We come to you today from the cozy quarters of our new temporary domicile. That housing is known to most as Beth and Josh's house or Joey's cousins to those in the framily. This post covers a few days so let me take you back to Monday morning in Hermann Missouri.
We awoke in the Christian Community Church recharged full of delicious cheese and ready to crush our 80 miles to Beth and Josh's house. We left at our usual time of around 6 and immediately crossed the Missouri river to get back onto the Katy trail. We instantly had to make a stop as the sunrise over the river was basically perfect and warranted a picture.
With beauty behind us we set out on the ever so flat Katy trail toward our off point of St. Charles. That day consisted of 60 miles on the Katy trail and then a few more to be discovered to get to Beth and Josh's. Those few more turned out to be around 20.
The day on the trail was gorgeous with shade and trees and bluffs and animals and bikers and runners and joggers and walkers and ect. We encountered some completely covered parts of the trail with overhanging vegetation that gave it a tunnel type look.
We biked 40 miles before stopping at a trail side picnic table to have a quick lunch break before finishing the first leg to St. Charles. We had the usual PB and J for me (Matt), honey on a bagel for Joey and tuna with hot sauce for Nate. If you haven't noticed we are not much for variety.
We were about 4 miles from St. Charles when Nate attempted to bunny hop a small crack which ended with his pannier falling off and eventually breaking one of the clips that holds it onto the rack. At this point a wonderful biker by the name of Steve asked us where we were going and what we were doing. We told him our story and he was amazed at what we were doing and told us, "You guys are heroes!" It is always great to hear things like that as it keeps you in high spirits and reminds us why we are doing this.
The Katy trail once in St. Charles took us directly to a brewery. Seeing this as a sign we locked our bikes up and headed in to sample some of the local micro brews. They were of adequate quality and the brewery had wifi so that we could actually find out where Joey's cousin lived so we could get there.
With directions on the mind we set out to end our day as at this point it was getting hot, as it always seems to be. We arrived a few hours later to an eerily empty house, but we made ourselves at home and made ourselves clean again.
That was Monday and I am now coming from you in basically the same place that I initially sat down and it is now Wednesday night / Thursday morning whichever way you want to look at it. Since then we have been treated to delicious meals including but not limited to; Monkey Bread, Grilled Red Pepper and Mozzarella sandwiches, Grilled Chicken, Grilled Pork chops with a spicy sauce, a Mediterranean tomato cucumber salad with feta, Potato Salad, green beans and so many other things. My point being Josh has been making us some delicious meals and I have barely seen him sit down since I have been here.
Other than eating we have been catching up on some reading and playing A LOT of Monopoly and one game of Life. It has been extremely hot outside so we haven't really left the house. Why would we? We really appreciate the hospitality that Beth and Josh have shown to us. Especially because they have a 8 week old newborn baby girl that needs way more attention than we could ever need. They have been extremely kind and gracious and we appreciate everything they have done for us. We really would have been happy with a floor to lay on and water to drink.
Well it is 12:25 am at this point so Kate and Rob, Joey's mom and stepdad should be here any minute. Also our friends from Wisconsin should be here in about an hour. Tomorrow the National Juvenile Arthritis Conference starts so we will be going to St. Louis to get our hotel room and start volunteering for them. As always tell everyone to keep reading and to keep donating. We recently hit $3,000 so we are on our way. With your help $20,000 is easily within reach. Also by getting to St. Louis we hit 2,000 miles biked thus far on the trip!!!!!!!!!!!
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Picture one of the Sunrise over the Missouri River
Picture 2, which one do you think is better?
The beautiful trail with Joey and Nate crushin it
Thank you so much for speaking at the JA Conference. While I can't be there in person, I was there in spirit watching on arthritis.org. I think that what you are doing is AWESOME! I talked to my kids about it; they're pretty impressed. Having a child that is newly diagnosed as well as a child who has been diagnosed for years, (and suffering for longer- I think she was born with it) it's hard to get them going sometimes. My girl especially. She can't make it through WalMart. It's important to hear stories of how people are acheiving greater things while dealing with JA. Thank you for sharing your story, and for biking across the country for "our" kids.
ReplyDeleteThank you Danielle! My biggest goal of this bike trip is to help influence and inspire young kids with JA that they can beat their disease. That if they believe in themselves and always try and keep a good attitude that good things will come! Also glad you were watching via the internet, I think that is pretty cool that they did that! -Fearless Leader, Joey Michels
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