MS Pedal to the Metal Blog

Thank You Is An Understatement

Now the sappy, cheesy part....

My writing won't be able to do justice the experience that Eric, Dad, and I just went on.  It was physically and mentally a challenge on a lot of days.  I am proud of how we handled some of those rides and I have boosted confidence that obstacles coming later in life can be handled.  The three of us were able to find things to do even in some of the small towns on the ride.  We may need to take about 6 months off from each other, but I think that three of us have found friends for life.  I can't thank Eric enough for coming with me on the ride.  It really wouldn't have been possible doing this alone and I hope that he had as much fun as I did.  Going up the Green Mountains he told me that if I asked him to ride to Boston again, his answer was "no".  I think that was just the lactic acid talking.

Spending three weeks with my Dad on the ride was another great experience that the two of us have shared.  We'll have memories that we will be able to laugh about for years to come.  I know that Dad had a good time and hope that he is proud.  After all, he was the reason for all the effort.

Finally, we were overwhelmed with the support of the ride.  Not only did we beat our $20,000 fundraising goal (you can still donate by the way), but we beat it by thousands and counting.  So many people opened their wallets by donating online, at the fundraising parties, by check, or by giving us funds along the ride.  Each and every person should feel proud of their donation and know that every single dollar means so much to us.  In addition to money, we received so much support with hotel rooms being donated, phone calls from supporters to us during the ride, and press coverage in cities we stopped in.

A few people need to be called out for their immense help during the ride as well.  Without Sarah Nels, the ride wouldn't have been what it was.  She was key in getting details hammered out and providing optimism beyond belief during the planning and ride.  Give her a raise.  Thanks to Syam Buradagunta for managing the website and providing advice.  The boys who helped to plan the La Taberna party were instrumental in getting thousands raised.  Kelly Karls and Margie Smith (the wives) were huge in getting the Joeys Brickhouse party organized and raising thousands more.  Thanks to my amazing Mom for her daily phone calls of support and love, Margie's fantastic parents for their support during the planning and heading to Boston to see us in, to the Hammack family in Westlake for putting us up and dinner in Ohio, the Bauza's of Buffalo for opening their home to us and showing us their city, and to the Nels family in Syracuse for a great BBQ and for making us local celebrities with the radio interviews.

An extra special thanks to Margie for not only letting me do this ride for MS, but for being the most supportive person I could ever imagine.  She kept me positive when the money wasn't flowing in like I thought it would and did more than she ever needed to.  Of course, anyone who knows her isn't surprised.  That's how great she is and why she's the best person on the planet.

I look forward to seeing all of you soon.  MS Pedal to the Metal was a great success.  Thanks to you all and stay cool.

We Made It. Boston, Chicago, and Beyond.

Dad and I arrived back in Chicago yesterday afternoon to complete the MS Pedal to the Metal trip.  Dad still has to fly back to San Diego tonight, for all intent and purpose, we've completed the journey.  I didn't make any updates to the blog in Boston or during our drive back to Chicago because I didn't want to miss any time hanging out in Beantown.

On Monday, we rolled into the Accelerated Cure Project in Waltham following a short 36-mile ride from Leominster.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the trip was the most enjoyable day of the entire ride.  We went through the western suburbs of Boston, which are very wooded and look to be like great places to live.  All of the houses are set off the road with plenty of land around them.  We passed more cyclists today than we did on any other day, so Eric and I thought we may have been following a good road for recreational bikers.

I can't speak for Eric, but I had an anxious feeling in my stomach as we rode closer to Waltham.  It was probably a combination of nervous energy and excitement to be done.  We rolled up to the ACP office to about 20 people cheering and clapping.  It was very exciting and emotional.  Luckily I had sunglasses on, so my macho persona stayed in tact.  I gave Margie a hug and it was so awesome to see her after being apart for over two weeks.  She was so proud of me and it made me feel so great to see her so emotional.  My great in-laws, the John and Irena Koszylko, made the trip to Boston to see Eric and I arrive.  I can't thank them enough for their support and love.  Plus, without them we would have had any champagne sprayed on us as we pulled up.  ACP put together a great lunch on the roof deck of their building.  Besides our family, many local volunteers showed up, plus the employees of the ACP office were there.  We are so appreciative of all the supporters coming out to cheer us in.  They took time out of their holiday weekend and we can't express how nice it was to have so many people there just for us.  Everyone at ACP and all the volunteers were very happy with our efforts and having them all there made a big difference to Eric and me.

