrying two spare tubes, and Austin said he hadn't grabbed the rubber cement for the patch kit. I called the closest bike shop, and they told me they were closed for a race. When I explained what we were doing, though, the owner said he would hang around for the next 20 minutes if I thought I could get there. The bike shop was actually on the same road as the race, so I ended up going the wrong way against a bunch of bikers riding their practice lap. But I made it to the bike shop, got a new tube, and headed back to find Austin pumping up the tire. Apparently he had rubber cement and was able to patch the tire.

And he had some helpers. Two kids were asking him if we were in the race today, and then offered to take us over to race. So we followed the kids to the bike race and decided to try to enter. Unfortunately, they weren't taking "beginning" racers when we arrived. But we got some info from one of the teams there about a race in St. Louis on Tuesday, so we may get another chance.

At this point, it was almost 7:00, and night was falling. So Austin and I, inspired by the races, sprinted off to try to beat the setting sun. Unfortunately, we weren't that fast. So we turned on our lights and headed on. Eventually, it got too dark for cars to see us, so we had to call Nick to get him to follow us into Warrensburg (the hometown of my hero, James McAdams). A short time later, we made it to our hosts for tonight. We got to do a little catching up with Chelsea, who has rejoined us for the tour.

~ Tom

Columbia News

We visited Children's Hospital at the Univeristy of Missouri today, and we had two TV stations chronicle our adventure! Here is a link to one:

NBC 8, Columbia: Cycling Against Cancer

The whale hats were a hit as usual, and we got to share some "stories from the road" with a few of the kids. Several of the staff took us on a tour of the hospital facitilies. In the past few years, they have expanded and kids now have more space for treatment and a new out door playground.

Tomorrow we will ride towards Kansas City to pick up Chelsea (film crew) from the Airport. I never thought I would pick someone up from the airport on my bicycle.

~ Austin

Monster time in Columbia

We had a great time in Columbia tonight. My cousin Paul who is a pediatritian at the the University of Missouri organized a huge dinner for us at his church. We had over 50 people attend. We had three honorary heroes present and several doctors and researchers from the University of Missouri. The celebration was almost as big the monster burgers we downed after riding 200 miles the other day (see below).








mmmmm . . . i knew you would all enjoy that :)

~ Austin

Chicago Tribune

We made the paper in Chicago:

Chicago Tribune: Big Ride for the Littlest Cancer Patients

Neat article about our visit to Hope :)

~ Austin

Post 200

We are currently at a cheap hotel in Moberly, MO - where we crashed afer riding the big 200 yesterday. We washed our clothes in the sink last night, and we slept like rocks. whew.

They put an article in the Iowa City paper about us and Brandon:
Iowa City Press-Citizen: Pounding the Pedals

~ Austin

Double Century!

Today Austin and I blew away our old record of 152 miles by riding 200. 201.31 to be precise.

We had been wanting to ride 200 miles for awhile now, so yesterday we decided to try it today. With that goal in mind, we left the Wicks household at 6 this morning, right before sunrise, and we kept on riding until 10:00 tonight, a little after sunset. Fortunately, we reached our mileage goal without too much night riding. Now we're pretty tired.

Tomorrow we should have an easy ride into Columbia. We look forward to it.

~ Tom

Brandon, also known as Spiderman

We met Shannon at Iowa University Children's Hospital this morning. She took us around to meet all of the kids including Brandon (5), our honorary hero in Iowa. Brandon gave each of us a big high-five and then told us about how much he loved Spiderman. In fact, he even told us that he was spiderman!


We took spidey and his family to Outback Steakhouse for lunch, where we met up with lots of friends including Matt, who had been on the road with us in July helping Nick with the documentary (remember? the goofy guy that used to star in all of our tacky pictures :)? We also had some friends from the hospital join us.

We went to bed early tonight because tomorrow . . . we're going for a new record . . .

(for those of you commenting, it does not involve riding on the Interstate)

~ Austin

Iowa City

Today we went to church with the Moline Rohrbachs, where we met a boy named Chance and his brother Gabe. Chance was diagnosed with AML, and his brother Gabe was his bone marrow donor. The pastor had us stand up at the beginning of the service, and we gave both of them t-shirts and made a quick announcement. We had a pretty good reception; the congregation applauded despite seeing us in bike shorts. Afterwards, we showed Chance and Gabe our bikes, made a quick stop at the John Deere visitor center with the Rohrbachs, and crossed the Mississippi into Iowa.

