MILE$ FOR MONEY

One month in and today my focus is gratitude. First, so thankful Scott can make this dream come true and that his health is holding up! Second, I have done 4 ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike 26.2 mile run), so I think I have a little bit of experience with "endurance sports," and yet I truly can't even imagine doing what he is doing... biking day after day, mile after mile, on unknown routes by himself, let alone with stage 4 cancer, on Lurpon (a hormone therapy treatment that takes away testosterone and that causes fatigue.) Truly this is a gift from God for this to be happening. (And I do say my nickname for him of "magic Scott" is well earned!) On this last weekend Scott took a few days off and we did a short bike ride together to Niagra Falls. This was my first "pedal with Scott" ride. I am out of shape for biking. After just the adventure of the short ride I promptly fell asleep for a nap! But I do have a few "pedal with Scott" ...

I join you today from near Erie, PA! The 6th state into the ride. We are into our 4th week already. Sunday July 16th was the one year anniversary of the 988 suicide and crisis line. The idea behind this suicide and crisis line is to help prevent suicide by having a free and confidential support, a skilled listener, for people in crisis. The line has licensed professionals- ones trained to listen and deal with crisis- ready to help. Scott is riding his mileage "to honor not just the life God gave me, but Benny's life." Scott is stage 4 prostate cancer and grateful that he is alive AND that he is able to do this ride. Benny died of suicide, due to going off his schizophrenia meds because of the distasteful side effects, on January 15, 2020. Scott was half way through chemo treatments at the time that he got the call. He did not know Benny had schizophrenia, that he was on meds, and had gone off his meds. Today Scott passed mile 988 in his ride. He rode i...

In Honor of Kurt Carr  In Memory of Mark Alvig   Week Two complete: 640 miles in.  On to Ohio today, which will be the 5th state already.  Scott will be picking up the Adventure Cycle Map Northern Tier  route which takes him along Lake Eerie.   We continue to boon dock, use Harvest Hosts, state parks, county parks, rv parks and whatever else works on short notice,  as places to stay.  It's always an adventure.  My favorite so far is the beauty of the sandy beach of Lake Michigan.  Scott got a kick out of sharing the road yesterday with horse drawn carriages in Menonnite country.   Scott is staying pretty predictable to the route and calendar he planned, so we are starting to build some confidence that the schedule will work of about 300 miles a week, two days off per week.  I am working on posting a calendar with more detail on the route.  One of the reasons we want to build awareness about getting early detection is ...

 We are really doing it!  Week one is done. Scott has cycled about 370 miles last week. So far so good.   The route:  Scott meticulously planned the route over the last several months by reviewing maps and handwriting out day by day directions.   Well, you know what they say about best laid plans!  For the most part the route has been just fine.  Except for the lack of shoulder, which makes me more nervous than Scott.   Yesterday I did have to pick Scott up and drive through a section of the route that had no shoulder.  I wish I could have stopped for pictures. It was stunningly beautiful along 55, wolf river, through the Menominee reservation.  After we passed through, I dropped Scott to continue his ride. He still got in over 50 miles.  Every day Scott has hit some kind of road construction - we expected that, and he has slowly and carefully made it through.  He has not yet been on many bike paths, but we expect that to chang...