No Good Deed.........

There is a philosphophy that you can be one of two kinds of people and there is no in-between.  You can be either an optimist and join groups like Optimist International while listening to songs like "Optimistic" by Radiohead;



or you can be a pessimist and move to Greece while spending your time listening to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 while drowning your sorrows in pints of Guinness Ben and Jerry's.



Now it is well documented that I am fairly mostly Irish in my lineage and some would say demeanor.  As it so happens, I have a magnet on my refrigerator that states, "An Irishman has an abiding sense of tragedy which sustains him through temporary periods of joy" and my wife would pretty much agree.  In the past I have had a great tendency to look at the negative and always think the worse outcome possible is going to happen.  For instance, during much of the Ride Across America I was convinced I would either be hit by a truck/car/RV or be viciously attacked by some rabid (or at least REALLY angry) stray dog.  It would often preoccupy my thoughts so much that I would be physically exhausted and stressed by the end of the day.

I'm glad to say that neither happened.  I actually did have to spray a few dogs (read my previous posts) but I didn't get bitten and all was well.  And I didn't really have any close car/truck/RV calls until twenty miles from the end - when I reached Manhassat!

But while I rode for sometimes 10 and 12 hours a day on the bike this summer I had the chance to do a lot of contemplating of many different things and one of them was my outlook on life. 

I saw a lot of people who were going through hard times.  Coal miners who were out of work and not likely to get any in the near future.  Women in their 50's who had been laid off from their jobs and were now working in convenience stores because that was the only job available.  Farmers who had to make the choice between watering their crops or watering their livestock.  The town of Joplin, MO which is still struggling to recover after the tornadoes of last year.  A young couple in Southern Virginia who are stuggling to work multiple jobs and pay the medical bills to help their 8-year-old battle neuroblastoma.

It made me realize that no matter how things get here in Northport, I can't complain.  I have a good job that I love to do.  I have an amazing wife that loves me and supports me (even in my mad quixotic pursuits).  I have children who are healthy, bright and loving.  And I have a beautiful home that we love.  I have a lot to be grateful for and a lot to be optimistic about.

And herein lies the problem.  My family and I spent the summer trying to do something to make the world a little better for other - the children and their families.  One of the major hurdles we had to cross was to find someone to watch our cat Lily (you can read about her in Amy's Blog entry).  We finally found someone we could trust and we left for our journey secure in the knowledge that our home and cat would be well taken care of.  However, only a few days into her house sitting for us the young lady was bitten by something while sleeping in our bed.  She and her parents were very nervous (I guess with all the horror stories of bed bugs it's understandable) and she said she couldn't sleep over any more but she would be willing to come by during the day and take care of Lily.  Since we really needed someone here at night we starting sending out the word to find someone to replace her.

My mother-in-law had an acquaintance approach her and said her son was recently let go from his job and was going through a divorce and although he was staying with her, he stays up late at night and he's not loud but it keeps her awake and was wondering if maybe he could stay at our place for the summer and look after Lilly.  Joan met with him and said he seemed quiet and nice.  I think she said he might have been a little odd but okay.  We were relieved!  Thanks to Joan and her Mahjong Mafia we were able to get a replacement house sitter from 3,000 miles away.

The fact that we could never get in touch with him (he didn't have a phone or a computer or a job) should have been our first clue.  The only way we seemed to be able to get in touch with him was through Joan.  Since we couldn't get in touch with him we didn't get our mail when we needed it, we didn't really know how Lilly or the house were doing.  Every now and then we'd get an e-mail saying Lilly was doing okay.

