Myrtle Beach: Bruised but not Beaten

We clocked in the first 38 miles towards New Bern today without any problem, but Tom took a fall just outside of town. Between the heat and several days of riding, its easy to make a mistake that can put you on the ground. I was riding a few feet ahead when I heard him start to fall, and I turned in time to see the impact. It was a grizzly crash. We tried to get him to sit out for the rest of the day, but he refused to give up before we reached the city limits.

We patched the bike and bruises to the best of our ability and rode the next 10 miles into town. Thankfully we are staying with Dr. Barden, who is a local pediatrician, and he was able to tend to Tom's road rash. Besides loosing most of his elbow to the asphalt, he took the brunt of the fall on his right thigh, but the Doc says he'll be ok. On a positive note, we think the kids at the hospital will be excited to see Tom's road scars. Tomorrow, I'm going to fly solo into Greenville to give Tom some time to heal. No one said this would be easy, but that doesn't matter to us. The kids at ECU expect to see us on Tuesday, and I don't think that those kids would let a fall get in their way!! Greenville here we come!!

~ Austin

The bruise on my thigh has gotten big enough to deserve its own name. We're calling it Tom Bruise. There's a link below - but it's not for the faint of heart.

Tom's Bruise, "Tom Bruise"

Sadly enough, the bruise actually extends above the shorts line a little over my hip, and it's started to spread around my leg. However, Dr. Barden and the sports medicine doctor he consulted say that it's not too bad. It's the biggest bruise a couple doctors have ever seen - I think the word was "gargantuan" - but it's really superficial. So don't worry, Mom!

~ Tom

Jacksonville: Our First Ferry Ride

We started the day in Southport with a rough idea of where we were heading. After taking the ferry across towards Wilmington - which was a lot of fun - we started riding. We had barely started before Austin decided to see the ocean. We climbed down the rocks and stood on the pilings as the waves crashed around us. Seeing the foam splash up was exhilarating, but since we were still wearing our bike gear, it may not have been the best idea (After the beach, we biked down the road in our camelbaks and salty spandex. I now have some nice camelbak burn lines to compliment my biker tan).

Eventually, we got to Wilmington. Unfortunately, we got lost soon after leaving Wilmington. After heavy consultation of our maps and asking several people for directions, we managed to figure out how to get to Hampstead, where we took a two hour break. Finally we got back on the road. Since it was already 3:30, we started trying to line up a place to stay. After visiting several hotels and talking to several people, we decided to just trust to luck and head onto the Outback Steakhouse in Jacksonville. Fortunately, we met a couple there who were willing to put us up for the night. An interesting day.

~ Tom

Southport: Lucky Lobster Pasta

We set out this morning from Myrtle Beach without knowing which roads to take, how many miles we would have to ride, or where we would stay once we arrived. Initially, we had hoped to make it all the way to Wilmington, but after a few hours of riding, we realized that we had underestimated the route by about 30 miles.

So, after a few minutes of sweating over the maps (literally), we decided to trek on. We rode another 4 miles, and my tire went flat. I had a tiny sliver of metal stuck in my tire. Perhaps that was the reason for my last few flat tires.

This series of events left us slightly frustrated. In addition to this, we had our support crew phoning ahead to Wilmington to find a place to stay for the night, but they hadn't had any luck. I started to think to myself, "this is what Mom and Dad were warning me about."

With exhaustion we pedaled on to North Carolina. We passed a bicycle shop in Southport, and I pulled off of the road. I was thinking, "surely there will be some guys in the store who will help us find some food and a place to stay" . . . it was closed.

Suddenly, from the store next door, a guy ran outside towards us! He was so excited to see us, and we began telling him about our trip. As it turns out, Robert was from France and traveling by bicycle from Washington, DC to Miami.



He offered us a donation, and when he found out that we had nothing to eat, he treated us to dinner at the finest restaurant in town!! At the restuarant, we had lobster pasta and key lime pie. When it was all over, we felt a guilty to say the least. All I can say is . . . the cycling frenchman insisted. Robert was great - we're definitely going to keep in touch.

To top that, we met a couple in the restaraunt who offered to put us up for the night. So here we sit in a beautiful home after a long day and a plate of lobster pasta. Special thanks to Robert from France and Vince and Andrea Gubey.

Myrtle Beach: A New Crew and a Good Day

Today we have a new crew with the addition of Anne and Matt. Anne's our go-ahead girl, and Matt's going to help film since Chelsea has to leave soon. So with as big a crew as we're ever going to have, we all got ready to set off today. At about noon.

