A new high score!

IWell good morning everyone!

I am still lying in bed in a motel, and it feels good! I know we just spent the night in a bed a few days ago, but we have a reason for this one.

Yesterday, we woke up around the usual time and left our campsite at Marion lake reservoir. We went into town, got some food, and were truckin along. Today was different than the previous days we have had in Kansas. We had tailwind! But it was pretty sunny and really hot. The past few days we have been shades by cloud cover, but not today. It's ok though, we just lathered up with sunscreen and were in good shape. After about an hour and a half, we pulled off at another gas station, got some water and Gatorade. After about a 30 minute break we kept going to our lunch spot, Emporia. Once there we went to Freddy's. It's a pretty cool restaurant, we all had California steak burgers. They tasted pretty good! We relaxed there in the ad for a little bit before heading back out into weather that I'm positive  broke 100° I'm not sure by how much though. To give you an idea, I changed before lunch and left all the clothes on the bike, after lunch, they were all dry.

Anyways, we began our trek to our stopping spot for the night which was Pomona lake state park. We were all really excited to go because we had a friend waiting for us! David's friend from Clemson, Mark Lassiter! He was coming down from his internship in Omaha to meet us for the night! 

Before meeting him though, we stopped in a little town called reading (pronounced reding). We hit the Miracle Cafe, which has a really cool story behind it, but the family there have us free dessert AND ice cold water with ice in it!!! We were soooo thankful! It was awesome! And they were really cool, if we didnt have to make it to Pomona, we would have stayed there for the night, it was that cool!

Anyways, we met mark and he had an awesome surprise for us! He bought us a hotel! That is the good reason I mentioned earlier for sleeping in a bed, it was free and we got company!! We hung out with mark for a bit and then crashed, man, it was great to hang out with someone that we knew.

Oh, and the record I mentioned in the title, we hit 105 miles yesterday! So a new high for the trip! However, I don't think that will happen today, we have wind coming from the east, north east so pretty much headwind all day! But mark is coming biking with us today for a bit! So more adventures await! Here we come!

Thanks God for friendship, for energy, for safety, and for an opportunity to experience this country in such an amazing way!

Y'all have a great day!

-tommy

Our lunch city

Our meal

The cafe with water and dessert!

And mark!!

Oh and how could I forget, Kansas

'Somewhat witty blog post title'

Corn. Kansas. Corn. Has. Corn. A. Corn. Lot. Corn. Of. Corn. Corn.

Here is a picture of corn.

Here are my two brothers as we bond next to corn.

And this is how I feel....

I don't really know what emotion I am trying to convey in this picture. But my friend Connie found this one of me and I  thought it was appropriate haha. The Mac is a wonderful tool.

A little more history/knowledge/ and back ground....

Early on when we started planning for this trip we didn't think we would be doing it for a cause/foundation. We just wanted an adventure to be honest. As time progressed the more it seemed appropriate that we raise some sort of support/awareness about Ushers Syndrome, the genetic disorder our Dad has inherited. He inspired us to bike across the country through telling us stories, and has made a huge impact on our lives! All of you Dads (and Moms!!) do.

Well Ushers syndrome affects both hearing and seeing. The seeing portion of the disorder is called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and is one of many seeing disorders The Foundation for Fighting Blindness is striving to prevent and cure. RP is diagnosed early on and slowly degenerates the Retina. The rods and cones in the eye die over time. This creates tunnel vision over time taking away peripheral vision and most people diagnosed are legally blind by age 40. I am pretty sure out Dad is not legally blind yet, which is cool because he's over 50! But over time our family has seen its progression. 

It's not really something our family actively thinks about either. We have been able to take it in stride more or less. It has been cool to see our Mom gladly and faithfully step into the role as supporter (both for our Dad and family!) and there are just as many things we have learned from her as our Dad.

And there is one more in the Garrigan clan that I have failed to mention.....

Oreo, our dog!

I am just kidding Lauren!! Haha. This girl is doin some cool things this summer. CEF, helping bringing the good news to the upstate! Proud of what she is doing, for real.

So yeah, it's Kansas. And instead of the same blog post for 4 days straight I thought I would share some about our cause, and share a little about our family. 

Don't read into it too much, we are a far from perfect family. Y'all don't get to read about our petty arguments, frustrations, and indifferences with each other haha. Yes, they definitely happen. At the end of the day we are just a normal family changed by the work of Christ. 

To Him be the glory, 

David

P.S. seeing ma boi Mark 'lil dime' Lassiter tomorrow! Can not wait. Peace you guys, Cadman and I have many corns to conquer tomorrow!

