One month, over 1200 miles into the miles for money trip! GRATITUDE and Pedal with Scott

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" observations. Scott is brave. Each time we hit a dead end on directions he patiently and calmy figured out where we had gone wrong. He never became flustered nor concerned. Scott uses "ride with GPS" where we map the route, and then we download onto his garmin edge bike computer which gives him the directions. (Thank you tech wizard Professor Christel Kippenhan who is not only a tech wizzard but a brilliant athelete, for showing us how it is done!) It's a workable system but not infalible. (i.e. we have to be able to follow the directions and sometimes roads or trails are shut down or re-routed without warning.) Scott also had a second flat tire during our ride. Without complaint he simply fixed it, curious as to why it happened again after just fixing a flat on his last ride. He also has to go across terrain that may be closed off to bike trails - i.e. the only way across the river was lifting his bike over the fence to get across on the so called "bike trail". He is determined and persistent, and in true Scott fashion, calm. For all these things I am grateful. The gravel tire bike is also working well. I struggled a bit with some of the terrain with my road tires. He has been on many dirt packed trails this first month. While it is slow going and he has to work harder, he can do it better with the gravel tires. We are both very thankful to all that are giving us so much encouragement along the way, to those that are donating, sharing the mission and fundraising on the team, and to those that are helping to raise awareness. We have a long way to go to reach all the goals - mileage, awareness and fundraising- but we are thankful and celebrating what has been accomplished in the first month! Please share our mission, follow us on facebook, and get the word out! Thank you! www.milesformoney.org

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