Day 21 - Comfort, TX - Camp Wood, TX

Today was an interesting day. At least that is the first word that came to mind when thinking of how to describe today. We woke up on our normal schedule - alarm rings at 5:30am, showered, dressed and cleaned out the hotel room. We headed to the RV Park to meet the rest of the group and have some breakfast. In case you forgot, I am on a cereal breakfast diet for this ride. Mainly because it agrees with my stomach in the morning and does not cause me problems on the bike.

The sun had a hard time breaking through the clouds this morning. There were a lot of low level clouds keeping us cool. It also was keeping us a little damp; we had some drizzles and a lot humidity. It was almost like we were back in Florida. At one of our stop we talked about what we would rather have, humidity and cloud cover or 50mph winds! I personal like the cloud cover and the sweat over the wind. Like we have a choice!
The first 40 miles were really pretty today, we were back in a wooded area and we were riding along a good size creek for most of the morning. The area really came alive today; we had dozens of Harleys roaring by us. We even were passed by a group of Porsche’s that we out for a Saturday drive. Along the creek we saw many camps and even a bed and breakfast were everyone was outside painting scenery pictures of the surrounding area. We also passed a women’s camp of some kind, they had archery, horse back riding, and canoe rides. We were a little jealous, but we smiled and waved and keep on riding.

We stopped for lunch at 48 miles today, there was a good spot to pull off and we had some hills so it was a good spot to eat and rest.

That is were the beauty and scenery stopped and the work began. The next 57 miles were intense, and the clouds blew out and the wind and the sun took over. The temperature reached 102 degrees and the terrain turned back to a high desert and the hills came! When you are in a part of the state they actually refer to as hill country, the last thing you want to do is go down a long descent. Because you know on the other end of that downward hill, you will spend at least twice as long climbing out of it. Let me tell you we climbed all afternoon. We climbed long straight roads, we climbed roads with multiple hills, and we climbed switch backs with at least a 6% for 3 miles. It was nasty, with the heat and the hills it was an intense afternoon.

Have you even seen Wild Hogs? There is a scene in the movie were they run out of gas and they are all pushing there motorcycles up a hill. Martin Lawrence is in the back pushing his bike and there is a buzzer walking behind looking at him like he is lunch! That is how I felt today climbing those hills today, I could see the shadows of the buzzer overhead and I was wondering if they are eyeballing me or all the dead deer along the road? Either way I keep pedaling and didn't want to find out!

The total mileage on the day was 105 miles, we are flat beat tonight. Tomorrows ride is 109 miles and we are getting to bed early to get as much rest as possible!

Sorry, we have a weak connection tonight so I was not able to upload any pictures to my blog. First chance I get I will try and get some pictures up.

I though Louisiana was the only anti-Verizon state? It appears certain parts of south Texas do not have a signal? Can you hear me now?!?

Enjoy your Sunday, make sure you tell the ones you love – you love them!

Day 20 - Comfort, TX - Rest Day

This is our second rest day in a row and the first time this was scheduled on this trip. I have mixed feeling about 2 rest days in a row. My legs really appreciate the rest, but part of me wants to be out there putting miles behind us. I have to remind myself that I need rest! I will breakdown physically if I push myself too much. So that is what we did today, we rested. We did have some fun off the bike today.

We all sleep in later then normal, as you probably know when your body is on a certain sleep schedule it is hard to break it for a few days, so we all kind of woke up around the same time and just stared at the ceiling for as long as we could before getting up. I think I made it to 7:30am before I climbed out of bed and took a shower.

We headed over to the RV and had some breakfast. We all agreed we would head into Fredricksburg, TX for a few hours. Fredricksburg reminded me of Sedona on steroids. Lots of antique shops and candy stores. I had a few favorite shops that we stopped at, the first was Texas Jack. It had everything from hats, belts, firearms! I was able to talk guns with on of the associates for 5 or 10 minutes. We discussed the different state laws between AZ and TX. Interesting fact, you cannot open carry in Texas, you can only conceal carry with a permit.  

My next favorite shop was a store that had every kind of jam, spread, and dip imaginable. The best part of the store was you could taste test almost every item in the store. It was incredible, Bill Estle and I had to remove ourselves from the store to stop testing EVERYTHING!

After walking around for a while we all worked up an appetite and headed to the Buffalo Nickel for lunch. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger that blew me away! It was really good, and the fries were made just the way I like them.

After Lunch we headed back to Comfort to enjoy the rest of the day however we wanted to. I chose to send out some tweets, and respond to my e-mails. Then I watched Breaking Away to pass the afternoon time. It is a cycling movie from 1979. It was fun to watch and encouraging to see this kid go for it all on the bike.

Tonight we are all just relaxing. Mona cooked us an amazing dinner. I am finishing my blog and then going to repack for the next 4 days on the bike.

The temperature is supposed to be warm again tomorrow and the wind isn't supposed to stop anytime soon. But we are rested and I have been receiving all kinds of encouragement from family and friends. I have no doubt that we will get through this tough patch of hills and wind.

Something that put my mind at ease today is that by next Saturday we will be out of Texas! That is 7 days from now with a rest day in there. Looking at it that way makes me sleep better at night.

Your week is ended and ours is beginning. Enjoy your weekend!

Day 19 - Comfort, TX - Rest Day

Today was a rest day in our schedule. However with the arrangements last night for dinner, we cut our ride about 30 miles short yesterday to keep our schedule. This morning we got up on our same schedule and went out and rode the missed miles.

I will have to say, I was less then pleased when that alarm sounded and we had to get up. I was thankful that we made our dinner last night.

When we went outside, the air was very cool. It was 48 degrees when we started riding. I put on what cold weather clothes I had with me. I had moved my long fingered gloves to another bag that was still back at the hotel. That was the coldest part this morning, my fingers.I had to suck it up for the first 30 minutes while they warmed up.

