'Twas The Night Before

We are taking off in the morning! 70 participants! We are a mighty force in the fight to cure FA!

FUNDRAISING UPDATE: $175,000! We're not done yet!

Today we had a team meal at Outback Steakhouse. We met all the new teammates and had a great meal. Thank you to Outback for providing the meal and the outstanding service!


Tonight we held "pre-registration" in my hotel room and it became aparent how many people we have riding with us:


ULTIMATE DEDICATION:
This morning one of our teammates, Tess, called a friend to pick her up to drive to the airport so she could fly here to Portland. The friend, Angela showed up at Tess's house at 6am. They loaded all Tess' stuff in the car, started the car to warm it up and walked back to the house to grab something...As they were walking back to the house, literally 20 feet away from the car, someone jumped in the car and got on the freeway never to be seen again! CAR...GONE. ALL TESS' GEAR...GONE. Yes, this really happened this morning. So what did Tess do in the face of losing all her stuff (her bike was not in the car)? First of all, she let Angela borrow her vehicle to make it through the weekend. Then she went to the bike shop and bought all new gear. She changed her flight to a later time and now she is here with us as part of the team!

Tess has set the tone of dedication for the team this week. We will keep this in mind as we take off in the morning in the cold and rain...

On The Road

I am posting this from the passenger seat of the truck using our trusty Verizon Wireless internet card. We just passed Mt Shasta, a volcano in Northern California.

Left home last night. Headed for Portland, Oregon. It feels like old times, just Me, Mom and Dad in the truck pulling the trailer. We left from the Sacramento area at about 3pm yesterday and drove for three hours to Redding, CA where we stayed for the night. It was just the three of us in a hotel room, it felt like the first ride...restless sleep thinking about what is ahead.

I am finally getting excited for the ride. I have been super anxious until this point. Months of preparation, endless strings of emails and countless details are taken care of and now its go time...bring it on!

We will stay in Portland tonight and tomorrow we will have lunch with the entire team at Outback Steakhouse. There are many team members who I have not met and only know by their registration form and the large amount of money each of them have raised for this cause. The lunch will be a great chance to get acquainted before we hit the road the next day.

The weather looks like it could be a factor but it will only make it more of an accomplishment when we finish!

Stay tuned, I plan to post once a day for the next week, this is going to be a great ride!

Track Us LIVE!

Check this out! A friend hooked me up with Mats Janssen from TrackMe360.com. Mats set up a map where anyone can log on to check out where we are during the upcoming ride. Check out the TrackMe360.com Ride Ataxia Adventure Zone. The map will go live during the ride March 16 - March 19, 2009. Less than a week away!