Archive for June, 2010

Sea to Shining Sea attracted some serious media interest over the last week. Twelve stories, which you can see by scrolling to the bottom of the home page, including:

• Video from KETV in Omaha, NE: Coverage of the ride, featuring Eric Frazier (June 25), which was mentioned by MSNBC
• Video from KOLN in Lincoln, NE: An interview with Marc Esposito (June 26)
• Photos from Fort Morgan, CO (June 24 – Fort Morgan Times) and Aurora, NE (June 24 – Grand Island Independent)
• Story from Bloomington, IL, home of S2SS sponsor State Farm, where the riders will arrive on the Fourth of July.

After a long, warm week in the not so flat flatlands of Nebraska, we were all pretty excited about a rest day in Lincoln. A warm welcome from the community, including state senators, a proclamation from the mayor, a tour of Memorial stadium, and a Saltdogs baseball game, made possible with the great support of the kind people of State Farm, were very appreciated. Five weeks in and four to go, this ride has continued to be a very memorable experience. The motivation and determination that is being shared and spread is inspiring to be a part of.

83 miles to Shenandoah, Iowa tomorrow, our 6th state of the ride. Where does the time go? As the days and miles behind us add up, friendships built and growing, it is crazy to think we’re more than halfway and steadily closing in on the Atlantic.

I can never thank everyone enough; all the smiles and cheers in every city and town are so heart-warming and keep the spirits flying high. From amusing to sarcastic, to emotional, every moment of this ride is just a fantastic experience in seeing America for what it is. To be out in the open wind, even if it’s blowing in my face for 10 hours every day, really gives me a chance to see the diversity and realness of what it means to be American, and I am thankful to every single person who has made it possible for me to experience life and freedom in this absolutely amazing way.

Click the map image to see the 74-mile route for Friday, July 2, which includes Fort Madison, IA, La Harpe, IL, Bushnell, IL, Fiatt, IL and Canton, IL.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 86-mile route for Wednesday, June 30, which includes Centerville, West Grove County Park, Cantril, Shimek State Park and Fort Madison, IA. The riders will rest Thursday, July 1 in Fort Madison.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 73-mile route for Tuesday, June 29, which includes Mt. Ayr, Leon, Corydon Lake, Plano and Centerville, IA.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 66-mile route for Monday, June 28, which includes Shenandoah, NE, Clarinda, IA, Bedford, IA and Mt. Ayr, IA.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 83-mile route for Sunday, June 27, which includes Lincoln, Palmyra, Syracuse, Dunbar and Shenandoah, NE.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 75-mile route for Friday, June 25, which includes Aurora, York, Seward, Pawnee Lake and Lincoln, NE. The riders will rest in Shenandoah on Saturday, June 26.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 42-mile route for Thursday, June 24, which includes Hastings, Doriphan and Aurora, NE.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 55-mile route for Wednesday, June 23, which includes Holdredge, Axtell, Heartwell and Hastings, NE.

Follow the riders via Van’s GPS tracker

From Kevin Sullivan’s blog, “We had a visitor on our ride today!!!”

That’s Marc and Chad showing off a gift from one of the many State Farm agents they’ve met along the route.

Click the map image to see the 73-mile route for Tuesday, June 22, which includes McCook, Bartley, Cambridge, Arapahoe, Atlanta and Holdredge, NE.

Follow the riders via Chris’ GPS tracker

The 88-mile route for Sunday, June 20 includes Fort Morgan, Midway, Otis, Robb and Wray, CO.

Follow the riders via Chris’ GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 92-mile route for Monday, June 21, which includes Wray, CO Benkelman, NE, Stratton, NE and McCook, NE.

Follow the riders via Chris’ GPS tracker

Click the map image to see the 93-mile route for Saturday, June 19, which includes Denver, Bennett, Prospect Valley and Fort Morgan, CO.

Follow the riders via Chris’ GPS tracker

Mike Claver leads the State Farm team that supports the S2SS riders. These are some of his notes from the road. (Click here to see the rest of his notes.)

Though Wednesday was a rest day, we were welcomed to the riders’ lobby by Seth, who was reworking gears on people’s bikes to help them work their way up the hills that laid ahead.

Seth is one of the hand-cyclers and, in my opinion, a mechanical genius. He can make gear changes on a bike as fine as a surgeon’s work.

And Seth could not have had better timing.

Thursday we awoke to our longest adventure to-date. 120 miles would take us off the “loneliest highway in America” and place us on “The Great Basin Highway.” In the middle of this desert landscape, route 50 and route 93 parted company. For the day, there was one and only one route decision to make. Turn south on route 93. The only problem with that was route 50 was all downhill, and a bike can pick p a lot of speed on a downhill.

The riders had their hands full today. The terrain was relatively flat but the thermometer flirted with the century mark all day. The vegetation was sparse and there was next to no shade. The water, sunscreen, and Gatorade business was rolling today.

We were all so relived to end the ride in Pioche, where we met some wonderful people from the Chamber of Commerce.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to share with you just a portion of the things these riders have given me. I know already, my life will never be the same. With one exception, all of my college professors over the years didn’t teach me as much as these teachers have taught me in just 13 days. Imagine how smart I’ll be after 63 days.

 Their hearts and minds are locked on this journey, many seeing this as the challenge of a lifetime, others wanting to prove themselves, others just enjoying being alive. Each one has a story to tell and over the remainder of this ride, I hope to tell you a little bit about each one.  You need to meet them like I have, and since you can’t, then it’s my job to try and share.

Tomorrow is another day.

Here are a couple video news stories from the last few days.

1. Yesterday in Fort Carson, CO, outside Colorado Springs, KKTV covered the riders in a television news story available on their site.
2. On June 13, TheSpectrum.com posted a video from Cedar City, Utah (June 4), which is below:

During their stop in Cedar City, Utah, on day 14 of their journey, the riders talked about their military service, their injuries, and what this ride means to them. (June 4, 2010.)

I have been away from the blog for a little while now.

We have had some tough days. Like the 110 mile day up hill where I fell over because I couldn’t stand after getting off my bike.

Today we had a major mile stone. We crossed the Continental Divide. From now on the majority of the ride will be down hill! We will just ignore the mountains on the east coast.