Adventures For the Cure

Nauvoo, IA (hot hot hot!!)

Monday, July 31, 2006

Date: 7/31/06
Mileage: 95

Funds Raised:
(Donate Here)

$11,954.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Well today certianly was hot! Tomorrow is supposed to be just as hot if not hotter. After that it should cool off a bit.

We got a early start to try to beat the heat. Luckily we got to say our goodbyes to Mike and Dee last night, it was so early we didn't want to wake them! Brent who stayed with us for the last 2 days left early also. Unfortunately he was going north/east while we were headed south/west. We will be keeping in touch with him. He is interested in the possibility of joining us on whatever adventure we will plan for next year.

(We will see you again Brent!)

The two ideas so far are:
1. Ride across America (taking a shorter/more direct route) taking fixies but fully loaded and unsupported. We don't know if anyone has ever done that before :)
2. Enter in Race Across America in the team division.

Whatever we do we will still be doing it to raise money to help others and to fight the battle against diabetes.

(Look at that R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S beard!!
Who has a beard like that when it is 100+ degrees outside??)

Tonight we are staying in Nauvoo, IA at in the basement of a local church. We are super duper grateful to have air conditioning :).

Side Note on Ocean City, MD finish:
We are setting up a fully supported finishing ride in Ocean City, MD on September 3rd. If you would like to join us we will be at Shenanigans Irish Pub on 4th Street Boardwalk! To sign up for the ride go here.

-Pattt

Working on AFC in Muscatine, IA

Date: 7/30/06
Mileage: 0 (Worked on AFC all day long)

Funds Raised:
(Donate Here)

$11,954.62 for Kupenda
Donation thanks to Mike (who we are staying with in Muscatine)
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was a much needed rest day. We got tons of stuff done that needed to be done. Adam and I spent all day at our computers typing away at emails to people/places we are going to be staying at in the upcomming weeks and modifying our route so that we are at the right places at the right times. Jesse put the new chains on the bikes and put in the new bearings that Eric Sovern, our friend from Surly, gave to us.

We also got caught up on much needed sleep. I slept like 10hrs last night!

Weezal and Jason Cusick left this morning. They left so early that when I woke up they were gone (or else I just slept really late).

Before we went to bed we spent some quality time talking to Mike and Dee who have been our hosts in Muscatine for the past two days. We got in touch with them through their son who found us on the Surly Blog it has been awesome hanging out with this family! Mike and D were also nice enough to let our friend Brent stay over.

(PhillyK, Jesse, Dee, Mike, and Brent)

We met Brent a longggg time ago back when we first got to Oregon. He has been biking across the country from West to East just like us! It has been great hanging out with him and sharing so many crazy stories.

-Pattt

Muscatine, IA (RAGBRAI Day 7)

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Date: 7/29/06
Mileage: 52

Funds Raised:

$11,934.62 for Kupenda
Donations thanks to Rob Fox, Rob's mom Pam, Amy, Andy, Craig
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Donations thanks to David Haaga, Tania Desrosiers, and Paula Bisacre
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was extremely hot! We got a late start so we were biking from 11:00 until around 2:00. It was only 50 miles but after we were done it felt like it was 75 or more just because our bodies have to work so much harder in the heat.

Today was the last and final day of RAGBRAI! We figured that we would be able to setup at the expo one last time but since it was the last day everyone was going home so there were not many people around to talk to or anything. We did manage to sell a few T-Shirts but it was not like the other days.

It was also our last day biking with Jason Cusick, Weezal, and Team Lynn. We will miss having all the fun company on the road!

(Bye Bye Team Lynn!)

I also got to hang out with my good friend Robert Fox, who I knew from when I was young. He tried to help us to find a karaoke bar last night so we could get our yokey on in Iowa but we were unsucessful in our search :( Mabye tonight we will be able to find some karaoke somewhere around here.

(Andy, Amy, Rob, and Rob's mom Pam)

RAGBRAI was great!! We raised almost $1,500 for Kupenda and ADA and we talked to tons and tons of people about things like helping others, using the insulin pump instead of taking needles (for diabetics only :), what it is like in Africa for the children we are raising money for, what it is like for Adam and biking long days, and how cool Surly's fixies are (we loveee these bikes). It was awesome to walk around at night after we finished at the expo and see a few people wearing AFC t-shirts!! sooo cool!

Side Not On AFC's Plans:
Right before we left for our trip our good friend Brett wanted us to visit her in Chicago. We looked at the map and we figured that we could do it! Especially if we could setup some fundraising event when we got there. We were not able to get anything together as far as talking or fundraising so we have decided to skip on Chicago for this year's trip. It would have been lots of long days of biking in a row to get there and then get back on our route home and we figure we don't want to push ourselves to our limits for no good reason.

Instead we are planning smaller detours to Knocksville, TN and Virginia Beach (to visit our good friend Shelley!). We will be updating our route on our map page tomorrow. I am sure that this decision will make our parents happy :) They were a little worried about our long and hard journey to Chicago especially with how hot it has been lately!

Coralville, IA (RAGBRAI Day 6)

Friday, July 28, 2006

Date: 7/28/06
Mileage: 48

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was another great and easy day of RAGBRAI riding. Doing only 48 miles! And tomorrow is only 45 miles!! That will gaurentee we are well rested for our long ride from Muscatine, IA to Chicago, IL. We will be sure to properly hydrate and we won't push too hard on our way to Chicago. Good news is that it won't be nearly as hot as it was on the day we rode 150 miles.

When we got to Coralville, IA today we setup for the expo! It was great. We had a prime spot and we talked to tons of people. We also raised a good bit of money selling T-Shirts and getting donations.

We are goingto try to find a place to do our karaoke tonight!! We have not missed a state yet for our goal of doing karaoke in every state we visit and just because we are doing RAGBRAI shouldn't mean we will miss Iowa.

