375 Miles Down!

Greetings from Kane, PA! Today is day 6 of our journey and our first off day. So far we have covered 375 miles. We left from New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center in New York City last Friday and have made stops in Tuxedo, NY; Hawley, PA; Tunkhannock, PA and Wellsboro, PA before arriving here in Kane last night. Along the way we have met some amazing people who have opened up their homes and churches to accommodate us along with providing us with some amazing meals. (Thank you all!)

The ride thus far has been challenging at times with many mountains and hills along the way. For those of you back home in Oneonta - I'm beginning to think I should have been riding Franklin Mountain daily in preparation! I'm actually feeling really good physically despite the many hills and mountains although the long days can be rather tiring.

Drew joined us on Monday night so the complete team of 18 is now all here. I'm having a great time and still extremely excited to be pedaling my bicycle across America for such a great cause!

Till next time,
Sandra

I have attached a couple of photos for those of you who have been bugging me for photos!

Mt. Jewett & Ice Cream

Day 5: Kane, PA

This morning we got up early and hit the road for a 99 mile day. We covered the first 30 miles in about two hours with the terrain being a bit easier than what we have seen in the past few days. After lunch it got a bit more difficult as we climbed Mt. Jewett - supposedly our last major climb in Pennsylvania. The van had told us at our last water stop before the climb that there was a reward at the top of Mt. Jewett and sure enough when we reached the top there it was – “My Sister’s Place” an ice cream stand where we stopped to enjoy ice cream before the final push to Kane. After lunch my legs felt rather tired however thank to Alex, Brian and Nick (our awesome caboose today) I was able to push myself up the mountain and felt much better after our ice cream stop. We even stopped midway up the mountain to celebrate mile number 300 with a granola bar party!

Once we reached our host the Methodist Episcopal Church of Kane we were welcomed with a wonderful dinner of chicken and pasta, followed by brownie sundae’s for dessert!

Tomorrow is an off day and Alex and I are getting up early as the local high school has invited us to their morning free swim which will allow us a chance to swim and shower!

Welcome Drew!

Day 4: Wellsboro, PA

We departed Tunkhannock around 7:30 this morning will a long and hilly day ahead of us. The morning portion of the ride consisted of hills similar to yesterday while the afternoon portion consisted of longer steeper hills. We stopped about halfway through our ride ate lunch at a small bar/diner along PA route 6 and then were offered dinner at Harland’s Family Style Restaurant in Wellsboro by the owner whom Jon had me at a rest stop earlier in the day. Mid-afternoon we stopped in Mansfield, PA for water. Ironically our stop was outside the house of the Mansfield University softball coach. (I played against Mansfield at Mansfield in a fall tournament while in college). She provided us with fresh fruit and water before we continued on the final 15 miles to Wellsboro.

When we arrived at our host church in Wellsboro we were met by Drew making our team now complete! We quickly washed up before heading to Harland’s for a delicious dinner. Overall today was a challenge with the mileage and hills, tomorrow won’t get any easier as we are scheduled to ride 97 miles with many more hills. Now it’s off to bed.

The Rolling Hills of Pennsylvania

Day 3: Tunkhannock, PA

Waking up to rain this morning things were a bit gloomy as it was wet and damp. However everyone perked up at the smell of the wonderful breakfast Florence was cooking for us. Florence has been amazing in the little time that we have known her, to take a group of not one but 18 young adults whom she didn’t even know existed prior to yesterday, provide us with hospitality and cook for us – all I can say is Thank You Florence!

Zach left us this morning and is headed back to Stanford to finish up his degree he will be rejoining us in a few weeks. After breakfast Florence took him to catch his train while the van took Brian to get medical attention as he seems to have developed a case of hives. The ride out of Hawley was rather uneventful (ie no flats!) – although Anish does claim he saw a bear! Thankfully it did not see us.

