Nauvoo, IA (hot hot hot!!)

Date: 7/31/06
Mileage: 95

Funds Raised:
(Donate Here)

$11,954.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Well today certianly was hot! Tomorrow is supposed to be just as hot if not hotter. After that it should cool off a bit.

We got a early start to try to beat the heat. Luckily we got to say our goodbyes to Mike and Dee last night, it was so early we didn't want to wake them! Brent who stayed with us for the last 2 days left early also. Unfortunately he was going north/east while we were headed south/west. We will be keeping in touch with him. He is interested in the possibility of joining us on whatever adventure we will plan for next year.

(We will see you again Brent!)

The two ideas so far are:
1. Ride across America (taking a shorter/more direct route) taking fixies but fully loaded and unsupported. We don't know if anyone has ever done that before :)
2. Enter in Race Across America in the team division.

Whatever we do we will still be doing it to raise money to help others and to fight the battle against diabetes.

(Look at that R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S beard!!
Who has a beard like that when it is 100+ degrees outside??)

Tonight we are staying in Nauvoo, IA at in the basement of a local church. We are super duper grateful to have air conditioning :).

Side Note on Ocean City, MD finish:
We are setting up a fully supported finishing ride in Ocean City, MD on September 3rd. If you would like to join us we will be at Shenanigans Irish Pub on 4th Street Boardwalk! To sign up for the ride go here.

-Pattt

Working on AFC in Muscatine, IA

Date: 7/30/06
Mileage: 0 (Worked on AFC all day long)

Funds Raised:
(Donate Here)

$11,954.62 for Kupenda
Donation thanks to Mike (who we are staying with in Muscatine)
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was a much needed rest day. We got tons of stuff done that needed to be done. Adam and I spent all day at our computers typing away at emails to people/places we are going to be staying at in the upcomming weeks and modifying our route so that we are at the right places at the right times. Jesse put the new chains on the bikes and put in the new bearings that Eric Sovern, our friend from Surly, gave to us.

We also got caught up on much needed sleep. I slept like 10hrs last night!

Weezal and Jason Cusick left this morning. They left so early that when I woke up they were gone (or else I just slept really late).

Before we went to bed we spent some quality time talking to Mike and Dee who have been our hosts in Muscatine for the past two days. We got in touch with them through their son who found us on the Surly Blog it has been awesome hanging out with this family! Mike and D were also nice enough to let our friend Brent stay over.

(PhillyK, Jesse, Dee, Mike, and Brent)

We met Brent a longggg time ago back when we first got to Oregon. He has been biking across the country from West to East just like us! It has been great hanging out with him and sharing so many crazy stories.

-Pattt

Muscatine, IA (RAGBRAI Day 7)

Date: 7/29/06
Mileage: 52

Funds Raised:

$11,934.62 for Kupenda
Donations thanks to Rob Fox, Rob's mom Pam, Amy, Andy, Craig
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Donations thanks to David Haaga, Tania Desrosiers, and Paula Bisacre
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was extremely hot! We got a late start so we were biking from 11:00 until around 2:00. It was only 50 miles but after we were done it felt like it was 75 or more just because our bodies have to work so much harder in the heat.

Today was the last and final day of RAGBRAI! We figured that we would be able to setup at the expo one last time but since it was the last day everyone was going home so there were not many people around to talk to or anything. We did manage to sell a few T-Shirts but it was not like the other days.

It was also our last day biking with Jason Cusick, Weezal, and Team Lynn. We will miss having all the fun company on the road!

(Bye Bye Team Lynn!)

I also got to hang out with my good friend Robert Fox, who I knew from when I was young. He tried to help us to find a karaoke bar last night so we could get our yokey on in Iowa but we were unsucessful in our search :( Mabye tonight we will be able to find some karaoke somewhere around here.