-Pattt

Marengo, IA (RAGBRAI Day 5)

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Date: 7/27/06
Mileage: 40

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was great! Although it was extremely humid it was cloudy so it was not too hot. We biked 77miles from Newton, IA to Marengo, IA with the RAGBRAI group. We met tons of people along the way and had a great time. We arrived in Marengo at around 5:30pm so we did not setup with the expo (you have to get there super early to do that). Instead Adam went to work sending out millions of emails to all of his media contacts and everyone. Adam is great at doing PR stuff!! Jesse got caught up on his book writing while I went to work on the website.

Tonight we are staying at a house in Marengo with at least 40 other people who are all doing RAGBRAI. The owner is amazing! There are tents all over his lawn, people are swarmed all over the inside and outside of his house, I am using his computer to do this blog, and he made us all dinner! How amazing is that?

Doing around 70 miles a day in RAGBRAI has been great for us. We are getting all rested up for our super long bike ride from Muscitine, IA to Chicago. It will be around 250 miles. We just got our route today. It was kindly donated by Bicycle Illinois.

-Pattt

Newton, IA (RAGBRAI Day 4)

Date: 7/26/06
Mileage: 40

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Notice: The Kupenda website is down so I modified the link to donate to Kupenda so that it goes straight to Kupenda's paypal page.

Today was a really really good day for AFC! We woke up at Tome Keller's house after a super great nights sleep. It was a blessing to sleep in his house because it was pouring raining outside alll night long but we were safe and dry.

(Saying good bye to Tom Keller!)

Tom Keller has a friend who has a 12yr old daughter, Tess, who has Type I diabetes. Tom had been riding RAGBRAI for the first three days and for some of each day he would ride a tandem bike with Tess on the back. Yesterday Tom had a fall off his bike so he was unable to ride today. Luckily there were no serious injuries so he will be okay :). Since Tom was not riding today Adam offered to ride the tandem with Tess!! IT WAS AWESOME! I know for a fact Tess has never gone faster on a bike. We were rolling at 21mph sometimes. She is super fit so she actually helped Adam to go faster.

(Adam and Tess wearing cool AFC T-Shirts!)

(Adam and Tess biking! Tess was doing most of the work)

When we got to the town of Newton we were interviewed by the local newspaper. Tess and her mom were also interviewed! Tess is extremely intelligent and well spoken for her age and her mom said some very nice things about AFC and what we are doing. For Adam to be a good role model for Tess is what AFC is all about!

After the interview we went to the town square in Newton and setup our stand again! This time we had a prime location. We sold tons and tons of T-Shirts and made more than $450.00 in donations! It was great to talk to so many people.

(Biking into town with tons and tons of people)

Lance Armstrong also gave a speech from the town square. It was very motivational. He is doing much the same thing we are only on a larger scale and focused on curing cancer.

If only everyday on our journey could be so good!

-Pattt

Des Moines (RAGBRAI Day 3)

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Date: 7/25/06
Mileage: 76

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Adam and I got a great nights sleep last night under the stars. Weezal, Jesse, and Jason Cusick slept in Jason's tent. PhillyK and AndyK slept in someone's shed :). We all met up in the morning for breakfast and to get started biking!

Jesse has been pretty sick the last two days and he looked bad this morning. Hopefully he will get better soon and we are hoping it is only alergies.

RAGBRAI stops in Waukee, IA today but we are biking 10 miles west of that to spend the night at our friend, Tom Keller's, house! Tom is also riding RAGBRAI! So we will be going a bit extra today but that will make tomorrow's RAGBRAI route that much shorter.

It was a beautiful day of biking. The clouds were out so it did not get too hot and we met tons of people along our way. At lunch we met with Kamla (the girl we stayed with when we were in Crescent, IA) and her friends on Team Lynn. Team Lynn has a bus that the drive as their support vehicle. Their bus driver, Lynn, wanted to bike the 2nd half of the day so AndyK offered to drive the buss from lunch to Waukee for them! What a nice guy :) Since AndyK can do anything driving a bus was a simple task!

(Getting ready to ride!)

(Driving Team Lynn Bus)

We all ate dinner with Tom and his family!! Yay for some home cooking!! And we are super happy because it is raining a ton tonight but we are safe and dry in Tom Keller's beautiful house!! Yay Tom Keller!

-Pattt

Audubon, IA (RAGBRAI Day 2)

Date: 7/24/06
Mileage: 77

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

(Bye Bye Verlyn and Carol! Thanks so much)

Today was actually a very hard day. It was constant rolling hills and the wind was in our faces all day long! We woke up at 6:00 and we were out the door early so that we could get to the next town and setup our stand at the Expo. Yesterday we got to the end town too late to setup for the expo so we missed it.

Weezal and Jason Cusick did just fine on all the hills and against all the wind! They came out here fit and ready for RAGBRAI... No doubt!

(Best High Five pic ever!

Picture taken by Suga)

When we got to the expo there were no people there but we heard from the other vendors that it would surely pick up later! Unfortunately they were wrong. We sat at our stand for 5 hours and no one showed up. The whole expo was empty. We got to talk to only one or two people. Oh well... We tried :). We will try again at the expo on Wednesday mabye we will have more luck then!

Our tent is not doing too well. This isn't a big deal because we don't really have many days of camping left on our trip, most of our remaining days we have places to stay with nice people :). The only problem is that we do have a couple more days of camping like tonight. Sleeping outside is great, unless it rains. We decided to risk it and we slept outside. Luckily it only rained for like 5 minutes and then stopped.

PhillyK AndyK Support:
During RAGBRAI the Ks work hard and follow a planned route for the 'support vehicles'. They meet up with us a the designated halfway town point and again at the finish! It is pretty hard for them because there are tons and tons of bikers everywhere, but the Ks can do anything!

-Pattt

Ida Grove, IA (RAGBRAI - Day 1)

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Date: 7/23/06
Mileage: 56

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
thank you Cynthia Saiah for you donation!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
thank you Cynthia Saiah for your donation!
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

(Pictures comming soon...)

Today was our first day biking with RAGBRAI! It was quite the experience. There are thousands of bikers everywhere! When you get to a town you have to get off your bike because there are so many people on the streets that no one is able to bike.