We left the ACP office and headed into Boston to our hotel to shower and rest up.  We were staying at the Langham Hotel in the financial district of Boston.  It was a very, very nice hotel and the staff there was some of the nicest I've dealt with.  We all went to dinner on the inner harbor at Joes American Cafe and Bar.  After dinner we met the ACP folks at a bar called the Black Rose.  I think it was the only Irish Bar in all of Boston.  We got a big table and everyone had a great time drinking it up and letting loose.  After months of planning the event over phone calls and email, it was fun to get to know the ACP folks on a more personal level. 

On Tuesday morning (the 4th of July), most people headed back to Chicago.  I spent the day with Margie checking out some of the sights like Boston Common, Beacon Hill, and the Charles River.  We even ran into Norm Peterson.  Margie left for her flight in the afternoon and it was just Dad and I, set to rip up Boston.  We were tossing the idea around of leaving Boston on the 4th, but decided that there probably isn't a better place in the US to be on the 4th.   We couldn't have been more correct.

We caught a cab to Cambridge to get a spot for the fireworks.  We got there a tad too early (about 3 hours), but we were able to get a great spot on the river.  The concert shell was on the Boston side, but they had set up speakers all along the river so everyone could hear.  The Boston Pops played songs and patriotic tunes, which was awesome.  The added surprise was that Boston-native Aerosmith came out and played a couple of songs with the Boston Pops.  Nothing like seeing some old rockers jam with the symphony.  Dad's a ridiculous Aerosmith fan, so he was in heaven.

I had no idea how big of a deal the Boston Pops fireworks spectacular was.  The fireworks were absolutely amazing.  They were the best I’ve ever seen and I didn’t think anyone would be able to outdo the Chicago shows I’ve seen.  They even beat the Colfax fireworks.  Unbelievable.  Dad agreed.  Cambridge was definitely the right side of the Charles River to watch the show.  We had a view of the entire Boston skyline and the fireworks reflected off of the buildings.  As I watched the fireworks and earlier listened to the concert I thought about how this is the type of stuff that matters in life.  My Dad and I were sitting in Cambridge, staring across the Charles River at Boston, listening to the Boston Pops, and watching the 4th of July fireworks.  The whole trip and bike ride came to a great culmination at the 4th of July celebration.  I couldn’t have asked for a better ending.

I also added spending a 4th of July weekend in Boston to my list of things that people need to do at least once in their life.  No joke.

Dad and I left Boston on Wednesday morning and headed west back to Chicago.  We ended up stopping DuBois, PA.  We shoved off on Thursday morning for Chicago.  Our entire drive back took us through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.  We rolled into Chicago up Lake Shore Drive blasting the blues station on the radio.  There really couldn't have been a better way to end the trip.  Puts butterflies in my stomach.

Hampshirechusetts

35 miles to go.  One more day to ride into Waltham and deliver $21,500 to the Accelerated Cure Project.  Eric, Randy, and I are chomping at the bit to roll into Boston and we're planning on having a good time during our last night of MS Pedal to the Metal.

Today took us through New Hampshire and dropped us into central Massachusetts.  While the ride was only 57.5 miles, we underestimated the mountain terrain of New Hampshire and the first 30 miles were pretty tough.  Mostly due to the past two really long days of riding and crossing the Green Mountains yesterday, we struggled a bit getting through the morning.  The countryside stayed beautiful and we got rained on a little.  We passed through Keene, NH which is where Jumanji was filmed and takes place.

