Links

I'm having a little trouble getting the pictures off the camera, but in the mean time, here are a few links to articles and stuff.

Articles:
http://www.bolivarmonews.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=19792789&BRD=2841&PAG=461&dept_id=603510&rfi=6

http://www.cjonline.com/stories/061308/loc_290170424.shtml

http://www.morningsun.net/news/x1470888801/Man-bikes-to-raise-money-awareness

http://www.taylornews.org/2008/06/20/riding-for-granton-bayless/

TV Stuff:
http://www.ktka.com/news/2008/jun/16/officer_rides_nephew/

http://ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=26121

My buddy Travis's Blog-good pictures on this one:
http://bullballarina.blogspot.com/2008/06/jaymes-goodbye.html

Home

OK, I'm home now and I've had a nice long relaxing day with my family. My wife and our best friends, the Riggins, threw me a great party last night when I got back. There were lots of people and lots of food, most of which Jenna managed to get donated and I got to rest and hang out and have fun in my own driveway all evening.

Here are a few final stats from the ride. The Granton Bayless Benefit Ride was 357.4 miles from Topeka to Bolivar by way of Burlington, Caney, Pittsburg, & Stockton. The actual time spent on the bike was 22 hours & 23 minutes. I saw 13 counties and 25 towns. I also got to meet and spend time with dozens of people as well as several people I already knew. The ride raised around $8000.00 and is still bringing in money for Jenni, Daniel, & Granton.

There are too many people to thank but I wanted to mention a few that really helped this thing happen. First off was my support crew, my wife and son who have been with me all through the planning and execution of the ride, and my brother, Toby, who was with me every mile. I also want to thank Guy, Jerry, Colleen, & Ron for the escort out of town. Pastor Van Zile, Judd & Nadine, Dennis & Kristen, and everybody else in Burlington, you were the perfect first stop. Blair and Amanda and family, Darby, Mike, & Mr. Bayless, thank you for the huge meal and the farm hospitality. Lisa, Andrew, and Countryside Christian Church for providing a great place to rest and just watch the Cubbies play in Pittsburg. David and Pat Steinmuller and all the kids and teachers at Stockton Elementary School, you were all awesome and it was great to get to share what I was doing with you. Clayton & Amanda and everybody else who helped plan the event at Wellspring Baptist Fellowship, what a perfect way to end the ride. I want to thank all my family who showed up on Thursday for the end of the ride and my friends & family at home who were waiting to greet me on Saturday. I would especially like to thank Debbie at the Bank of Bolivar for keeping track of all the money and all of the business, orginizations, families, and individuals who donated to the benefit, I would like to give special mention to my home church, Cnetral Park Christian Church, both for their donations and for their support throughout the ride. MG Machining (my parents' shop) helped with road expenses and the t-shirts. (FYI: If you would like to order a t-shirt, please make a comment along with what size you would like.) All the donations went to help Granton and that was the purpose for all of this. Finally, I want to thank Kay, Jenna, and Jerra from Sunshine Bike Shop. Without a bike and your support, this whole thing wouldn't have happened. You are wonderful ladies and have an amazing shop and I hope your business continues to grow. Thanks to everybody.

Once I get all the pictures and videos squared away and figured out, I'll post them on the blog, keep an eye out.

Day Five-End of the Road

The ride is officially over! I went 23.7 miles in 1 hour & 31 minutes, just an easy last day ride from Stockton Lake to Bolivar. The end of the ride party was great. I got to Wellspring Baptist around 7:30 pm and did a lap around the parking lot with all the kids. Jenni & Daniel were there along with a large part of my family and several of the people who contributed to the ride including The McCullahs and others that helped them plan the event and Kay, Jenna, & Jerra from Sunshine Bike Shop. The bike was raffled off and raised about $1200 dollars, it was pretty hard to give it away after more than 350 on it but now hopefully someone else will get as much use as I did from it over the last week. At last approximation, the Granton Bayless Benefit Ride had raised approximately $8000.00 for Jenni, Daniel, & Baby G! I'm going to bed now and tomorrow I get to go home-I miss my wife and boy and can't wait to see them. Thanks to everybody who helped with the ride, whether you put us up, fed us, donated, or even just prayed. I'll post more tomorrow. Keep an eye on the blog, there is still money coming in and I'll keep posting even now that it's over.