When we got to the finishing town we were too late to setup for the expo. We didn't know it would be so crazy! We are going to get up super early tomorrow so we can get to the finishing town before the crowd of people so we can setup for the expo for tomorrow! We talked to so many people yesterday at the expo that we just cant afford to miss another one. This is a great opportunity to really get the word out about what we are doing.

Yesterday we also met with Eric Sovern from Surly, the company that made our bikes. He visited us at the RAGBRAI Expo. He gave us some new bearings for our wheels, we really needed those. Thanks so much Eric.

-Pattt

RAGBRAI Expo!

Date: 7/22/06
Mileage: 0 (Worked the RAGBRAI Expo alllll day long... It was great!)

Funds Raised:

$11,784.62 for Kupenda
+$400.00 thanks to the wonderful people at the RAGBRAI Expo!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,620.00 for ADA
+$200.00 thanks to the wonderful people at the RAGBRAI Expo!
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

After getting a great night's sleep we woke up and went straight to the RAGBRAI Expo which would last from 12:00 till 9:00 at night. The expo was awesome! It gave us a chance to talk to tons and tons of people about what we were doing, get some donations, and raise lots of awareness about diabetes.

(The setup at the Expo)

Some people wanted to know about Adam's insulin pump and how he manages his sugar levels while biking 100 mile days. Others were interested in our fixed gear bikes. Some people asked about the children in Africa and why we were helping them or what we were doing to help. There is a chance that we will be able to setup a table at each town that RAGBRAI visits. If we can we will because we really did some good today!

(A funny sign for Suga)

We also met Rob Layton who is the Ride Director for a ride that starts the day after RAGBRAI ends. His ride, called Bicycle Illinois, just happens to go from Muscitine, IA to downtown Chicago, IL!!! That is perfect for us because we were planning on doing that in one day! We agreed to talk about his ride at our expos, on our website, and to call him while we biked the route if anything came up that he would want to know about (looking for mistakes). This saved us the time and effort of making the route ourselves and it guarentees that we get real good maps and stuff.

(Raising awareness allll day long)

-Pattt

Sergeant Bluff, IA (Start of RAGBRAI)

Friday, July 21, 2006

Date: 7/21/06
Mileage: 95

Funds Raised:

$11,384.62 for Kupenda
+$500.00 thanks to Some Really Good Friends!!
+$15.00 thanks to James Singelton (bought a T-Shirt)
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We woke up late today and had an amazing breakfast (blueberry pancakes included!!!) with Kamla and her family in Crescent, Iowa. Every place we meet we have felt so amazingly welcome I can't even describe it! We truly enjoyed the hospitality oh Kamla and her family! Thank you soooooo much :)

(Breakfast!!!)

(Good bye Kamla, Patricia, and Krishna we will miss you!)

Luckily we will see Kamla again because she will be at RAGBRAI next week!!!

The wind was blowing hard against us all day long which made for a long slow day. Luckily the weather was super great. Not hot and a bit cloudy to keep the sun off of us. When we arrived in Sergeant Bluff we saw tons of people getting ready for the start of RAGBRAI... It is going to be great! Tomorrow we are working at the RAGBRAI expo all day long from 12:00 until 9:00 at night. We should be able to sell tons of T-Shirts and talk to lots of people. We also might get to talk at a Church here in town.

(This sign was right outside of Sergeant Bluff...
It reads "Bicycle Traffic Ahead")

Jason Cusick (a good friend and co-worker of mine) and Mike Caputi (aka Weezal, mine and Adam's roommate) met us today. They came to do all of RABRAI with us. Now we will have 2 more people out there on bikes with AFC jerseys on!

-Pattt

Crescent, Iowa

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Date: 7/19/06
Mileage: 73

Funds Raised:

$10,884.62 for Kupenda
+$10.00 thanks to Jill and Ben
+$20.00 thanks to Homer
+$75.00 thanks to Pam
+$15.00 thanks to Tom Keller (bought a T-Shirt)
+$15.00 thanks to James Singleton (bought a T-Shirt)
+$40.00 thanks to myUncle Frankie and Aunt Colleen
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

This morning we got up early because we knew it was going to be extremely hot. The heat index was forcasted to reach 115 by 1:00. Since we only had about 75 miles we knew we could be done well before 1:00 if we left early enough. We hit the road at 5:45. Dave Pease, who lives in Peru, joined us for the first 16 miles of our ride, from Peru to Nebraska City. It was awesome having him ride with us in the early morning!! He is super fit and got up the big hills with noooo problem. Thanks Dave!

(Dave Pease left early with us in the morning)

We arrived at Crescent to a very warm welcome! We are staying with Kamla and her family who we found through warmshowers.org. That website is awesome for finding really cool people. A local news paper and a local TV station came to interview us. Its great to get this much exposure to our causes and to help diabetics. It was amazing because while talking to the newspaper reporter we found out that he has diabetes. He was on the shots instead of the insulin pump like Adam. By the end of the interview I think that we actually convinced him that the pump would change his life for the better if he switched!!! Stuff like that is what AFC is all about!!

(Fox 42 news came to interview us...
It was soooooo hot outside!)

We had a cookout at night and they invited tons of friends over! The best part was that they have a friend who owns a bus. He brought his bus over and we took it out to a karaoke bar in Omaha, Nebraska (which is right down the street).

(AFC Yokey!)

(Amazing bus that drove us to yokey)

For those keeping score.... our yokey stats are:

States Visisted: 8
States Karaoked: 8

ohhhhh yea! we are yokey masterminds!! :)

-Pattt

Making Friends In Peru!

Date: 7/18/06
Mileage: 0 (but man did we have a jammed packed day!)

Funds Raised:

$10,719.62 for Kupenda
+$50.00 thanks to Cotty!
+$50.00 thanks to Peru Community Church!
+$25.00 thanks to Peru Kiwanis Club!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We woke up to an amazing breakfast at Coleman's Bed and Breakfast made by our host Betsy! Again we had blueberry pancakes (among other breakfast items that I don't really consider worth mentioning since the pancakes are all I really care about).

