Riding for Matthew

Today our ride is for Matthew. He is in Nashville and was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma (a solid tumor in his bladder) in January. I found out about Matthew several months ago when I was out training for this year's ride. I was wearing my Rally Across America jersey and had stopped at a gas station for a break.

A guy who has stopped in for gas looked at my Jersey and asked, "Did you ride across the country?" I told him about our charity ride, and we started talking about childhood cancer research. He told me that one of his coworkers sons had been fighting cancer. I gave him my email address and that's how we connected with Matthew and his family.

So after thinking about Matthew for so long, we're excited to finally meet him and his family. They will be at the fundraiser tomorrow. We have heard it from a reliable source that Matthew is a Star Wars aficionado ... so Paul, Kelly, and I have been honing our Jedi powers.

If you are in Nashville, we'll see you there:

5:00 - 7:00 pm
Gilda's Club
1707 Division St
Nasvhille, TN


~ Austin

Up The Mountain

Today, rejoined by Kelly, we rode over 80 miles from Chattanooga to Tullahoma. Mrs. Bauman and Mrs. Hibbard were our two support drivers, because two is always better than one. On our way out of Chattanooga we encountered the Trail of Tears Remembrance Motorcycle Ride, which happened to be traveling on our route out of Chattanooga. Since cars are not motorcycles (though this is also true of bicycles), the law enforcement people were not going to allow our support cars to follow us if we rode with the motorcycles. This was a big problem and was going to require some major rerouting ...

(consulting with the guys at the local service station)

Luckily, the longest line of motorcycles that I have ever seen came to an end sooner than we thought and we were back on our way.

We three bikers rode several miles and took a quick breather at "Dixie Freeze," our unofficial base camp in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, right before we began our ascent up the huge mountain that was to be our next leg of the trip. Amazingly, everyone made it to the top, one way or another, and no one got altitude sickness even though it felt as though we had just increased our altitude by about 8 billion feet.

Our stops along the way included the historic University of the South, also known as Sewanee (from which siblings of both Austin and Paul graduated), and the Polly Crockett Festival, a small-town arts festival that was taking place today in Cowan, Tennessee. We eventually ended our ride for the day in Tullahoma, which will be our starting point tomorrow. We then hopped in the cars and made our way back to the beautiful Adams Edgeworth Inn at the Assembly in Monteagle where the owner generously offered to house the Rally team. We then got a few more supplies in preparation of the final leg of the trip tomorrow, went out for some pizza and pasta at a new pizza joint in Sewanee called "Crust" (joined by Austin's brother's inlaws) and mentally prepared for the final day of biking.


~ Paul

Kids Love F(un)draisers

Tinley Hampton, whose dad Terry rode with us yesterday into Chattanooga, is an aspiring banker. He was in charge of all of the money that his mother's third grade class collected for research. At the Outback fundraiser today, Tinley proudly presented us with the bounty and demonstrated how only a man of great strength could handle such coinage ...
We recognized two heros at our event: Sarah and Ashton. Ashton has been cancer free since last December, and Sarah is going through treatments for neuroblastoma. They are both eight years old, and they both thought that we were crazy for riding our bicycles so far ...

Ashton was pleased that we had picked a school day to come though (he talked his mom into letting him take the day off), and Sarah was pleased with the athletic ability of the Aflac duck that we gave her. The duck rode took several laps around the restaurant sitting atop my bicycle while Sarah coached us through the sharp turns.

A few other cancer families were there, and their stories meant a lot to our team. We have so many little heroes to ride for.

After the event, we stopped by TC Thompson to deliver some pink whale hats, tattoos, and ducks to the kids in Chattanooga. Then we headed back to our host home to gear up for tomorrow ... we're climbing Monteagle and heading towards the finish line.

~ Austin

The Key(s) to Chattanooga

Today was a special day for the Rally team. After breakfast at Dean's house (the founder of the Rally Foundation) we went to Roswell Bicycles to begin our trip for the day. Terry Hampton and Marjorie Perry met us at the shop to ride with us. Terry was riding with us in memory of his son Coulter, who passed away in 2005, and Marjorie was riding for our Atlanta hero, Sean Dever. Frank with Roswell Bicycles was also there to help us all get started ...

