It has been over a month since our amazing bike trip ended, but when I think back on the trip it seems like something really far in the past. Matt and I were saying how it's a good thing we took pictures and kept this blog, or we probably wouldn't believe we had actually biked all the way across America.
Thank you so much for those who have donated since we last posted!
The Baird Family, David and Kristen DeTienne, Teppo Felin, Trevor Evans, the Haynes Family, Justin and Katie King, Tammy Meldrum (in memory of her brother Brad Welch, who lived with juvenile diabetes), Vicki Anderson, Sarah Sheranian Monson, Chris and Shea St. Jeor, Scott Christensen, Michael Cummings, and Anonymous
If you haven't already, check out these news stories about us:
We made it!!! Wow. What a hard, painful, humbling, fulfilling, and amazing experience this bike trip has been!
On Saturday night we found out that a tropical storm (1 mph away from being classified as a hurricane) was scheduled to hit Jacksonville Sunday afternoon and continue through sometime on Tuesday. Needing to finish this trip so that Matt and I can make it to our internships, we decided to bike today through the storm.
Last night I read over and over again the scripture in Mark 4:
36 And
when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the
ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
37 And
there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it
was now full.
38 And he
was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and
say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
39 And he
arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,aPeace,
be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great bcalm.
40 And he
said unto them, Why are ye so afearful?
how is it that ye have no bfaith?
41 And
they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this,
that even the wind and the sea obey him?
I knew that if Jesus could calm the wind and still the sea for his disciples, Heavenly Father could do the same for us. I prayed with earnest last night and all this morning while we were riding that our "great storm of wind" would be calmed. We got some occasional rain and wind today, but it was nothing compared to what we could have experienced. I testify that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. I had an amazing spiritual experience as I was biking today; I felt so strongly Heavenly Father's love for me and got a beautiful, peaceful feeling. It was like He had calmed the winds and me. It is so humbling to see that again and again we have been blessed on this bike trip.
Reaching the Atlantic Ocean came with a basket of emotions; we laughed, gave victory shouts, gave sighs of relief, I cried... What a wonderful moment! To celebrate we all went to Joe's Crab Shack.
We thought that today it would be fun to put a review of our bike trip:
Our Bike Trip Across America
Total miles biked: 2,519
Total days biked (not including rest days): 29
Average miles per day: 87
Maximum miles per day: 124
Minimum miles per day: 30 (the day Amber got her concussion)
States crossed: 8
Flat tires: 7 (that includes the truck's flat tire)
Person with the most facial hair grown during trip
Matt (yes, he shaved as soon as we finished)
Person with the most sunburns
Amber (even though she put on sunscreen every time we stopped)
Number of bugs swallowed
We didn't count, but it was a lot
Number of dead armadillos in the road
We didn't count that either, but Matt thinks it was over 100
Donations to JDRF
Total amount donated (as of 5/28/12 at 3pm MST): $3,229
A special thanks to all those who donated so far! We couldn't be more grateful!
The
Hull Family, Doug and Sharon Martin and family, Century 21 Bushnell, Mason
Chenn, Kris Bloomfield, Laura (Grandma) LeBaron (twice!), Alicia Schick, Nicole
Nowak-Ahmad, Haylie Lund, Ruth Ann Ferreira, Kathy Ward, Brian Henderson,
Georgia Ogles, Jonathan Fischer, Paul and Marilyn Robinson, Curt and Jan
LeBaron (our parents), Trevor Evans (twice!), Jared Colton, Riley Cooney, Brittany
Miyahara, Val Gene Ogles, Andersen Studios, Alishia Sullivan, Curt and Angi
Cummings, Katie Liljenquist, Rhett Weller, Margita Clark, Dominic Anderson,
The Sheranian Family, Mette Petersen, Kimball Hansen, Marcus Shaw, Ron
Purvis, Todd Castagna, Spencer Ray, Shawna Hamblin, the Haynes Family,
Anonymous, Anonymous, Anonymous, and Anonymous
And thank you everyone for following our journey and our blog! We have loved all of the support! We'll do a couple more posts on our recovery process, more donations we get, more news coverage, etc.
Thank you so much to everyone who donated to JDRF (the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) since last Sunday! We really appreciate your thoughtful donations!
Century 21 Bushnell, Mason Chenn, Kris Bloomfield, Laura (Grandma) LeBaron, Alicia Schick, Nicole Nowak-Ahmad, Haylie Lund, and Anonymous If you would like to make a donation, click here or on the button that says "MAKE A DONATION!" on the right of our blog under the thermometer. All donations go straight to JDRF; Matt and I don't see any of it. (All of our expenses like lodging, food, biking gear, etc. come from our own savings.) Every donation makes a difference!
Last night I slept for ten hours and it felt marvelous! Sundays truly are the best. Today we went to a church near by. (We are members ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For more information click here.) The ward that we went to for church was so friendly! We had a ton of people come up to us and ask if we're visiting, where we're from, and about our bike trip. Florida has had some of the friendliest people we've met on this trip.
We are starting to get pretty nervous about the tropical storm that has hit Jacksonville (it's almost at a hurricane status). The weather report says that winds have gotten up to 70 mph! Yikes. The worst of the storm is happening tonight, but the storm is supposed to last through Tuesday night. There is also talk of potential flooding, and we've already had a lot of rain in Lake City. Cross your fingers that we'll be able to finish this trip tomorrow by riding between the bands of the storm!