As we started riding the sun was just breaking the horizon. I was very thankful when it was up high enough to warm me up some. The hills were just as fun as they were yesterday, but without the wind it seemed to less work. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of work on the bike this morning. But the wind not messing my head was huge. I have always heard that after so many days/miles the ride becomes more of a head game. I think that is where I am right now. My body is still preforming, but my mind is starting to play games with me. I say on top of it, and spend a lot of time and prayer and a lot of time focusing on other things so I don't psych myself out when I see the next climb. It is actually quite interesting playing this head game with myself.

We finished the ride in about 2 hours and were back at the hotel to clean up for the day.

We lucked out and had laundry facilities at the RV park where our RV is parked at. We loaded up the washers with all our dirty clothes and then found a comfortable chair and some shade and relaxed. We had lunch around 12pm and moved the clothes to the dryer. While I was reading my book outside I told Shane I think I need to lay down for a few minutes, he said he would wait for the dyer to finish so I walked back over to the hotel and laid down. Apparently I was out like a light! Les (RV driver) came in the room to get something and Bill was banging on the door to get in....I heard nothing. I must have really needed a nap!

I woke up hearing my phone making beeping noise. I had missed 6 text messages. One of those was a TXT from the group to walk over and get ice cream at DQ. I hurried up and walked over and there was no one there! At first I thought I missed the party, but then I realized they were waiting for me to respond to the txt. Once we ironed that out I waited outside for everyone.

While I was waiting for everyone, Carl Ames called me to chat for a minute. Carl is a good friend of ours that if fighting Parkinson's Disease. Let me tell you, Carl is a fighter too! He has completed 2 sprint Triathlons in the last year. Carl is also riding with us from the Arizona/New Mexico border to Phoenix. This will be a great day when we see Carl standing there waiting for us on that border!

We took a quick trip into downtown Comfort to check out the shops. We found some interesting Antique stores with lots of antiques. In one of the stores the shop owner had these really cute pugs, and in the shop they had a bedroom and they would pose for pictures, it was priceless.

We just finished a delicious dinner and I am getting ready to watch the Office tonight. You see this is how i relax. I already warned some of the guys, there could be some tears. Yes I am one of those guys that tears up at television programs, plus I have been extra emotional lately with missing my family. Either way, tears or not tears it will be great to watch a program tonight.

We also have another rest day tomorrow. No alarm clock int he morning!!! Not sure what tomorrow with bring, I think we are running up to another town that is supposed to have a lot of shops and restaurants in it.

Tomorrow also brings the departure of POPS. He is going home for a week to go back to work. He will be greatly missed. He is extremely encouraging every day, all day. He gives us hugs in the morning and the evening! POPs Ride stands for Pedal over Parkinson's....but it is also what Shane and Shannon call there dad - POPS. He will be missed and we will be excited to see him return shortly!

Tomorrow is Friday! Make sure you make it a great day!!! Take time out of your day to talk to someone you wouldn't normally talk to, even if it is just a "Good Morning" and a smile!

Day 18 - Lockhart, TX - Comfort, TX

What a day, it didn't end up anything like we wanted it to. But in the end we just stepped back and said, "we aren't in control." Let me tell you about the highs and lows we experienced today.

We headed out from the same location that we stopped at last night. We had some navigation issues and had to back track for about a mile right off the bat. We "recalculated" and got back on track. The morning air was cool and dry for a change. It was so dry it reminded of Phoenix for a few minutes. The wind was up early with us this morning. Because of the storm last night, the winds were not coming out of the south anymore. They were now coming out of the northwest.

Within the first 15 minutes of our ride we rode through downtown Lockhart. It was a very interesting place, lots of store and a real neat court house right in the middle of the square.

It was one of those places we wish we had more time to visit. That is the one bummer of our trip and our schedule. We have passed so many places that we would love to stop in and check out. I would have loved to stick around in Pensacola to here Pastor Brian speak at a service  or hit up one of those road side dinner that looks kind of scary, but you know it has great food! But with our timetable that we have to hit it just isn't something we can do.

That is why it means so much to us to be able to sit and share with people from the communities that we are riding through.

We made our normal stop at the RV around 15 miles tonight. We had our regular snacks and goodies. I was pretty excited because we were stopped on the outskirts of Kyle, TX. How many times do you get to ride your bike through a city that is named the same as you are? Naturally we stopped and took a few pictures.

If you look closely at the second picture you can see my junior police badge that Shane got for us from the Kyle police department. We briefly spoke to an officer and he wished us luck on the rest of our trip!

That is were the fun stopped and the work started. The morning was long, and I am not speaking of just distance. Like I said early we were riding directly into the wind all morning and the like the sign says in the picture above...Gateway to Hill Country. We spent all 61 miles of the morning ride going up and down some descent hills with 20+ mph winds just beating us down. The view on the side of the road is starting to change. We are getting out of the trees and into more of a high desert terrain. We are still seeing a lot of road kill, but they are getting bigger and the smell is worse. I think I counted 6 deer today, a coyote, and many armadillos.

We arrived at the RV for lunch around 1:45pm, this is the latest we have stopped for lunch on this trip. We had been invited to a dinner at the Comfort Baptist tonight. So we had a decision to make. At the rate we were riding there was no way we would make it to dinner on time, and if we did there would be no time for us to shower before we headed over there. As a group we decided to press on another 15 miles and then pack it out and head to the hotel. With a 2 day rest in front of us it was decided that we would head back out in the morning when the temperature is lower and hopefully the winds are calmer and knock out those 30 miles we missed today. This will take us roughly 90 minutes to do with these hills. We are back to the hotel by 10am at the latest to enjoy the remainder of our rest day, with another full day of rest right behind it.

Those next 15 miles were filled with hills just like the morning. We made quick work of them and got out of there and on the RV and to the hotel. We were all a little bummed to have to stop short and go back tomorrow to make up the miles. But at the same time we feel it is important when someone reaches out to us to make sure we are available.