Day Four

Alright, day 4 is in the books already. 72.3 miles in 4 hours & 28 minutes. I was making great time until I hit Highway 39 and all the wonderful hills between E Highway & Stockton. I guess I am at the north edge of the Ozarks, what do I expect? We made it to Stockton at around 1pm where we were greeted by the Students at Stockton Elementary, where Jenni taught art until Granton came along. We spent about a half an hour talking to the kids about what we were doing and they had a chance to ask lots of questions, tell lots of stories, and even come up to see and touch the bike. Getting to spend time with the kids and tell them about Baby G (although most of them are already pretty familiar with the story) was a great experience. We finished the ride with a trip across the Stockton Dam up to the campground. From there we were treated to lunch by Pat Steinmuller, Jenni's former boss and the principal at Stockton Elementary and got to hang out with her grandsons, Drew and Tate. Only one more short day left!

A Message from Tobe...(Day Three)

Hey everyone, this is Toby. Jamye wanted me to add the blog today. We have just arrived in Pittsburg and what a day it was. Today was suppose to be a shorter day than yesterday but it ended up being longer than expected. When we finished the day Jayme had put in a 100.1 mile day and made it in less time than yesterday (6 hours, 25 minutes.) So we are going to go to the hotel and crash for the night maybe grab a bite. In the morning we will set out for a 70 mile day and end up at Stockton Lake to do a little bit of camping. We miss everyone and look forward to seeing everyone at the end of the week. Until next time...

The SAG MAN

And if your wondering what that means....Support and Gear Man

Riding out the storm

We're still here at the Bayless home waiting for the rain to move out of southern Kansas into Oklahoma. The sky is clearing up and we haven't seen any lightning for a while now so we should be on the road before long. I added a couple pictures to the site. The first is on the "Day One" post and is of Pastor Van Zile and myself outside the Church. The second on "Day Two" is Toby, Mr. Bayless and I posing next to Toby's truck with the Trusty Steed. I don't have the best expression on my face in this one but it's the only one we have with all three of us.

Day Two

OK, now to day two. We took off from Burlington a little before 8:00 this morning. The weather was still nice and cool but the wind had changed direction and I had to fight a bit of a headwind all morning so I didn't quite make as good time as yesterday. All in all it was a pretty good ride. We stopped in Neodesha and had lunch and took a little break before we took off for the afternoon portion of the ride. Once we hit Independence, the roads flattened out and the wind turned in my favor again and the last 25 or so miles of the trip went pretty fast. When we hit the big hill coming into Caney I knew I'd made it in one piece. Today was 98.2 miles in 6 hours & 28 minutes. We met Blair and Amanda Millemon, along with their family and a reporter from the local paper in the parking lot of Daniel's Alma Mater, Caney Valley High School. Blair, another one of those invaluable people that has helped more than I could possibly thank him for, then took us to the Bayless Farm, where Dennis (Granton's grandpa) and Darby (his aunt) already had the grill fired up and the table set. We were then treated to a massive feast, which after 100 miles on a bike was exactly what I needed. We've gotten to spend the evening in the home Daniel grew up in and visit with everybody and hear stories about Daniel and Granton and everybody-and if you've met Dennis Bayless, you know the man knows how to tell a story. OK, that's it for me tonight, I'm off to take an ice bath and a hot shower.