Entering Massachusetts, we began to descend from the mountains for a few miles.  Massachusetts is our last state and it was a nice boost of energy knowing that we were so close to being done.  North central Massachusetts is a very nice area with lots of thick forests and small, old towns.  Many of them were founded in the 1700s.  I don't think anything in Chicago is that old.  Our only complaint about Massachusetts so far is that the roads are in abysmal shape.  Maybe they need to raise taxes or maybe the Big Dig took all the road construction money, but they were pretty rough.  If the roads we're like this in Paul Revere's day, we'd still belong to England.

Our stay tonight is in Leominster, MA.  It is the home of Johnny Appleseed for those keeping score at home.  One more day of riding tomorrow and we'll finish our long ride.  I won't try to wax emotional now (I'll save that for Boston), but I can't imagine how we're going to feel when we cruise into Waltham tomorrow.  It's going to be awesome.

Vermont For A Day

I thought I knew how to spell brutal before this morning, but today I learned that it is spelled V-E-R-M-O-N-T.  The Green Mountain state is certainly that...mountainous.  While it's by far the best scenery we've ridden through so far, today was a real physical struggle for us.  We knew it would be a long day and we were pushed by the fact that we're in the home stretch of the ride.  The weather was fantastic again and the mountain lakes and rivers we saw we're the best sights we've seen on the ride.  The plus side of riding up one side of a mountain is coasting down the other side.  We had a solid 8 mile float into Brattleboro that was a much needed rest for our legs.  We are still in good spirits and looking forward to the final two days of the ride into Waltham.  It was a challenging, but rewarding day to say the least.

We rode across the Hudson River into Troy, NY (the alleged home of Uncle Sam) and climbed out of the river valley into Vermont.  Vermont is a pretty skinny state and we'll enter New Hampshire early tomorrow.  In Vermont we passed through Bennginton, which was a nice little town where it seemed everyone had a kayak strapped to their car.  Also, everyone was buying beer at the gas station we stopped at.  Beer and kayaks, our kind of town.  Robert Frost is buried in Bennington.  We crossed the Green Mountains and rolled down into Brattleboro.  Brattleboro is also a very cool town.  Lots of outdoors shops, cycle shops, and river sports.  We had dinner at a place which had an awesome view along the Connecticut River.  Brattleboro is the home of Rudyard Kipling and Ida May Fuller, who was the first recipient of a monthly benefit Social Security check.  That's excitement!

The wives arrived in Boston today to check out the city before we cruise in on Monday.  We'll be passing through New Hampshire and entering Massachusetts tomorrow.  Leominster is our final stop on MS Pedal to the Metal.  We can't wait to get going tomorrow and make the final push into Boston.  Two more days and less than 100 miles.  Let's go.

Albany Looks Familiar

Headed back to yesterday's stopping point (remember the Buffalo) this morning to complete our ride into Albany.  The weather was perfect, the wind was at our back, and we cruised in the fifty miles we had for today.  Still hilly, but we're kind of getting used to that.  I don't think they're going away until we get into Boston.

Fantastic countryside and Albany is a lot bigger than I thought it would be.  They have a very strange downtown with some weird buildings, but it must work for them.  They call it Smallbany because compared to New York City down the road, it's about as cosmopolitan as Colfax.  Not really a fair comparison, but we thought it was funny.  No rain today for the first time in about a week.

If you've been checking the ride homepage, you'll have noticed that we crossed the $21,000 raised mark.  We've raised about $1600 since we've left Chicago, which is a staggering.  That extra money means we can all get filets tonight at dinner.  Boo yah.  Thanks to all of you again who have supported us.  Thanks can't be expressed in words.

By the way Justin and Bowers, I wore the Bert and Ernie jersey again today.  I tried to keep it unzipped the entire ride to let the sweater blow in the wind.

We're off to Brattleboro, VT tomorrow.  Another state that none of us have been to, so that's always exciting.  We'll bring some tubs of Cherry Garcia back to Chicago for all the supporters.

