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.