Unfortunately, there was no 'Welcome to Iowa' sign, so we had to stop at the world's largest truck stop, just off of I80, to get our picture with an Iowa sign in the background. The truck stop itself was pretty cool - we got to take a look at the showroom (those trucks are a major upgrade from our bikes) and have some lunch.

With lunch out of the way, we kept on heading west, expecting an easy day, only about 60 miles in flat Iowa. Unfortunately, it turns out Iowa's not so flat. The hills aren't that bad - they were nothing like what we had in New Hampshire and Vermont - but after Nick's stories about seeing clear across the state, we were a little disappointed.

Still, we made it to Iowa City in pretty good time. There we met the Wicks family, our hosts for the night. They made us some dinner, including some Iowa sweet corn. In this case, at least, Nick's stories did not disappoint. It was some good corn - Austin ate four ears. After a little ice cream, we sat back for the evening. (Man, life on the road is rough)

~ Tom

Iowa Friends!

Our next stop is in Iowa City where we are going to have a fundraiser with a local hero, Brandon. Please pass the word on to all of your Iowa friends:

Monday, August 21
12:00-2:00
Outback Steakhouse
945 25th Avenue
Coralville, Iowa


Brandon has had an amazing journey with cancer. Here is the bio that his parents sent us:

Brandon had a virus in March 2005, which cased him to go into Acute Liver Failure. The doctors stated that Brandon would need a liver transplant. Brandon was then transported by air to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois where he received a live donor liver transplant from his Uncle Mike from Texas, (his mother’s brother). After that was done and everything was going smoothly with his recovery, his platelet counts began to drop dangerously low in July, and in October Brandon was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia, and would soon be in need of a bone marrow transplant. In November, Brandon was hospitalized for a week while they tried to use an ATG (ATGAM) treatment, but it had no effect on the disease. The doctors believe the same, unknown virus that killed Brandon's liver also attacked his bone marrow. On February 9, 2006 Brandon was admitted to Iowa City Children's hospital where he began chemotherapy to rid his body of the old bone marrow and prep for the new. Brandon's brother Ryan (13) and his sister Kayla (9) both tested as perfect matches for Brandon, and it was decided that Ryan was the one. On February 14, 2006 (Valentines Day) Brandon received his new Bone Marrow from his big brother. Today Brandon’s counts are normal, and his DNA last came back at 97% Donor cells. Thank you to God and medical research for making this possible, and helping us keep our little boy :)

~ Austin and Tom

Hope

We visited Hope Children's Hospital this morning and met some amazing kids and doctors who are fighting cancer together. In the past few days, the staff had been preparing the kids for our visit. Some of them made us drawings, and one kid even set aside a granola bar when he heard about us. He told the nurse that he wanted to save it for "the bikers" because we would need the energy :)

Ryan (10) was one of the kids we met. His mom told us about his journey with cancer, and Ryan asked us lots of questions about our bikes and told us about how much he loved baseball:


Next stop was the Kellogg Cancer Center for a luncheon with the staff and some special families who have been touched by neuroblastoma. The Chiou family lost their son Tyler to in 2005, and the Zavaleta family whose son Ryan is (5) and has been in remission for the past three years - way to go Ryan!!

The Zavaleta kids had been busy all week collecting coins from their neighbors, and they ended up collecting over $135 in change - mostly pennies!! We celebrated by dawning fresh hot pink whale tattoos with the whole gang:



~ Austin

Number One!

Conner (3) is our Chicago kid. He really knows how to motivate a team of exhausted cyclists! He was diagnosed with a rare form of high risk leukemia last March, and he has been undergoing heavy doses of chemo, blood & platelet transfusions, lumbar punctures, and bone aspirations.

Conner's treatment is tough, but he is tougher. His mom, Angie, said that he has remained a playful kid through it all . . . apparently he chases his nurses with plastic animals & bugs. We're going to the hospital tomorrow to see Conner. I wonder if we'll be chased by plastic creatures?!