(7:15 departure from Roswell)

In preparation for departure, Paul used the keys to the chase car to unlock the bikes from the bike rack and then he put them safely in the back pocket of his jersey. Then we happily mounted the bikes and headed out. Nicole (our chase car driver) stayed and visited with Frank for a few minutes while we pedaled deeper into the suburban wilderness of north Atlanta. A few minutes later, Frank was chasing us down to retrieve the keys from a particular biker's back pocket (special thanks, Paul) ...

We stopped in Fairmont to visit Terry's home and family, and to drop off Marjorie, who had the better sense not to continue to follow three crazy men who felt compelled to ride their bikes to a faraway land in another state ...

(having lunch with Terry's family)

Our total for today was 114 miles. The most important lesson we learned today was that bloodthirsty, man-eating dogs are scared of at least one thing: orange Gatorade. It stops them in their tracks and keeps them from eating innocent biker-fundraisers. (just squirt it in their eyes)

We arrived in Chattanooga before dark (a victory in and of itself) and feasted with Terry and his family at Chik-Fil-A. We feasted again at our Chattanooga host's home. We are about to feast one more time upon a plate of chocolate chip cookies that are among the best ever made The cookies were made by our Chattanooga host whose name is Georgia, which is also the name of the state we started our ride in today. Coincidence? Probably.

~ Austin and Paul

Atlanta Success!!!

We held an Outback fundraiser today in honor of Sean Dever, our Atlanta hero. It was a school day for Sean and his friends, but the principal and the teachers of his school (Queen of Angels) let them out of school to come to our fundraiser in his honor. The Roswell Outback, once again, was an excellent host and they helped things run smoothly the whole time. Over 175 people turned out for Sean, making it our best attended event of this year's trip. We also celebrated Sean's 12th birthday, which is tomorrow, complete with cake and candles. The team decided to donate all of the money that we raised in Sean's honor to fund a research trial for his type of cancer, osteosarcoma (bone cancer).

After the fundraiser we went to visit Children's Health Care of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, joined by Dean, the founder of the Rally Foundation, Donna, our meticulous accountant, and Becky (Austin's aunt). We met several more kids, handed out several more whale hats and took several more pictures of our new friends and this impressive facility.




After we left the hospital, Austin and Paul went to go pick up their bikes from Roswell Bicycles, after having given them to Frank (our contact from Roswell Bicycles), who took them from us at Outback to perform some much needed repairs. Roswell Bicycles tuned up our bikes, provided us with some more necessary biking equipment and outfitted our support car with a Roswell Bicycles graphic. Austin and Paul then met up with everyone else at Claire's house for another top-quality dinner and began to worry about all the scary stories they had heard earlier that day about how many mountains (not hills) they would have to ride up during each remaining leg of the trip. Nightmares of never-ending hills are likely to follow tonight.

No one said it would be easy.

~ Paul and Austin

Detour to Georgia

Yesterday we got charged up yesterday on Honey Grahms and Cookie Crisp, hopped on the bikes, and left at dawn. The girls (Nicole and Claire) followed behind in the chase car. We stayed together for a few miles and then they took a quick pit stop. Claire told us that they "would just catch up to us later." So Paul and Austin kept riding.

Three hours later, Austin and Paul were still riding solo waiting for the girls to "catch up." Once we realized our phones and wallets were in the car with Claire and Nicole, we thought we might be riding all the way to Carrollton to ourselves. After stops a "bike-unfriendly" gas station and a volunteer fire departement in Wolf Creek (somewhere in Alabama), we met Christy, who helped reunite us with the use of her phone. As it turns out, Claire and Nicole had underestimated the speed at which Austin and Paul were advancing toward the next destination ...

(fire department rescue)

The rest of the day involved lots of pedaling (about 120 miles), a few stops and a few bridges that were out. We arrived in Carrollton around 6:30, just in time for our Carrollton fundraiser at the University of Western Georgia, where we met Caroline's father, Mr. Johnson, and the entire Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity who hosted our event. They donated a sizeable check to Rally ...

(APO Service Fraternity fundraiser)

We arrived at our host family's (the Williamsons') house late in the evening after a long day. Bed was soon to follow.

~ Paul and Austin

Woo hooo Birmingham

Here are some pics from today. Our Outback fundraiser in honor of Andrew helped put us over $18,000 raised so far. Huge success ...

Then we visited Children's hospital in Birmingham and gave out three wagons full of goodies to kids going through treatment ...

Finally we visited Andrew Long and his family. We got to see his Starwars Leggos and played invisible forcefield with his sister Sarah (she won). Then we compared bicycles and had to head out. The visit meant a lot to all of us. You're our hero, and we're going to keep riding for you ...