Thankfully, the weather was great since Alberto had passed for the most part, leaving a wind out of the south to help us along. We were making great time, especially nice since the distance ended up around 90 miles instead of the 60 or 70 we had supposed, and we got to stop along the way to see historic Georgetown.

A few miles south of Myrtle Beach, we met a woman coming out of a gas station, Denise, who asked us what we were doing, and then not only gave us a donation but also treated us to dinner at Creek Ratz. The staff there was great, ignoring our sweaty outfits and giving us some great food. To top it off, they threw in a few free t-shirts.


Afterwards, we went to meet our host, then went to the beach for a late night swim. The water was great, and nothing feels like the ocean after a long ride.

~ Tom

Charleston: Piggly Wiggly and Beyond

We started off the day at Piggly Wiggly. The Charleston County Police Department was nice enough to escort us from there to the Outback for our fundraiser. Their help was awesome - kinda made me wish we had some officers along with us for the other 4,997 miles :)

We were worried when it started pouring rain during the lunch hour, but at 11:30 people started arriving. Folks joined us from all over Charleston - local banks, Happy Days (a local childhood cancer support group), MUSC, 95 SX Radio Station, Prudential, Allstate, and people from other companies. Everyone came out to support Cooper and his family. We raised just over $2,000 at the lunch alone. The staff at Outback even donated their tips.



After Outback, we visited the children's hospital where we were able to give out goodie bags in the play room and talk to several families. Our last stop was a Dumas were Vineyard Vines is going to hold a raffle for us. The guys there fed us some awesome barbecue, and David Dumas, the owner chipped in another $1,000 in honor of Cooper.

Thanks goes to Lizzabee and Chuck Ciesar for hosting us for the past three nights. They fed us and let us use their house as a staging ground for all of our Charleston efforts, and they have armed us with confidence to attack the next city. Lizzabee's sister, Jeni, also helped out by getting us the police escort and hooking us up with Chris Willis at Black Dog Bike Shop.

Chris repaired my bike after the big spill - had to get a wheel shipped in from Miami, and he didn't even charge for shipping. So my bike's back in business, our bruises are healed, and we are headed to Greenville!! Thanks again, Charleston.

~ Austin

Getting Ready for Cooper

We got into Charleston a day early, so we decided to try to get ready for our events tomorrow. After grabbing some lunch at Groucho's (their STP dipper is pretty good), we went to Dumas to talk to the local Vineyard Vines retailer. David, one of the guys there, showed us some of the ties Vineyard Vines made for the store and asked about our Vineyard Vines ties (coming soon to a store near you). Next we went to the hospital to talk to John, the Child Life Specialist, about our visit at MUSC tomorrow. After that, all we had to do was pass out flyers. We went to the stores around the Outback to see if people were willing to eat lunch, and then we went to the mall nearby to invite a few more people. Finally, we came back to our hosts to see that Tropical Storm Alberto's headed north. It should be interesting riding through that. Anyway, after all that work, we're excited to see Cooper's family tomorrow - and hopefully, all the other people we invited.

~ Tom

Falling for Charleston

We headed out of Beaufort this morning, and rode for about 2 hours before deciding to go to church. We pulled into Jascksonboro Baptist Church and walked to the door. We weren't exactly dressed for church, and we were kinda sweaty.

Luckily, Jacksonboro was a "come as you are" church, and we felt right at home. They asked us all about our journey, and a lady named Terri invited us to her store for icecream and gatorade . . . mmmmm. After visiting Terri, we got back on the road.

We busted out another 25 miles and entered Charleston city limits, and then a group of kids started racing beside us on the sidewalk across the road. In the excitement, I accidentally forgot to watch the road. My front wheel slid into the gutter and I lost control. I fell over backwards with enough time to see Tom's body flying over me sceaming obscenities.

Thankfully we wrecked right in front of the fire department. So we picked up our blood covered accessories and got the guys in the fire station to help us clean our wounds. When all was said and done, the casualties included my front tire, Tom's helmet (not his head), my front light, and my pride (i was responsible for the spill). On a brighter note, this gave us a chance to meet the guys at the fire station and invite them to our fundraiser :)

We pulled the spare bike off of the roof, and headed to find our hosts for the night. They took us out for dinner, and here we are safely on their couch. Ahhhhh . . . what a day.

~ Austin