Planning The Trip - The Best Laid Plans

Okay so once again I find myself apologizing to all of you out there in cyberland. I really have been trying to post more often and keep you all updated on the twists and turns that are the Connor's Army Ride Across America.  But as the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote in his poem "To A Mouse On Turning Up Her Nest With a Plow" (composed in 1785);

"But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane
    In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
    Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
    For promis'd joy."

And so it has been with this past Spring Break here in the Connor household.  I had truly hoped to spend this week racking up all kinds of training miles but one thing led to another and before you know it all I had was 80 measly miles to show for ten days off. 

And now I find myself 68 days away from departing from San Diego to start the journey and I think to myself, "Gee, you had better start putting in some miles - and a lot of hills."  For you see, the first day of our journey out of San Diego looks like this:

As you can see from the elevation chart, I'm climbing from 0ft to over 1200 feet in the first 50 miles of traveling.  I certainly am going to feel like this if I don't get some climbing miles under my belt;

Yes, like I'm going nowhere fast - or in reality, probably more like this "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie";



pedaling, pedaling, pedaling and getting nowhere fast!  Of course the poet Robert Burns never tells us what happened to the mouse after it was turned up - it could be a dead mouse, not to be confused with the group Deadmau5.  WHAT???  You're not familiar with the work of Deadmau5.  Well for your education and edification I give you "Alone With You:



Its great music to listen to as I climb the hills of Long Island on my bicycle!

And of course, now the temperature is starting to kick up and I need to take advantage.  So tomorrow will see me racking up the miles again.  So far this year I've managed to log in just over 1000 miles since January and my goal is to try to get in 2,000 before I leave.  That basically means I have to log an average of 120 miles a week from now until the day we leave.  I figure if I can manage to put in that much mileage I'll be in relatively good shape - but then again, the best laid plans, yes?

In other good news, our major sponsor Smiles for Scott has also generously offered to sponsor our jerseys for the ride.  We're now in the process of getting new jerseys printed up with all of our sponsors (and of course Smiles for Scott will hold a prominent place) and we're also getting some for the kids since they'll be riding with us part of the way as well.  Can't you just see it?  The kids and I riding our bikes along the road in Kansas (where it's flat) all wearing our new jerseys and looking so professional!  We'll be a bit shy of a peloton but we'll manage somehow!

We've also been able to finally get in contact with a cyclist from Colorado who has advised us on the route from Four Corners, AZ to Pueblo, CO.  It will be hilly and hard but doable - just as long as we plan for it (ah, there's that word again).

In other news, we are going to start blogging for the Syosset Patch soon.  We'll be doing a weekly update for them and there is a possibility that Northport Patch will hopefully pick it up too!  That way we can share with more of the good folk of Long Island what is happening on the road.  Aaaaaaannnnddd, once we actually get Skype loaded onto our Notebook, I'm hoping we can work something out with Sunrise so we can Skype to them every Friday from the road!

We're still seeking sponsors to help us underwrite the cost of gas for the trip since there is most likely no way I can do this unsupported in the time I have available so if any of you reading this would or can help us in that regard, please let us know - we could really use the help.  Of course, donations to help us reach our fundraising goal would be nice too!  Or, if you are a new reader to this blog show your support to the kids of Sunrise Day Camp by going to our facebook page and adding us to your likes.  We're hoping to get 3700 likes (one for every mile of the journey) to show the kids they are not alone in their fight.

In further positive developments, we have recently been in contact with some good folks in San Diego who we are hoping will help us get a media event together for the kick off in San Diego and perhaps a few California folk will join us as we begin our trek!   Now if we could only get the New York/Long Island media to cover us!

So, what's the plan?  How do I anticipate making God laugh next?  I'm going to just plug in my Deadmau5, get on my bike and ride a lot!!!!  I'm hoping all you good folk out there will help me do the rest.  And now, because we all need a little vintage Pink Floyd in our lives, I present to you "Bike".  And if you listen closely to the lyrics, in keeping with the theme there is a homeless mouse named Gerald;



And there you have it my friends, Pink Floyd's "Bike"!

Stay well my dear friends, I WILL see you on the road , hopefully a  LOT!

Grateful Alive!

So I have to admit that I missed the Grateful Dead craze.  Musically I sort of fell into an in-between time and as a result my musical tastes are many and varied.  Because I moved from California to Georgia when I was in elementary school and I wanted so much to hold on to my California identity (can you blame me?) I listened to a lot of The Beach Boys.  Then when a bunch of the local boys and I started skateboarding I was really digging the surf scene, since grunge wasn't in yet.