Let me tell you that we all enjoyed another fantastic home cooked meal from the church family here in Comfort, TX. We had the pleasure of talking to the Pastor who was very informational about the area. We talked about everything to ranches, George W, wildlife, oil, drug problem in Texas, the current drought they are in, Lance Armstrong and even a few other topic that I wasn't able to remember. It was great to get all this knowledge about the area we are in. One constant topic that kept coming up was all the hills to the west of town and how Lance used to come down here to train. It starting to make sense was Lance is so strong on the hills!

We have 30 miles in the morning and then it is out of the sun and off my legs for a while. We are in hill country now and my legs need some R&R!!!

I received more encouraging txt and facebook post today, and I can not express how much that encourages me out here on the bike. Thank you to all of you!!!

Day 17 - Burton, TX - Lockhart, TX

This morning the air was rather cool, with lots of fog. We went through our morning routines and were on the road by 7am. We headed out of Burton and made a few turns and road by the high school. The roads were pretty quiet and calm. Just like yesterday morning the ride was pretty quick to the RV which was at 19 miles today. We all stopped and filled up our bottles with water, I had my peanut and butter and jelly sandwich. From here we headed out to ride to a Barstop state park the ride there wasn't bad, it was rolling hills and the wind was calm. The RV had to park at a picnic area just inside the park entrance. That picnic area was at about 51 miles today.

We had lunch and moved right out of there and rode through the park. At first we were pretty excited, we were in a forest with trees all around us to shield us from the wind. Then we rode the first 100 yards...The hills were fast and steep. We had 12 miles of this road to ride through. I would go down a hill hitting 35mph and then shoot up the other side and dropping me to 7mph before I knew it. Let's just my quads were on fire before we made it out of that park. Once we made it out we navigated through Barstop, neat town. We actually had to ride on the shoulder of a highway for a few miles, that always makes things fun. Once we got off the highway, we hoped on FM20 and that took us all the way to Lockhart.

The temperatures increased and the hills are getting longing. We pushed ahead and stopped often for water. The temperature reached 96 degrees this afternoon with a descent about of humidity in the air. We reached maximum sweat levels during the afternoon ride.

When we were about 6 miles out of Lockhart, we passed a ranch with a POPsRide sign on the fence! You see Karen is from Lockhart and her mother has Parkinson's Disease. She heard about us when she picked up a flyer that we had sent here to Lockhart at one of the BBQ joints in town. Karen is a regular and picked up the flyer and looked us online. The more she dug the more she found out about us. She discovered that we were riding down the road that is right at the end of her driveway. Last night she stayed up and made us a sign and mounted it to her fence. It was unbelievable to see someone so excited to see us and encouraging to us to know it meant so much to someone you is dealing with the affects of her mother disease.

This gave us the energy to ride the last 6 miles into town. We made quick work of it and rode into town and found our hotel.

Tonight we had plans to attended a local BBQ joint (the one we sent flyer's to). Karen and her Mom and Dad meant us there and we had a fantastic meal. This was a neat place, it was cafeteria style and you loaded our plate up and just go for it. It was so good to talk to Karen and her parents. We had a great time just sharing stories. She picked up the tab, we tried to argue with her but she wasn't having any of that.

She help transport us back to our hotel, we gave her some BMX magazines that we had for her students (she's a teacher). We thanked her for all she did for us! It was a perfect ending to our day.

There is a storm blowing in tonight and it is supposed to hit between 8pm - 2pm. It should bring cooler weather, but it also looks like it will bring winds out of the west. Oh well, we will just have to pedal harder. The good news is we get a 2 day rest break after tomorrows ride. I look forward to having some serious down time. Lots of stretching, maybe watch some movies and read my book.

Tomorrow is hump day for the work week, I hope everyones week is going good so far. Our ride week is going good, we have some pains here and there and our legs are a little sore. But we will make it through this. Like one of my new favorite songs I have been listening to, it says...

when my faith is getting weak

and I feel like giving in

you breathe into me.

I'm awake I'm alive!

-Skillet, Awake and Alive

You can find those last efforts down deep inside when you are driven to succeed. That is what we are - driven!

Day 16 - New Waverly, TX - Burton, TX

Today was a Monday, and just like in the office it wasn't the greatest. It started out really good, alarm rang, took a quick shower and had my bowl of Total cereal. We had to be transported from our hotel to our starting spot in New Waverly. Once we arrived we carried on with our routine, sun tan lotion, making sure the tires are proper inflated. Ipod selection complete (Thousand Foot Krutch aka TFK), tail light flashing.

Everyone gathered for a prayer before we headed out. We made our way out of New Waverly quickly and with ease. Once we rolling, it was extremely beautiful on our morning route. We had cloud cover and we were riding through a forest so we were well protected from the wind.



We made it to our 15 mile stop, no issues. We had a quick snack and rode off into the....WIND! We rode with a steady 20mph wind coming out of the south. We headed southwest today, so it was either in our faces coming from the left. It was brutal! We powered through it to our lunch stop. We climbed into the RV, out of the wind and sun. Took off our shoes and relaxed for a bit. The gusts of wind were felt inside the RV. It plays head games with you while you are trying to relax. Once we had eaten our food, and reapplied our sun tan lotion and put on all of our gear we headed out again. With out fail, the wind did not let us all afternoon. It pushed us over when it wanted to. We had to ride with our bikes and bodies leaning into the wind to keep everything moving forward and on point. Then a semi truck would buzz by sucking you into his draft for a moment and then letting you go, again bouncing all over the place. It is enough to make you mad, but we kept our heads down, our ear buds in and our eyes on the road and pressed on.

Today was also filled with more hills. They are getting a little longer and the grade is getting steeper. We finally made the final corner one last climb, and sitting at the top of the hill was the mother ship (RV). I stood up and put one last effort on that hill and made it my....well you get the point.