(Andy, Amy, Rob, and Rob's mom Pam)

RAGBRAI was great!! We raised almost $1,500 for Kupenda and ADA and we talked to tons and tons of people about things like helping others, using the insulin pump instead of taking needles (for diabetics only :), what it is like in Africa for the children we are raising money for, what it is like for Adam and biking long days, and how cool Surly's fixies are (we loveee these bikes). It was awesome to walk around at night after we finished at the expo and see a few people wearing AFC t-shirts!! sooo cool!

Side Not On AFC's Plans:
Right before we left for our trip our good friend Brett wanted us to visit her in Chicago. We looked at the map and we figured that we could do it! Especially if we could setup some fundraising event when we got there. We were not able to get anything together as far as talking or fundraising so we have decided to skip on Chicago for this year's trip. It would have been lots of long days of biking in a row to get there and then get back on our route home and we figure we don't want to push ourselves to our limits for no good reason.

Instead we are planning smaller detours to Knocksville, TN and Virginia Beach (to visit our good friend Shelley!). We will be updating our route on our map page tomorrow. I am sure that this decision will make our parents happy :) They were a little worried about our long and hard journey to Chicago especially with how hot it has been lately!

Coralville, IA (RAGBRAI Day 6)

Date: 7/28/06
Mileage: 48

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was another great and easy day of RAGBRAI riding. Doing only 48 miles! And tomorrow is only 45 miles!! That will gaurentee we are well rested for our long ride from Muscatine, IA to Chicago, IL. We will be sure to properly hydrate and we won't push too hard on our way to Chicago. Good news is that it won't be nearly as hot as it was on the day we rode 150 miles.

When we got to Coralville, IA today we setup for the expo! It was great. We had a prime spot and we talked to tons of people. We also raised a good bit of money selling T-Shirts and getting donations.

We are goingto try to find a place to do our karaoke tonight!! We have not missed a state yet for our goal of doing karaoke in every state we visit and just because we are doing RAGBRAI shouldn't mean we will miss Iowa.

-Pattt

Marengo, IA (RAGBRAI Day 5)

Date: 7/27/06
Mileage: 40

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,936.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was great! Although it was extremely humid it was cloudy so it was not too hot. We biked 77miles from Newton, IA to Marengo, IA with the RAGBRAI group. We met tons of people along the way and had a great time. We arrived in Marengo at around 5:30pm so we did not setup with the expo (you have to get there super early to do that). Instead Adam went to work sending out millions of emails to all of his media contacts and everyone. Adam is great at doing PR stuff!! Jesse got caught up on his book writing while I went to work on the website.

Tonight we are staying at a house in Marengo with at least 40 other people who are all doing RAGBRAI. The owner is amazing! There are tents all over his lawn, people are swarmed all over the inside and outside of his house, I am using his computer to do this blog, and he made us all dinner! How amazing is that?

Doing around 70 miles a day in RAGBRAI has been great for us. We are getting all rested up for our super long bike ride from Muscitine, IA to Chicago. It will be around 250 miles. We just got our route today. It was kindly donated by Bicycle Illinois.

-Pattt

Newton, IA (RAGBRAI Day 4)

Date: 7/26/06
Mileage: 40

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Notice: The Kupenda website is down so I modified the link to donate to Kupenda so that it goes straight to Kupenda's paypal page.

Today was a really really good day for AFC! We woke up at Tome Keller's house after a super great nights sleep. It was a blessing to sleep in his house because it was pouring raining outside alll night long but we were safe and dry.

(Saying good bye to Tom Keller!)

Tom Keller has a friend who has a 12yr old daughter, Tess, who has Type I diabetes. Tom had been riding RAGBRAI for the first three days and for some of each day he would ride a tandem bike with Tess on the back. Yesterday Tom had a fall off his bike so he was unable to ride today. Luckily there were no serious injuries so he will be okay :). Since Tom was not riding today Adam offered to ride the tandem with Tess!! IT WAS AWESOME! I know for a fact Tess has never gone faster on a bike. We were rolling at 21mph sometimes. She is super fit so she actually helped Adam to go faster.

