We made the paper this morning in Tiffin, OH: Advertiser-Tribune.
~ Austin and Tom
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
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
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
Thursday, August 10, 2006
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
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
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
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,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!
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
~ Austin
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
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
Monday, August 07, 2006
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
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
Sunday, August 06, 2006
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
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
~ Austin
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