One Final BUS4MS Plug

Hello!! For all of you who followed my 2010 Bike the US for MS ride, I wanted to put in one last plug through the blog. My sister Liz is riding with Bike the US for MS in 2011 and could really use your help fundraising.

As 2011 brings around a new tax year, if you felt that your donation in 2010 went to the right cause and supported a good non-profit then please consider donating to her cause as well, here are the details:

Liz is graduating from UVA in May with a major in Biology and a minor in Global Public Health. A week following graduation, she is heading to Bar Harbor, ME and biking until she gets to Seattle, WA.

Again, proceeds from the 2011 trip will support research and treatment at the James Q. Miller MS Clinic in Charlottesville, VA.

In order to participate in the trip Liz has to meet a fundraising goal of $4,295 by June 1st. This is $1 for each mile that she will be biking and sitting on a bike seat!! You can donate online at the Bike the US for MS website (look for the button that says "Donate in the Name of Liz Dymond").

Donations can also be made using personal checks written to "Bike the US for MS". Mention that you are donating in the name of Liz Dymond on the Notes Line and mail to:

Bike the US for MS
1302 Gladewood Dr.
Blacksburg, VA 24060

As a reminder, 100% of the donations go to benefit MS research/treatment and are tax deductible as Bike the US for MS is a 501c3 tax-exempt organization.

Cheers!!

Video - Episode 9 & 10!!

Here we go, the long awaited final video for BUS4MS 2010 - Episode 10!!!

If you missed the last video, Episode 9 is posted here!

On a side note, my sister Sara has signed up to do the 2011 BUS4MS ride - if you feel that your money went to an awesome cause in 2010, check out her website and please take the time to donate towards her ride!!!


Over and out, thanks again!
Ben

Thank You!!

Sitting here in my hotel room staring over Chinatown in San Fran, I wanted to write one last blog entry on our trip (the last two blog entries have been finished off - Day 61 and Day 62). This is definitely primarily aimed those who followed my blog and those who donated towards my trip and the fight against MS. This trip has been so much more than I ever expected it could be. It will definitely be one of the most life changing events that I have ever experienced (up there next to birth and marriage) and I am really glad that you all got to help me with the trip and therefore experience it with me through the internet. (By the way, there will be another BUS4MS YouTube video sometime in the next week so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for one last sweet hurrah - maybe I will send out a blog entry with the URL.)

I would like to specifically thank all those that made me the all time fundraising champion for BUS4MS - without your support I would not have been able to ride my bike across the US!!!

Secondly, I would like to thank all of my immediate family and most importantly Salli who put up with an extreme lack of communication over the summer (except via this blog). Thank you for all the love and support!!!

Finally, I want to thank all of the riders, route leaders, and organizers that went on the 2010 Bike the US for MS trip. This was a truly amazing experience and there is no way it would have been the same if I did not join this group and this organization.


(PS - if you read through this blog please let me know where you come across spelling or grammar errors as I stopped proof reading the entries somewhere in the middle of the trip!)

Day 62 - Golden Gate Bridge Victory Ride - 6 mi

After arriving in San Fran and enjoying the festivities setup for us by Don we all went off to the business district Hilton across from Chinatown in San Fran. This gave us a sweet location to grab some really good dinner! Later that night most of the team got together for one last hurrah to celebrate our ride and time together. It was a TON of fun and everyone was semi-sentimental at one point or another through the night.

We awoke to a day filled with more important landmarks along our journey. This included biking down to the Golden Gate Bridge and doing the ceremonial front tire dip in the "Pacific Ocean." We had to travel about 6 miles to the bridge and it became clearly visible at some points along our trip. This is one of the first photos I snagged:


We arrived!!!!! What a long journey!!! The next few photos describe what happened better than I can with words. Everyone got the ceremonial picture with their bikes in the water, Leigh and I lit up a few cigars that most of the team enjoyed in one fashion or another, a few people took the frigid dip into the water, and about half of the team ventured up to the actual bridge to ride across it (tourist loaded!).












Following the fun festivities we all got stuck in a glass case of emotion as people started heading their own way with family or friends. Needless to say it was one of the hardest and weirdest goodbyes that I have ever had to do. In two months, as a group and even smaller riding/friend groups, we all became really, really, really, really close and would probably do anything in the world for each other. It was amazing to get to know 26 other people in such a short time but with such a truly bonding life experience - we will all know each other forever and never forget what we accomplished as a group of riders and more importantly as a group of friends.

As we stood around seeing people of left and right many of the group remarked that biking became the least of the worries over the course of this trip. Meeting people dealing with MS, becoming ambassadors for BUS4MS and MS in general, getting to know everyone in the group, and savoring the time we had together was by far more important than the physical toll of biking across the US.

Day 61 - Lake Solano, CA to San Francisco, CA - 50 mi

Our campsite last night had one of the most peculiar sites on the entire trip - tons of habituated peacocks wandering around. These beautiful birds would come within 5 feet or less looking for any type of food.


Our ride today got off to a good start as we were all super excited for the last day of the trip and our arrival into San Francisco. About 10 miles into the day our small riding group of myself, Ben, Leigh, Mark, and Kathryn had a small wreck fiasco that scared everyone on the team. We had an accident where myself, Ben, and Kathryn fell - Ben and I ended up with some road rash on our hips and elbows, but Kathryn probably suffered a minor concussion as she doesn't remember everything that happened. Luckily for us, an EMT was driving by and offered to stop and look her over - she was deemed OK to ride and finished the trip to San Fran!! After arriving, for safety measures, Kathryn went to the local hospital for a CT scan and she was deemed OK - PHEW!! Needless to say the whole team was a little shaken, especially our small group who were all there at the time.