(Adam and Tess wearing cool AFC T-Shirts!)

(Adam and Tess biking! Tess was doing most of the work)

When we got to the town of Newton we were interviewed by the local newspaper. Tess and her mom were also interviewed! Tess is extremely intelligent and well spoken for her age and her mom said some very nice things about AFC and what we are doing. For Adam to be a good role model for Tess is what AFC is all about!

After the interview we went to the town square in Newton and setup our stand again! This time we had a prime location. We sold tons and tons of T-Shirts and made more than $450.00 in donations! It was great to talk to so many people.

(Biking into town with tons and tons of people)

Lance Armstrong also gave a speech from the town square. It was very motivational. He is doing much the same thing we are only on a larger scale and focused on curing cancer.

If only everyday on our journey could be so good!

-Pattt

Des Moines (RAGBRAI Day 3)

Date: 7/25/06
Mileage: 76

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Adam and I got a great nights sleep last night under the stars. Weezal, Jesse, and Jason Cusick slept in Jason's tent. PhillyK and AndyK slept in someone's shed :). We all met up in the morning for breakfast and to get started biking!

Jesse has been pretty sick the last two days and he looked bad this morning. Hopefully he will get better soon and we are hoping it is only alergies.

RAGBRAI stops in Waukee, IA today but we are biking 10 miles west of that to spend the night at our friend, Tom Keller's, house! Tom is also riding RAGBRAI! So we will be going a bit extra today but that will make tomorrow's RAGBRAI route that much shorter.

It was a beautiful day of biking. The clouds were out so it did not get too hot and we met tons of people along our way. At lunch we met with Kamla (the girl we stayed with when we were in Crescent, IA) and her friends on Team Lynn. Team Lynn has a bus that the drive as their support vehicle. Their bus driver, Lynn, wanted to bike the 2nd half of the day so AndyK offered to drive the buss from lunch to Waukee for them! What a nice guy :) Since AndyK can do anything driving a bus was a simple task!

(Getting ready to ride!)

(Driving Team Lynn Bus)

We all ate dinner with Tom and his family!! Yay for some home cooking!! And we are super happy because it is raining a ton tonight but we are safe and dry in Tom Keller's beautiful house!! Yay Tom Keller!

-Pattt

Audubon, IA (RAGBRAI Day 2)

Date: 7/24/06
Mileage: 77

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

(Bye Bye Verlyn and Carol! Thanks so much)

Today was actually a very hard day. It was constant rolling hills and the wind was in our faces all day long! We woke up at 6:00 and we were out the door early so that we could get to the next town and setup our stand at the Expo. Yesterday we got to the end town too late to setup for the expo so we missed it.

Weezal and Jason Cusick did just fine on all the hills and against all the wind! They came out here fit and ready for RAGBRAI... No doubt!

(Best High Five pic ever!

Picture taken by Suga)

When we got to the expo there were no people there but we heard from the other vendors that it would surely pick up later! Unfortunately they were wrong. We sat at our stand for 5 hours and no one showed up. The whole expo was empty. We got to talk to only one or two people. Oh well... We tried :). We will try again at the expo on Wednesday mabye we will have more luck then!

Our tent is not doing too well. This isn't a big deal because we don't really have many days of camping left on our trip, most of our remaining days we have places to stay with nice people :). The only problem is that we do have a couple more days of camping like tonight. Sleeping outside is great, unless it rains. We decided to risk it and we slept outside. Luckily it only rained for like 5 minutes and then stopped.

PhillyK AndyK Support:
During RAGBRAI the Ks work hard and follow a planned route for the 'support vehicles'. They meet up with us a the designated halfway town point and again at the finish! It is pretty hard for them because there are tons and tons of bikers everywhere, but the Ks can do anything!