Albany Twice

We didn't really know what to expect when we woke up this morning and turned on the news.  We knew that we needed to get moving to make sure that we arrived in Waltham by Monday, but we weren't sure how we would get there.  We were supposed to be heading to Little Falls, but they were hammered by the rain and all roads were closed.  We decided that even if we could drive to Little Falls, it might not be the best place to stay tonight.  So, we found a highway that ran a little south of Little Falls to take.  We set off this morning not really sure how far down the road we were going to go. 

We ended up logging 91 miles today through by far the hilliest country we've seen.  Powered by a day of rest in Syracuse and the great BBQ we had last night, we surprised ourselves by how far we made it.  Since we decided to avoid Little Falls entirely today, we booked a room in Albany.  We stopped riding today about 50 miles outside of Albany and drove into our hotel for the night.  Reasonable people would look at the flooding and take that as an excuse to move forward from Albany tomorrow.  However, we don't want any asterisks next to our name when we say that we rode from Chicago to Boston.  So tomorrow morning, we're heading back to where we stopped today and riding into Albany as planned.  My Mom says we're either committed or should be committed.  It's the only way to do it as we see it.

The weather today was fantastic and it was one of the best rides we've had.  The countryside is beautiful, even though the hills were a major chore.  They're getting bigger and bigger, but we're getting a little better at taking them.  The roads that we went on today were much more rural than we've seen in New York so far.  Lots of farms and miles without any kind of services.  It was a nice change for us.

For everyone who called and was worried for our safety, we appreciate the concern.  I think the worst of the flooding was to the north of us today and we made our ride without any trouble.  We did have to ride through a river that was overflowing today though.  The state troopers were routing cars on a detour, but they let us ride through.  It was raging (about 6 inches of water), so Eric and I forged it.  Lewis and Clark have nothing on us.

We'll officially be riding into Albany tomorrow.  It's a short ride of about 50 miles, so it shouldn't be too bad.  The schedule is in tact and every mile from Chicago to Waltham will be covered.  Phew.

Floods Having Big Impact

Our stop tomorrow is set to be in Little Falls, NY.  Unfortunately, a state of emergency has been declared in Herkimer County and all roads are closed going through the area.  FEMA has evacuated the residents of Little Falls, NY because the Mohawk River is rising quickly. 

This is unprecedented flooding with rivers and creeks at record highs.  We are going to do our best to continue the trip as planned, but will need to follow instructions from state officials.  If the roads are closed, we won't be able to ride or even drive to our next location.  Stay tuned for updates.  We're going to wake up tomorrow and see what the story is.  Rain, rain, rain, rain....

'Cuse Resting

We had a very relaxing day in Syracuse today.  Eric and I checked out the Syracuse University campus which is very nice and has a great college-town feel to it.  It looks like it would be a fun place to go to school.  The Carrier Dome was open as well and we got to check that out.  Huge stadium for a university.

We also had two interviews today with local radio stations.  We talked about the ride, what we're trying to do accomplish with the fundraising, and a little about how MS has affected us.  They'll be running the pieces on the evening and morning news times, so hopefully some folks in the Syracuse area can learn about Accelerated Cure Project and maybe even throw a few bucks our way.

The bikes got tuned up today at Wayne's & Meltzer's Syracuse Bicycle.  They did a fantastic job tuning up the bikes and did it on very short notice.  In addition, they gave us a fat discount since we were riding across the country for charity.  If you're ever in Syracuse and need anything bike-related, please check them out.  Their website is: http://www.syracusebicycle.com.

Tonight we had a great BBQ dinner at the childhood home of Accelerated Cure Project celebrity Sarah Nels.  The Nels family cooked us some fantastic food and gave us a great home-cooked meal.  We can't thank the Nels family enough for opening their home to us and for showing us the famous Nels Hamdog.  Trust me, they're great.  Once again, people have shown us huge generosity and we're truly grateful.   

The rain is looking ominous for tomorrow with roads closed throughout the central part of New York.  We're hoping that things clear up, but we're going to have to wait until morning to know for sure.

Orangemen We Are

Syracuse, sweet Syracuse.  We thought we needed a rest when we came into Cleveland about a week ago...