After breakfast we worked on the website and sending out millions of emails as we always do on our rest days.

Next we had lunch at the local resturant called Cotty's. WE LOVE COTTY'S (more on that later).

At 1:00 we met with Coach Terri, the coach of the Peru State Football team. He was nice enough to give us a tour of the campus! GOOOO Peru Bobcats!!!!! Whhoooo hoooooo!

We had a couple hours of down time before we went to give a talk to the kids at the Peru Community Church's Vacation Bible School. It was sooo fun talking to the kids about what we are doing and getting them fired up about God and doing good things for others :). We talked a lot about diabetes, Africa, and helping others. They had a million questions, which is always good!

(Talking at the Vacation Bible School)

For dinner we went back to Cotty's and ate with the Peru Kiwanis Club. We talked to them about what we do and they told us all about what they do. It was great! They were very excited about our efforts and were nice enough to make a donation to Kupenda.

(AFC and the Peru Kiwanis Club)

We stayed at Cotty's after dinner and hung out with Coach, Cotty and his wife, and tons of other awesome people! It was a great night! We Love Peru!

(Everyone has a high five for Cotty)

Our entire schedule, place to stay, and media contacts in Peru are all thanks to the efforts of our friend Ruth! Thanks sooooo much Ruth for making our stay in Peru on of the best and most memorable of our trip!!!

(AFC and Ruth in front of Cotty's)

-Pattt

Peru, Nebraska (150 Miles!!)

Monday, July 17, 2006

Date: 7/17/06

Mileage: 150... thats right... our longest day yet! 150!!! and it was 100+ degrees outside!!

Funds Raised:

$10,594.62 for Kupenda
+$10.00 thanks to Shelley Sullivan!!
+$100.00 thanks to Antoinette Martin!!!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
+$60.00 thanks to Grandman Driscoll's friends!
+$50.00 thanks to David Pease
+$25.00 thanks to Barbara Harlow
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Last night we went to Chucky Cheese! We went there with Max and his family. Max was the boy that we met the day before who has Type I Diabetes. His mom contacted Adam through our website because she wanted Max to meet someone who has diabetes and is living life to the fullest! This is the kind of stuff that AFC is all about. We want so very badly to inspire other diabetics and raise awareness!

(Adam and Patt...
Stuffed inside on of Chucky's tubes...
Having the TIME OF OUR LIVES!!!)

(AndyK on the Roller Coaster Ride)

We knew we had a long day ahead of us and we knew it was going to be super hot outside so we woke up at 4:15am. Susan, who we stayed with while we were in Kansas City, made us a super awesome breakfast!! Blue Berry Pancakes!!! It was amazing!! Susan was so nice to us. I love
Kansas City!

(Susan and her amazing blueberry pancakes!!)

After out amazing breakfast we said bye bye to Susan and we were on the road at 5:45am. We got in 95miles before lunch like it was nothing! It was not too hot out yet and the wind was at our backs! We were so excited that we had covered so much ground so easily.

After lunch it was a whole new ball game. Somehow the wind changed so that it was comming directly at us and it was SUPER hot! The last 60 miles were brutal.

We got to Peru, Nebraska at around 6:00pm. There were some people waiting for us when we arrived with a great big 'Welcome Adventures For The Cure' sign. Adam has been talking to a resident of the town, Ruth, who worked to schedule some talks for us to give tomorrow. So I guess she told some of her friends about us comming! It was so nice to be so warmly welcomed
:)

(Peru welcomes AFC!)

We have a free nights stay at a Bed and Breakfast both of the nights we will be here! This place is amazing!

-Pattt

AFC on the TV?

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Date: 7/16/06

This morning we were interviewed by 49ABC News in Kansas... Here it is:

or here:

http://media.49abcnews.com/video/2006/07/15/bikes.mov

If this didn't help us to raise awareness for diabetes and inspire others I don't know what will :)

-Pattt

AFC on the Surly Blog!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

This is huge!! Surly, the company that donated tons of bike gear and 2 frames, put us on their blog!! Check it out here: http://www.surlybikes.com/surlyblog.html

This is sooooo exciting!!!

-Pattt

Kansas City, Missouri (aka paradise!)

Date: 7/15/06
Mileage: 103

Funds Raised:

$10,585.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,260.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We had to wake up at 4:30 am this morning because we were scheduled to be in Kansas City at 1:30 so that we could go to Summit Bikes and meet with some awesome people! It was really good to wake up so early because it was very cool and we beat the extreme heat of the day.

We made excellent time getting to Kansas City. Once we arrived we went to Susan's house. From there we went to the beginning of a bike ride that was organized by Summit Bikes. There were about 10 or so bikers and we biked for about 7 miles to the bike shop! At the shop we had tons of food (including homeade cookies!).

Summit bikes gave us whole sale prices on some new gloves and biking shorts. They gave us some free biking socks and they tuned our bikes up! We really appreciated their help.

(Free tune-up!! yay yay!)

(I love Summit Bikes!)

We also met with Max. Max is a young guy who was just recently diagnosed with Type I diabetes. His mom Venessa works for ADA and she organized a few newspapers and a TV stations to come to the bike shop to talk to us. We will be having dinner with them at Chucky Cheese tomorrow night!!!

(Max and his mom Vanessa)

After the bike shop we went back to Susan's house. Susan bought us some groceries and has been soooo welcoming it is like being at home in here house. When we meet people like Susan I feel much less homesick :) Hopefully one day I will have a chance to be so nice to complete strangers!

-Pattt

Osage City, Missouri

Date: 7/14/06
Mileage: 80

Funds Raised:

$10,585.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,260.00 for ADA
+$25.00 thanks to Matt Bellis
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was a relatively easy day. It was only 80 miles. We biked from Larned, Kansas to Osage, Kansas where we had a free stay in The Rosemary Inn Bed And Breakfast thanks to the efforts of Donald Kramer!! He contacted the town and the town paid for our stay there!