After we hit the road again we started to get some glimpses of our ending from afar. Kathryn and I smelled the salty water before crossing the last hills into San Fran and we could see the famous fog over the mountain as we were riding though vineyard after vineyard.


After arriving at our final biking destination (Vallejo, CA) we wandered through the farmer's market and picked up a bag of fresh grapes to munch on. We were scheduled to catch the last Baylink ferry that would escort us to San Francisco. I would say that most people considered this the first end to the trip because we were basically done biking - we all loaded our bikes onto the ferry and went inside to hang around and talk about the trip. We also got some awesome views on the ferry ride (about 1 hour long) of the Bay area, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge from afar.


(see if you can find the bridge in the left part of the photo)

After arriving at Pier 1 in San Fran we walked off the ferry to a hero's welcome from the friends and family of team members. We took a wonderful team picture at the ferry terminal after arriving. This photo was later presented to Don from the group along with a $110 car detailing gift certificate for him to get his car cleaned up after getting back to Blacksburg. From there we were shuttled to an MS patient conference that was scheduled on Pier 2 - we arrived as one of three special guests at the luncheon and were treated with special care as we received lunch and much applause.


The second special guest at the conference was Maureen Manley who's story can be found on her website (the hyperlink) - she is a highly respected cyclist who as a member of the US Cycling Team won a National Championship, set a national record, earned a silver and 2 bronze medals at National Championships, competed in 3 World Championships and won a silver medal in the 1990 World Championships. Maureen's cycling career came to an abrupt halt at the sudden onset of Multiple Sclerosis and she has been battling the disease with vigor and determination as she has been able to get back on a bike and start riding again. She was a very good motivational speaker and gave us yet another wonderful perspective on MS and how people are battling it with all their heart and soul.

The third special guest at the conference was Susan Steen (Leigh Graziano's mother) who is a neurologist that deals with MS a lot in her profession and has good connections with Teva and the drug Copaxone (for MS). Susan went through a brief power point presentation that brought everyone at the luncheon (patients and bikers) to the same level in their education about MS. We learned about the different types of MS, symptoms, and ways that people are dealing with the disease. All in all it was a great talk and everyone left with a bit more knowledge than they came in with.

Day 60 - Folsom, CA to Lake Solano, CA - 65 mi

Last night in camp I did a minor overhaul of my bike when replacing the rear cassette and putting on new tires to try and prevent any late game flats! I had put a new chain on my bike a day or two ago and found out that the old chain wear had started to ruin my cassette - needless to say this was fairly annoying as my bike skipped while in the hardest gear. Such is life.

Today our riding group headed out to get a close up view of Folsom Prison and do a little shindig in the parking lot while listening to Johnny Cash music. We didn't go into the prison museum, but definitely rode down to the actual prison walls and danced around.


Our ride today was highlighted by many really really cool things - first off the initial 40 miles plus of the trip were on a sweet CA bike trail. This made the riding tons of fun as we were able to cruise along without having to worry about cars. Even the running/walking pedestrians were supposed to move along the side of the path (off the path) so it was solely a bike path!


The bike path led us directly into old town Sacramento where we caught some lunch and delicious dessert from a local deli and the candy store next door. On the way out of town we saw the state capital building (I assume) of CA and a sweet lift bridge that actually went up before we could cross over it!



Next on our awesome travel day through CA was the college town of Davis, home to UC Davis. In Davis we went to one of the sweetest bike shops on the entire trip (Davis Wheelworks) if your flavor is road biking (as opposed to mountain biking). They had some really expensive and awesomely fast road bikes on display for us to play with. Some of the bikes easily ranged from $6,000-$12,000. Following that, we went to a really cool make-your-own frozen yogurt shop (Yogurt Shack) where you pick the flavor and add whatever toppings you choose - pay by weight!


Following our stop in Davis we had 20 more awesome miles to finish off to the campsite. These included a beautifully flat ride through farms where the fruit trees and flowers were abundant. As shown below, we even got a sweet drafting escort out of town on the bike path!

Day 59 - Silver Lake, CA to Folsom, CA - 98 mi

This morning everyone slept in and left super late in the morning - we didn't get out of camp until around 9:30 am. This turned out to be both a great thing and a bad thing. The great part about it is that we all hung out a little in the morning and we met again at the top of our morning climb. Today's morning climb was something special as it was our last real mountain climbing of the trip. After the summit, we were to descend around 7,000 - 8,000 ft of elevation to camp at around 200 ft above sea level. The even more amazing part of the morning was that we rigged the BUS4Ms video camera on the back of my bike rack (one of the few remaining racks left on the trip) to capture everyone drafting and crushing it down the mountain. Hopefully this made for a lot of great footage that you will be able to see in our final video.


Our daily mileage was made even longer than anticipated because about 7-8 of our group that were really ripping it downhill missed a turn! We were definitely not the only ones to miss the turn, but we did travel about 10-12 miles out of our way down extremely steep mountains only to find ourselves at a super market with a daunting climb back to the turn ahead. The clouds split and an angel descended to give us a ride back to the top! An extremely sweet woman from the grocery store offered to drive us halfway up the mountain in her truck after I told her what we were up to. We even sweet talked her enough during the ride that she took us all the way to our turn!

Phew, after knocking out a bunch of miles, we finally made it to Folsom, CA which we celebrated this morning with some Johnny Cash tunes with breakfast. Our ride took us right next to the Folsom Dam and extremely close to Folsom prison (I hope to get some sweet pics tomorrow).


After arriving at the campsite, I fulfilled a promise to Bridget and Liza by shaving my facial hair to mimic what's-his-name from Moulin Rouge! This will have to be my celebration facial hair for arriving in San Francisco.