375 miles over five days and the hills are officially upon us.  To be honest, it's been a struggle getting through these last few days on the bike.  However, we're all in good spirits and ready to tackle the last stage of our trip.  Of course, we'll enjoy the day off in Syracuse first.

Lots to update from Buffalo and Canandaigua.  We didn't get a chance to update the blog in Buffalo and the hotel in Canandaigua didn't have internet access.  So here we go.

DUNKIRK, NY to BUFFALO, NY

The ride between Dunkirk and Buffalo was a shorter one around 50 miles.  We continued to hug Lake Erie as we pulled into Buffalo.  About 10 miles outside of Buffalo you get a great view of the city right before you make the turn around the end of the lake.  The sun was out and being able to see the skyline fires you up a bit because the end is near. 

In Buffalo, we stayed with Dad's cousin Bill Bauza and his wife Marg.  We can't thank them enough for their hospitality, food, and guided tour of Buffalo.  We were also able to meet another cousin of Dad's, Bob and Cherin Bauza.  Plus, we met my Grandmother's oldest sister Erna.  She's 93 and as sharp as a tack.  Dad and I were glad that we were able to spend time with family on the bike ride.  It really meant a lot.

Unbeknownst to me, Niagara Falls is only about 15 minutes north of Buffalo, so we all took a ride up to the falls since we hadn't been there before.  Quite an amazing place and we were pretty happy to be able to see such a landmark unexpectedly on the trip.  We saw the falls from both the American and the Canadian side.  The Canucks have a better view unfortunately.  At least our football is better.  Eric and I also decided that we are going to do "MS Barrel to the Metal" next year.  Who's in?

Of course we had wings in our stay in Buffalo.  How could you not?  They started in Buffalo.  The story goes that a woman working in a bar was closing up when her son and some of his friends came in hungry for food.  All she had was some chicken wings, so she fried them up, put some hot sauce on them, and Buffalo chicken wings were born.  Voila!  We went to Duffs restaurant in Buffalo and had some of the best wings we've ever had.  They were huge and dripping in Buffalo sauce.  They had defibrillators at every table.

Thanks again to Bill and Marg for their generosity and for showing us a great time.  It was nice to be in a home instead of a hotel.  It really does help us relax more.

BUFFALO, NY to CANANDAIGUA, NY

If I would have written the blog right after finishing this day's ride, the tone would have been a little negative.  So, I am glad that I've had a couple of days to simmer down.  This ride was the hardest that we've had so far.  85 miles into the wind with the last 25 over some steep rolling hills.  We got dumped on by these massive rain storms that are hammering New York right now.  The water hasn't really bothered us too much though.  It's been cooler temperature with the rain, which is far better than the heat we had at the beginning. 

Today was the first time that Eric and I were mentally challenged to complete a day.  Each hill we had to tell ourselves to keep pedalling until we reached the top.  Easy in theory, hard in practice.  We made it and I was proud of us for toughing out the first really difficult day.

The country that we're riding through now is very scenic and wooded.  We're in the Finger Lakes area of New York and there are a lot of big lakes, small upstate New York towns, and wineries.  It looks like it might be a place that those of means in the upstate New York area vacation.  Canandaigua sits right on Lake Canadaigua (fitting), which is a big lake surrounded by lake houses sitting on hills looking over the water.

Eric and I also noticed today for the first time how big of a role food plays into our ability to ride.  The first 40 miles of today's ride were a struggle, even though the terrain was fairly flat.  Apparently Buffalo wings don't give you the energy to ride a bike 85 miles.  Who would have known?  Of course, once Marg's fantastic breakfast kicked in we were able to take on the hills for the last part of the ride.

 

CANANDAIGUA, NY TO SYRACUSE, NY

Fearing rain today, we actually had a very nice ride into Syracuse.  I think that we are getting stronger on the hills because today was fairly hilly and we had less of a struggle than yesterday.  It could also be that we are being driven by the fact that we have a day off coming up.  Again beautiful country that we are riding through.  The small towns that we pass through remind me very much of the towns around where I grew up in Northern California.  We passed through Geneva, Auburn, and Seneca Falls, NY today.  Auburn is where the fire hydrant was invented and Harriet Tubman lived the end of her life here.  Waterloo, NY claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day.  We thought that was probably a bit of stretch, but who is going to call them on it.