Thanks again Don!

(The Rosemary B&B)

We fell asleep extremely early because we didn't get much sleep the night before and we knew that we had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning to get to Kansas City, Missouri by 1:30 pm to meet with some people!

-Pattt

7th State Completed for Karaoke:):)!

Friday, July 14, 2006

Knowing we had a nice day rest in Hutchinson, Kansas we decided we would knock out our 7th state of karaoke. Turned out to be a really nice place and we got a 20 dollar donation from some nice people we met.

(Karaoke friends)

Song selections of the night:

Adam, Andyk - Lose Yourself - Enimen
Phillyk, Stump - Shake your tailfeather - Nelly + PDiddy
Stump - Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty

Adam

Eureka, Kansas (hot hot hot)

Date: 7/13/06
Mileage: 130

Funds Raised:

$10,585.62 for Kupenda
+$15.00 thanks to Jon Shank (bought a T-Shirt)
+$15.00 thanks to Kirk Butler (bought a T-Shirt)
+$15.00 thanks to Kim Welch (bought a T-Shirt)
+$25.00 thanks to Kim Welch
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,235.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was definately one of our hardest rides yet! The last time we did 130 miles it was 70 degrees outside. This time the high for the day was 100, it was extremely humid, and the wind was not in our favor. It made for a long day of biking!

We met a stray dog that we named BoBo. There was some discussion of taking him with us. But in the end there just was no room for him in AFCMobile :( So we gave hime some peanut butter, banana, and water and we said our good byes.

(BoBo and I were just tired :)

(Sugar loves dogs!)

(Chicken checking out the fixie)

We had figured that we would only have 115miles for the day when we left Hutchison and started out for Eureka, but we got a little lost and accidentially added some miles. When we finally got to Eureka we slept in the local state park. Since it was a beautiful night without a cloud in the sky we figured it was a great idea! We didn't pitch our tent. We just slept on our sleeping bags ontop of the picnic tables. There was an awning over our heads so we felt safe just in case a storm came through.

Oh man did a storm come through!! At 2:00 am there was lightning, thunder, tornado like winds, and rain everywhere. The winds blew the water under the awning so that most of us were soaking wet. I thought I was in a war zone. So... After a super hard day of biking we got very little sleep and we have 85+ miles tomorrow. Oh well :) This trip isn't supposed to be easy!

-Pattt

Yellowstone Geyser Video!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Funds Raised:

$10,515.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,235.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Here is a cool video that really shows Yellowstone State park in action. This place was unlike anything I have ever seen before! This video was taken a couple of weeks ago when we were in Yellowstone.

-Pattt

AFC on the Radio!

Date: 7/11/06

Funds Raised:

$10,515.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,235.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

This morning Adam was interviewed by a radio station!

Click here to download the clip of it.

-Pattt

Larned, Kansas!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Date: 7/10/06 and 7/11/06
Mileage: 74 on 7/10 - 75 on 7/11

Funds Raised:

$10,515.62 for Kupenda
+$25.00 thanks to Martin Gould
+$25.00 thanks to Sommer Upman
+$50.00 thanks to Susan Assel
+$20.00 thanks to Carly Stump
+$20.00 thanks to DeeDee
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,235.00 for ADA
+$100.00 thanks to Don Kramer!
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We have met some amazing people lately!

On our way from Ness City to Larned, Kansas we met three really awesome bikers who were also going West to East. They had like a million stories to tell us about all of their adventures with Bison, Bears, and crazy people! There was a couple from the UK and they go on bike tours all around the world! They told us millions of cool stories. They were biking with a friend that they met along the way. Rick who is also going across the US.

We camped on the picnic benches in Larned's park. It was a nice night to be outside and sleeping. The roof over the benches provides a great cover from any rain. This is the second time we have slept on benches and we love it!

We also met two girls biking across the country in the opposite direction as us to raise money to help the environment! What a great cause!! Here is their website: http://greencycling.com/

(GreenCycling girls Rose and Maya with their friend Justin)

When we got to Hutchison, Kansas today we met with Donald Kramer and his wife! Donald has helped us soooo much. He has found like a million places for us to stay! He met us at the local bike shop and showed us to the Church where we will be staying tonight. He also took us out to dinner at a great Mexican restaurant! Thanks sooooo much Donald!! We really appreciate you!

(Mr. and Mrs. Kramer..
They have helped us sooo much it was great to finally meet them!)

(We also met an ostrige!)

-Pattt

Sugar at Sugar City!

Monday, July 10, 2006

So....

For those of you who don't know. Adam's nickname is "Sugar". That has been his nickname for as long as I have known him. When we saw the sign for a town called Sugar City we had to celebrate. The rest is history...

Hope you enjoyed...

Yes we are taking donations for the work done to make that video :-)

Donate Here

hahaha!

-Pattt

Ness City, Kansas!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Date: 7/09/06
Mileage: 82

Funds Raised:

$9,383.87 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,135.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

So, last night was very exciting! As we were thinking about setting up our tent in the park in Leoti, Kansas we saw a huge storm on the horizon heading our way!! As the winds picked up we knew it would be a bad idea to even try to get the tent up and going. There was a hospital across the street and earlier we hung out in the lobby to charge our cellphones and use the computer for a bit. We decided that it might be a good idea to go and ask the ladies in the hospital if we could spend the night there. Somehow the told us yes! But if someone wanted to use the waiting room that we would have to leave.

When I was just about asleep I heard someone crying and I saw ambulance lights flash by! The nurse rushed in and told us we had to go. We felt bad that we were in the way of some emergency so we packed up and got out ASAP. We got out of there and looked around in the park for a place to sleep. We found the perfect place! There were 4 picnic tables stationed under an awning in the middle of the park. We got out our sleeping bags and went to bed right then and there. All night a huge storm raged but we were completely dry and safe under the awning! In the morning everyone agreed it was one of our best nights of sleep yet on this trip. It was so much better than sleeping in the tent that leaks and getting all wet :)

When we woke up we packed up our things and headed out. The wind was not nearly as strong as yesterday. It was very strange though. Yesterday the wind was always in our face. Today the wind was constantly switching directions but since it was not very strong it didn't matter much.

