We are currently at a cheap hotel in Moberly, MO - where we crashed afer riding the big 200 yesterday. We washed our clothes in the sink last night, and we slept like rocks. whew.
They put an article in the Iowa City paper about us and Brandon:
Iowa City Press-Citizen: Pounding the Pedals
~ Austin
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Double Century!
Today Austin and I blew away our old record of 152 miles by riding 200. 201.31 to be precise.
We had been wanting to ride 200 miles for awhile now, so yesterday we decided to try it today. With that goal in mind, we left the Wicks household at 6 this morning, right before sunrise, and we kept on riding until 10:00 tonight, a little after sunset. Fortunately, we reached our mileage goal without too much night riding. Now we're pretty tired.
Tomorrow we should have an easy ride into Columbia. We look forward to it.
~ Tom
We had been wanting to ride 200 miles for awhile now, so yesterday we decided to try it today. With that goal in mind, we left the Wicks household at 6 this morning, right before sunrise, and we kept on riding until 10:00 tonight, a little after sunset. Fortunately, we reached our mileage goal without too much night riding. Now we're pretty tired.
Tomorrow we should have an easy ride into Columbia. We look forward to it.
~ Tom
Monday, August 21, 2006
Brandon, also known as Spiderman
We met Shannon at Iowa University Children's Hospital this morning. She took us around to meet all of the kids including Brandon (5), our honorary hero in Iowa. Brandon gave each of us a big high-five and then told us about how much he loved Spiderman. In fact, he even told us that he was spiderman!
We took spidey and his family to Outback Steakhouse for lunch, where we met up with lots of friends including Matt, who had been on the road with us in July helping Nick with the documentary (remember? the goofy guy that used to star in all of our tacky pictures :)? We also had some friends from the hospital join us.
We went to bed early tonight because tomorrow . . . we're going for a new record . . .
(for those of you commenting, it does not involve riding on the Interstate)
~ Austin
We took spidey and his family to Outback Steakhouse for lunch, where we met up with lots of friends including Matt, who had been on the road with us in July helping Nick with the documentary (remember? the goofy guy that used to star in all of our tacky pictures :)? We also had some friends from the hospital join us.
We went to bed early tonight because tomorrow . . . we're going for a new record . . .
(for those of you commenting, it does not involve riding on the Interstate)
~ Austin
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Iowa City
Today we went to church with the Moline Rohrbachs, where we met a boy named Chance and his brother Gabe. Chance was diagnosed with AML, and his brother Gabe was his bone marrow donor. The pastor had us stand up at the beginning of the service, and we gave both of them t-shirts and made a quick announcement. We had a pretty good reception; the congregation applauded despite seeing us in bike shorts. Afterwards, we showed Chance and Gabe our bikes, made a quick stop at the John Deere visitor center with the Rohrbachs, and crossed the Mississippi into Iowa.
Unfortunately, there was no 'Welcome to Iowa' sign, so we had to stop at the world's largest truck stop, just off of I80, to get our picture with an Iowa sign in the background. The truck stop itself was pretty cool - we got to take a look at the showroom (those trucks are a major upgrade from our bikes) and have some lunch.
With lunch out of the way, we kept on heading west, expecting an easy day, only about 60 miles in flat Iowa. Unfortunately, it turns out Iowa's not so flat. The hills aren't that bad - they were nothing like what we had in New Hampshire and Vermont - but after Nick's stories about seeing clear across the state, we were a little disappointed.
Still, we made it to Iowa City in pretty good time. There we met the Wicks family, our hosts for the night. They made us some dinner, including some Iowa sweet corn. In this case, at least, Nick's stories did not disappoint. It was some good corn - Austin ate four ears. After a little ice cream, we sat back for the evening. (Man, life on the road is rough)
~ Tom
Unfortunately, there was no 'Welcome to Iowa' sign, so we had to stop at the world's largest truck stop, just off of I80, to get our picture with an Iowa sign in the background. The truck stop itself was pretty cool - we got to take a look at the showroom (those trucks are a major upgrade from our bikes) and have some lunch.
With lunch out of the way, we kept on heading west, expecting an easy day, only about 60 miles in flat Iowa. Unfortunately, it turns out Iowa's not so flat. The hills aren't that bad - they were nothing like what we had in New Hampshire and Vermont - but after Nick's stories about seeing clear across the state, we were a little disappointed.
Still, we made it to Iowa City in pretty good time. There we met the Wicks family, our hosts for the night. They made us some dinner, including some Iowa sweet corn. In this case, at least, Nick's stories did not disappoint. It was some good corn - Austin ate four ears. After a little ice cream, we sat back for the evening. (Man, life on the road is rough)
~ Tom
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Iowa Friends!
Our next stop is in Iowa City where we are going to have a fundraiser with a local hero, Brandon. Please pass the word on to all of your Iowa friends:
Monday, August 21
12:00-2:00
Outback Steakhouse
945 25th Avenue
Coralville, Iowa
Brandon has had an amazing journey with cancer. Here is the bio that his parents sent us:
Brandon had a virus in March 2005, which cased him to go into Acute Liver Failure. The doctors stated that Brandon would need a liver transplant. Brandon was then transported by air to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois where he received a live donor liver transplant from his Uncle Mike from Texas, (his mother’s brother). After that was done and everything was going smoothly with his recovery, his platelet counts began to drop dangerously low in July, and in October Brandon was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia, and would soon be in need of a bone marrow transplant. In November, Brandon was hospitalized for a week while they tried to use an ATG (ATGAM) treatment, but it had no effect on the disease. The doctors believe the same, unknown virus that killed Brandon's liver also attacked his bone marrow. On February 9, 2006 Brandon was admitted to Iowa City Children's hospital where he began chemotherapy to rid his body of the old bone marrow and prep for the new. Brandon's brother Ryan (13) and his sister Kayla (9) both tested as perfect matches for Brandon, and it was decided that Ryan was the one. On February 14, 2006 (Valentines Day) Brandon received his new Bone Marrow from his big brother. Today Brandon’s counts are normal, and his DNA last came back at 97% Donor cells. Thank you to God and medical research for making this possible, and helping us keep our little boy :)
~ Austin and Tom
Monday, August 21
12:00-2:00
Outback Steakhouse
945 25th Avenue
Coralville, Iowa
Brandon has had an amazing journey with cancer. Here is the bio that his parents sent us:
Brandon had a virus in March 2005, which cased him to go into Acute Liver Failure. The doctors stated that Brandon would need a liver transplant. Brandon was then transported by air to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois where he received a live donor liver transplant from his Uncle Mike from Texas, (his mother’s brother). After that was done and everything was going smoothly with his recovery, his platelet counts began to drop dangerously low in July, and in October Brandon was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia, and would soon be in need of a bone marrow transplant. In November, Brandon was hospitalized for a week while they tried to use an ATG (ATGAM) treatment, but it had no effect on the disease. The doctors believe the same, unknown virus that killed Brandon's liver also attacked his bone marrow. On February 9, 2006 Brandon was admitted to Iowa City Children's hospital where he began chemotherapy to rid his body of the old bone marrow and prep for the new. Brandon's brother Ryan (13) and his sister Kayla (9) both tested as perfect matches for Brandon, and it was decided that Ryan was the one. On February 14, 2006 (Valentines Day) Brandon received his new Bone Marrow from his big brother. Today Brandon’s counts are normal, and his DNA last came back at 97% Donor cells. Thank you to God and medical research for making this possible, and helping us keep our little boy :)
~ Austin and Tom
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