During the ride today we passed a total of 4 riders on the same route, only headed the other direction. I only had an opportunity to stop and talk to one of them. His name was Jerry and he was way to St. Augustine and hopefully Boston. He was riding with his daughter and her husband, but they had a hard time waking up this morning so he started without them. We past them about 40 minutes later, everyone was still smiling so that is a good sign.

Once we loaded the bike onto the RV and the SAG, we had a 3 mile ride to our sleeping arrangements tonight. We are staying at the Inn at Indian Creek, and let me tell you this is a slice of heaven. We have a 2 bedroom cabin, with a full kitchen, living room and room to spare. We have a lake out front of our cabin, and despite the wind, it is a perfect spot to rest for the evening. If you are ever in the southeast side of Texas, do not pass this place up - trust me on this one! www.innatindiancreek.com

Today was Mona first full day with us and she fits right in. Tonight she cooked spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and it was great. Fresh baked chocolate cookies just came out of the oven and I already snagged one! Just what the doctor ordered.

I have no doubt I will sleep good tonight, I am flat beat from the wind, and my bed here is extremely comfortable. That my friends is a perfect storm!

I haven't had a chance to thank everyone individually, but there have been many donations and encouraging words while we are out here riding and we appreciate everyone one of them!  That is why we are riding, to bring awareness and to raise funds for Parkinson's research. Without off of you we would just be 3 crazy guys on bikes. Thank you for making all of our hard work worth while!

Day 15 - Rest Day! Easter!

Today was our rest day. We got in late last night from our dinner, let me tell you a little more about that. We had dinner with one of Shane's coworkers in laws home. It was about a hour drive from where we are here in Willis. They live on 5 acres, with another 5 acres for the longhorns. I felt like I was on a episode of Dallas! It was a perfect night to sit outside and enjoy the east Texas evening. I didn't even mind the breeze since I was off the bike.

We had smoked brisket, potato salad, cucumber salad and homemade sweet tea. Let me tell you it was all fantastic! As always it was great to talk to people about what we are doing and share stories with each other. Julie and her husband Derrick pulled together a great evening. To top off an incredible dinner, Derrick prepared blueberry and cherry cobler that he cooked in a dutch oven! And you can't have dutch over cobler with out homemade ice cream! Julie even gave us all chocolate Easter bunnies candies because she didn't want us to not have them on Easter morning, very thoughtful. When we were leaving Julie mother-in-law told me that in Texas they give hugs. We all hugged and concluded the evening.

It interesting how we can all live in different parts of the country and just open up our homes and our lives to each other. It makes you think that there is still a lot of good left in people! and for that I am thankful to the these families and the time they shared with us last night.

As I mentioned last night, when I arrived here at the hotel in Willis yesterday I was welcomed with a box from my family. My wife packed me a Easter basket. Here is a picture of what she put together for me, with help from my boys!



Easter was a lot tougher then I thought it would be on me. I really missed my family this morning while I was getting ready and walking to church. My wife sent me pictures of my boys all ready for church in there Easter clothes. I missed the routine that is our Sunday mornings, as crazy as they seem some weeks. I look forward to the day I get to see them again and hug there necks!

We walked over the First Baptist Church of Willis this morning for the 9:30am service. We settled into our seat and enjoyed a good service and a good message from Pastor Charles Smith. The choir sang a number of songs as well as some Easter drama playing out the resurrection of Jesus.  

After church we didn't stick around for to long, we headed to the laundry mat to cross that off our list of things to do. This laundry mat was not as nice as the one we were in Pensacola. Lets just say there was a dude in there with just sweat shorts on and his butt crack hanging out. I am not judging him, but he kept looking at me and it started to freak me out a little. I'm just glad his shirt finally finished in the dryer and he put it on!

During our time at the laundry mat, we had a little scare. I was out at the RV with Les our driver and was getting a couple soft drinks out of one of the bays under the bus. I unlocked one, opened it and then locked the cylinder with the door open so when i got what I needed I could just close the bay door. I gave the keys back to Les and got our drinks and shut the door. After the door was closed Les looked at me and asked me if I had the key? I said, no I just gave it to you. Well as it turns out he sat it next to the cooler in the bay not knowing I already the locked the cylinder. Yep, we locked the keys in the belly of the RV!!! We have another set of keys in our SAG vehicle, but it was in Houston (about an hour away) sending off Aunt Sharon, and picking up Mona (new cook). So Les and I broke the news to Shane and Shannon, not a lot we could do but wait until the SAG returned. Les, not being satisfied with the out came went out and messed with the bay door, and for some reason he was able to open that one door and get the keys out? He said he tried all of them to see if there was a way in and only that bay would open! He said it because we went to Easter service we were able to get in there. Whatever the reason we were all very thankful.

Once the laundry was complete we hunted for food. Again, sticking to our "no chains" rules we had a hard time to find anything open. We finally went to a grocery store and bought a few pizza and talked them into cooking them in there oven in the back! It was well worth the wait. Quick funny story, while we were waiting for our pizza to cook, Shane and I were sitting in a few chairs and a women came in smiling from ear to ear. We said Hi and smiled back, without hesitation we said, "Hi, do you know JJesus?" we both responded "yes ma'am" and she just smiled and kept on shopping. We are diffently in the south, they love there big truck, long horns and Jesus!  

That is pretty much it here in Willis, Texas today. I am resting in the hotel room, trying to stay off my feet and out of the sun. I caught up on another one of my sitcoms i try and watch reguarly - Parks and Rec. As always it made me laugh out loud more then once. We are getting ready for dinner and then I hope to watch a movie on Netflix and call it a day.

