Hey Hey Hey Everyone

We are in Aberdeen and having a meet and greet tomorrow night at the Eagles Club here in Aberdeen. It starts at 4pm and goes until 8pm. There will be a free will donation dinner. The menu consists of BBQs, hot dogs, chips, bars and some other stuff. Kelly and I will both be there to mingle with the natives and answer any and all of your questions. If we can rig something up for pictures we will have them to look at, no promises, we will try our best. We hope to see everyone from this area out in full force! Thanks again to for everyone’s continued support!

country road take me home!

Today we were planning on getting up early and getting in as many miles as we could before lunch since we were crashing early and it was suppose to be hot, but that didn't happen. I woke up at 5.30 to go to the bathroom and I couldn't see the baseball field that was 25 feet away because it was so foggy! All I could hear was trucks on the highway and I knew that it would be way too unsafe to attempt a go in this weather, so I went back to sleep and didn't wake Kelly until 7. When we finally got up it was a little clearer. We could actually see the hwy but it was still pretty dense. When we were about ready to get going Milt pulled up in his truck and asked how the night went and we spoke for a couple more minutes and he gave us $20 for breakfast. So we thanked him for all his hospitality and we desided it would probably be safer if we waited a little bit longer so we went to the Sunburg Dinner and ate. When we walked in the place was filled with familiar faces. All the folks from the baseball game were there having coffee and no one even not even the people we didn't know staired. I guess news spreads quickly in small towns and everyone already knew all about us. After breakfast we hit the road and hoped that the overcast skies lasted all day. It was a plesent ride even though the air was heavy with mist and there was no more then a white line to ride on. We were both feeling fresh this morning and you could see it in our riding. We were pacing much faster then normal. We covered the 18 miles to Benson in just over an hour. In Benson we stopped and used the restroom and discussed our options for eating since there was only one small town between where we were and Ortonville, which was 35 miles away. We decided to stop at this gas station just outside of Danvers. At the truck stop/Oil supply company we chatted with some of the employees and enjoyed a sandwich and coffe cake while we told them some stories of our adventures to date. After our break we hit the road, hoping the shoulder would improve, unfortunately it didn't, but about 18 miles out side of Ortonville we met our second traveler. Her name was Beth and she was traveling alone from Seattle to Minneapolis. We told her about our trip and that she was only about 170miles from Minneapolis and she was very excited. We spoke a bit longer about our trips and then we were back on the road. By this time the cloud cover had pretty much completely left and we were really feeling the heat now. I think the temperature was increasing with every passing minute. Finally we had reached Ortonville and we saw a familiar and exciting sight, Dairy Queen! We stopped in and got our usual blizzard and sat in the airconditioned shade of the booth and tried to recover for the rest of our journey since we were still 11 miles from Milbank where we had decided our destination for the day would be. When we got back on our bikes it was almost painful to sit on the seat it was so hot but my butt quickly adjusted but the last 11 miles were by far the most trying. Kelly fell behind and looked like she was going to die from the heat, I found the only way to deal with it was to drink as much water as I could and distract my mind with random song singing. When we finally got to Milbank we popped into the first resturant we could find and got out of the heat. After a very drawn out dinner, we spent the next couple hours in the library to let the temperature hopefully drop a bit before we made our way to our camping spot. Thanks again for your continued support!

