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

Tacky Picture of the Day

We rode 80 miles today and encountered a what I can only describe as the Mount Everest of Massachusetts. We were only able to pull 4 mph standing, and at the top we didn't even have enough energy for a hearty high five. On the other side of that hill, we were coasting 43 mph - some kind of steep.

We also had another biker join us for about 10 miles. He was a really "energetic" rider and a nice guy, but he ended up pushing the pace a little too much. Every morning he rides a quick 20 miles at high pace, and he was unsympathetic to the extra 60 miles we were riding. We decided to let him go ahead of us.

By the time we hit 40 miles we were ready for a break. So we went to MacDonald's and had . . . Big Macs, and we are forever renaming them . . . Big Mistakes. We don't recommend downing a double decker during an 80 mile day. That's probably enough information. next.

Finally, here is the tacky picture of the day - we found this sign, and Matt couldn't resist . . .



Tomorrow we're going to visit Floating Hospital in Boston and Kyleigh, the little girl we are riding for - can't wait to see her.

~ Austin

Baystate Hospital and a Radio Interview

Today began with a visit to Baystate Hospital, one of the places where Dr. Jim Burns, one of our hosts from last night, works. We visited with a bunch of the kids, saying hi and handing out t-shirts. One kid, Alex, asked us to sign his shirt, and once we did that we found a wave of kids waiting to get autographs. It was pretty cool. We almost felt like celebrities. Anyway, some of the kids got on our bikes and posed for pictures with us, and we had some media there recording what we were doing. We got to meet a few doctors, too, which was great. We don't get to meet them at every hospital, but Dr. Burns made sure to introduce us. We went over to the Children's Hospital where we found a huge sign that some of the kids and volunteers had made welcoming us. So we got to meet a few more kids and their families. After that, we went back to the Burns home, got a couple of bike shop errands done, did some documentary interviews, and relaxed for a bit. The Burnses made us a huge dinner, giving us some great lasagna, salad, and a little more ice cream cake. Right after that, we got ready for a phone-in radio interview for an Atlanta radio show called 'Following Passions.' It went pretty well. After all this is over, Austin and I are supposed do a follow-up, so hopefully that one goes well, too. Now we'll get some sleep so that we can make it to Boston tomorrow.

~ Tom

ON AIR - 8:00 tonight!

Tom and I are going to be on an Atlanta radio station tomorrow night. 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 Passions

We'll be giving a full report . . . so tune in.

~ Austin

Stand Tough, Nashville or Bust!

Today we headed towards MA, and we accidently took a wrong turn that we will never forget. We ended up finding . . . Satan's Kingdom! Don't believe me? Here is the picture of Matt taking a picture:


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

Luke's Webpage

I got an email from Luke in Philadelphia. He just updated his webpage with some pics at our Philly event. He told me that I could share it with all of you - pretty cool kid. Check it out: Luke's Care Page.

Luke's mom gave me a bracelet that says "Sharing Hope." It has made a good addition to our road gear. Rally on Luke - we're riding for you!

~ Austin

Leaving New York

Yesterday we took the day off and went to New York City. I will make sure to update everyone as soon as I am able. Currently, we are quickly tossing all of our belongings in the car and assembling the bikes so that we can make the trek to Washington, CT. As it so happens, this is the town where Tom's parents were married, and we are pretty excited about seeing the church where it all went down :)

Also, we've been making the news near DC with the help of Carsten and his family, and we are going to be putting the articles up on our news page soon. So . . . stay tuned.

~ Austin