Rally on Conner - we'll see you in the morning!

~ Austin

Chicago!!

We rode past 139 miles of corn and soy beans today. We're pretty zonked out. The ride was almonst 10 hours long, and I feel like I have a bicycle seat permanently attached to my rear end. whew . . .

In every direction we saw massive agricultural farms. In fact a sign declared our location as, "The Belt of the Corn Buckle."



We finished at the Schlitz family home in Chicago. Conner (3) is being treated for leukemia at Advocate Hope Children's Hospital, where we will visit Thursday morning. He was just admitted to the hospital this morning for a fever, so we are hoping that our visit will give him a little extra energy :)

~ Austin

It's a sign

Our positioning is not necessarily indicative of our own attitudes, but we thought that it would give all of you something to ponder . . . which side would you stand under?

. . . actually, I take that back about not necessarily being indicative of our own attitudes. Tom was definately a big minus sign today.

. . . wait, wait, I take that back too. I think Tom was just really confused and thought it was opposite day thus making us both plus signs! How 'bout that? It's the only I can figure because we ain't no double negatives.

~ Austin

Indiana and the Giesels

We crossed another state line, leaving Ohio and entering Indiana. With only a few missed turns, we made it to Carmel, right outside of Indianapolis, where they held the Race to Replace (Austin and I did not participate). Having arrived, we met the Giesels, who offered us a place to stay and a big dinner to refuel.

Today we ride in honor of Will Giesel, the son of our hosts. Will passed away in January of 1999 after fighting leukemia for two years. We never got to meet Will, but his mother has told us a little bit about him. He would have been 10 this year. His slogan was "Will Power Can Beat Leukemia." And though he was quieter than his younger brother, he made some powerful remarks. I wish I could have met him.

~ Tom

Saturday Morning News

We made the paper this morning in Tiffin, OH: Advertiser-Tribune.

~ Austin and Tom

Christi

We spent the night with the Thomas family in Tiffin, OH. Their daughter Christi (pictured) has neuroblastoma. They have a neat website that they update for families and friends: www.christithomas.com.

We had a great friday night visit with pizza and board games - the Rally Across America Team vs. the Thomas Team.

~ Austin

Coffee Break

Today we started riding again, leaving the Cleveland area on our way to Chicago. At first, the roads weren't that great, but as we headed west they started getting better. Even better, we finally started hitting long stretches of flat ground. We were cruising along at the 20-25 mph range with almost no effort, making some great time. For a bicycle.

Midway through the trip, we took a break in Milan (Milan, OH, the birthplace of Thomas Edison, not the city in Italy). The gas station we stopped at was closed, so we headed to a coffee shop across the street. I met two ladies outside who wanted to know why I was wearing the strange outfit. I explained, and then, seeing that Austin was coming, excused myself and headed inside. There I met Stacey Reer, the proprietor of the Coffee Station, who offered to give us a sample of strawberry smoothies, and while we were talking, one of the women from outside offered to pay for whatever we wanted.


So we got some cookies. Stacey was great; she called two local papers who asked for our press releases, and she kept on trying to feed us. After a great stop, we got back on the road to Tiffin. We were biking along, our speed was good, and we hadn't gotten lost, so we were feeling pretty good. Of course, that's when we missed a turn, going six miles into town instead of to the home of our hosts the Thomas family, where a reporter was waiting to interview us. So we turned around and headed back. After our interview, we had some dinner, played some games, and changed our bike chains. Today we only biked 70 miles, but it should be a good warmup for tomorrow, about 115 miles (or a little over 120 after we inevitably get lost). Thankfully, it's supposed to be flat.

~ Tom

New Tattoos

In celebration of our fundraising successes in Cleveland, we all decided to get tattoos:



Erica at Vineyard Vines covered the cost, and we set up a temporary tattoo parlor in our host family's kitchen. The tattoos even came with directions for application and removal . . . and a motorcycle:



Well . . . the tattoos didn't actually come with a motorcycle, but the Zwierecke family had one. We thought it would make a fitting tribute to our arm art. The coolest thing is that by flexing your arm you can make the whale swim . . . so beautiful.