So finally with a little more than a week to go we asked Joan to check in on things.  That's when she told us the house was a wreck.  Well, maybe not a wreck but it was filthy.  To make a VERY long story short, the garbage hadn't been taken out in weeks.  Well, it made it to the side of the house but not to the curb.  His children apparently had been staying at the house (children we knew nothing about, if we had we would have said, "Fine, but here are the things we would like them not to touch) and ALL of the beds and bedrooms were a mess.  The rugs were filthy and the kitchen was extremely dirty.  Aaaaaaannnndddd, apparently he had run out of garbage bags for the kitchen trash can but didn't buy any so he was just dumping it in the trash can and then dumping it outside.  When Joan went to throw something away fruit flies went everywhere!

So we were now officially freaked out!  We spent the last week of our journey not sleeping and worrying about what condition our home would be in.  Our house sitter - let's call him Joe A. - had told us that he was going on a week's vacation (a vacation that kept getting put off because his car was in the shop and he didn't have the money to get it out yet) and would be back the Monday before we returned home.  After discussing it with Joan we decided that we would tell him we were having the place cleaned and that others would look after the place when he returned so he didn't have to stay until we got home on Friday. 

Yes, we were getting the placed cleaned - by my in-laws.  They are truly saintly people and if ever we have been more grateful to anyone I can't remember when it possibly could have been.  So Joe A. gathered his things and our friends Carla and Rita took care of Lilly until Joan and Mort could take over.  My in-laws cleaned everything.  My father-in-law fixed the broken fans that he could (there was one beyond repair), scrubbed the kitchen trash can, took all the garbage out to the curb and took all the recycling to his recycling center.

My sainted mother-in-law did something she rarely does at home - cleaned!  Of course I'm kidding (since I know Joan will read this!), but she took care of getting as much of our home back in order as she could, making beds, cleaning floors, scrubbing, etc.  On top of that she slept in our home so Lilly would have company.  All above and beyond the call of duty!!!!

We rode in and finished our journey, had dinner and then we tried tackling some of the mess before we went to bed.  We didn't really get far and we decided to put it off until Saturday. 

And that's when the FUN began.

We knew we had a mess to clean up but we started discovering things.  Ground up candy in the floor, candy between the floorboards, crunched up potato chips in the seat and couch cushions, spilled jello shots in the freezer (yes, that's right - using our children's medecine cups)!  "Okay," we thought, "maybe he had a party and forgot about them".  And then we started noticing the odd things.

8 bags of frozen corn.  I love corn as much as the next person but 8 bags?????

ALLLLLLL of our food was gone.  Okay, not ALL but ALMOST every scrap of food we had left in the refrigerator, the freezer, and the pantry was gone.

Our neighbor Kathleen told us about the rats.  Apparently a problem that we have never had in the nine years we have lived here has surfaced - rats in the yard.  Our neighbor loves her bird feeder and told us Saturday morning that she hadn't been able to feed them because rats showed up about two weeks ago.  Her landlord put a rat trap out back but she wasn't sure it was working.

And then Amy saw a rat!  While she was in the kitchen she saw a rat run into the drainage pipe built into our retaining wall.  It came out and then ran into another pipe further down the wall.  Now we are used to the chipmunks doing that but rats are another thing.  So I immediately went down into the basement to look for signs of rats down there.  If they were in the house that would be VERY bad!

And I found the plastic bag.

Since the cedar closet was right next to where all the piles of trash had been I started my search there.  Right in the middle of the floor was a plastic bag.  "What the hell is this?????"  So I looked inside and I found and empty gallon container from a cheap brand of vodka.  Hmmmmmmm.  So I went upstairs and I asked Amy, "Were you saving this for some sort of project for the kids?"  Since she replied in the negative we could only assume one thing - Joe had been hiding empty alchohol bottles in the basement.  Back down I went to see if I could find any more.  No such luck.