We shattered our old record of 106 miles with 124 miles for today! We decided to go so far because (1) we know that tomorrow is Sunday which means we get a rest day and (2) we heard that there is going to be a mini hurricane coming to Jacksonville Sunday afternoon and is sticking around through Monday! We figured that the more we rode today, the less we will have to ride on Monday which will probably be against really strong headwinds. The winds are supposed to be 45 mph! We are praying that this isn't going to be the case because we are so close (69 miles away from the Atlantic!) and would love to finish this trip on Monday.
Matt and I really enjoyed our lunch today. Pops bought a 37-pound watermelon for $5, cut it open with his pocketknife, and cut big pieces off for us. We ate it at this park pavilion that was in one of the towns we were passing through. In the park there was a Baptist preacher who was giving a sermon. He was really loud (I'm surprised he could keep up the volume for so long) and used big gestures, but there was only one person in the audience--she must have been his wife. I think she was video recording his sermon so perhaps they just did it in the park for a nice background.
Just outside of Tallahassee we passed the Letchworth-Love Mounds, and Matt went to go check them out while I rode ahead. Matt said he was really "digging" all of the archaeological discoveries and that he had "mounds of fun." For those who aren't familiar with mounds, they look like really big, oddly-shaped hills. Archaeologists can discover what the mound used to look like, how old it is, etc. This mound that we went by today was built about 1500 years ago by some Native Americans. Researchers believe it was used as some kind of temple or burial place.
103 miles for the day. It’s exciting how close we are
getting to the Atlantic!
Matt's and my best for the day was when we were biking along
and glanced across the street, and there was Pops holding up a cantaloupe for
us! He cut it into slices with his pocket knife, and Matt and I downed the
whole thing in no time.
My worst for the day is that my feet were really hurting.
Since my clip in pedal broke, I’ve had to use the normal pedals and wear my
“for walking around after we’re done riding” shoes. I didn’t anticipate needing
to bike in normal shoes so I brought really old, thin sneakers. They are so thin that my feet took a hit today. I don't want to buy new shoes/clip-in pedals when we are so close to finishing, so Matt is going to let me have the clip-in pedals tomorrow.
Matt’s worst for the day was that he didn’t see an
alligator. Haha he really wants to see one out in the wild. He saw something moving in the water when we passed by a lake, but he wasn't sure if it was an alligator or not. We did, however, see lots of cool Spanish moss on the trees.
Matt’s second worst for the day is all of the bugs. There
are little gnat guys that come and buzz right by our eyes. I have no idea what
they are trying to accomplish by attacking our eyes, but I don’t wait long
enough to find out. And Matt’s bug bites continue but in a different form… he has a
big mosquito bite on his eyebrow.
Today was hot! It got up to 98 degrees for a few hours (which means over 100 on the asphalt) and it's humid. We had to take breaks more frequently to keep hydrated.
Why did the chicken cross the road? We couldn't tell why.
Granola bars for breakfast. And lunch. And an afternoon snack.
106 miles today! When we got done for the day, Grandma Gina thought it would be fun to total up how many miles we have ridden so far. Believe it or not, we have gone 2,222 miles so far! How perfect!
Today was great! Yesterday my knees were really hurting me and I felt like I had pulled a muscle in my calf, so I prayed that I would have the strength and the health to meet our goal for today (we always try to ride 100 miles). Of course I was really tired by the end of the ride, but other than that I felt great all day! It is humbling and I am so grateful for the many answers to prayers that I have received on this trip.
About half way through the day, we started riding along the coastline again. It is so beautiful! The beaches looked like they were straight from a movie with their turquoise water, white sand, and palm trees. Florida is amazing. We also biked along a bike path for a ways and it was really fun going over little wooden bridges, ducking under low branches, and dodging fellow bikers. After a while, however, we had to resort back to the road because it's a lot faster/smoother ride.
It's great to have Pops (our grandpa) with us! He drove out from Utah in Matt's car so that Matt can take it straight up to Virginia for his internship that starts in a week and a half. Pops caught up to us in the early evening and is going to be coming along with us the rest of the trip.
As we were riding our last few miles into Panama City Beach, a car pulled over next to us and kept honking for us to stop. The lady inside had her window rolled down and shouted, "Do you accept donations?" At first we were confused by what she meant (Matt thought she said "Do you want donuts?"), but after talking with her we learned that she knew who we were! She was staying in Louisiana when NBC33 showed our story on their news, so when she saw us in real life she got really excited! Her cousin has type 1 diabetes and she thinks our trip is a great way to raise awareness. We gave her the blog address and told her to just click on the thermometer to donate. It was great to meet you Marlene! You are a sweetheart; thank you for saying hi and talking with us!
We biked in three different states today! Mississippi,
Alabama, and Florida—we covered Alabama in one day. That means we only have one
more state left!!
Looks like Alabama tricked us… We had hills all the way
across the state. It sure is a pretty state though. It’s amazing how green
everything is, there were beautiful bridges and rivers, and the big, red,
setting sun still blows me away.
My body hurts really badly. Some of my body aches, some of
it has sharp pains, and the rest of it is somewhere in between. I couldn’t help
but cry the last ten miles today because my body wanted so badly for me to
stop.
We had another news channel come out and interview us!
Christian and the camera man were really nice to us. Christian interviewed Matt
and me, and then the camera guy recorded us biking down the street a few times.
When Christian sends us the link to the story we’ll post it.
Matt was singing "Sweet Home Alabama" to himself today. We are both big country fans, so we have passed some of our time singing to ourselves. John Denver songs are some of my favorites to sing out here.
Pumped out 100 miles for the day. We’re projecting to finish this trip on Tuesday of next week! Can’t wait!