-Pattt

Ida Grove, IA (RAGBRAI - Day 1)

Date: 7/23/06
Mileage: 56

Funds Raised:

$11,834.62 for Kupenda
thank you Cynthia Saiah for you donation!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,770.00 for ADA
thank you Cynthia Saiah for your donation!
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

(Pictures comming soon...)

Today was our first day biking with RAGBRAI! It was quite the experience. There are thousands of bikers everywhere! When you get to a town you have to get off your bike because there are so many people on the streets that no one is able to bike.

When we got to the finishing town we were too late to setup for the expo. We didn't know it would be so crazy! We are going to get up super early tomorrow so we can get to the finishing town before the crowd of people so we can setup for the expo for tomorrow! We talked to so many people yesterday at the expo that we just cant afford to miss another one. This is a great opportunity to really get the word out about what we are doing.

Yesterday we also met with Eric Sovern from Surly, the company that made our bikes. He visited us at the RAGBRAI Expo. He gave us some new bearings for our wheels, we really needed those. Thanks so much Eric.

-Pattt

RAGBRAI Expo!

Date: 7/22/06
Mileage: 0 (Worked the RAGBRAI Expo alllll day long... It was great!)

Funds Raised:

$11,784.62 for Kupenda
+$400.00 thanks to the wonderful people at the RAGBRAI Expo!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,620.00 for ADA
+$200.00 thanks to the wonderful people at the RAGBRAI Expo!
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

After getting a great night's sleep we woke up and went straight to the RAGBRAI Expo which would last from 12:00 till 9:00 at night. The expo was awesome! It gave us a chance to talk to tons and tons of people about what we were doing, get some donations, and raise lots of awareness about diabetes.

(The setup at the Expo)

Some people wanted to know about Adam's insulin pump and how he manages his sugar levels while biking 100 mile days. Others were interested in our fixed gear bikes. Some people asked about the children in Africa and why we were helping them or what we were doing to help. There is a chance that we will be able to setup a table at each town that RAGBRAI visits. If we can we will because we really did some good today!

(A funny sign for Suga)

We also met Rob Layton who is the Ride Director for a ride that starts the day after RAGBRAI ends. His ride, called Bicycle Illinois, just happens to go from Muscitine, IA to downtown Chicago, IL!!! That is perfect for us because we were planning on doing that in one day! We agreed to talk about his ride at our expos, on our website, and to call him while we biked the route if anything came up that he would want to know about (looking for mistakes). This saved us the time and effort of making the route ourselves and it guarentees that we get real good maps and stuff.

(Raising awareness allll day long)

-Pattt

Sergeant Bluff, IA (Start of RAGBRAI)

Date: 7/21/06
Mileage: 95

Funds Raised:

$11,384.62 for Kupenda
+$500.00 thanks to Some Really Good Friends!!
+$15.00 thanks to James Singelton (bought a T-Shirt)
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We woke up late today and had an amazing breakfast (blueberry pancakes included!!!) with Kamla and her family in Crescent, Iowa. Every place we meet we have felt so amazingly welcome I can't even describe it! We truly enjoyed the hospitality oh Kamla and her family! Thank you soooooo much :)

(Breakfast!!!)

(Good bye Kamla, Patricia, and Krishna we will miss you!)

Luckily we will see Kamla again because she will be at RAGBRAI next week!!!

The wind was blowing hard against us all day long which made for a long slow day. Luckily the weather was super great. Not hot and a bit cloudy to keep the sun off of us. When we arrived in Sergeant Bluff we saw tons of people getting ready for the start of RAGBRAI... It is going to be great! Tomorrow we are working at the RAGBRAI expo all day long from 12:00 until 9:00 at night. We should be able to sell tons of T-Shirts and talk to lots of people. We also might get to talk at a Church here in town.

(This sign was right outside of Sergeant Bluff...
It reads "Bicycle Traffic Ahead")

Jason Cusick (a good friend and co-worker of mine) and Mike Caputi (aka Weezal, mine and Adam's roommate) met us today. They came to do all of RABRAI with us. Now we will have 2 more people out there on bikes with AFC jerseys on!