Now when we had gotten home on Friday we had noticed an empty wine bottle in the recycling.  Apparently it had been on the counter so Joan or Mort put it in the recycling after Mort had already taken everything away.  But now we began to be curious so we looked in the area of the pantry where we kept our alchoholic beverages.  As far as we could tell the wine was all there but there we noticed the tequila bottle (which had been about half full, left over from the chili party last December) had only about an eighth of an inch left.  And then we noticed that two pint bottles of gin which were extra bottles I had left over after giving show gifts for Thoroughly Modern Millie were still on the shelf but empty!  And as we perused more of the shelf space we made a chilling discovery and we had to ask ourselves;



And then by simple deduction we started to put it all together from all the behavior and we thought we had the answer, perhaps Joe A. drinks a little - at least all of OUR stuff.  Its not that we are big consumers of hard alchohol but when we see five bottles of it gone plus an empty bottle in the basement and all the leftover jello shots (yes, we finally tasted a bit of one and it was VERY potent) we began to think that maybe he drinks A LOT.  It is sort of the only answer we can think of for all of the behaviorisms that were being reported to us.

And we cursed the spider that bit Claire!

So this week has been one of trying to clean up the mess that Joe has left us.  I spent all of Saturday cleaning the refrigerator (which was disgusting but made easier by the fact that it and the freezer were EMPTY) and the microwave (in which something was cooked and apparently exploded in a Mythbusters type experiment).  Amy, the kids and I spent the next two days cleaning floors (Sarah even got down on her hands and knees with a straightened out paper clip to clean non pariels out of the floor boards).  I spent an entire day on the bathrooms while Amy scoured the pantry and repapered (which once again was easy since there was no food).  I went to Home Depot and got plugs to block up the entrances of all the weep holes (the drains in our retaining wall).  Sadly, it would mean that the boys' sleepover would have to be indoors instead of in a tent as they so badly wanted.

We also had estimates from three exterminators who confirmed our suspicions that the rats were MOST likely drawn to our yard by the accumulation of garbage - a veritable smorgasborg right next to our house. We found out it would be about $750 to get rid of them by using bait traps for a year.  At least they confirmed my observation that there were no rats in the basement or the shed.

And we started tallying up the costs of our house sitter from hell.  Between food eaten, alchohol consumed, fans broken, trash cans needing to be replaced, light pulls needing to be replaced, various other broken items and the cost of the exterminating - a bit over $1500! 

And we began thinking, NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED, AND we cursed the spider that bit Claire!

But we had to count our blessings.  We were home and it was still standing and after some diligent extermination our rat issue will be gone!  Our fridge and freezer are cleaner than they have been in years and we've been able to do the spring cleaning that we forgot to do (in the spring).  Our family is healthy, we made it back in one piece, the van is still running and our cat is thriving and happy to see us.  Life is good.

One of the wonderful things about the summer was watching the summer Olympics on television (when we weren't watching Chopped, Cupcake Wars, or Food Star) and the closing ceremony allowed me to introduce my children to one of my favorite songs from a Monty Python movie.  However, instead of the version we all saw at the Olympic closing, I choose to share with you dear readers the original and remind us all to look at the glass half full and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life";



And so we clean, I get to do some more riding this week and we get to spend a little more time bonding as a family before school begins again - and that is the glass being half full!

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!

Nervous and Jittery - It's New Jersey!

(Notice!  Severe Lack of Official Cycling Roads!)

I haven't really been posting on my non-ride days during this journey mainly because I've been using those days to try and recover from some of the long rides I've been putting in.  In the last two weeks I've done way too many 100+ rides and my body has started rebelling.  I wake up in the morning and everything just hurts.  Not a sharp, jabbing "I WILL hurt you if you get on that bike" but rather a dull, throbbing "You ARE going to get on that bike but I'm going to make it hell for you" kind of pain.  Its all centered in my lower back and legs and it just serves to remind me that 3700 miles is a long way to go.

All this is just to say that I have a lot of partial and half finished blogs that I WILL at some point complete and post - most likely next week.  But for now I wanted to just give a synopsis of the last few days and share my fears about tomorrow.