Day One-continued

OK, before I get into day two, let me back up and finish my thought on Day one. First of all, the trip was 63.1 miles from the LEC to the front door of the Christian Church of Burlington. It took right at 3 hours & 30 minutes. When we got there we were greeted by Pastor Gordon Van Zile, who took excellent care of us (and is one of the people who really helped this trip happen.) Shortly after we arrived we were also greeted by both the local newspaper, The Coffey County Republican, and the chamber of commerce. That evening we were treated to a wonderful dinner by members of the Young Adults Sunday school class-(Thank you Dennis and Kristen for hosting and everyone else for the great time and food.) After dinner we were welcomed into the home of Judd and Nadine Graham. The Grahams took unbelievable care of us giving us comfortable beds to sleep in, great company and a big (I probably ate more than I should have before a long ride) breakfast. Thank you to the amazing town of Burlington and the people of the Christian Church of Burlington for setting the bar so high on the first day of the trip.

Day One

Day one is officially in the books. I left the Law Enforcement Center at a little after 11:00 this morning. My wife and mother in law, several close friends and co-workers, and a few news reporters came out to see me off. I was escorted out of town by Sgt. Gardner and Officer Monasmith (my partner) from the Bike Unit and Officers Hollar and Stuart escorted me out of town on Topeka Blvd. Of course the bike guys had to stop and help a stalled car at I-470 & Topeka (always vigilant.) It was a beautiful day! I had just enough sun and when it started to get hot, I had a little rain-just enough to cool off. To top it all off, I had the wind at my back almost the whole way. That was especially nice on some of the loooonnnnggg hills in southern Osage and northern Coffey Counties. My father in law will be proud that we even stopped at BETO Junction where Toby was introduced to the world famous "giant" cinnamon rolls. We got into Burlington a little after four and have been resting here at the church. Getting ready to go eat now. So far Burlington has been great-but more on that later. I'm late for dinner.

Official Start

I'll be taking off in a little over two hours, see you in Burlington!

Here We Go!!!

OK, It's here! Just a few hours left and I'll be heading out. The bike is ready and Toby's truck is packed. We're gonna try to get some rest tonight but with all the preparing and getting ready, I'm not sure if I can sleep tonight now that it's finally here. I guess I have to. Anybody who wants to is invited to the LEC to see us off tomorrow around 11. Thanks to everybody who helped get us to this point. Keep an eye on the blog for updates throughout the week!

Oh yeah, KSNT in Topeka did a story on the ride tonight, they don't have a link on their site yet but I'll post one when I can.

Resting Up

I'm in Iowa, celebrating my parents' anniversary and trying to get some rest. I've been taking it easy and getting ready for Monday morning. I got to see Sandy and Todd this afternoon for the anniversary party, they told me everybody on their end is getting fired up for the ride and I definately am as well. Toby is here with me and he's ready to go too. We'll head back to Kansas tomorrow and double check that we have everything ready to go. Nothing much else to report, just two more days!

Newspaper Articles

Here are a couple links to articles in the Bolivar and Topeka papers.
From the Bolivar Herald Free Press from Yesterday:
http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19767517&BRD=2841&PAG=461&dept_id=611093&rfi=8
From the Topeka Capitol Journal today:
http://cjonline.com/stories/061308/loc_290170424.shtml

3 Days to Go

Just putting the finishing touches on the preparations here. I picked up a set of custom decals for the bike donated by Action Signs to Go here in Topeka. They match the lettering already on the bike and say "RIDE FOR GRANTON JUNE 16TH-20TH, 2008" they also have the two Bible verses that have been used floating around on the blogs quite a bit; "ISAIAH 40:31" (the verse I have kind of used as the theme for the ride,) and "ROMANS 12:12" (the verse that has been the theme for Granton's recovery.) Signs to Go also made magnetic signs for Toby's truck during the ride. They did an outstanding job, everything looks great. Thanks to Doug and the rest of the crew at Signs to Go.
There has been a bit of an update to the plan for the ride. I reported yesterday that I would be staying in Caney with Daniel's close friend, Blair. Well, I'm still riding to Caney on the second day, but after we arrive at the school in town, Blair is going to take us out to the Bayless farm where we'll stay with Daniel's father, Dennis. The recent rain has hindered the wheat harvest a bit and Dennis felt that since he was able, he needed to host us while we were there. Blair is promising an excellent meal on the farm that evening, which will be greatly appreciated after the nearly 100 mile ride that day.

