Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Tuesday, Sept. 18th

As I (Amy) sit here typing, we are in the middle of a massive storm in Maryville, Kansas. It started out as a sprinkle so Kevin thought he could make it. But no sooner than he took off did the torrential downpours begin. I think Kevin finally decided he couldn’t go any further when a lightning bolt struck close enough to scare him a little. I guess we should be happy it wasn’t a tornado since we are in Kansas, but the storm definitely wasn’t going to let up enough for us to get back on the road that night. So Larry, Alec, Kevin, Randy and myself pulled into a Super 8 to let the rain and lightning pass by.

Prior to that, we started out day 9 in Oberlin, KS. Richard, Vander, and Mike took the first shift of biking while the rest of us found an RV hookup. We pulled down a lonely lane and found a sweet couple named Phyllis and Charlie Godwin. They run the mobile home / RV park and we were fortunate to have met them. We got fresh water, took showers and did some laundry. They even had their local newspaper come out and interview us. Thank you so much Phyllis and Charlie. It was a pleasure to have met you in the middle of our journey.

When I say middle, I mean it. We were pretty much right in the center of the U.S. when we hit Maryville and were stopped for the night. The rest of the guys made it to Horton, KS, where we were asked by the “City of Horton” to stay the night and sleep in an RV park there. It’s pretty cool when you’re asked by the whole town to stay with them.

While Alec was biking, Randy, Kevin, Larry and myself stopped at the Kaffe Haus in Scandia, KS. This town consists of about 300 people who all run the three cattle farms in the town. So you can imagine it smelled fabulous as we biked through. The Kaffe Haus smelled great though and the food was fantastic. Not one thing on the menu was over four dollars. We all had spaghetti and a malt shake and then went on our way to catch up to Alec.

It’s the next morning now and we are biking back towards the rest of the guys where we are supposed to have some sort of town meeting before we head on our way to Kansas City. Tomorrow morning reporters will meet us at Fire Station 6 in Olathe, KS, which is just north of K.C. The firefighters are going to escort us to the Sprint headquarters where all of their employees are going to take some time out of their day to cheer us on. Hopefully, after that we are going to get to visit some kids at Children’s Mercy South Hospital.

We are half way home and still going strong to make it the rest of the way. By the way, Kansas is not as flat as we all thought it was. Lots of hills and wind in our face, which really intensified the aroma of cow manure.

Love you all, see you soon.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

I have been following your journey and I am so proud of all of you and what you are doing to raise awareness and help your children. I have been a follower of Syd for quite some time. She knew my dear friend Taylor Johnson who became and angel after she won her battle with NB. I will conitnue to lift you all up in prayer while you are on this journey and each day after it is over. God bless you all!

simplykristi said...

Congrats on making it to Kansas City! :) Welcome to Kansas City! :) I have been following the trip since the beginning. I hope that enough money is raised so that NB can be cured! Good Luck on the rest of the trip and Godspeed!

Anonymous said...

I am a cyclist from Lawrence, KS. I agree that Kansas is not as flat as it is thought to be. I just completed a 10 day trip around the American South to fight childhood cancer research (www.RallyAcrossAmerica.org), where we visited several children suffering from neuroblastoma. A friend sent me a link to your blog. Do you have a webpage or anything that tells where you're going? I currently live in Cincinnati and I would love to join all of you for a leg of the trip if you are going anywhere near Cincinnati, OH. Please send me an Email at pjepp82@hotmail.com if you are interested...

You are all a part of a great thing.

Paul

Aalanek said...

THANK you all for stopping to visit at Children's Mercy. Cade has seen you on the news 3 times since you were here and each time he shoots out of his chair and says "THEY'RE ON TV AGAIN!" The nurses haven't stopped talking about it either.

I've been looking for information on the children's hospital in St. Louis for you if you want it ... the good news is, it looks like it is just a few streets off of your route through town.

Communications and Marketing
314.286.0375
Social Services
314.454.6101
Child Life Services
314.454.6178
Volunteer Office
314.454.6145
Information Desk
314.454.2615

Anything you guys need, let me know

Colby, Amy and Cade