-Pattt

Crescent, Iowa

Date: 7/19/06
Mileage: 73

Funds Raised:

$10,884.62 for Kupenda
+$10.00 thanks to Jill and Ben
+$20.00 thanks to Homer
+$75.00 thanks to Pam
+$15.00 thanks to Tom Keller (bought a T-Shirt)
+$15.00 thanks to James Singleton (bought a T-Shirt)
+$40.00 thanks to myUncle Frankie and Aunt Colleen
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

This morning we got up early because we knew it was going to be extremely hot. The heat index was forcasted to reach 115 by 1:00. Since we only had about 75 miles we knew we could be done well before 1:00 if we left early enough. We hit the road at 5:45. Dave Pease, who lives in Peru, joined us for the first 16 miles of our ride, from Peru to Nebraska City. It was awesome having him ride with us in the early morning!! He is super fit and got up the big hills with noooo problem. Thanks Dave!

(Dave Pease left early with us in the morning)

We arrived at Crescent to a very warm welcome! We are staying with Kamla and her family who we found through warmshowers.org. That website is awesome for finding really cool people. A local news paper and a local TV station came to interview us. Its great to get this much exposure to our causes and to help diabetics. It was amazing because while talking to the newspaper reporter we found out that he has diabetes. He was on the shots instead of the insulin pump like Adam. By the end of the interview I think that we actually convinced him that the pump would change his life for the better if he switched!!! Stuff like that is what AFC is all about!!

(Fox 42 news came to interview us...
It was soooooo hot outside!)

We had a cookout at night and they invited tons of friends over! The best part was that they have a friend who owns a bus. He brought his bus over and we took it out to a karaoke bar in Omaha, Nebraska (which is right down the street).

(AFC Yokey!)

(Amazing bus that drove us to yokey)

For those keeping score.... our yokey stats are:

States Visisted: 8
States Karaoked: 8

ohhhhh yea! we are yokey masterminds!! :)


-Pattt

Making Friends In Peru!

Date: 7/18/06Mileage: 0 (but man did we have a jammed packed day!)
Funds Raised:

$10,719.62 for Kupenda
+$50.00 thanks to Cotty!
+$50.00 thanks to Peru Community Church!
+$25.00 thanks to Peru Kiwanis Club!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!
We woke up to an amazing breakfast at Coleman's Bed and Breakfast made by our host Betsy! Again we had blueberry pancakes (among other breakfast items that I don't really consider worth mentioning since the pancakes are all I really care about).
After breakfast we worked on the website and sending out millions of emails as we always do on our rest days.

Next we had lunch at the local resturant called Cotty's. WE LOVE COTTY'S (more on that later).

At 1:00 we met with Coach Terri, the coach of the Peru State Football team. He was nice enough to give us a tour of the campus! GOOOO Peru Bobcats!!!!! Whhoooo hoooooo!

We had a couple hours of down time before we went to give a talk to the kids at the Peru Community Church's Vacation Bible School. It was sooo fun talking to the kids about what we are doing and getting them fired up about God and doing good things for others :). We talked a lot about diabetes, Africa, and helping others. They had a million questions, which is always good!

(Talking at the Vacation Bible School)

For dinner we went back to Cotty's and ate with the Peru Kiwanis Club. We talked to them about what we do and they told us all about what they do. It was great! They were very excited about our efforts and were nice enough to make a donation to Kupenda.

(AFC and the Peru Kiwanis Club)

We stayed at Cotty's after dinner and hung out with Coach, Cotty and his wife, and tons of other awesome people! It was a great night! We Love Peru!

(Everyone has a high five for Cotty)


(A 2018 UPDATE: We still have a cozy from Cotty's!!!)

Our entire schedule, place to stay, and media contacts in Peru are all thanks to the efforts of our friend Ruth! Thanks sooooo much Ruth for making our stay in Peru on of the best and most memorable of our trip!!!