Tomorrow we'll unleash our new whalepower on the road - we're headed to Tiffin, OH to stay with a little cancer warrior named Christi . . . I hope she likes tattoos.

~ Austin

One Hundred Thousand Dollars!!

Big news everybody! Today our fundraising total surpassed $100,000 and every day we are getting more sponsors and donations. In Buffalo alone, we filled up a military duffle bag with over 200 lbs of pennies!

Our efforts to get people to sponsor us for a penny a mile are really starting to catch on. The Pawelski's in Buffalo who lost their daughter Natalie to cancer sent us a touching email:

Austin and Tom,

Thank you so much for coming out of your way to meet us. We loved talking to all of you. You are exceptional people and are doing a marvelous thing which will benefit so many kids. Bob thought about it last night and said, “Just think…one of the Rally pennies could be THE PENNY. The one that completes the funding for the research project that finds the cure!!” That is exactly what you are doing – enabling people to find the cure. It is so awesome. Thank you for doing this. We are fortunate to have met you. We’ll continue to pray for your safe journey. Please tell everyone we said, “hi”.

Diane Pawelski & family

What a neat way to think of our journey - in search of THE PENNY. Thank you so much Diane - you guys are the reason we ride. I hope we can inspire other people we meet to start collecting Rally pennies in their neighborhoods. Think of the difference we could make together!

~ Austin

Ohio Birthday

(birthday calisthenics)

I was the first person to congratulate Tom on his birthday today. He was sleeping on the floor blocking the hallway, and I tripped over him heading to the bathroom at 6:13 this morning. "Sorry dude . . . Happy Birthday." Let's just say that Tom was a little angry over my "trip" to the bathroom.

Luckily, Tom's fortunes changed by mid-day. His dad and sister drove through Cleveland to join us for lunch, laughs, and a hearty chorus of "Happy Birthday." Then his luck got even better . . .

(birthday cake)

Chelsea Hanson, who we stayed with last night made a homemade carrot cake, and her cousins also had a chocolate moose cake, a white cake, and a cookie cake. Whew. No one ever said this ride would be easy, but today sure was . . . a piece of cake. Ha ha ha . . ppy Birthday Tom!

~ Austin

Cleveland

Today we left Erie, PA, expecting to ride about 120 miles to Cleveland, OH. We figured it would be a long day, but we also figured that Ohio, being more or less in the midwest, would be pretty flat.

It turns out there are some decent hills in Ohio. On the other hand, it turns out that it was only 96 miles to Cleveland, so I guess it evens out. We arrived to stay with the Hanson family, whose daughter, Ashley, was on the Vanderbilt Rally Team with us. The Hansons made us a big dinner, chicken, pasta, and salad, and then Ashley brought some dessert to supplement the brownies they'd made, chocolate cake and a potent caramel apple gold rush from a local restaraunt.

We got here pretty early, so we've had a lot of time to kick back. Tomorrow we'll visit a local Rotary and hopefully raise some money. Stay tuned.

~ Tom

Teeny Mistake

We made the "TV news" four times last week. Here are three blips that they put online. The first one is from R News in Rochester . . . Rn't we cool? ha ha. The second one is also cool except for one mistake . . . apparently the people at the TV station thought that Tom and I were teenagers. Oh well. What R you gonna do? We figured that they assumed we were teenagers because of the way we acted. Check it out:

Rochester: R News
Buffalo: NBC
Buffalo: ABC

~ Austin

Chucky Cheese Please

Amelia (6) in Baltimore loves Chucky Cheese's. Of couse, Tom and I also love Chucky Cheese's . . . so when we saw one on the road, we couldn't miss the chance. Amelia, this one's for you:



~ Austin

Rally Across America . . . in Canada

Found something special in Buffalo today - a bicycle museum called Pedaling History! Carl, the owner let us go in and take the tour. We saw the original hobby horse, a floating bicycle, a Schwinn Black Phantom, a bike with a radio, and a bike with a sub machine gun made for WWII!