The last few days have been glorious and brutal at the same time.  Some VERY long days in the saddle but it has all been in the name of trying to finish this quest in the time allotted.  We need to get home.  I can see in myself how I have become short tempered and prone to bouts of despondency, mostly off of the bike.  While on the bike all I can do is keep pedaling and pedaling.  There is no more zip left in my legs for climbing because they just ache all the time.  It seems every since the day of climbs from Damascus to Floyd my legs have just never recovered.  I somehow managed to get up the wall from Vesuvius - mainly because I had the images of my Sunrise Leadership/CIT and Staff in my head to give me strength.  But every since then I just can't power climb like I used to.  My body is just worn out.

But what really has had me irritable and sleepless for the last few nights is the prospect of riding 2/3 of the length of New Jersey in a single day.  At 6:00 tomorrow morning I will roll out from my sister's house in Swedesboro, NJ with the goal of reaching Fort Lee before it gets too dark for me to see anything!

Now I've ridden blind before (one of my yet to be completed blog entries talks about how I had to find my way to Fredericksburg) but never to this extent and for this long of a ride.  There was the section from Cameron, AZ to Four Corners where I was off the map but then once we hit Colorado I was good.  Now I'm trusting to the interpretations of Google Maps, the New Jersey DOT map and dumb luck to get me through some of the most congested roadways in the country if not the world.

I'm very nervous.  I've made it 3500 miles thus far unscathed (well, except for the accident I had where Sarah knocked me off my bike at 18 mph - again, part of another blog that has yet to be completed) and I would love to finish my last 200 miles that way.  I'm scheduled to be the guest weather person on WPIX Channel 11 News on Friday morning where I'll get to talk about Sunrise and the incredible work they've done there - I just hope I don't do it in a cast!

So, this is not a pity party for Connor - it's basically a plea to all of you out there who have been following my journey please say a prayer, offer sacrifices, send positive energy, chant a mantra  - whatever it is that you do in your own spiritual practice - that I will make it safe and unharmed over the 130 miles I must travel tomorrow.  If you tune in to Channel 11 on Friday at 8:45 in the morning and you see me there, you'll know your prayers were answered!

And if you haven't responded yet to our invitation to join us at Sunrise Day Camp between 12:00 and 2:00 on Friday (yes, after the broadcast) consider this another invite - please join us to celebrate a safe return and hopefully making a difference for the kids of Sunrise!!!!!

And one last piece of news that I would like to share.  Throughout this ride I have ridden for various Sunrise groups and for some individuals, including Elijah Dalton, the young man I met in Virginia.  However, tomorrow I will be riding for one very special young lady.  Talia is a young girl whose face has stuck with me throughout the years.  She is always bubbly and vivacious and always willing to embrace life.  She has been battling cancer since she was seven years old and although she had been winning her battle, I just found out that her cancer has come back rather aggressively.  She is an amazing young lady and tomorrow I will be riding for her.  Every turn of my pedals, every hill I have to go up, every scary descent and every mile I pound out will be in the hopes that she gets better - in the hopes that someone will read this post and donate so that children like Talia can have the joy of Sunrise Day Camp - in the hopes that together we can make a difference in their lives.

But for now I'm going to go for a ride with my son William.  Every since he wasn't able to do the extra four miles that Sarah and James did on the Mount Vernon Trail he has been upset that he wouldn't be able to finish his 100 miles.  So he and I are going to ride to Grandma and Grandpa Connor's new house here in Swedesboro, NJ and make sure that he gets his extra four miles to make him even with James.  He's a trooper and he wants to do his part for Sunrise.  With inspiration like that, maybe I CAN make it to Ft. Lee tomorrow after all - just remind myself that William would never want me to give up.

There is no daily report since I didn't really ride today but since this is New Jersey, I'm sure I'll have lots tomorrow!!!!!

Stay well and I will (hopefully) update more from the road!!!!!