Final Route

Here We Go, 4 Days Left.

The Final Route is Set:

I'll leave from the Topeka/Shawnee County Law Enforcement Center, 320 S Kansas in Topeka at around 11:00 am on Monday, June 12th. My Brother Toby will be with me in the SAG (Support And Gear) vehicle. The rest of the TPD Bike Unit (pictured at right-I'm on the far left) will escort me to the city limits as we ride south on Topeka Blvd. I'll continue south on Hwy 75 to Burlington where Tobe and I will stay the night courtesy of The Christian Church of Burlington.

We'll leave early Tuesday morning and keep going south on 75 to Daniel's home town of Caney, where we'll stay the night with one of Daniel's best friends, Blair Millemon and hopefully get to spend some time with some of Daniel's family and the people he grew up with.

Wednesday will take us back to the Northeast to Pittsburg, where Countryside Christian Church has gotten us a motel room to rest in for the night.

On Thursday we'll enter Missouri as we continue Northeast toward Stockton, where Jenni taught. Hopefully we'll make it in time for Jenni's former Principal to get the kids in town involved as we pass through on our way to Crabtree Cove at Stockton Lake. The United States Army Corps of Engineers has donated a free night at the campground so my little brother and I can get in touch with nature (just in case the 300+ miles on a bicycle in the elements leading up to this point wouldn't accomplish that. )

Friday will mostly be down time and a chance to rest and enjoy the lake. We'll take off for Bolivar around 5 or 6 that evening in time to meet the kids for the big finish at Wellspring Baptist Fellowship in Bolivar.

I hope to see many of you either during the ride or after at the End of the Ride Event. Keep praying for the ride-but more importantly KEEP PRAYING FOR THAT BABY!!!

T-Shirts

MG Machining in Bedford, Iowa has donated T-shirts for the ride. There will be a few for sale at the end of the ride event and if I get enough interest, I will take orders for more after the ride. Money raised from the sale of the shirts will also go into Granton's Benefit Ride account. I've included a picture of the front of the shirt. The back will say "On Wings Like Eagles" and will have the names of sponsors and a thank you to all that donated to the ride.

Thank you to all the donations that are coming in right now. Things are going great, keep them coming Lord. 5 days away!

End of the Ride Event

Here is an email I got from Amanda McCullah about the event being planned for Friday the 20th when I get to Bolivar.

Ride For Granton Bayless
Ice Cream
and
Dessert Social
Admission is a dessert or ice cream.
To be held at Wellspring Baptist fellowship on Friday, June 20th at 7:00pm.
The custom made bike, worth over $1,000.00 and donated by Sunshine Bike Shop, will be raffled off!
Tickets prices are:
1 = $5.00
5 = $20.00
10 = $45.00
There will be a bike and trike parade for kids beginning at 7:30pm. All kids who would like to participate need to bring their decorated bike or trike to the Wellspring parking lot by 7:15. Vote for the best decorated bike or trike!
Prizes will be awarded!

The picture above is the bike in question. It is a Surly Long Haul Trucker. It's designed for long distance rides. The color is Utility Blue and the size is 58cm (it fits me and I'm 5'9/180.) Hope to see everybody there on the 20th.

A Visit with the Star

Yesterday I had the chance to go to Children's Mercy to see everybody. I got to Kansas City in the early afternoon and surprised Grandpa Todd & Grandma Sandy when I walked into the waiting room. I got to visit with them, Jenni, and Daniel for quite a while. We were able to talk about and work out some of the details for the ride and just had a chance to talk and tell stories. Then, Granton's mommy took me in to see the Star of the Ride. The picture is of the big guy resting from his chemo. You can't see it very well, but even though he's out, his little hand is holding onto my finger while he sleeps. He's a tough little guy and getting to see him gave me something to concentrate on while I ride next week. I got to spend quite a bit of time with him and at one point, he even woke up. He made it pretty clear that he didn't feel the best but his mommy was able to calm him right down and get him back to sleep. It was a great afternoon, I didn't want to start this thing without getting to spend a little time with Baby G before I left. Just one week to go!