(AFC and Ruth in front of Cotty's)

-Pattt

Peru, Nebraska (150 Miles!!)

Date: 7/17/06

Mileage: 150... thats right... our longest day yet! 150!!! and it was 100+ degrees outside!!

Funds Raised:

$10,594.62 for Kupenda
+$10.00 thanks to Shelley Sullivan!!
+$100.00 thanks to Antoinette Martin!!!
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,420.00 for ADA
+$60.00 thanks to Grandman Driscoll's friends!
+$50.00 thanks to David Pease
+$25.00 thanks to Barbara Harlow
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Last night we went to Chucky Cheese! We went there with Max and his family. Max was the boy that we met the day before who has Type I Diabetes. His mom contacted Adam through our website because she wanted Max to meet someone who has diabetes and is living life to the fullest! This is the kind of stuff that AFC is all about. We want so very badly to inspire other diabetics and raise awareness!

(Adam and Patt...
Stuffed inside on of Chucky's tubes...
Having the TIME OF OUR LIVES!!!)

(AndyK on the Roller Coaster Ride)

We knew we had a long day ahead of us and we knew it was going to be super hot outside so we woke up at 4:15am. Susan, who we stayed with while we were in Kansas City, made us a super awesome breakfast!! Blue Berry Pancakes!!! It was amazing!! Susan was so nice to us. I love
Kansas City!

(Susan and her amazing blueberry pancakes!!)

After out amazing breakfast we said bye bye to Susan and we were on the road at 5:45am. We got in 95miles before lunch like it was nothing! It was not too hot out yet and the wind was at our backs! We were so excited that we had covered so much ground so easily.

After lunch it was a whole new ball game. Somehow the wind changed so that it was comming directly at us and it was SUPER hot! The last 60 miles were brutal.

We got to Peru, Nebraska at around 6:00pm. There were some people waiting for us when we arrived with a great big 'Welcome Adventures For The Cure' sign. Adam has been talking to a resident of the town, Ruth, who worked to schedule some talks for us to give tomorrow. So I guess she told some of her friends about us comming! It was so nice to be so warmly welcomed
:)

(Peru welcomes AFC!)

We have a free nights stay at a Bed and Breakfast both of the nights we will be here! This place is amazing!

-Pattt

AFC on the TV?

Date: 7/16/06

This morning we were interviewed by 49ABC News in Kansas... Here it is:



or here:

http://media.49abcnews.com/video/2006/07/15/bikes.mov

If this didn't help us to raise awareness for diabetes and inspire others I don't know what will :)

-Pattt

AFC on the Surly Blog!

This is huge!! Surly, the company that donated tons of bike gear and 2 frames, put us on their blog!! Check it out here: http://www.surlybikes.com/surlyblog.html

This is sooooo exciting!!!

-Pattt

Kansas City, Missouri (aka paradise!)

Date: 7/15/06
Mileage: 103

Funds Raised:

$10,585.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,260.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

We had to wake up at 4:30 am this morning because we were scheduled to be in Kansas City at 1:30 so that we could go to Summit Bikes and meet with some awesome people! It was really good to wake up so early because it was very cool and we beat the extreme heat of the day.

We made excellent time getting to Kansas City. Once we arrived we went to Susan's house. From there we went to the beginning of a bike ride that was organized by Summit Bikes. There were about 10 or so bikers and we biked for about 7 miles to the bike shop! At the shop we had tons of food (including homeade cookies!).

Summit bikes gave us whole sale prices on some new gloves and biking shorts. They gave us some free biking socks and they tuned our bikes up! We really appreciated their help.

(Free tune-up!! yay yay!)

(I love Summit Bikes!)

We also met with Max. Max is a young guy who was just recently diagnosed with Type I diabetes. His mom Venessa works for ADA and she organized a few newspapers and a TV stations to come to the bike shop to talk to us. We will be having dinner with them at Chucky Cheese tomorrow night!!!