We stopped half way to Ness City at around 1:00 to watch the World Cup Championship game!!!! It was between Italy and France!! Naturally we were all rooting for France because that is where PhillyK and AndyK were born! Unfortunately France lost in shootouts :(

When we arrived in Ness City it was the same as the night before. Major storm on the horizon and no place to go. It was even worse becasue we talked to some people that told us that when the rain comes the park will flood so it might be really bad to sleep there. We rode our bikes around and we found a Church. We went in and met a girl named Michelle. We asked her if we could stay the night in the Church and she took us down the street to talk to the preacher.

We knocked on the preacher's door and his wife answered. She told us that we should sleep in their basement!!! We were sooo happy!! It is amazing that these two people who have never met us are giving us a place to stay! We are soo grateful. I can hear the turrential down pour of water outside. It is nice to be in here where it is dry.

-Pattt

Leoti, Kansas

Date: 7/08/06
Mileage: 99

Funds Raised:

$9,383.87 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,135.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was a very very long day. So much so that it inspired me to write this AMAZING poem.

The Rockie Mountains,
were easy as pie.
But the Winds of Kansas,
make grown men cry!

With air this strong,
our pace line is a joke.
We hammered all day,
not a word was spoke.

It was like being in a race,
Wind stay out of my face!!!

Adam also told me a poem that he thought of while he was biking...

WIND STINKS!!!

(When the sign reads "Vending Machines at Post Office"...
You can bet there won't be any food to buy at this town)

Before we started biking in the morning we had some problems with Adam's diabetes. Yesterday it got extremely hot in the plains of Colorado and we think that the insulin in Adam's pump went bad. So all last night and this morning Adam could not get his sugar levels to go down. Eventually he took out the insulin from his pump and replaced it with fresh insulin that we store in the cooler. Luckily that fixed the problem and his sugar levels went down. He thinks that one of the reasons that it got so extremely hot was because the clip to his pump is broken so he has to keep the pump on the inside of his shorts on his hip. This keeps the pump out of the air and closer to his body making it even hotter. He is working on getting a new clip ASAP.

(Adam with broken insulin pump)

Tonight we are camping in a park in Leoti, Kansas! It is a free and there is a hospital across the street that has bathrooms. Lets just hope there won't be another thunderstorm tonight.

-Pattt

Haswell, Colorado... Flat As A Pancake!

Friday, July 07, 2006

Date: 7/07/06
Mileage: 94

Funds Raised:

$9,383.87 for Kupenda
+$50.00 thanks to Geoffrey Matrangola
+$50.00 thanks to Sandra L Hudock
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,135.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Again for those of you who might not know as a side project team AFC MUST do Karaoke in every state we visit. Since tonight is our last night in Colorado we had to get our Karaoke on last night before we left Pueblo (big city.. means there must be karaoke somewhere). We talked to some very nice people at the University and they directed us to a place only 2 miles away called ShowTimes. It was some great Karaoke!! They had a hugeeeee selections of songs. So for those keeping track:

States visited: 6
States karaoked: 6!!! :)

After getting in late last night from karaoke we woke up at our usual 6:30am since we knew we had a 90 mile day ahead of us! By far today was the hottest and in some ways the hardest day of our trip. It was completely flat the entire day. We could see the horizon on all sides of us! That is pretty cool, comming from Maryland we never get to see anything like that. The sun beat down on us all day and the wind was always against us but we still managed to have a good time. We went through a town named "Sugar City" and Adam's nickname is "Suga" hahaha oh boy that was fun.

(This Picture will be replaced by a video ...
you dont want to miss this...
trust me!!!)

We also met some cool people who were traveling the opposite direction as us. They were from the Netherlands which means really cool accents!

(Cool friends from the Netherlands!)

Our destination was Haswell, Colorado. It is an extremely small town but it has FREE camping! The thunderstorms are crazy here and you can see them comming from miles and miles away. As I type this blog I am watching and praying that the HUGE thunderstorm on the horizon is not comming our way. We may be in for a longgggg night.

-Pattt

Rest Day at CSU - Pueblo

Date: 7/06/06
Mileage: 0

Funds Raised:

$9,283.87 for Kupenda (+$300.00 thanks to CSU-Pueblo Upward Bound!!!!!!)
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,135.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We got some ridiculously awesome sleep in the CSU-Pueblo dorm rooms the night before. Might have been my best/longest sleep of the entire trip. We all really needed it. Breakfast at the dining hall was amazing as were all of our other meals! I love this place!!

After breakfast I went back to snake more sleep while everyone else did more productive things. Adam sent out mass emails to people about AFC. He was especially focused on sending out emails telling everyone about our newest idea! AFC has decided that after RAGBRAI we will bike from east Iowa all the way to Chicago. We haven't planned out our route yet but we figure it will be around 300 miles of straight biking! (we will have a more accurate mileage after we plan the exact route)

We decided to do this because:
1. God is on our side so we can do anything :)
2. We Love Life and we need a challenge!
3. It will raise awareness for our causes and mabye we can get a couple donations out of it!

For lunch we met with Gary who we knew through Cindy (president of Kupenda and best friend). Gary is the guy that setup our stay at CSU-Pueblo. If it wasn't for his hard work and kindness we would have probably slept in the middle of a soccer field and had gotten soaked by sprinklers in the middle of the night! Gary is a truly great guy. He was very inspiring to talk to and it is because of people like him that our trip is so worth all the work.