(Andrew's sister Sarah)

Tomorrow we have 120 miles to ride to Carrollton, GA where we will have another fundraiser in honor of Caroline ... we'll have to leave at dawn to make it in time for the event at 6:00 pm ... ride ride ride ...

~ Austin

Day 4

Everyone was up early, getting ready for the first official Outback Steakhouse fundraiser. Due to strategic planning and amazing foresight we had the car almost completely packed before we left for Outback at around 10:00am. Last night we also decorated the Rally Car with two more giant side panel graphics that had fallen off on the first day, 10 minutes after they were installed. We anticipate a flood of donations, the likes of which have never been imagined, due

to this "increase in advertising."

Our fundraiser was very well attended and it turned out to be a great success. It was a great feeling to get all these people together for the simple purpose of eating good food and donating to Rally. We met and surpassed our fundraising goals for the event and the Outback staff was nothing but helpful. The biggest emergency of the day was needing to have several balloons inflated without any device with which to inflate them. This problem was solved by a certain brave, spandex-bearing Rally team member's marching over to the restaurant next door to ask to use their balloon inflator. The neighboring restaurant's help will not be forgotten...

(yet another sacrifice for the team)

The end of the fundraiser marked the end of Kelly's first stint with us as a cyclist. She and her parents drove back to Nashville so that she could continue bettering herself by furthering her education. She will be missed, but she will be back on Friday.

After the fundraiser, we visited the UAB Children's Hospital. We met a bunch of new kids and their families, and had a great time. Everyone there was very pleasant and very helpful - a special thanks to Emily, for making us feel welcome and appreciated. After the hospital visit we drove directly to visit our Birmingham Rally Kid, Andrew. We spent some great time with him and his family. It was a great visit after having ridden so many miles on Andrew's family's behalf and I think it will suffice to say that none of us will forget that time we spent with them.

Having slept very little the last few days, we arrived back at the Traylor's (our host family) and had another great meal with them and their friends (except for one of us who caught up with an old friend). After dinner we took care of the donations from the day's work and
tied up a few more loose ends for the trip. Hopefully we will be rested enough to ride the longest day yet, which is starting early tomorrow morning.

Omission from a previous blog:
-Austin pushed off my bike a couple of days ago while pretending to give me a hug. Those of you who were watching the scene unfold while you were waiting in your cars at the same stoplight will know what I'm talking about - there were at least 20 of you.

~ Paul

Riding for Andrew

(Andrew is our hero in Birmingham. He is also Superman)

We dedicate every leg of our ride to a local kid fighting cancer. The ride to Birmingham is for Andrew. He has been fighting medulloblastoma (a brain tumor) for over 3 years. He's a hero to all of us. We are hoping to see him today and tell him about our ride for research.

We'll probably show his family some of our pictures, bruises, and gear and tell them all about our ride for Andrew. For the rest of you, here is a quick picture diary of events from yesterday ...

(we pumped up a tire until it exploded see previous post)

(rode through torrential rain)

(fought off ferocious wild dogs)
(climbed several mountain ranges)

(raced semi-trucks on a state highway)

(found two girls to take over chase car duty. Rally on Nicole and Claire!)

Phew ... that was an exhausting ride. Wish us luck today as we visit with Andrew and the other kids at Children's in Birmingham! Stay tuned ...

~ Austin

Day 3: Birmingham

Today began early with an 7:30 am departure from Florence, Alabama. Unfortunately, we did not cover much distance before my tire went flat :( And then ... in an attempt to fix the tire, we caused the new tire to explode! This sent rubber shrapnel flying and left our ear drums ringing. Wow!

Once we were on the road again, it seemed as though we just could not get off. We traveled over the Tennessee River for the third time and continued on through Alabama. Our mid-day hunger was appeased by tacos from the Mexican restaurant located adjacent to the gas station at which we had stopped. Despite the concern about where the remnants of those tacos might end up/ come out... we (mostly Paul and Austin) ate heartily.

Continuing on the road and up the exhausting hills, our wonderful and ingenious chase-car driver (Kelly's mom Cheryl) saved the day. As our legs grew weary, she refused to let our spirits damper- driving behind us, blaring tunes from "The Temptations" and other mo-town jams.

(thumbs up)

We finished off the day reaching Birmingham with a total of 101 miles under our belts, more than Paul or I had ever ridden!

~ Kelly