In the back of the museum, they were having a clinic for kids - "riding without training wheels." Kids everywhere, wheels rolling, and feet flying. I walked over to thank Carl for the museum visit, and almost got taken out by a rouge rider. Seeing her barreling my way, I jumped to the left . . . she went right . . . into a curb. Another kid slammed into a safetly barrel a few minutes later. Tom comments, "You can't learn to ride a bike without learning to fall."

After this, we did something funny. Rally Across America went to Canada. We checked out Niagra Falls and took a few pictures. Wow, that's a bunch of water.

Next stop was a party with the Pawelski family back in Buffalo. They had a daughter named Natalie who passed away 3 years ago from Neuroblastoma, and they contacted us after hearing about Rally Across America from the Hansons, who we met in Cape Cod.

The Pawelski's kids, Emily (9) and Eric (5), had been collecting pennies for the past few weeks, and they were excited to add to ever growing bag of change . . . which, by the way, doubled in size this evening . . .

When we got home to the Harvey's, Pete walked us out into the garage . . . 5 huge coffee cans full of pennies. It's impressive . . . and tomorrow, we're going to load 'em up, and hit the road searching for more.

~ Austin

Buffalo and Beyond

The day started with an early morning wake up call at the Harvey's. Apparently the kids Savannah, Noah, and Grace were worried that we would over sleep. Savannah immediately walked down stairs and took Claire's "Dora the Explora" covers, and Noah began asking me and Tom if we wanted to play "Star Wars" on the PS2.

Soon everyone gathered in the kitchen for a family breakfast, and then we took off for the hospital. Roswell Park Cancer Institute is where Savannah is going to be treated when she turns 5 this fall, and this was the Harvey's first visit to the hospital.

Two news channels and a newspaper where at the hospital, and they interviewed us and the kids. Afterwards we took a tour of the facility with the child life staff, and then we headed back to the Harvey HQ.

At the home base, I played a quick round of "Shrek Super Slam" versus Noah while Savannah egged us on. Noah explained that Shek's power up was a "big green fart." So . . . let's just say we had a farting competition all afternoon. Noah thought it was hilarious.

At dinner we went to Andrea's parents house and had a cookout with their family and friends, and I ate a record amount of food: 8 buffalo wings, 3 slices of pizza, 5 shrimp, 1 strawberry shortcake, 2 handfulls of potato chips, some pretzels, 2 brownies, celery, 1 tub of blue cheese, 2 meatballs, and a coke . . . mmmmm . . . bring it on Noah. I've got this farting competition all wrapped up. ba ha ha

Tomorrow we're going to visit this local waterfall that is supposed to be famous . . . what will it be? Where will Rally Across America go next? Stay tuned to find out.

~ Austin

Traveling Torches and Interstate Adventures

Today we said goodbye to Rochester and headed off to Buffalo. The Owenses were great hosts, and we had a great time during our visit there, visiting the hospital and meeting Dillon's family. We left early in an effort to beat the heat, but the day was overcast with intermittent sprinkles, so the heat never really got that bad. But we still wanted to make it to the Anchor Bar in time for lunch.

The riding wasn't bad. With no big hills, we managed to make it most of the way with relative ease. Then, about 20 miles east of Buffalo, we saw a runner carrying a torch. We had to stop and talk with him. It turned out he was a member of World Harmony Run and doing his stage of their relay. He took a picture with us and let us hold the torch, which has been held by Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, and Nelson Mandela, among others.

Having been suitably pumped up by this experience, we continued on toward Buffalo. Unfortunately, it seems that NY-33 runs into I-90. Before we knew it, we'd turned onto the interstate. Worse, the shoulder was lacking, so we had to keep riding for a couple minutes before we could pull off to the side. Finally, we found a place to stop. About a minute later, a truck from the New York state DOT pulled up behind us. AJ, one of the drivers, asked us what we were doing. We explained that we weren't from the area, and then he told us that some people evidently watch the cameras lining the interstate, so when they saw two guys on bicycles riding down the highway, they called in AJ and his partner to see what was going on. We had to put the bikes up on the car and get off the interstate. On the plus side, everyone was pretty nice about it. After we got off, we took our bikes down again, checked our maps, and kept riding to the Anchor Bar. Anyway, that's the story of the first (and last) time we got on the interstate.