(PhillyK, Pattt, Awesome-Gary, Jesse, and Adam)

At 5:45 we were scheduled to give a presentation about AFC! It was one of the most incredible experiences of this trip so far! We were honored to give our talk to Colorado State University's Upward Bound Program. Our audience was all high school kids and they had all watched our Kupenda video earlier that day. They were incredible! It was great to talk to them. They were all so smart and they had a million questions about diabetes and the kids in Africa. The most amazing part of the talk was that these kids all get a stipend for their summer camp. Other that money they really don't have much. They were so fired up about helping others that they all donated a portion of their stipend to Kupenda! The total donation was $300.00. That money means more to us and our cause than most other donations because it actually was a sacrifice for them, since they don't have much to give to begin with!

Wow! Everyone of those kids truly inspired us. I have never met a cooler group of people in my life!

(Colorado State University Upward Bound)

CSU - Pueblo treated AFC right :) Thanks soooooo much!

-Pattt

Colorado State University - Pueblo

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Date: 7/05/06
Mileage: 50

Funds Raised:

$8,983.87 for Kupenda (+$30.00 thanks to DeeDee)
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,135.00 for ADA (+$50.00 thanks to Judy Weilmuenster)
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

AHHHH yes!! Finally a nice short day. Especially after such a crazy July 4th it is super nice to take it easy.

After we woke up in the middle of a grass field where sprinklers were shooting everywhere we went to a super good breakfast at a local diner! I am obsessed with blueberry pancakes.

Knowing that we only had 50 miles we biked hard and fast to get to Pueblo. The wind was against us the entire time and it was nothing but rolling hills. Good Times!

(hahaha ohhh yea!)

When we arrived in Pueblo we had to look for Colorado State University - Pueblo because Cindy's friend Gary was super nice enough to work very hard to get us a place to stay there. When we finally found the place it was like heaven on earth compared to the last few nights. We are staying in 3 dorm rooms, we get full meals at the dining hall (yay for breakfast waffles), we are giving a speech about what we are doing, and we have met so many cool people!

(I am telling you... This place is incredible!)

Giving speeches is definitely the best thing about what we are doing. It is a chance to really reach out to people and tell them about diabetes, get them fired up about doing good works, and inspire others in any/every way possible to do something to help others!

Also, our friend Lauren found this verse for us. It very much describes how we approach life and how AFC first started.

Proverbs 16:9 "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

Many things that we do, especially when it comes to all of this AFC stuff, we do without thinking of the consequences. We do them because we are fired up about doing something good often with little or no planning. When you do something good and you do it for God amazing things happen that you never even expected! I promise... I dare you to go and try it and see for yourself :)

-Pattt

Independence Day!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Date: 7/04/06
Mileage: 75

Funds Raised:

$8,953.87 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,085.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We left South Park, CO and headed to Canon City which was only 75miles away. Coming off our last big mountain pass and by looking at our map we figured that it would be all downhill. We would drop about 4,000ft so we were positive it would be an easy day. Turns out we were wrong! Somehow even though there were more down hills than up hills, the up hills were very steep and the wind was blasting against us the whole day.

(Pushing up one of our steepest hills to date)

When we arrived in Canon City our first order of business was to find out where the party was! Even though we were tired you have to see some fireworks on the 4th. A big thunderstorm came through at around 5:00pm so we ducked into one of the only places that was open in the entire town, Rumors Bar. There we found an all you can eat/drink buffet for only $5.00. We also heard from the bartender that a bar located about 2 miles down the road has Tuesday night Karaoke!! It doesn't get any better! After all we still haven't done our karaoke in Colorado yet.

As we walked down the street to find the karaoke bar, AndyK decided to go back and get the video camera to record our yokey exploits! He took off his shirt and ran back. We found the karaoke bar and while we waited for the yokey to start we watched fireworks go off from a nearby mountain... That was awesome!

As time passed we got very worried that AndyK either got lost or could not find the bar where we were. So, Adam and I ran back to find him. By the time we found him we were all so tired that we didn't want to go all the way back to the yokey bar. We also had not found a place to sleep for the night. We decided to pitch the tent on the grounds of a high school. At around 2:00am, an awful thing happened. The sprinkler system went off in the field where we were sleeping!!! We didn't have the top of our tent on since it was such a nice night outside! We all woke up not knowing what was going on. AndyK was quick to jump out of the tent and battle the sprinklers! From in the tent all we heard was him yelling and screaming as he tried to cover the onslaught of water, all the while getting himself soaked. He soon changed tactics and tried to put the top on the tent. I got up and together we secured the top. Inside the tent we were decently dry and everything was fine except for the sound of the sprinklers hitting our tent all night long.

After a restless night's sleep we woke up to the sound of trucks and lawn equipment. I got out and looked around. There people everywhere getting the lawn equipment out of the school's storage shead. They didn't seem to mind that we were there but we decided we had better get up and get moving out of there before someone yelled at us. Not to mention that the sprinklers were turning on again and we wanted to get the tent out before they sprayed us.

Our 4th of july was quite an adventure. The worst part of the whole story is that only Jesse and PhillyK did karaoke that night. Our rules are that at least 3 of the 5 of us must do karaoke for a state to count. We only have 2 nights left in Colorado!!

-Pattt

Fairplay (aka South Park), Colorado

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Date: 7/03/06
Mileage: 97

Funds Raised:

$8,953.87 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,085.00 for ADA (+$100.00 thanks to FamilyK!!!)
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We got an early start this morning because we knew we had a BIG day ahead of us! We were ready to climb a total of 4,000ft up to the top of our highest mountain pass of the entire trip! Mount Hoosier is 11,542ft and we had to climb all the way to the top! It was incredible. There was snow all around. The climb was definately the hardest climb we have had yet. It was incredibly steep.

(After climbing Hoosier Pass we had time to play a quick game of
basketball before heading down!)

After the summit it got even worse because we were comming down off the mountain and it was freezing cold. We had on all of our cold weather gear but it just didn't seem to be enough. After 23 miles of blistering cold weather we ended up in South Park, Colorado. Yes! it is the same South Park that the cartoon is based off of.

We got a ridiculously good dinner at a local cafe. Now we are relaxing in a Motel. We couldnt bear to camp outside in the freezing weather so we spent the extra money.