Our next run is only 3 days, then we have 2 days off in Comfort, TX. I know what you are thinking because I have thought the same thing. The resaon we have a short week and a 2 day rest is because after Comfort, we get into what the locals call "hill country". We have 3 days of climbing after our 2 day rest. If you cycle you can appreciate the effort it takes to climb 3 days at 4% and higher grade. Our legs will need to be fully rested and even then this will be very challeging. The tempatures are getting warmer everyday, so all those things mean hard days on the bike, and down time when we can get it. I am excited for the challenge, I am sure there will be smiles, tears and everything in between during this point in the ride.

I pray that everyone had a great day and hopefully spent it with the people that mean the most to you.

Have a great week!

Day 14 - Silsbee, TX - New Waverly, TX

Today we a woke to a tire on our sag vehicle with a screw in it. After we ate breakfast the drivers put together a plan and go the tire repaired. We rode ahead.

This morning was pretty nice, still humid and there was a breeze but it was at our backs and our left side most of the morning. We really moved this morning through the back roads in eastern Texas. My first impression of Texas is that everyone is really friendly. We get a lot of people waving and giving us lots of room when they pass. The views have been great, still alot of farms and open land.

Here is a picture of our SAG drivers, they are huge in our success everyday. These guys keep us hydrated and feed through out the day. Thank you Bill and Jerry!

We arrived at lunch pretty early today, even though we already had 55 miles behind us. We went through our lunch routine. Being excited about a rest day we headed out after 45 minutes.

It is interesting being in such small towns. While we were eating lunch a women came and knocked on the RV door to let us know she has cabins for rent down the road if we need to stay over night. Then when we were getting ready to ride away from lunch a gentlemen drove up and stopped and got out of his truck and started talking to us. Turns out he used to ride BMX when he was younger. He had driven by earlier and seen the RV and his daughter was really excited about it so he wanted to stop by and see what it was all about. We talked for awhile and then gave him some BMX magazines and stickers that we had with us. Then Pops sold him a t-shirt. It was a good end to our lunch break.

We got back on the saddle and rode! It turned out to be another roller coaster afternoon. It seemed we did more going up then going down, but it resulted in the last 37 miles going by very quick.

We pasted what we think was a guided tour of cyclist going the same route as we are, only in a different directions. The good news was most of them had smiles on there faces! I flashed a smile and a wave to all of them to.

Our route stopped tonight in New Waverly, TX. Population 950. We loaded our bikes on the racks and drove to our hotel just down the road in Willis, TX. When we arrived there was a package at our hotel from my wife and kids. They sent me an Easter basket with candy, it was very thoughtful and meant a lot to me. My boys sent me drawings too! It was a great surprise!

Tonight we had a special dinner! We went to someone home here in TX and they cooked us a proper Texas dinner. I will give all the details tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a rest day! We are staying at a hotel that is a stones throw away from a church. We are planning on attending the 9:30am service in the morning. Aunt Sharon is leaving us tomorrow and heading home. She has been with us from the day 1 and it will be sad to see her go. But as she leaves one of Shane's coworkers is flying in tomorrow to help us for then next 3 weeks!

But right now I need my sleep!

Day 13 - Oberlin, LA - Silsbee, TX

What a day! It started just like that the other. Like I said we are getting pretty good at this, get up get everyone feed and ready to start riding. We pulled out of Oberlin around 7am, and although the morning air was cool, the humidity was high and it wasn't long before we were all dripping with sweat. Today route did not have many turns in it so we navigeted through town and out on the open roads.

We headed west and at mile 20 we crossed into Texas! It was pretty exciting for us, it means we have covered a significant amount land since we started on April 10th!

Today we wore our Davis Phinney Foundation jerseys. Check out DPF and what they are doing to help folks with Parkinson's disease. http://www.davisphinneyfoundation.org/ 

That is where the excitement ended for the day. Once we crossed into Texas, we made a left and headed south all afternoon. The thing is there was a 15-20 mph wind coming out of the south today. It may not sound like a lot of wind, but when you are trying to go 15 mph into a 15 mph head wind, it causes you to use a lot more energy then you would normally use. We gladly stopped for lunch and got out of the sun and wind and had a hot ham and cheese sandwich, it was delicious.

After lunch we found some good music on our ipods and kept our heads down and pedalled into the wind and headed south. I chose Skillet to listen to get me through the afternoon.

We arrived at our hotel which is very nice, took a hot shower and then headed out to dinner tonight. We ate a place called Novrozsky's hamburger etc. I order a peanut butter bacon burger and to my surprise it was really good. It was a normal bacon burger with a big scoop of peanut butter on the burger. Naturally I had a sweet tea to go with my burger, it was a fulfilling and delicious dinner.

It is only 8:30pm here but i feel like it is 10pm. I am flat beat today. My legs are wore out from pushing into that wind all afternoon, i have developed a new saddle sore that it kicking my butt (literally) tonight. The good news is we have 92 mile day tomorrow. We get through tomorrow and we have a rest day on Easter Sunday. We are heading west tomorrow and the forecast calls for the winds out of the south again. So we will have to deal with it, but a cross wind isn't nearly as defeating as a head wind.

There are a few things I dislike about cycling: Mountains! Headwind!

My favorite things about cycling: Descents! Tailwind!

I need to stretch and go to bed now, although we will be about 10 miles shorter tomorrow, it can still be just as challenging if my body isn't ready for it.

Again thank you for all your support - you guys are great!

Day 12 - Marksville, LA to Oberlin, LA

Of f the bike! and feel great! Thank you for every ones prayers and encouragement!

I forget to share something in my blog yesterday.

You see the RV meets us at mile 15, mile 50 and then the stopping spot everyday. It normally gets to the final destination long before we do. Yesterday since Pops (Jerry Stutzman) rode on the tandem in the morning he kicked back in the RV in the afternoon. Long story short, Pops ended up selling 10 t-shirt in a little 2 stop light town in Louisiana. It was great! What was even better was this morning when we were pulling out, another women flagged him down and wanted to buy a shirt. The icing on the cake was when we were riding out of town a car pulled up and honked and the women in the car were wearing there POPsRide shirts! It was really cool.