Things are coming together

Things have been going great this week. Donations and pledges are coming in and ther more we can give Jenni & Daniel the better. I have found a campground-Thanks to Blythe in Stockton-at Stockton Lake for the last night of the ride, I just need to get a hold of them and reserve a spot. Nobody ever answers the phone there. I did an interview with the Topeka Capitol Journal yesterday promoting the ride and I'm getting some interest from businesses around town in helping out. Only 12 days 'til we take off.

Getting the Word Out

I have spent most of my spare time this week trying to get word of the ride out to everyone I can. I have been sending emails to churches in Topeka and Bolivar and have been contacting a few business that I am familiar with here in town for support. All I can ask is that you continue to spread the word and to pray. Most of all to pray for Baby G's health and recovery but also pray for the success of this ride. If everyone that reads this blog emails a link for it to everyone they think would be interested and asks them to do the same then more and more people can see this and know about Granton and the people that care for him.

Getting Close

The ride is less than 3 weeks away. With the exception of a few minor details, I am ready to go. The only thing left to do is raise the money. Get the word out, the next two weeks I will be focusing on promoting the ride to anyone I can and getting it out there for people to see. If you are reading this, spread the word, tell people about Granton and this ride.

Email address

I have set up an email address for the benefit ride. It took alot of thinking for me to come up with something REALLY original to name it but I think I finally settled on a real winner. The official email address of the Granton Bayless Benefit Ride is rideforgranton@sbcglobal.net. Anyone who needs to contact me directly about anything to do with the ride can do it there.

Sorry

OK, I know I said I was going to start leaving a post everyday, and then I go and skip the first day. I'll leave two today. This one's the first.

The Bike is Here

I picked up the bike yesterday afternoon-It Is Awesome! Thank you so much to Kay at Sunshine Bike Shop and thank you to Jerry and Jeremy at Capp's Bike Shop in Topeka for getting it all put together for me. The ride is almost here and everything is falling into place, now we just have to get the word out. I know I don't post very often, but with the ride getting so close I'm going to start trying to leave a post every day. If you read this blog, tell people about it, tell them to tell their friends about it. We need everyone we can get to see this and get involved. This is all for Baby G and we have to get the word out!

A Real Sponsor!!!

Sunshine Bike Shop in Springfield has committed to providing a bicycle for me to ride during the Benefit!!! I spent part of this morning on the phone with Kay from Sunshine and she has agreed to give me a great bike to use during my five day ride. When it's all over, I'll get off the bike and auction it off at the end of the ride event in Bolivar, with all procedes going into Granton's Benefit Ride account. If you're in the Springfield area, or even if you're not, get into Sunshine and give them all the business you can, and give Kay a big hug from the Granton Bayless Support Crew.

Route (take one)

OK, Here is the first posting of the Route I'll be taking and the first official details of the ride.
I'll leave Topeka (most likely from the Law Enforcement Center) on Monday morning, June 16th with one or both of my brothers with me in a support vehicle. From there I'll take Hwy 75 straight south to Burlington, where I'll spend the first night courtesy of The Christian Church of Burlington. The next morning, I'll continue south to the Bayless Estate in Havana for the second night. From there, I'll head back northeast to Pittsburg where I'll spend night 3 thanks to Countryside Christian Church. On Thrusday I'll take off eastbound and will spend night four either in or around Greenfield or camping at Stockton Lake somewhere (this part has yet to be determined.) The final day will be a short ride to Bolivar where I'll most likely end the ride at Bolivar High School, Home of the Liberators. Daniel and Jenni's good friends Clayton and Amanda McCullah are working on some sort of event for the completeion of the benefit-these are the people who set up the bone marrow drive in Bolivar so from what I hear, I'm in pretty good hands as far as planning goes.

