Happy 4th Alexa!

Amidst all of the fireworks, we took some time for arts and crafts today. Alexa, one of our Atlanta kids, has been in the hospital recently, and we have all been worried about her. She's 9 and has been through several years of rough treatment, but she is really tough and is the sweetest little girl ever.

So for the fourth of July, we decided to make her a sign and wish her well. Here's to you Alexa - stay strong and Rally On! We're riding for you and hope to be able to talk to you soon :)

~ Austin

DC Pics and Captain Planet

We have only been away from DC for a few days now, but we didn's get any pics up. So for those of you at home, here you go, a few things we did while in the Capitol:

We started out walking by the Library of Congress . . . in spandex.

Then we met with some members of congress, told them about our ride, and showed them . . . Tom Bruise.

And then we visited a few kids . . .

We gave away some t-shirts to Carsten and Carolyn . . .

Had an arm wrestling tournament . . .

Gathered the Team, and headed out of town . . .

The visit was . . . a success! Next stop, Baltimore. By then, we will be well rested and ready to take on every challenge that comes our way. Fundraisers unite. With our powers combined, we will beat Childhood Cancer . . . (it's kinda like Captain Planet, only with bikes and no green hair see link)

~ Austin

Mt. Vernon Bike Trail

We began today by going off to Spokes, etc. to go ride with Carsten and some other local people. The guys at Spokes were great - one Spokesman led us out on the Mt. Vernon Bike Trail. We pedaled along at a fairly decent pace, letting Carsten and his dad lead the pack. The trail has a great view of the Potomac, and we went out to a bend right by the airport. After that, we turned around and headed back. After thanking everyone for coming - and getting Carsten to sell them what we didn't raffle off the day before - we grabbed a quick lunch and got directions to Baltimore. We went back up the Mt. Vernon Bike Trail into the city and rode around to meet up with the chase car. Finally, we finished up riding, threw the bikes up on top of the car, and drove up to New Jersey for the 4th. In a few days, we'll be back on the road.

~ Tom

Washington, DC: Fundraisers and Whale Families

Today we had a fundraiser in honor of Carolyn and Carsten, two kids in DC. The people at Outback were fabulous as usual, and tomorrow we are going to continue the events by having a special ride with Carsten in Alexandria with a local bike shop, Spokes, Etc. We are hoping to round up a bunch of folks for the ride - we're gonna ride 10 miles along the Potomac. After that, Tom and I are going to finish up and ride into Baltimore. We calculated 47 miles, but knowing us, we could have miscalculated :) You'll all just have to check back tomorrow.

We went to Georgetown Hospital this afternoon as well, and we got to see several more kids. They made us sing the "Whale Song" again, and I got to teach a few kids in the waiting room some tricks on the piano. Wish we had more time to visit with some of the people we talked to today, but we passed out lots of our cards so that everyone can email us as we pedal north.

As we were driving back to our host family, we got stuck in rush hour traffic, and we took the opportunity to pass out some whale hats and flyers to the surrounding cars - the response was priceles. Almost everyone was excited to take a hat and say hi. The only exception was a lady who said, "I don't need a whale. I already have a whole family of them." (we weren't really sure what she meant, but it sure did sound funny). ha ha - and that's a rap for today. more tomorrow.

~ Austin

Doings in DC

Today we started out by visiting the DC federal relations office of Austin's and my alma mater, Vanderbilt. Before today, I wouldn't have been able to tell you why Vandy needs a federal relations office, but it seems like they do a lot. Anyway, we got some pens and some guitar picks from the curb center as well as a list of contacts for the trip. Next we went to the office of U.S. Representative Jo Bonner, who sat down and talked with us for a little while about the need for research. He was an interesting guy and seemed pretty receptive to our talk. Finally, after stopping by one more office on the Hill, we headed to Children's National to visit the kids.

Since we were running late, we met up with some of our volunteers and threw the goody bags together as quickly as possible, then ran up to the lobby to meet the child life specialist. She was great, taking us around to see the kids - most of whom seemed to enjoy seeing us, laughing at the whale dance and whale song. We ended up leaving and came back to Chris's house, where his parents had prepared a great meal for us. Now we'll all try to sleep and get ready for our events tomorrow. It should be a lot of fun.

~ Tom