Day 27 - Pittsburg, KS to Chanute, KS - 62 mi

Wow - how to describe our dinner last night (in no way can I do it justice)...first of all the dinner was out of control. The people of Kansas have been stuffing us with food! We had a great dinner followed by delicious dessert, but the story of the night was definitely hearing from the volunteers that fed us and their stories.


Each volunteer introduced themselves and told us how they are associated with MS - to cap the night two women told us how they have personally dealt with having MS (one for 35 years). It was an extremely inspiring talk as the main speaker (after popping a wheelie in her wheel chair!!) discussed how research has progressed over the years and that she is now able to go up to 3 years without an MS relapse (previously it was approximately 2 months). She explained many of her life's details and this made everyone realize even more that MS is an extremely debilitating disease and still has a long way to come. The two ladies discussed how BUS4MS affects them personally by providing hope on the darkest days of their struggle. They expressed the fact that we are simply raising the awareness level of MS as we ride across the country, but we are also continuously raising money for research and MS related treatments.

Needless to say, everyone was left speechless and truely inspired to tackle Kansas and beyond!

Our stop in Pittsburg was wonderful and we were able to spread the word about MS with another newspaper article located here. On a side note, many of our press releases can be found on the BUS4MS website here.

Our ride today was highlighted by @#&%$ WIND! It was pretty brutal traveling West, but we have been getting exponentially better at drafting off of each other in straight and diagonal lines to avoid the wind. When traveling North today (with the wind behind our backs) it was a LOT of fun to average 25-28 mph with effortless pedaling.

We arrived in Chanute, KS to yet another friendly warm welcome with a free lunch and dinner provided by some local MS volunteers. In Chanute, BUS4MS paired with the local MS society to build a ramp for a patient about three weeks ago. The work was done by a local contractor, but our fundraising efforts this year (up to around $90,000 but shooting for $100,000 - if you haven't donated please do so!!!!!) paid for the ramp! This picture was taken by a local reporter as we plan to generate another newspaper article spreading the word about MS and BUS4MS.

(BUS4MS founder Don Fraser, wonder woman Amanda Clark, and myself)

The party/food tonight is located at a pretty sweet public park with tons of playground equipment, a pond with beautiful picnic areas, and a sweet train engine where 2/3 of the team posed for a picture!


On the hospitality scale so far:
Virginia - 1
Kentucky - 0
Illinois - 1
Missouri - 0
Kansas - 1

Woot Woot! Until tomorrow blog addicted patrons!