-Pattt

Hot Sulfur Springs, Colorado

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Date: 7/02/06
Mileage: 65

Funds Raised:

$8,953.87 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$7,985.00 for ADA

Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We took it easy this morning since we were all a bit tired from the previous two days. We didn't start biking until about 12:30 pm, we usually leave around 8:30 am. We only had one big mountain pass and just 65 miles of biking. We met some very nice bikers today. Steve and Lori were touring and heading in the same direction as we were. We met them before the mountain pass and at the top.

(AFC with Steve and Lori at the top of the mountain)

(Diabetics Gone Wild!!)

We had planned to camp outside but when we got to Hot Sulfur Springs we could not find a campground that was not completely full. I guess with the holiday everyone is out and about so we had to get a hotel room. Luckily the hotel is awesome!! The owner is extremely nice and he gave us 2 rooms for the price of one at only $55.00!! I told him we could all squeeze into one room but he would have none of that.

It was so nice to do a shorter day I was getting a bit tired and tomorrow we have 90 miles of mostly all climbing and when we are done we will have gone up the highest mountain pass of our entire trip :)

-Pattt

The Day That Would Not Give Up.

Date: 6/01/06
Mileage: 115

Funds Raised:

$8,953.87 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$7,985.00 for ADA

Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

It was sad this morning because Adam's parents, Alex, and Lauren left to go back home. We will really miss them. It is back to just team AFC now. When we woke up we took our time getting ready. My friend from work, Andrew Marcus, and is brother Aaron. We went to the post office because we had a package waiting for us sent from Kristin Carter, whom we stayed with in Eugene. It was amazing!! She gave us a box of tons of organic bars, fun stickers for our cool AFCMobile, and an awesome harmonica! We didn't leave Rawlins until 12:00. We figured that would be okay because we only had 60miles today (or so we thought ...)

(Coooool Lizard Thingy)

We biked 40 miles to Saratoga were we stopped at a bar to watch the Brazil vs. France quarter final soccer match! What an awesome game!! France won 1-0!! PhillyK and AndyK were especially happy because they are from France.

(Fellow tourers Tim on the left and Alvin on our right)

Next we biked to our "destination town" Riverton. We found a campsite called Lazy Achers. Jesse went to talk to the manager while Adam and I went to the grocery store. The manager at Lazy Achers was very mean to us. Apparently earlier PhillyK and AndyK drove through his campgrounds to scope out the place and he was furious because he has a 'No Trespassing' sign up. The sign was so small that they didn't even see it when they drove in. This was our first experience with someone who was really mean. Needless to say we could not stay at that campgrounds so we were forced to bike another 25 miles to the next campsite.

(Artsy Pic of AndyK)

(Artsy PhillyK)

When we arrived at the next campsite it was 7:30. The campgrounds were 2 miles off the road on a dirt path. After some discussion we decided to bike to the next town which was about 25miles further and across the Wyoming/Colorado border. Now we are here In Walden, Colorado and we biked a total of 115 miles which makes 240 miles in the past 2 days :) I LOVE BIKING!!

-Pattt

125 Miles isn't Too Bad

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Date: 6/30/06
Mileage: 125

Funds Raised:

$8,953.87 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$$7,985.00 for ADA (+$25.00 thanks to Andrea Gowetski)

Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We decided to skip over Jacksonville since there were not good RV sites at that location and we squeezed two days into one so that we had 125miles from Lander, Wyoming to Rawlins, Wyoming. All of it was through a desert. I ended up drinking 2 full camel backs plus numerous gatorades and I was still dehydrated at the end of the day. Even though we were in the desert it was strange to see that there were more dead animals on the road than anywhere else we have been, we saw at least 4 dead snakes along the way!. The land looks so barren but when you look closely it is actually teeming with life.

Today was the last day that Adam's parents, brother Alex, and our friend Lauren would be with us. They are leaving early tomorrow morning. We are REALLY going to miss having all of them to hang out with. Alex is a monster on the bike! It was great to have a 4th biker to draft off of.

(Lauren and Alex's last day hanging out with AFC)

(Alex and rainbows!)

When we got to Rawlins we headed to the Daily Times for an interview. We will be in the local newspaper tomorrow. We have been in at least 7 newspapers since this trip started in towns that we have passed through. This has mostly been through the efforts of MiniMed which is the company that makes Adam's insulin pump. We have a PR person that is working to get us in the media. It has been great for spreading awareness of diabetes and for inspiring others :)

Adam Health Side Note:
For those of you who may have been wondering... Adam's sugar levels have been doing extremely well. For example while we biked 125 miles yesterday he only had 1 time when his sugar was low and it was only like 65 or so. He drank a soda and we were back on the road. It is a blessing that he has been doing so well. We also wake Adam up every night at around 1:30am to check his sugar, just to be on the safe side. I can't remember the last time we woke him up and it was low. He is doing EXTREMELY well!! Not to mention that his fitness is through the roof. I can't imagine anyone being able to bike faster than he does up a mountain pass!!

Jesse Health Side Note:
Jesse had his thyroid removed just before we started the trip. There was a concern that it may have been cancerous. He just recently got his blood work done and had the results faxed to his doctor at home. Everything looks fine. They may increase his thyroid medication dosage just a little bit. Ever since he started taking his pills at 3am instead of 6am he has been waking up much faster. He was feeling groggy in the mornings before.

Pattt Health Side Note:
If I can just keep up with these guys everyday then I will be happy. Everyday they get more and more fit and it is harder and harder for me to keep up... seriously those guys are animals! :)

-Pattt

Current Post

This blog has moved

TMR: Group is serious only about bicycling

AFC calls for support of volunteer fire department...

Driscoll Speaking at Parents of Children with Diab...

5K for Healthy Hearts presented by Women's Healthy...

Update From Kupenda

AFC helps children in Haiti via USNS Comfort

2009: The year in review ..

AFC raises more than $3,500 for disabled children

'Tis the Season for Charity: AwesomeGov Combines G...

Archived Posts:

November 2005
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010