(Max and his mom Vanessa)

After the bike shop we went back to Susan's house. Susan bought us some groceries and has been soooo welcoming it is like being at home in here house. When we meet people like Susan I feel much less homesick :) Hopefully one day I will have a chance to be so nice to complete strangers!

-Pattt

Osage City, Missouri

Date: 7/14/06
Mileage: 80

Funds Raised:

$10,585.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,260.00 for ADA
+$25.00 thanks to Matt Bellis
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was a relatively easy day. It was only 80 miles. We biked from Larned, Kansas to Osage, Kansas where we had a free stay in The Rosemary Inn Bed And Breakfast thanks to the efforts of Donald Kramer!! He contacted the town and the town paid for our stay there!

Thanks again Don!

(The Rosemary B&B)

We fell asleep extremely early because we didn't get much sleep the night before and we knew that we had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning to get to Kansas City, Missouri by 1:30 pm to meet with some people!

-Pattt

7th State Completed for Karaoke:):)!

Knowing we had a nice day rest in Hutchinson, Kansas we decided we would knock out our 7th state of karaoke. Turned out to be a really nice place and we got a 20 dollar donation from some nice people we met.

(Karaoke friends)

Song selections of the night:

Adam, Andyk - Lose Yourself - Enimen
Phillyk, Stump - Shake your tailfeather - Nelly + PDiddy
Stump - Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty


Adam

Eureka, Kansas (hot hot hot)

Date: 7/13/06
Mileage: 130

Funds Raised:

$10,585.62 for Kupenda
+$15.00 thanks to Jon Shank (bought a T-Shirt)
+$15.00 thanks to Kirk Butler (bought a T-Shirt)
+$15.00 thanks to Kim Welch (bought a T-Shirt)
+$25.00 thanks to Kim Welch
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,235.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Today was definately one of our hardest rides yet! The last time we did 130 miles it was 70 degrees outside. This time the high for the day was 100, it was extremely humid, and the wind was not in our favor. It made for a long day of biking!

We met a stray dog that we named BoBo. There was some discussion of taking him with us. But in the end there just was no room for him in AFCMobile :( So we gave hime some peanut butter, banana, and water and we said our good byes.

(BoBo and I were just tired :)

(Sugar loves dogs!)

(Chicken checking out the fixie)

We had figured that we would only have 115miles for the day when we left Hutchison and started out for Eureka, but we got a little lost and accidentially added some miles. When we finally got to Eureka we slept in the local state park. Since it was a beautiful night without a cloud in the sky we figured it was a great idea! We didn't pitch our tent. We just slept on our sleeping bags ontop of the picnic tables. There was an awning over our heads so we felt safe just in case a storm came through.

Oh man did a storm come through!! At 2:00 am there was lightning, thunder, tornado like winds, and rain everywhere. The winds blew the water under the awning so that most of us were soaking wet. I thought I was in a war zone. So... After a super hard day of biking we got very little sleep and we have 85+ miles tomorrow. Oh well :) This trip isn't supposed to be easy!

-Pattt

Yellowstone Geyser Video!

Funds Raised:

$10,515.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,235.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

Here is a cool video that really shows Yellowstone State park in action. This place was unlike anything I have ever seen before! This video was taken a couple of weeks ago when we were in Yellowstone.



-Pattt

AFC on the Radio!

Date: 7/11/06

Funds Raised:

$10,515.62 for Kupenda
$20,000 is the goal for Kupenda. That is the amount needed to build a boarding facility so that 30+ children, who have disabilities, will get to go to school!!! It is a chance to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives!!!

$8,235.00 for ADA
Battling diabetes is something that is close to our hearts since Adam has Type I Diabetes. AFC's mission at it's core is to raise awareness, show other diabetics that anything is possible, and to do anything to combat diabetes!

This morning Adam was interviewed by a radio station!

Click here to download the clip of it.

-Pattt