Right after we pulled into the Anchor Bar, home of the Buffalo wing, a man in a pretty nice car pulled up. He told us his name was Ivano, and evidently he's the restaurant's owner. Then he told us to take a picture with the car and send it to him so he could put it up on the wall. So soon, hopefully, we'll make it up there with a host of other celebrities. After taking a picture, we went in to eat some wings. The original is pretty good.

After lunch, we left to meet up with Savanah, the girl we're riding in honor of here in Buffalo, and her family, where we're staying tonight. They took us out for some dinner, and tomorrow we'll head to the hospital.

~ Tom

Dillon in Rochester!

Dillon is our little guy in Rochester. When he was three, he was diagnosed with Stage III Wilms Tumor, and he immediately started aggressive treatment. He endured 9 rounds of triple dose chemotherapy, 14 sessions or radiation and countless blood transfusions. He is currently waiting to go in for his last CT scan to determine if his cancer is in remission.

Dillon's mom told us that he enjoys anything with wheels. So we are hoping that he likes bikes. We are going to meet him today at Stong Children's Hospital. She also said that his favorite movie is "Homeward Bound." I imagine that his favorite character is Champ . . . because it takes one to know one.

~ Austin

New Shipment in Rochester

We officially landed in Rochester, NY and we were getting ready for our visit at Strong Children's Hospital . . . when . . . while going through our shipment of goodie bags for the kids . . . we found a surprise. Vineyard Vines must be playing some kind of trick on us. Witness this:

Vineyard Vines box: closed

Vineyard Vines box: opened

Vineyard Vines box: something appearing

Hurray, A girl!!

She introduced herself as Claire and said she would be on the support crew for a few weeks. Imagine that! Works for us - we could use a well-kempt team member. Having managed to successfully ship herself in a box, we are convinced that Claire is on top of things . . . a fundraising extraordinaire. Fans, worry no more we are now the Fantastic Four . . . Rallying for a Cure!

(Tom, looking for another girl)

~ Austin

Music to our Ears (and Legs)

Today we left the Syracuse area to head to the Rochester area. We left at about 9 in the morning, but maybe we should have left even earlier. As the day wore on, the asphalt started radiating all that heat, and Austin and I both getting flats didn't really help. However, we did get to see a couple of things - one time a deer ran across a nearby field, keeping pace with our bikes until it reached some woods - and Nick strapped the speaker to the roof, so we had a sound system behind us.

We've been talking about doing this for awhile now. When our bikes aren't on top of the car, we have a couple spare bungees, so Nick was able to secure the little PA speaker we take with us for events to the bike rack, and between a power converter and an audio cable, it worked out pretty well. Finally, we got to listen to some music as we rode. It was a lot of fun, and the construction crews we passed gave us some thumbs up as we passed, so I guess they liked it, too.

~ Tom

Greasy 'Stache

Just cleaned out the car, organized our granola bars . . . and degreased the bikes, after which we realized that bike grease does wonders for man's upper lip:


Nick had the idea, but Tom wasn't man enough to try. Perhaps he was intimidated by the thought of having your sniffer so close to such strong chemicals. Perhaps I was just a little too stupid to think better of it. So with my greasy 'stache in place, we mounted up and pedaled on:


A few miles later, some folks flagged us down to donate. We stopped and accepted. I then explained our mission, completely forgetting about my faux facial hair. Me and my greasy 'stache were just ramblin' on. Nick and Tom got a kick out of it - making fun of me relentlessly afterward, "Those people probably thought you were nuts!"

Whatever . . . I bet they thought it was real.

~ Austin

Big Storm

Today we arrived in Fayetteville, NY, just outside of Syracuse, after leaving my brother and sister-in-law in Remsen. With some breakfast pizza in our bellies, we set off ready to ride a much easier day than we have been, barely over 60 miles and much smaller hills. Unfortunately, we hit a storm on the way. The wind knocked us around on our bikes, the rain reduced visibility to nothing, and the lightning was a little worrying. I'd pulled a little ahead and had no chase car behind me, so finally I pulled over at a State Farm building to wait out the storm. A few minutes later, Nick and Austin caught up and waited with me. Eventually we made it, having weathered a bit of a storm.