For another perspective on our journey check out Amy's blog at http://www.crosscountrymama.blogspot.com//
To help us get the kids to Sunrise go to https://www.wizevents.com/register/register_add.php?sessid=1809&id=1056
Check out our website at http://www.connorsarmy.org/

Contemplations on the Road to Keyenta!

Today was one of those days when it was just about getting on the bike and churning out the miles. After such a relatively long “lay off” (despite my 31 mile “training” ride on Tuesday) my muscles were jolted awake by yesterday’s ride and this morning when I woke up I was truly feeling it. I had to get up at 4:30 so I could get myself together and get the bikes out of the storage room and reloaded on the car before breakfast at 6:00.

After a largish breakfast (two bowls of oatmeal, eggs, sausage, orange juice, two cups of coffee) I headed off into a beautiful sunrise. Yesterday was cold and cloudy as I left Tusayan but today was just perfect as the sun crested over the buttes off in the horizon. I am no off of my official Adventure Cycling Association maps and we are creating this route based on Google Maps and (once we get to Colorado), the Colorado DOT maps. As such, I was nervous about elevations and my brother-in-law Per came to the rescue with his ability to create elevations for me for every single leg of our route. If you’re interested in all of the elevations, you can go here and check them out!
Because of this technology, I knew that the first part of my morning was going to be climbing - from the very beginning until right after Tuba City until about half way into it. Also, from my maps, I knew that there would be almost no place to stop for water refills as there were virtually no towns along the way. The trick was to conserve water and hope Amy and the kids caught up. After all, it was only 73 miles and they would probably catch me in not time - right?

With the long desolate stretch I can honestly say that with two exceptions not much of note happened. It was just a lot of pedaling and thinking. As I watched the miles roll by it left me open to contemplate many things within my brains, to wit;

1) The Southwest has been spoiled for my by my trip to the Grand Canyon. Don’t get me wrong, I still see the landscape as gorgeous and phenomenal, but after seeing the majesty of the GC nothing will take my breath away or fill me with complete awe as much as that experience. Leaving yesterday was so incredibly difficult as the road took me along the South rim and every time I saw a glimpse I wanted to stop and see another wonder of its hidden majesty. I’m sorry but the rest of the Arizona landscape just can’t compare.

2) If Jan Brewer wanted to balance her state’s budget or work on a way to lower taxes for the people of Arizona, I have the answer - just get people out to clean all the glass and plastic bottles from the sides of her highways! Once they collect them, turn them in for recycling! If she could get back the 5 cent deposit from just one stretch of highway she could probably fund one program in her state. Honestly, its pretty disgusting to be riding through such beautiful country and see every few feet another wine, beer, soda, or alcoholic beverage bottle - not to mention all the beer cans! If she collected and then recycled them she would have a huge cash windfall!

3)  Today I thought of the kids of Sunrise and how this week they are finishing up their first full week of camp. I'm still hoping I can get the skype system set up with the camp but I've decided that I'm going to start devoting a week of my riding to different groups at the camp - from the Acorns all the way up to the CIT's.  I'll try to have Deanna send me info about what they're doing and I'll start posting in this blog little messages to them.  It may take a couple of weeks to implement, and I may be riding for more than one group at a time, but I just want the kids to know that I'm thinking about them.

4)  As much as its about the places we're going, so much of this journey is about the people we meet - Jim, Rande, Alicia, Albert, Tom, and so many others who have given of there generosity and have been so interested that they've asked for brochures.  This ride is about spreading the word about Sunrise and in so doing hopefully folks will donate just a little bit to help these amazing kids.