Off the map

After finishing a total of 96 miles I can happily say that we have finished four of seven of our adventure cycling bike maps, and hard doing to be making up a route in order to connect with the next map up in Kansas City, Mo.  We are off the map!  

I'm not going lie.  Today was more or less the same scenery as the last two.  

I woke up to Tom's smiling face.

We got to see lots of corn.

And we didn't have to climb that mountain again.

But we did have a pretty great day.  After sleeping in the town park (the first picture) we set off forwards Great Bend the first city with an open bike shop in about four hundred miles.  Although it was not dire to get to a bike shop I did need to visit one soon to replace a tire that was almost worn through.

The orange strip that you see is what's called a warning strip. "change me or I will disintegrate and explode", is more or less what it means (more on the less side).  In actually it means that the tire is nearly worn through and will no longer protect the tube on the inside. So with that in mind when we found out there was a bike shop 96 miles away we knew our goal for the day.  

I don't know if you've ever been so focused that even the thought of a conversation seems a little absurd.  Well today that was us.  We dominated that headwind!  I didn't think it was possible but we maintained an average of 15 mph (yay broke the 12 streak) and even reached speeds up to 21 mph...all of this with headwind! Whoop whoop!!!  Also thanks for the prayers for tailwind we actually had about 15 minutes of tailwind of which we took FUULLL advantage🌽🚴.  We were all soo excited.  It was a total moral boost after pushing hard all morning.  

For lunch we stopped just outside of Alexander (the end of our map).  And after a meal of cheese summer sausage and bagels we all took a power nap.  Post nap I wondered over to a group of three bike tourists.  Two of them (husband and wife) were from Sweden. They have been doing tours for quite some time and have explored a good bit of Europe via bicycle.  This particular tour started in their home country and headed forwards England.  From England they caught a boat to the U.S. and are heading westward to San Francisco (a four month journey).  It's so much fun spending time listening and hearing about other people's story.  I get such a kick out of it.

After lunch we pedaled over to Great Bend, the city where the bike shop is located, and literally made it there 15 minutes after 6 (the sign said that they closed at 6)  Haha cruel irony.

The cool thing is we had called ahead at 5:30 and they stayed open for us.  Sweetness!  I now have a new tire.  

Yay!

I also have a full belly.

And a couple of heavy eyelids 😴.

 Before I sign off though I want to give a few shout outs.  Thanks Elizabeth (and by extension the Barton's) for helping out with the food $, Ruby Tuesdays, and about 15 minutes in a vehicle that went faster than 40mph WITH NO EFFORT REQUIRED aka a car.  It was all awesome!

Thanks Despicable Me 2 for fulfilling all my minion obsessions.  You were hilarious.

Thanks parientals and sister for all of your prayers and support😎

And last but certainly not least thanks to the Foundation for Fighting Blindness for providing us with the tools to raise awareness and support for people who have gone or are going blind like our dad.  It has been a true blessing to be able to give back someone who has made such a great impact on our lives.  Love you dad

~Paul

Wind

Hello world!

I hope y'all are doing well! If not, shoot me a text or call me and I'll listen to what's going on. Or if you're doing great, I'll celebrate with you!

Well to be perfectly honest, nothing of real significance happened today. And i had to read Dave's blog to get some ideas of what to blog about. 

First, today was our first official day in Kansas! We slept about a mile from the border, but today was our first day! So another big mile stone.

Second, my bike as well has a name! His name is not as cool as Dave's, but i Iike it. His name is Joshua "Hippy" Garrigan. Joshua because I wanted something strong, courageous, conquering, etc. and Joshua from the bible was all that and more! He was a leader, warrior, man of God, and example. He conquered many nations, while I am only conquering one, it still counts. So that's Joshua. Hippy comes from he becoming of the trip. That was the first name given because I fell on my hip a few times that first week. And whenever I fail to uncool I'm time, it always seems to be my hip that hits hardest. So hippy is the "nega-name" he has whenever he misbehaves. And Garrigan, which come from me! So there you have it, my bike is named.

Now back to today,

We were out of our home for the night (under the railroad tracks)  by 8:10, and biked till about 10, grabbed second breakfast, and kept rollin. We stopped around 1 and picked up some groceries in leoti. Then we crossed the time zone so we are only one hour behind those of you on the east coast now! We were trying to make it to a town called Scott city by 3 which was now 4, but got caught in a rain storm. So we stopped off in a cattle feed yard. We were welcomed in and ate a beagle while waiting for the storm to pass. Then we went the next 7 miles to get to the city. We stopped and grabbed a pizza and free breadsticks. Greasy, but good. By 6:30, we left and headed for our final destination of the night, dighton. We pushed and went about 14-16 mph the last 2 hours to get there by 8:30. Now we are in the city park enjoying more food! (Aka potato soup, trail mix, and a little Mac n cheese. 

