Yikes!! We decided to go in the other direction. After about 60 miles we entered our 9th state . . .
Then we met up with our host family, Lela and Jim Burns. They are Matt Hobby's aunt and uncle, and we spent the evening hearing stories about Matt. We were riding in honor of him in Atlanta, and he passed away just a few days before we arrived. From the stories, I think Matt would have been a great companion on this journey. Throughout his treatment, his saying was "Stand Tough," and they had a cake made that said, "Stand Tough, Nashville or Bust!"
When we saw the cake, our reply was . . . "sweet." It's cool to come all of this way and meet so many people who have been touched by childhood cancer. Matt brought us to this family, and he'll bring us all the way to Nashville.
~ Austin
Yesterday we left Greenwich and headed toward Washington, CT, my mom's old hometown. After a long day of riding, we made it to stay with the Swigarts. They made us dinner, showed us their pond, a scaled model train set, and showed me the local town. We left there this morning a little later than planned, but they were great about getting us out.
Then we started heading to Longmeadow, MA, a town a few miles north of Connecticut, and putting us in our ninth state. As we head north, the hills seem to get bigger. There were maybe four or five downhills heading to Washington, and there were some big hills heading to Longmeadow. But we made it to stay with the Burns family, the aunt and uncle of Matt Hobby. They've been great, providing food and entertainment as well as setting up a visit for us at a local hospital tomorrow. So tomorrow becomes another event day before heading off to Boston. We've really come a decent distance - Georgia into New England. In the next three weeks, our odometers should double. But I think we can do it. We're feeling pretty good about the trip now.
~ Tom
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