5)  Without my family this ride would not be possible.  Its not just about all the logistics that Amy has been doing.  Not only is she driving the van (full of cantankerous kids) every day, providing me with water, packing and unpacking, she is spending her evenings updating the website, loading her blog, contacting media outlets, booking accomodations, and going over the next day's route and activities.  Without her I would probably have keeled over in the desert long ago.  And then there are the kids, who have started to take on the role of my own crew of soigneurs!  When I see the van with the blue tarp covered bikes on top pull in front of me I know it will only be seconds before the doors fly open and two to three (depending on who is playing their DSi) of my helpers will come flying out to huge me, fill my water bottles and ask for the daily reports so far.  More than anything seeing their belief in me and their words of encouragement help keep me going.  Especially on the worse days, when I see the light in their eyes I know that I'm not just riding for the kids of Sunrise, I'm also showing my own children that a single man can make a difference.  And then whenever we stop Sarah loves to tell people that her dad is riding cross country and she rushes off to find Amy so she can give the person a brochure.  They are my messeurs, my cheering section and my little PR machines all rolled into one.  Without my family I couldn't make it.

Also along the way I finally met my first group of cyclotouring individuals, a group from the organization Bike and Build which cycles across America to raise funds and awareness for affordable housing in this country.  It was a team of 18 riders and they were heading to San Diego.  They were stopped by the side of the road and we shared information about the roads ahead and shared information.  One of the people I spoke to is a medical student so she was very interested in the camp and possibly helping.

Not much else happened on the way to Keyenta except that I made incredibly good time!  There were sections where I was just flying along!  The only problem with that was the fact that there were no places to stop for water refills and I had gotten ahead of my support which means I was dangerously close to being dehydrated.  I was running out of water and I was down to the last dregs in my bladder.

I eventually hit the final down hill section of my ride and since I knew I had beaten Amy in the kids (they hadn't passed me yet) I stopped into a convenience store to get some water (and corn nuts) to munch on while I waited.  I then became engaged in a conversation with a woman and her family when she came up and introduced herself and said she had seen me riding on the road.  She was from the Phoenix area and we talked about riding, the weather, charity fundraising and her husband gave me the low down on the road to Cortez, which is where they had just come from the day before.  Having learned my lesson about local knowledge I listened avidly and was relieved to find out that there wouldn't be any heavy climbing to do.  I got myself rehydrated and sat myself down to eat my corn nuts - and then I saw Amy and the kids drive by heading for the motel so I downed my gatorade and headed off in pursuit.

Now we once again went in search of the afternon meal and while doing so we discovered there were three things to do in town that evening - a tribal pow wow, a carnival, and a rodeo!  We eventually talked the kids into the rodeo since when would they ever get the chance to do that (and we felt that being out of town white people might not go over so well at the pow wow!) again as there aren't too many of them on Long Island.

We then went to a restaurant that featured authentic Navajo food and despite their whining the kids ate their entrees and wanted more - they ended up eating part of Amy's Navajo taco.  We then headed over to the local Burger King which also had a memorial/educational display about the Navajo Code Talkers.  I had known about them only through the Nicholas Cage movie Windtalkers;



We paid our respects to the memorial and headed back to the hotel so the kids could swim - they've become quite the water babies - then it was time for rodeo!!!  We (okay, just me I guess) felt a little out of place without any cowboy hats or boots but we pressed on.  Once the kids realized what they would really be seeing they started getting excited!  And then the bull riding started and they lost there minds!  I can't really do the rest of the evening justice so I'll just show one picture of the rodeo and one of us there;

(And I Thought MY Ride Was a Pain in the Perineum!)

(It's Time for Some Rodeo!)

And now the reports;

FFR - 1 Rabbit (it was black with long ears - I think it was a rabbit), 1 Fox, 1 Dog, 2 UFO’s
RRL - 1 Cooler, 3 Cooler Lids, 1 Large Plastic Container Lid, 1 Large Fuscia Bra on the shoulder

Stay well everyone and I'll update more from the road!

For another perspective on our journey check out Amy's blog at http://www.crosscountrymama.blogspot.com//
To help us get the kids to Sunrise go to https://www.wizevents.com/register/register_add.php?sessid=1809&id=1056
Check out our website at http://www.connorsarmy.org/