There you go, a detailed summary of our day! Oh and the only other thing, 24 mph headwind/sidewind! Yea. Not too easy to pedal, but we did as well as we could with the strength we had.  

Here's a in fact for you though, almost every day of the past 40 days has averaged somewhere in the 12 mph range. Whether it was along the coast, in the redwoods, in the Rockies, in Yosemite, of here on the plains. For one reason or another, we are not quite sure, it has been nearly impossible to break that barrier. With this side/head wind we are unable to keep any momentum. As soon as we stopped pedaling, it took about 15 seconds to slow to a stop. 

All in all, we went just short of 90 miles today, the hour we lost due to time change is our excuse. Tomorrow, we are planning on doing it all over again! It may be long, straight, flat, windy, and honestly boring. But it's still worth it! To be doing this trip with my brothers has taught me a lot, and I am given a chance to appreciate all the different sides of God's creation. From the majestic mountains to the sea of corn and wheat.

Thanks to all of you who are still actively praying for us, again, we need and appreciate every prayer. Pray that we stay right where God has us (me). That in my mind i don't start thinking about a week ahead or what could be, but enjoy where I am at right now.

Also thank you to each of you who have given even a little bit to our fundraiser and to the foundation fighting blindness. They do such great work for our dad and we get excited every time we receive an update on how much has been raised. We are at $2,500! That's great! And it's all because y'all have given!

Thanks to everyone for reading and have a great day!

(P.s. I was serious about calling or texting if you want to talk. I might not be able to respond right away, but when I get a chance I'll respond (864)-569-2864

-sincerely Tom

Pics from the day!

Joshua "Hippy" Garrigan 

Dave at the border!

And Paul!

And me!

 What most of today looked like. Plains left, clouds in the sky, and  us in a 3 wide line so we could draft

'Roomie Legacy!'

I wanted to dedicate the title and intro of this post to Scott, Timmy Tate, and Blake! My past room mates at Clemson. Pwning noobs in Halo, making delicious ham/cheese/sweet baby rays BBQ sauce tortilla sandwiches, and laying down sick random beat box beats, along with many other memories will FOREVER be cherished. Seriously, y'all are the best.

Well, we are currently underneath some railroad tracks. This is home for the night!

My tent has the glares and the track is right above it. Not a great picture, but the location is pretty sweet.

Today was a bit of a grind. We had headwind for basically the entire day but thankfully we were still able to get in over 100 miles. My butt is sore. I am thinking of replacing my bike seat with a beach cruiser seat or some Lazy Boy product. The idea seems really good to me right now, haha.

Nothing particular exciting today, but I will give you some events that occurred. This is what we saw today...

Very flat, cool temperatures, for 100ish miles. 

We are officially on the transamerica bike route, and we saw roughly 10 bicycle tourists on the road today. This is the most we have seen in a single day by far, kinda cool. We didn't stay long to chat further than the typical questions (where are you from? Where is your final destination? Miles in a day? Etc) since we are under a bit of a time crunch, but still really cool to see so many people doing a similar trip.

Bugs decided to try attacking me again. They went kamikaze style today. I had two bees hit my right cheek(face) and another bug that was either a bee or grasshopper stick to my lip. Haha it woke me up to say the least.

Also, I have some big news to share. It's official! I have named the bike. It was a delicate process but his name has grown on me. 

Y'all, meet Cadmen!

Gender: XY(MAN)

Personality: Deep inner desire for companionship, and willing to work with others to achieve peace and harmony.

Anglo-Saxon meaning: Warrior

Welsh meaning: Warrior

Celtic meaning: Fighter

Type of bike: cannondale CAAD 8(Cadmen)

Haha i actually didnt make up a lot of that. It is kind of ridiculous but very necessary on a trek like this.

Other top suggestions: 

Ferdinand(Grace Walters)

Grit(Mrs Ramsey)

I hear my brother snoring, and I think it's about time for me to do the same.

How you can be praying for us:

-Communication with each other(different than talking at each other)...this can be difficult for us guys haha. i just want us to stay on the same page

-that we would take it day by day

-energy and rest

-Get to spend more quality time in the word

-that we would glorify Christ above all else

Thanks guys,

David

On-ward, East-ward, and home-ward

I am proudly typing from a computer for the first time in well over a month.  What is this?  Technology?  I'm somewhat out of practice but, in all honesty I love typing my thoughts out on a computer.  I can backtrack, erase, rephrase more completely, bring out what I am thinking.  It's wonderful!