We pulled out of town and had some issues navigating some unmarked local roads. We ended up asking a local lady that was driving by, she then flagged down a gentlemen in another vehicle that was more then happy to help us because he saw us yesterday riding in. As the man and our SAG drivers were looking at the maps the women quickly asked if she could pray with us, never wanting to turn away prayer - she prayed for our safety and to be able to complete this journey! It was great. We had another women stop by and wanted to know how long we were going to be there so she could go get her camera and take a picture with us. We kindly told here we would be leaving shortly. Then the local PD pulled up, we had a little traffic jam on our hands now. After a few minutes it cleared out and the officer helped us get back on track.

Once we got our route worked out we headed out of town and out to the sticks again. Louisiana is different out of town, there is a lot of water. We actually spent most of the day riding by craw fish farms.

We stopped for lunch and climbed in the RV and cooled off. Something we try to do everyday at lunch is cool off, and take our shoes off. It's Amazing what 30-40 minutes with your shoes off and cooling down can do for you. The afternoon was better then the morning because the wind calmed down and stopped blowing us all over the road. We cruised through some more craw fish field and rolled into our final destination for the day.

We did ride upon another cyclist riding the same route we are on from east to west. His name is Roy, he is actually staying at the same Inn that we are at tonight. I think we are inviting him to dinner. He is riding solo and is having a rough go the last couple days. The roads have been rough and the wind has been strong - not a fun combination. Here is a picture of Roy. My hats off to time and his journey.

In other news our new friend Tony recently completed his journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic! Congratulations Tony! You rock! Glad we were able to meet for a few minutes on the side of the US90. I hope our paths cross again sometime. Check out Tony's website and his final blog about his solo trip cross the US. http://www.jacksonvilleorbust.co.uk/

We just got the word that dinner is ready! When you ride as many miles as we are riding right now you can't wait to consume calories to replenish the thousands we burned today.

Tomorrow we cross into Texas! Another state closer to our goal! Unbelievable!

Have a great Friday everyone!!!

Day 11 - Clinton, LA - Markville, LA

Let me start by saying this is day 11 of our ride! We have had 2 rest days. We have rode 907 miles in 9 days towards our goal! This is crazy, we are cruising across america on our bikes! Let me tell you about my day!

Well this morning started out great. I had a wonderful night’s sleep, nice warm shower and a good bowl of cereal. We had about a 10 minute drive from the bed and breakfast to the starting point for the ride this morning.

Shannon and his father aka POPS were riding the tandem bike this morning. We set out and started pedaling. The roads this morning were beautiful, most of the roads were covered by trees and although humid, the temperature wasn’t very high. The problem at this point was my legs. They felt fine when I was up and around before we started riding, but when I started pedaling they felt very heavy and non responsive. I mustered through the first 40 miles when we were surprised with another ferry ride. When I say we were surprised, mainly I was surprised. I think everyone else knew it was coming but like I have said before I take it one mile at a time and don’t spend to much time looking ahead.

We crossed the mighty Mississippi river on a ferry, this time we were able to take the RV with us (sorry Jerry!).  It was a short ride across river to the other shore.

After the ferry we rode another 12 miles until we stopped for lunch. We all relaxed inside the RV with the air conditioning on. POPs rode from the start to the lunch spot and I had a hard time keeping up with them all morning. They were moving on that tandem! However the temperature reached 91 degrees today, and I am not sure what the humidity was but what I can tell you is I would trade a 105 day in Phoenix for a 90 degree day down here.

But there is good news! After we crossed the Mississippi the roads have flatten out for a while. This is good news because I also started to experience mechanical issues. You see my front derailleur started throwing my chain off the high end and the low end. To make matter worse I had a bent chain link that was causing a hiccup in my rear derailleur…I almost hate to admit this but there were curse words out here in Louisiana today. I was able to find a sweet spot that everything worked and got me to our end destination. I am thankful for that.

The roads were flat but far from smooth. We managed to dodge all the really big potholes but we hit our fair share. This is defeating because it takes its toll on your arms and your shoulders. It also slows you down, and with the Louisiana sun beating down on us we wanted to get off the road as quick as possible. The final mileage today was 103.5 miles. It felt extremely good to get off and get inside the RV and off those bumpy roads.

We had a 30 minute drive to our RV park we are staying at tonight. We have a RV spot and a cabin here. The cabin is very nice and comfortable. Once we unloaded Shannon quickly went from bike rider to bike mechanic. He worked my bike over for some time until he had my chain fixed and my derailleur’s shifting. He is my hero for getting my bike ready to roll again.

 We ate some pork chops and mac-n-cheese for dinner and it hit the spot. Once I was able to shower and sit down to blog it is already 9:15pm and time for lights out. Because we have a 30 min ride to our starting point, we have to wake up early to be on the road by 7am.

That is all for tonight folks! All in all it was a tough day for me, I made it through and nothing hurts to bad tonight. Hopefully the terrain is flat and the wind is at our back in the morning to help ease into the ride tomorrow.

Day 10 - Rest Day in Clinton, LA

Today was a rest day in our schedule. These days are great for us to regroup and prepare for the next 4 days. I had a great nights sleep in the bed and breakfast here in Clinton, LA. After breakfast I had some time to Skype with my wife and kids for a few minutes. I love being able to do this and I try to do it as much as possible.
We split up the duties and got to work. Even though it is a rest day there are certain things we need to get done for the next stretch. I went ahead and took the laundry duty. The B&B has a washer and 2 dyers so I was able to do everything in house. Shannon is our mechanic and took care of our bikes for us. They are all cleaned up and ready to roll in the morning. Shane was here and there taking care of all the business side of things. Bill and Jerry cleaned the SAG vehicle out and vacuumed the RV. It was much more efficient on our second rest day since everyone had a general idea of what needed to get done.
We finished up around noon, and Shane, Shannon and I headed to downtown Clinton to find something to eat. We walked the entire city in search for food (both blocks), we finally ended up at the gas station which to my surprise it had a small kitchen in the back and made Po Boys, so I ordered a Roast Beef Po Boy!