County Line Baseball and Rain

Today went quick to say the least. We had 65miles in by 2:30pm. Today was on of the only days we had a tail wind but with a tail wind that usually means rain, the direction that we are going. We woke up around 6.30 and were on the road with in the hour. We said our good byes to Tommy and hit the road. We were almost out of St. Cloud when we were stopped by an older gentleman that asked us where we were headed. The weather was cool and the ride was nice for the first 25miles or so then it began to drizzle, which wasn't actually so bad. It felt like someone had one of those misters in front of you the whole ride, but it didn't take long before the mist turned to rain and we had to take a break in Paynesville. It was only 10.30 but we figured since we stopped we would grab some food. After our brunch we hit the road, or should I say bike trail. It was nice and relaxing to be able to ride on a bike trail for a few miles and it even shaved a couple miles off the trip. It began to rain pretty hard right before we got to New London and we figured we should take a break there but there was nothing open, I guess the whole town shuts down on Sunday, but luckily the rain stopped. We did run into an open place just out side of town it was called Pete's Surplus. It was a pretty neat little shop. It had all kinds of outdoor gear and army surplus equipment but we just needed the bathroom and a candy bar. We stopped and chatted with the clerk and a couple locals while we ate our snack. It was this time that Kelly made the call. We would most likely call it quits in Sunburg, but we would decide over lunch. When we got back on our bikes it started to mist again. It wasn't too much further to Sunburg. When we pulled into Sunburg there was a baseball game going on. We found the only diner in the giant metropolis of 109 people. Unfortunately the entire town and surrounding community was at the baseball game. So Kelly and I made our way to the game and parked our bikes under a picnic shelter. It was the same old same old. Everyone in the little town stared at us as we road in and most likely missed a nice play in the field. After a couple minutes a older gentleman walked up to us. He looked to be a biker with his Harley shirt on and POW cap on, not to mention his masterful braided beard and amazing mustache, his name was Milt, I think. We asked him about camping and he told us about a state park 5miles away and then we asked him about places to eat and he told us they had awesome brats. So we decided to grab a brat and a soda and mingle with the locals, who knows we may score a place to sleep. We chatted with a couple gentlemen about this and that. One was the county and farming commissioner and we asked if it would be possible to camp in this open area and they said it would be no problem and Milt said he would leave the fire house unlocked so we could use the bathroom, which was really nice. The baseball game was good, Sunburg won 3-2 and the announcer was absolutely hilarious. They had some really weird but funny commercials during the inning breaks like that the team was sponsored by "Sham-Wow" and some others about people in the community. We had no idea they were fake but one came on about an Optician and I made the comment that it was odd that a town this size would have an optician and one of the guys told us that it was a joke, the guy they were talking about was a half blind trucker. Now it all made sense and they were way funnier now that we knew he was just takin' the piss out of the locals. After the game he announced us and we chatted with a few more people and handed out our cards. When everyone cleared out we set up our tent under the picnic shelter for added shelter and a good thing we did. It started to rain so hard we couldn't see across the field and it rained on and off for the rest of the night. We stayed mostly dry under the shelter and made dinner and then called it an early night.

On the road to St.Cloud...

Friday the 19th we packed up our gear and headed out from Maplewood after a relaxing 4 day break. Lets just say it is hard to get back on your bike when it is super hot and you have been watching tv and eating ice cream for four days.. The morning started off ok, we road on a nice sidewalk for a bit. About 8 miles into the ride our friend the flat tire visited Chance. Lets just say that this friend was not welcomed by Chance with kind words:) After our little fix it session we headed out. We were lucky enough to be able to ride on sidewalks almost all the way out of the cities. We were starving by the time we got to North Oaks so we went to Rainbow and had a littly sammy! We then continued to ride on hwy 10 most of the time. We stopped off in Elk River at a little joint to have a bite to eat for lunch. I was hoping they would have air conditioning but sadly they did not:( After lunch I was very tired and could have fallen asleep while riding. The wind also decided to pick up and made the ride less enjoyable for me. We road to Big Lake where I got a gatorade to help pump me up. It did work for a bit, but riding 88 miles the day after a 4 day break is not so easy. We eventually made it into Becker, MN where we said goodbye to our friend hwy 10 and started our ride on county road 8 to St.Cloud! We saw a nice little kitty but he decided to lay in the road and look at us funny. I told him he would get run over if he did not move. So I hope he took my advice and moved to the field next to the road! As we got closer into St.Cloud our legs were starting to wear out and the sky just kept getting darker and darker. Then it happened the lightening, thunder and rain graced us with its presense. We stopped put on our rain jackets and continued the 4.5 miles we had left until we got to my brothers house in St.Cloud. Upon arrival at Tom's(my brother) he had some nice little confetti poppers to great us and in his living room he said he had another surprise. That surprise was his tent set up with streamers and a congratulations sign! It was really cute and nice! What a nice brother! From there we had to get our bikes to Revelution Cycle and Ski so they could help us with tuning and adding some new parts for the rest of journey. We talked with the staff for a little and then headed back to shower. Once we we finished showering Chance decided he wanted to go eat at Bonanza where he could pretty much eat all he wanted. So my brother and his girlfriend Shannon took us and yes both chance and I dominated the buffet! From there it was back to Toms to watch a movie and do Chances favorite activity, sleepy time! We will head out on Sunday towards Aberdeen! Thank you all for your continued support! As always, pray and hope for good weather, kind shoulders and a safe journey!