~ Tom

Road Hazards and Mega Mileage

Been in the woods the past few days. Here are the stats and some photos of some serious hazards. We're still looking for our first moose.


Wednesday
Mileage: 152.11
Mountain Ranges: 3
States: 2
Road Hazard: nails


Thursday
Mileage: 101.2
Mountain Range: Adirondacks
States: 2
Road Hazard: banana peels


Someone could have been killed. As Nick says, "I've seen banana peels flip Semis."

We climbed all of the mountains in Vermont, so Tom figured he should climb the sign too:



In other news, Nick added a little snaz to the Veritaz webpage, and I updated our photo album. In closing, here is a quick rhyme: I'd type more, but I'm a little too sore. See you all tomorrow.

~ Austin

Riding the Squiggly

Well . . . this is the story of us getting miserable lost, having 2 hard core flats, and a humongous home coming celebration.

We started this morning in Scarborough, ME. The Winslow family put us up and sent us off with packed lunches as well as several very detailed and simple to follow maps . . . until, we accidentelly missed a turn, and . . . being the proud men that we are, we decided that rather than turn around, we would find a new way to get to New Hampshire!

20 miles later, we ended up about 3 miles South. ha ha. Slightly frustrated, we pedaled on and finally arrived in Madbury, NH several hours and miles more than we had originally inteded. Let's just say that our final route ended up being much more of a circular, squiggly line than the straight shot it was originally meant to be. Another frustrating factor was that every third squiggle, Tom would get another flat. Tom's tire's are like metal detectors for nail. ppppsssssssss . . . "uh, hold up, hold up. My tire. My tire."

Despite all of this ridiculousness, we ended the day with a spectacular home coming. Ellen, whose son Sean has neuroblastoma, called ahead to her sister Kate who lives in Madbury, NH, and she rounded up her entire neighborhood to welcome us. They made a huge sign "Rally Across America: Welcome to Madbury," and they got a reporter to come from the local paper.

Together, they proved to us once again that flat tires and wrong turns make little difference - all that really matters is arriving! Speaking of which we have over 100 miles to cover tomorrow - make sure to come back and check on us :)

~ Austin

Massachusetts to Maine

So we've been doing a pretty bad job of keeping the blog updated. That ends now. (Assuming we have reliable internet access.)

We've been pretty busy since Boston. We were originally planning on riding straight to Maine from there, but as usual, our schedule changed. We met the Hanson family - whose son Sean had cancer and happened to know Carolyn from DC - in Cape Cod. We had a standing invitation from Erika, one of the people from Vineyard Vines, to visit her house there, so we called her up and asked if it would be okay if we stayed with her. She was great; she drove up to meet us, showed us the beach, and took us to the store so we could barbecue some chicken. It was a fun time.

The next day, we met Sean and his family. At a local dojo, they were having a fundraiser called Kicks for Cancer, where a bunch of the students had gotten sponsors for the amount of kicks they could do in five minutes. They managed to raise over fifteen hundred dollars, and after they were done they showed us the right way to kick. We had a pretty good time . . . kicking around.

Kicks for Cancer

After doing that, we quickly swung by a Vineyard Vines store, and then we grabbed some dinner with the Hansons.

The Hanson Gang

All this was on Friday and Saturday. Cape Cod was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it meant that we still had to ride to Maine by Monday. Not only that, but we had a 1:00 bike ride with some other Vandy alumni in Boston on Sunday that we didn't want to miss. So we headed back to Boston, where the Moores had been such great hosts, first to get a quick tuneup at QuadBikes and second to do a little riding. There we met up with our fellow Vandy grads and took to the trail. Despite ominous skies, we (including Nick, who jumped on the spare bike for this loop, ducktaped brake and all) made it to an ice cream shop at the end of the trail . . .

ice cream .... mmm

We had a lot of fun, doing twenty-odd miles and seeing what some other folks had done after college, something Austin and I will have to figure out soon.

Anyway, after saying our goodbyes, we headed off to Maine. We didn't get started until about 4:30, so we knew some night riding was ahead of us. Nevertheless, we pushed ourselves in an effort to preserve daylight, stopping only for my flat tire (the rear one, of course). But despite our best effort, we couldn't set a pace that would get us to Portland before nightfall. Still, I got to see one of the best sights of the trip so far.

