Trek For Chop Daily Journal

 We made it to Tulsa, Oklahoma…1,705 miles…53 days of cycling (44 consecutive after our trip home in late June)…averaged a little over 30 miles a day…best of all, with your help we raised over $10,400 for Fetal Surgery families at CHOP!!! How do we feel?  TIRED. RELIEVED. BLESSED. Tired…of being away from home…of dirt…of trucks…of the heat. Relieved…to be going home to see family…to have made it to our destination safely each day.  Blessed…to have had the opportunity to do this to help others…to know all of you who encouraged and cheered and listened and advised.  In Tommy’s words: “The biggest thing I learned is patience. Whatever was happening…whether good or bad…I learned it wasn’t going to last forever. I could’ve quit but I didn’t.  In the beginning I’d get mad when I’d see a hill but by the end I thought, ‘Ok, there’s a hill. I could just stay here and not go up that hill but then I’d be stuck here…so might as well just climb the hill.’” Tommy’s right. Hil...

We were supposed to head west from Springfield, Missouri through Carthage to Joplin, but every hotel anywhere close to Carthage and Joplin was booked. Not a single Airbnb except one near Carthage for $900 a night.  That was not a typo.  $900 a night. And there was no way we were going to camp out. First of all, it’s like 95 degrees out here every day and it barely gets below 80 at night. Second of all, we threw away our tent in St.Louis. Too heavy.  “It’s Marian Days,” the very sweet lady at the Holiday Inn told me. “We’ve been sold out for months.”  “Marian Days? Does she have a concert in town?” Of all the many things we’ve learned in the seven weeks we’ve been on the road, maybe the most humbling thing is how little we know. Sure, we know stuff about Philadelphia. But the rest of these places?  We thought Ohio would be flat. Ohio is not flat. In Indiana, we thought that if a road showed up on Google maps it would be a paved road. Also not true…some are gravel...

 When my dad and I were planning this trip back in May, we built the website that all of you come to in order to read these little blurbs about our adventures. We had to set a donation goal, and the first number I said out loud was five thousand dollars thinking that was a reasonable goal to have within two months. My dad interjected almost immediately with, "Are you kidding me? We can do better than that...let's do ten thousand!"   I thought he was crazy, but as of August 1, 2023, thanks to all of you (and one very generous anonymous donor who put us over the top), we did it!   Ten thousand dollars for Fetal Surgery families! Are you kidding me? 61 different people donated! All of you reading right now, whether you donated or not, were the ones that truly made this possible. If it weren't for the words of encouragement, wisdom and guidance, we would have more than likely not made it out of our home state. But all of you gave us a daily reminder as to why it is ...