FYI, the flat count is skyrocketing.  Lauren: 13, Eric: 5.  Ridiculous.

Syraucse is much larger than expected.  It sits on top of a hill (great) and is actually a very pretty town.  We had met some riders in Dunkirk coming from Boston who said that Syracuse was run down, but I don't agree.  The university is very nice and it reminds me a lot of a Big Ten town.  Our hotel is actually on campus, so we're looking forward to walking around and checking it out.  I think Rony Seikaly is meeting us for lunch.  As I thought about it, Syracuse football has put out some studs in the past: Jim Brown, Larry Csonka, Marvin Harrison, Donovan McNabb, Art Monk, and Dwight Freeney.  Not shabby.

We headed out to dinner in Armory Square last night, which is the hopping area of Syracuse.  It was raining a lot, so we headed back to a strip of restaurants by our hotel and finished our night at Faegans.  Great little bar right on campus.  Pretty packed for a Tuesday night during the summer too. 

Rest day today then off to Little Falls, NY tomorrow.  We have two radio interviews in Syracuse today, so that should be exciting.  Let's hope we can handle the fame humbly.

 

Dunkirk is a Doozie

It's funny how much the weather can not only affect your mood, but can also shape the way that you feel about certain places of the country.  We had fantastic weather on our 86-mile ride today between Conneaut and Dunkirk, NY.  Low 70's and not a cloud in the sky made us forget about the rain soaked days from our days in Ohio and talk about buying a lake house in western New York. 

We made the ride in about 8 hours, but took more stops than usual for flats, photos, etc.  One of our stops was in Girard, PA at Morgan Family Chriopractic.  Eric and I got an adjustment from Margie's friend from chiropractic school, Christy.  She did us up right and sent us on our way healthier and straighter.  Thank you so much to Christy.  It was awesome.

Our ride took us through three states today.  We crossed into Pennsylvania on the east side of Conneaut, then passed into New York about 40 miles later.  From a scenery perspectic, the ride was the best so far in both Eric and my opinions.  Route 5 hugged Lake Erie the entire day and we had amazing views of the blue water and the green forests on the horizon.  I got two more flat tires today which wiped out our patch supply, so we stopped at a bike shop in Erie called Competitive Gear.  Great guys working there and if you're ever in need of a bike in Erie, stop by.

Erie is the hometown of Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails drummer), Billy Blanks of TaeBo fame, and Fred Biletnikoff. 

As we left Pennsylvania and entered New York we hit the wine country of western New York.  There were fields and fields of grapes.  We passed quite a few wineries, but didn't get the chance to stop.  We figured the last 30 miles of the ride would be a better ride if we were sober.  The concord grapes are used obviously for wine, but also for grape juice because we passed a couple of Welchs factories as well.

Dunkirk is a very nice little town on the shore of Lake Erie.  Our hotel is great because it's right on the water.  The restaurant at the hotel sits on the water in front of the marina.  We were saying that If we didn't have to ride tomorrow, it would be a good place to hang our for a couple days to take in the sun and hop on a boat tour.  We are also basically celebrities in Dunkirk given our front page article in the Dunkirk Observer.  Check out the link to the article here: http://observertoday.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=2126

The hills began today.  They weren't out of control, but they definitely are going to be a challenge down the road.  The weather being so perfect made it better to break in the hills.  Our legs are definitely looking forward to the shorter 50 mile ride into Buffalo tomorrow.  In Buffalo, we'll be staying with a cousin of Dad and his wife.  Bill and Marg Bauza have opened their home to us and we couldn't be more grateful.  We are lo oking forward to seeing them. 

175 miles is two days has worn us out a bit, but it will be nice to relax with family and a basket of original Buffalo wings tomorrow.