Shamrocks and the Dr...

Thank you everyone that came out to Shamrocks to hang out with us! Karen it was really nice to finally get a chance to meet you and we are so happy you are there to support us as much as you have! Family and friends thank you for continuing to show great support and being there for us all the time... It is greatly appreciated!

Ok so, most of you know that I have been having some knee troubles on the trip and today I was able to go in and see the GREAT Dr.Dahl! He worked magic and I got a mind zap(shot) of cortizone and I am hoping it will help me make it through the remainder of the trip. Dr.Dahl also drew me a very lovely picture which everyone I have shown has got a kick out of it! Thank you Dr. Dahl and staff for helping my doctor visit go well and hopefully helping my knee hold up for a bit longer!!

We will now be leaving the cities on Friday morning and will be in St.Cloud on Friday night through Sunday morning when we will head off to Aberdeen, SD. Our estimated date of arrival in Aberdeen is this coming Wednesday.

Thanks again to everyone for your wonderful and gracious support and donations!

T-Shirts

Alright everyone, so far we have been limited to whom we can sell our shirts to since we can't bring them with us and we have had a couple people ask us about obtaining one. So we discussed it with our parents and have come up with a solution. Anyone that is interested in getting a Cycling 4 A Cure T-shirt can contact either my mom, Brenda Glasford at 605-229-2231; 922 3rd Ave NE Aberdeen SD 57401, or Kelly's mom, Terri Platzer at 651-731-6875; 1031 S Lakewood Dr, Mapplewood MN 55119. The shirts are lime green (shown in the picture) and say Cycling4acure, its our logo, and have our sponsors on the back and they are $15 each plus $2 shipping and handling, unless you are in the area and stop by and get it. They have most sizes. The proceeds go to help us help the American Cancer Society, since that is what this adventure is all about!

Flat Tire!

Well Well Well, where to begin. So we woke up a little later then normal knowing we only had a short 40mile ride it wouldn't hurt to sleep in a little extra. So we got up about 7 and noticed Kelly's slow leak the day before was completely flat so we had to replace it, unfortunately that was her last tube so we hoped we wouldn't have any more problems. After we got her bike moving again we went to Randy's Resturant for breakfast. Around 9 we finally got on the road and the ride was going alright but it wasn't more then 10miles into our ride and Kelly fell behind and I noticed her waving so I stopped. I figured she needed to go to the bathroom and indeed she did but that wasn't the reason to stop. She had another flat tire. Yeah not good she had no more tubes. Kelly said "guess that's the end of the ride for me." and I told her no, we'll patch it, persevering is part of the adventure. So we spent the next 20 mins patching up her tire and we got back on the road. It seemed like the patch worked, it was holding air. So we kept riding, we weren't planning on stopping for lunch so we pushed on. About 5miles out of Hastings we had to climb a hill and as soon as I got out of the saddle to go up the hill the back tire washed out a bit and I looked down, dang it, another flat! So I got to the top of the hill and started changing the tire and Kelly came up and gave a little laugh, "I guess the bad luck hasn't stopped yet." That was my last tube so now we were riding on pure luck, just hoping we would make it home. When we got into hastings we stopped at Coborn's and went to the bath room and filled our water bottles. Just before we got to the other side of Hastings a motorcycle pulled infront of me, it was Bob, Kelly's dad. He had stopped by to give us a spare cell phone and water since kelly's and my phone had died and it was a good deal that he did. We didn't get more then 2miles out of Hastings and tink tink, what is that noise kelly? "I think I have something in my spokes." Well it wasn't in her spokes it was a sixteen penny nail stuck in her tire! yeah that was the 4th flat tire today 3rd for kelly and 6th in two days. It was hot and we were both completely exhausted, frustrated! We were only 11 miles from Kelly's parents house and we finally had given up, we called it a day. We don't like to quit so close to a destination and more often we don't get that oportunity. So we called it in and got a ride. Unfortunately we ruined the semi-surprise party Kelly's mom had planned for us, most the people weren't even there but we were glad to be home and they all arived shortly and we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and chatting with them about the trip! Thanks again everyone for all of your support and please come join us for a little meet and great at Shamrocks tomorrow!