Geographically today’s ride reminded me of home in upstate New York will rolling hills surrounding us. Sometime mid-morning we managed to lose Dan who was a bit ahead of the group and ended up taking a different route than the rest of us. He ended up catching up with the rest of us after lunch when we found him waiting along the road. We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into our destination of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania around 4:30 after only 56 miles as our original route recorded the distance as 85 miles. Our host in Tunkhannock the Grace Fellowship and we were greeted at the church by Pastor Chuck and some church members who fed us lasagna, salad and cake!

After dinner Pastor Chuck took some of us to his house to shower while others showered at the Church house where we spent the night. Tomorrow we are off to Wellsboro, PA where Drew will join us. A 90+ mile day through some with many climbs, off to bed I go.

Florence to the Rescue

Day 2: Tuxedo, NY - Hawley, PA

We were up and out the door early this morning tackling two large hills before 9:00 am. Today was the first time a lot of the Illinois riders have seen hills with Illinois being relatively flat and the day did not get any easier after 9:00 am with the hills continuing throughout the day. We stopped for lunch near a creek in Port Jervis, NY where we enjoyed Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches with fruit and Alex decided to go for a swim in the creek. After lunch the fun continued with more hills until finding a nice reward at the top of our final climb in the form of ice cream! With 65 miles done we stopped to treat ourselves at Costa’s Family Fun Park. After we finished our ice cream Sehee enjoyed a ride on the 25 cent Alligator ride before we all got together for a group photo with the staff of the ice cream shop. (A big Thank you to Costa’s for your generous donation in support of our cause!)

After departing Costa’s the ride into our destination of Hawley, PA was fairly easy. When we reached town we met up with the rest of the team at the town park where they were waiting while trying to reach the church where we were planning to stay. After numerous failed attempts trying to reach someone at the church Jon had gone to the local library. It was there he met an amazingly generous woman named Florence who offered to let us camp at her cabin. Not only did she let us camp but she got the local grocery store to donate food and then made us an amazing meal. After setting up camp we bathed in the garden hose and washed our clothes in our big plastic bins stringing clothes line under the back porch to hand our wet clothes on. It was cold but it does feel good to be clean after two days of riding. Tomorrow I expect more hills as we head to Tunkhannock which is just west of Scranton. Here in Hawley is about the closest to home I will be for the rest of the summer.

A Riding we will go...

Day 1: New York City - Tuxedo, NY!

This morning a group consisting of Sean, Andrew, Brandt, Dan and myself woke up at 5:15 am in order to head down to the Today Show in an attempt to get some airtime for the Illini 4000. After searching all over NYC for poster board in the late hours of the night we took our markers and blank signs to decorate while we waited. The rest of the team was sleeping in before they headed to Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan for a tour.

When we got down to the NBC studio we waited to get into their outdoor plaza decorating our signs while Brandt ran to a nearby McDonalds to grab us some food. Unfortunately when it was our time to enter the plaza the security man made us leave our signs because they contained URL addresses which apparently are not allowed on signs in the plaza. We were all dressed in our team jerseys hoping to draw a little attention from the camera. When we first entered the plaza we were in the back behind a lot of people but thanks to Patrice who had shown up on her way to work we were able to move right up next to the outside stage where Blondie would later perform. We didn't make it on the camera although we may have been in the distant background on some shots.

After leaving the Today Show we headed back to Patrice’s apartment where we helped load bags into the van before heading to lunch and then over to the hospital to meet up with the rest of our team.

There was much to be done once we reached the hospital including moving our bikes from the park around the corner to the hospital and reloading the van after it had been used to shuttle bikes from where they were being stored to the park around the corner. Once the van was loaded and all of our bikes were at the hospital we fine tuned them one last time before parents, friends and a group of medical school students sent us off around 1:00 pm.

Our first day of riding was only 48 miles however included riding through and out of the city which was no easy task. Once we got out of the city traffic things eased up a little bit. A few people (including our support vehicle) encountered flat tires on this first day of riding before we reached our designation of Tuxedo, NY where we were welcomed by Pastor Dave with a pot luck style dinner and ice cream and cookies for dessert. The church was an older all stone church and was absolutely beautiful.

Tomorrow we enter Pennsylvania and should see some real northeast hills!

Why I Ride...

I ride for you.

Chris and me at my baptism.