It definitely hit the spot! On the way back we walked my the court house, and like most court house down here in the south, it was pretty impressive.

Once we returned to the house, we found a seat on the couch and kicked our feet up and watched an episode of The Pacific. This is the first time I have watched this series and it did not let me down. Once that was over I headed to my room and just relaxed all afternoon. I watched last weeks Parks and Rec. and then sleep for an hour or so.
We all sat and had dinner together and went over the game plan for the morning, I was able to Skype with my wife this evening and it was great to talk to her!
Everything is packed and ready to go in the morning! We have 4 days in row now, and we sometime on Friday we will be in Texas and have another state behind us. Unfortunately we will be in Texas a looonnnggg time! But that's okay, if it was easy we wouldn't be doing it. You see Parkinson's Disease isn't easy either, we chose this platform to bring awareness and raise money for Parkinson's because it is a challenge. If Texas takes us 3 weeks to cross, then so be it - the point will be that we crossed it on two wheels, using our legs and our heart to do it.

If you haven't check out our website yet, please do! www.popsride.com

Don't forget you can follow my tweets for more frequent updates during the day! http://twitter.com/#!/KyleRWorley

I am ready for tomorrow and for what it holds for me!

Day 9 - Poplarville, MS - Clinton, LA

This morning was beautiful! I didn't have the best nights sleep, I couldn't really get comfortable last night and it was rather chilly in our cabin at the RV park. I only had a sheet to stay warm with, so I spent time trying to be creative with whatever I could reach. But once I woke up and went outside the sunrise made it all worth while.
Unfortunately that was the nicest part of the day we experienced. The weather was mainly over cast but the humidity was extremely high and I am not sure that I ever stopped sweating until I took a shower this evening. It made drinking that H2O even more important today. Bill Estle and Jerry Stutzman did a great job keeping out water bottles full and snacks in our jersey pockets so we had energy for the full ride.

we rode out of Poplarville and about 20 miles after we left we left Mississippi and entered Louisiana, we naturally stopped for pictures.

Another state behind us. Like I said the best part of the day was the sunrise. Louisiana was not only warm and humid it was full of rolling hills. We are getting pretty used to these kinds of hills because Florida was full of them too, but it doesn't mean your legs still don't get worn out riding them.
We stopped and ate lunch at 55 miles today, had a ham sandwich with some chips and a coke. We spent a few minutes chatting and them mounted our bikes and continued west. We rode a total of 95 miles today and actually got off the bikes earlier today then any other day so far. Even with the humidity and the hills we made great time.
We are staying at a bed and breakfast tonight, and it is a really cool place. We are staying at The Wild Flower Inn http://www.thewildflowerinn.net/ , check it out. I actually have my own room tonight and tomorrow night. I have this weird suspicion that it is haunted though....this is a picture from the dream room...

Jerry Hogg is staying and that room and I told him if that dress starts floating around the room tonight, I am out of here!!! I am just kidding about it being haunted, we asked the owner and she told us it isn't. We definitely got hooked up for this rest day, we all have beds and we have a great Wi-Fi connection here. The only bummer is that Verizon does not have any coverage in Clinton, LA. None of us have cell phone coverage, so the only way we can communicate is e-mail and Skype. But the accommodations out weigh the no cell phones.

Once we unloaded the bags and took showers, we headed down the street and had some pizza for dinner. We ate at a place called Sonny Pizza. We have a no chain rule on this trip. Meaning that when we go out to eat we look for something local instead of going to a chain that we can go to at anytime in Phoenix. So we had pizza and it was good!

Tomorrow is a rest day! So that means I get to sleep in, and just like the last rest day we have laundry to do and some bike maintenance to take care of. I am off to bed now, I need to upload some picture to facebook, but that is about it for the night.

Until tomorrow!

Day 8 - Bayou La Barte, AL - Poplarville, MS

Hey everyone, hope you had a good Sunday.

This morning started with the same routine we have gotten into. Get up at 5:30am (I resist until 5:40ish!), pack up our bedding and take everything out to the RV. I like to eat before putting my cycling gear on. Shane and Shannon get all the gear on first to get it out of the way. But I have my own system and it works! Then I ate breakfast, today i had cereal again. It has somewhat became my thing on ride days to have just a bowl of cereal. Aunt Sharron prepared pancake and bacon today for us. It looked and smelled wonderful, but i stuck to my cereal.

We left at day break and headed west. The weather was great today, humidity was low and we had a wind behind us most of the morning. All three of us got into a groove early and knocked off the first 50 miles like nothing.

During the morning ride we left Alabama behind and entered Mississippi. Another state behind us and we are leaving this one tomorrow morning after another 20 miles. Isn't it strange that 20 miles is just a morning warm up? My odometer rolled over 700 miles this afternoon. That is right we have ridden 714 miles since last Sunday morning we we left the Atlantic ocean behind us! It is crazy that we are out here doing this.

Mississippi is a pretty state too, I was amazed at all the horse ranches we have passed. This country is really pretty traveling the back roads, plus you get to see all kinds of interesting things along the way too.

If you can't read the words below the Tin man, it says "Some Yellow Belly shot this Tin Man. S.O.B." and it is on a mount in someones front yard. And why wouldn't be right?

The afternoon was a lot like the morning as far as the weather was concern, we had a little wind here and there but not enough to get upset about. The turned into roller coaster, up and down, up and down. Except there were stretches that it seamed we kept going up and not getting the reward of the down part!