-Just a side note, I went to the drive in Topeka and as of yesterday I'm officially on the National Bone Marrow Registry.
-Also, for those keeping track, don't forget the bone marrow drive my brother organized in my hometown, Bedford, IA is tomorrow (oh, it's after midnight-I guess it's today)

Bone Marrow Drive in Topeka, KS

I just found out about a Bone Marrow Drive here in Topeka at Washburn University. It will be held in the Washburn room of the Memorial Union from 11am to 6pm tomorrow, May 8th. Contact person is Tyler Goetz at 620-200-6128 or his email is tdgoetz@gmail.com. I just got off the phone with Tyler and this drive was set up independent of Granton's cause-however they have since learned about him through the drive in Dearing and have been mentioning his name in setting up and promoting their drive. I plan on being there to donate and would encourage anyone reading this to do the same.

Progress Report

OK, here's a quick update of where I'm at with things. Everything is going smoothly as far as planning goes. The route is set, I'll post it officially when I square away all the particulars of where I'm going to stay each night, the exact roads traveled, etc. I spoke with Debbie at the Bank of Bolivar and as of today, we only had three pledges. So if you haven't pledged yet please consider doing so and try your best to get word about the ride out to everyone you can possibly think of.
It was great to hear about all the successful bone marrow drives-it's awesome that they had so many people that they actually ran out of kits at one of them!

Pledge Comments

If you make a pledge or contribution to the ride, please feel free to make note of it in the comments. However, you are by no means required to do so. If you want your pledge to remain anonymous We are still happy to get them, it just might be nice to know who else is lending a hand.

God's Voice

Isn't it funny how sometimes the Lord speaks to us in a "still small voice" and other times he just yells right in our ears...
Like anyone who is familiar with Granton's story, I had a long day today. I couldn't get too far away from my computer in case Granton's Blog updated while I wasn't paying attention. I think I probably prayed every other minute throughout the day. At one point when things looked really bad, my parents called me and told me they were going down to KC to be with the family at the hospital. I spent my first two hours of work trying to decide whether or not to go myself. I finally decided that I would go to Children's Mercy and be with my family and at very least be a good set of arms and legs to make sure everyone who had been there for hours and had REALLY been feeling the stress had everything they needed. I put in my vacation request and started home to change and get on the road. I know everybody understands what I'm talking about when I say I had that HEAVY feeling in my chest all the way home. As I drove across town in my quiet car the song "Everlasting God" by Lincoln Brewster kept playing itself over and over in my head, to the point that I was singing it out loud to myself while I drove; and believe me I was NOT in the mood to sing. If you don't know that song, please go find it and listen to the words, it's taken from Isaiah 40 (if you noticed-Isaiah 40:31 is at the bottom of this page and was there before the story I'm telling here happened.) It's a wonderful song about putting all your trust in God even when the odds seem impossible. So, I sang all the way home-in a very sad dreadful way-and when I got there I walked through the door to change my clothes and the phone rang. It was my Dad..."They just called, the Baby's better and we're going home!" I felt the same joy I'm sure everybody else did when they found out that Granton had stabilized today, and I turned around and got back in my car to go to work.

Guess what song was playing when I turned the radio on.

Beginnings

The idea for a benefit ride for Granton came to me one week ago tonight. Since then, everything has seemed to just fall into place as far as planning goes. I guess when the Lord supports something it just kind of works out. This is just the first post to get the page started. Over the next few weeks leading up to the ride on June 16th, I will post updates on how the planning is going, the final determined route, any events that will coincide with or support the ride, etc. For anyone that has been on Granton's site today, you know it's been a rough one. Let's all pray extra hard for God's will to be done and for Him to hold Baby Granton in his hand.