Just south of the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border, we were pedaling on a small back road, fenced in by trees to either side. Suddenly, the trees just to the west of us opened up, and I saw the sun, a brilliant white, hovering just above a field. The field had a slight dip in it, a valley in miniature, and the way the sun hit it made the green incredibly vivid. Some clouds hanging a little above caught the sunrays and framed the entire thing. For about a minute I forgot that I had just ridden sixty miles. Of course, reality kicked in, and I realized that not only was I tired, but I had a long way to go, and the sun setting would hinder more than help. Still, it was a great sight.

Anyway, after one wrong turn, we rode into New Hampshire, put some new batteries in our lights, and rode on. That wrong turn may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because as we rolled into Exeter, New Hampshire, we heard a few loud bangs. We looked around and saw some fireworks being set off over the river. Apparently, every year Exeter sets off fireworks two weeks after the 4th of July to commemorate the Revolutionary War. We stopped on a nearby bridge, one of the best seats in the house, to take a look. While we watched, we talked to some people in the gathered crowd. After hearing what we were doing, one woman gave us some cherries, and another family told us the shortest way to Kittery, Maine, apparently only about 12 miles away. So when the fireworks ended, Austin and I hopped back on our bikes and headed to Maine. Somehow, we got lost along the way, but we met a couple ladies who were willing to drive ahead and show us the way. In no time at all, we had made it to Maine.

We started in Atlanta. We biked to Maine.

So we only have about 3,000 miles to go. With the high fives out of the way, Austin and I headed off to Portland, arriving a little before 11, and then stopped at a Denny's for some dinner since every other restaurant was closed. After that, we headed to an apartment that one man, Michael, had let us use for the night.

This morning, we got up and went to Maine Cancer Center to pass out some goody bags. We met a couple nice people there, including one woman who had biked across the country a few years ago (apparently, it's easier to head west to east because the winds tend to follow you. Too bad we start heading west now.) We even got to meet a couple people involved in some research, which we don't get to do that often. Anyway, the kids were fun, and they seemed to enjoy our goodies.

With the hospital visit finished, we took the chase car to a dealership to check out the oil, we visited a cycling shop to get some Maine stickers, and then we headed to the beach for about an hour, visiting the family of a guy we met in DC, Will Lombard. After a little rock climbing and a quick dip in the ocean, we headed to the home of the Winslow family, who offered to put us up tonight. They made us a big dinner and let us use their internet to catch up on e-mail and blogging. With that out of the way, we can get some sleep, leave Maine, and head back into New Hampshire.

~ Tom

Whale Song Video

Here you go folks! Nick put together a clip of "The Whale Song" for all of you to see. I had a little trouble getting the guitar to sing in tune with me:

Video of "The Whale Song"

~ Austin

Boston by Camera

Our first stop today was at Boston Floating Hospital, home of the original FAO Schwartz Bear . . .


In addition to meeting the world renowned bear, we met several doctors, and some energetic kids. One of the people that we met was Diamond, who has been treated for leukemia at Floating since she was 3 year old. She is now 17 and studying Psychology in college, and she has been a rider in the hospital's annual "Ride for Life" fundraiser . . . a fellow cyclist :)



After the hospital, we headed across town to visit Kyleigh at Boston Children's Hospital. On the way, we took a break at a local joke shop where Matt had an opportunity to pose for the tacky picture of the day . . . Tom was unimpressed.


Across town we met up with Kyleigh and her parents, Angela and Rob. Kyleigh has been in the hospital for several days now, and she had to go in for some x-rays and an ultrasound this morning. She just turned three and will continue treatments until September, the same time that we will be finishing our ride. Since Kyleigh wasn't feeling well, we took a picture with her dad wearing a whale hat (the doctor wasn't one of Kyleigh's - he just wanted to share in the excitement :) . . .



We'll be putting up a special post for Matt soon. His time with us is over, and he is flying out in the morning. He has to go back to his job in Iowa. As for me, Tom, and Nick, we'll ride on into . . . Tropical storm Beryl. She's supposed to broadside us in the morning. Get your rain slickers ready boys.

~ Austin