We rode for a total of 113 miles today, we averaged just under 15 mph on the day. Although we were moving at a good speed all day, it still makes for a long day on the bike. We have another 100 mile day tomorrow and then we get 2 rest days just outside Baton Rouge. I am definitely looking forward to resting on these days. The back to back will be nice, the first day we can get everything washed and taken care of. Then the second day we can do nothing, take in a local attraction, watch a movie....relax!

We do lose our RV driver the day after tomorrow. Jerry Hogg has out done himself on this trip. He has fixed everything on the RV that needed fixing, he has done a great job at navigating the roads ahead for us as well as helping with anything else that needs to be done on the trip. I have full confidence in our new driver and I am sure we will come to appreciate him like we do Jerry, but with my personal relationship i have with Jerry it will be sad to see him go. But the ride goes on!

Hope every ones work week start off good tomorrow, or if it already started....have a great week!

Day 7 - Pensacola - Bayou La Barte

What a day! We are out of Florida, It was a pretty state that brought us extreme heat on the first day, rain on the 3rd day and pleasant weather the other days. It was filled with rolling terrian with lots of trees and roadkill. Am i sad to see Florida behind me...heck no! That means we are one step closer to our goal!

I slept great last night, used a different air mattress and it worked great. Woke up, showered and had a bowl of ceral. We rode out of Pensacola around 7am. We made our way south and then west and it didn't take us long to see the winds were going to be strong today. We rode right down to the gulf shore and rode parrall to the gulf. It was really pretty.

After riding into the wind for 20 miles down the coast we finally crossed over into Alabama. We missed the actual sign entering the state. They were having a athletic event right on the border there and the sign was hidden behind folks and vehicles. We stopped at the snext avalible sign for a photo shoot...

The rest of the ride was really pretty as well. We rode down to Mobile Bay and took a ferry across the bay to Dauphin Island. It was about a 4.5 mile ferry ride. The water was choppy but the ferry was pretty steady. It was pretty fun, we rode our bikes off when we arrived at Dauphin Island.

Bill Estle and Shane on the ferry

Dauphin Island was a neat place. Once we were off the ferry and on the island we met another cross country cyclist named Chris. Chris is riding for his friend that has MS. We is riding solo and unsupported. So he carries everything with him all the time. We talked for a few minutes and Shannon snapped a picture and he boarded the ferry to cross to were we had just came from.

We were only on Dauphin Island for a few miles, but while we were there we met the some locals.

After we saved Shane from this huge shark (and why is there a shark on Dauphin Island?), we rode off the island and across a very long bridge.

The rest of the day was riding through Alabama and it was pretty flat and the winds decreased as the afternoon went on. All and all it wasn't an bad afternoon on the bike. 

For me the day was very long, with all the wind this morning it was really exhausting and took it out of me. Tomorrow i need to focus on holding back my efforts for the right obstacles so i have more in the tank at the end of the day when i always seem to need it.

I have already showered and eaten another great RV dinner and am looking forward to talking to my wife and kids in a few minutes on the computer. Then I need to get everything out for tomorrow morning. We are told by our on staff meteorologist that the winds will be from the northeast in the morning, so that will definitely help us out! Tomorrow we press on here in Alabama and actually cross into Mississippi tomorrow too.

Thank you for everyones support and prayers!

Day 6 - REST DAY - Pensacola, FL

Last night we had dinner with Pastor Brian and his wife Missi. We had a great time, the food was incredible and the visit we had with them was equally as good. We walked down on the beach on the Gulf and stuck our feet in the water. The sand over here is really cool, very pure. I introduced Missi to tweetdeck and in her words not mine "changed her life"! On the way back to the church Brian and I had a great conversation about airplanes and the Blue Angels specifically. It was a great way to end day 5.

Today didn't start out to well, for starters I had a really bad night of sleep. I couldn't get comfortable on the air pad that I had so around 1am I decide to relocate to the back row of the church chairs. I packed up my sheets and my pillow and made that back row my bed. It works okay, but was very depleted when it was time to get up.

We had a good hearty breakfast that consist of pancakes/eggs/bacon. It was nice to eat a good breakfast and not worry about the bike for a day. We cleaned up after breakfast and took on the task that needed to be completed. I took laundry duty with Shannon and Bill. We loaded up the car with the dirty clothes from 7 people included our cycling gear and headed to a laundry mat down the street. I think this is the second time i have been in a laundry mat. It wasn't so bad, we loaded up 5 washers and got them all going, then transferred them to the dryers as they came out of the washers. I spent the down time talking to the nice women working there and explained to her what we are doing and he told me about the time here and her sister drove to Yuma and she couldn't believe how big Texas was. I reminded her that we are going through Texas on our bikes...she looked at me and said "that's going to take a while" and i replied "yes ma'am it will" Once we were done there we came back to the church and the groceries crew was just getting back too. So we all helped get everything put away and had lunch. Shannon grilled us hot dogs and we had chips and drinks with them.

Now that we got all the necessities out of the way we headed down to the Naval Aviation Museum to check out the history of the navy aircraft. It did not disappoint. We spent about 3 hours there and even took in a Imax movie called the Magic of Flight. It was really interesting, it mainly focused on the Blue Angels. If you haven't ever seen them or the back story about the train they go through, check it out the next time you have an opportunity. We headed back to the church around dinner time. Again took care of things that needed to be done and sat down and ate our dinner together. Aunt Sharron made another great meal for us.

Now i sit here at the end of my rest day feeling very exhausted. I think i am going to take the next hour and have some Kyle downtime. Which means I am going to watch the Office and Parks and Rec from last night. Then close my eyes for a great nights worth of rest!

One day at a time folks, I have to remind myself that this is a long journey and it will not do me any good focuses on things that are out of my control. I just need to keep my shoes clipped in and my eyes on the prize and we be successful!

Good night all.