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in our biking journey.  After taking a 24 hour rest period we have begun to conquer the mid west plains.  The resting was awesome!  It gave each of us to recuperate from the monstrous Rockies that we just came through.  We were able to let loose and not think about biking, maps, or where our next meal was going to come from.  That led into today.  Today we went to church for the first time in three weeks.  I loved it.  There is just something special about worshiping with other believers.  Several of the congregation came up and talked with us and we even had a dude pray for us!

After church we went to Walmart and bought some much needed basics.  We greased our chains, bought things like peanut butter, bagels, protein bars and drinks, sunglasses, and sunscreen, and a few other things in order to be prepped for this coming week.  On a side note I almost bought gummy bear vitamins, I think I'm still regretting not getting them, o well.  And then we headed off towards Ordway, Co (50 miles away) on highway 96.  Which we will be taking for at least the next 250 miles.

Surprisingly we got lost for only the second time this entire trip.  We ended up missing the 96 split and stayed on highway 50 until we got to Fowler, Co.  Thankfully this only cost us about a mile or two since highway 50 parallels highway 96.  From Fowler we took the nearest road to get to highway 96.  On this road we encountered some crazy side wind.  It was coming from the East (we were riding North-ish), and my bike was literally tilting sideways about 15 degrees due to the wind.  Wholey Cow!  Once on 96 we hit headwind gusts like that basically the entire way to Orway (20ish miles).  Although that was tough it did prove to bring one really helpful benefit.  Clouds (and with it rain).  The clouds blocked the sun and protected us from what we learned to be the hottest part of Colorado.  Yay thank you Lord!  Apparently this area has been in the 100's nearly all of June.  So we have been most fortunate.

We biked until about 830 or 9 and are now at a Hotel Ordway.  Just a little shout out, this place has very inexpensive biker rates, especially for the quality of the rooms, and the service that the owners have shown us.  I highly recommend it if you happen to be in the area.  Anyways, we are here and tomorrow our goal is to make it into Kansas!  Hurrah!!  By the way that reminds me.  Please be praying for tailwinds.  Our goal is to be doing 110+ miles daily for the rest of the trip and God is Lord over the earth (including the winds), and so if it is His will, tailwinds would be awesome.  Peace and goodnight y'all!
~Paul G

On-ward, East-ward, and home-ward

I am proudly typing from a computer for the first time in well over a month.  What is this?  Technology?  I'm somewhat out of practice but, in all honesty I love typing my thoughts out on a computer.  I can backtrack, erase, rephrase more completely, bring out what I am thinking.  It's wonderful!

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in our biking journey.  After taking a 24 hour rest period we have begun to conquer the mid west plains.  The resting was awesome!  It gave each of us to recuperate from the monstrous Rockies that we just came through.  We were able to let loose and not think about biking, maps, or where our next meal was going to come from.  That led into today.  Today we went to church for the first time in three weeks.  I loved it.  There is just something special about worshiping with other believers.  Several of the congregation came up and talked with us and we even had a dude pray for us! LOVE IT!

After church we went to Walmart and bought some much needed basics.  We greased our chains, bought things like peanut butter, bagels, protein bars and drinks, sunglasses, and sunscreen, and a few other things in order to be prepped for this coming week.  On a side note I almost bought gummy bear vitamins, I think I'm still regretting not getting them, o well.  And then we headed off towards Ordway, Co (50 miles away) on highway 96.  Which we will be taking for at least the next 250 miles.

Surprisingly we got lost for only the second time this entire trip.  We ended up missing the 96 split and stayed on highway 50 until we got to Fowler, Co.  Thankfully this only cost us about a mile or two since highway 50 parallels highway 96.  From Fowler we took the nearest road to get to highway 96.  On this road we encountered some crazy side wind.  It was coming from the East (we were riding North-ish), and my bike was literally tilting sideways about 15 degrees due to the wind.  Wholey Cow!  Once on 96 we hit headwind gusts like that basically the entire way to Orway (20ish miles).  Although that was tough it did prove to bring one really helpful benefit.  Clouds (and with it rain).  The clouds blocked the sun and protected us from what we learned to be the hottest part of Colorado.  Yay thank you Lord!  Apparently this area has been in the 100's nearly all of June.  So we have been most fortunate.

We biked until about 830 or 9 and are now at a Hotel Ordway.  Just a little shout out, this place has very inexpensive biker rates, especially for the quality of the rooms, and the service that the owners have shown us.  I highly recommend it if you happen to be in the area.  Anyways, we are here and tomorrow our goal is to make it into Kansas!  Hurrah!!  By the way that reminds me.  Please be praying for tailwinds.  Our goal is to be doing 110+ miles daily for the rest of the trip and God is Lord over the earth (including the winds), and so if it is His will, tailwinds would be awesome.  Peace and goodnight y'all!
~Paul G