Before I left Georgia for Germany I got into a lot of rock, especially Southern Rock.  Groups like Lynyrd Skynyrd;



Then when I moved to Germany instead of Disco, I found myself listening to groups like Queen;



Aerosmith:



The Kinks;



The Police;




The Ramones;



Pink Floyd;



And because I was living in Germany at the time I got a little into Kraftwerk, this clip is not really from the 70's, its from 1983 but if you watch it you'll know why I chose this song;




And there were many other groups that I listened to at the time that seminally influenced my taste in music but there are some that I notably missed out on - The Beatles (never really heard much of them until the late 80's), mainly because I just didn't have the interest or the exposure;  Bruce Springsteen, because they hadn't heard of him in Germany;  Billy Joel, because when I moved from Germany to Texas not many people listened to him down there - and a host of other popular musicians that people of my generation listened to.

And one of those was the Grateful Dead.  I know that most "baby boomers" spent many hours listening to "The Dead" and many of us are closet "deadheads" but I never really got it.  I guess its because once again, I wasn't really exposed to it and by the time I started choosing my own music it was really more the driving rythms of punk and rock that turned me on.

And another seminal influence from that time period was cycling.  I've written in the past about how I spent most of my time getting around in the summers in Ansbach via my cobbled together bicycles that my friends Ed Trevarrow, Mark Pariseau and I all would put together.  We'd augment them by buying a few parts from the shop in the old city of Ansbach but we'd go traversing all over the countryside in the summers with our toe clips (check out the Kraftwerks clip again) and panniers exploring as long as our parents would let us.

And to be honest, The Grateful Dead scene never really fit into it.  The music, the drugs, the hippy love throw back thing wasn't really us - and personally, I was too grateful being alive than thinking about being dead.  Its kind of stupid to say it now but I think that's one of the things that turned me off about the band.  I would hear about them and think, "what a stupid name for a band!"

And now that I'm older, I find myself grateful for the smaller things that I come across in life as well as the bigger things.  I know that I made a list of things to be grateful for in my last post but in just a week and a half, so many more things have happened to add to the list; big things like my daughter receiving an award from the Long Island chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals;



And little things like my children performing their own rendition of an old Holiday Season favorite but with a slight twist that they like to call "Santa Clause is Stalking You Now";



Or just living in a town where this happens every year;




And I am so grateful for so many things that have been happening on the Connor's Army Ride Across America front.  So much has happened in the last week that I've been dying to share but facebook posts just aren't the right place because I can't add as much detail so for those of you who are keeping up, here goes;

We got a mini van!!!!!!  Yes, I know what you're thinking, "why in the hell would you be grateful for a mini van?!?!"  Well, to be honest, I'm not sure that Amy is.  But it is a necessary evil if I'm going to be able to do this ride supported instead of hauling everything by myself across the country.  It has the DVD player for the kids and the rest of the support team, a trailer hitch for a hitch mounted rack that can carry more than one bicycle, a luggage rack for "the hamburger" and to strap down spare parts, and it was at a price we could afford.  We're going to have to put some money into it and it doesn't have "stow and go" seating but it has everything else.  And its black with tinted windows so it doesn't look quite as dorky.  I'm torn between naming it Vanikin Roadwalker or Vanna Black.  I thought about giving it a Spanish flair and naming it Vanna Negro but I'm sure that's racist and let's not even talk about what I REALLY wanted to name it - The Black Hole, since so much will dissappear in there!  Of course, I could just go with my German experience and name it Vanna Schwartz!

Our Facebook Page has over 1200 likes!!!!!  Now, I know that in itself doesn't seem to be such a big deal but it is.  We're hoping that by gaining some sort of significant exposure on facebook we'll be able to attract some more sponsors to help us with underwriting the cross country event.  We figure we probably need about $5,000 more in sponsorships and we'll be set for whatever evenutality we hit on the road.  But the popular support on facebook is a big step.  For those of you reading this that have liked our page - THANK YOU!!!!!!!  Your support is truly overwhelming to me and I know that because of it a big difference will be made.  Please continue to invite your friends and let's continue to grow!

This blog has over 10,000 views!!!!!!!!  I don't know how its happened but since we debutted this blog way back in June 2009, we have (as of this writing) 10,284 views!!!!!!  A year ago (January 2011) we had about 2800 views but since then it has taken off!  To each and every one of you who has looked at this site, or read these posts I thank you!  You've been following my ramblings (or maybe you're just looking for pictures and videos) and that means I'm reaching more of you.  If you've read this far in this post, please take a minute to go to our facebook page (if you're a facebook member) and add us to your likes - help us spread the word even further.

The Syosset High School Fashion Show!!!!!  And this is HUUUUUGGGGEEEEE!!!!!   After a hiatus of a few years the Fashion Show is making a return to Syosset High School.  Two of the most energetic young ladies I know are instrumental in making sure it happens and they are both counselors at Sunrise Day Camp.  They are going to use the fashion show as a fundraiser for Sunrise with the money going towards the $50,000 we are trying to raise in the Ride Across America.

Sunrise Syosset!!!!!  There is a group of students at SHS who are also counselors at Sunrise Day Camp.  They are going to meet with me on Monday to brainstorm how we can get the other students groups of Syosset High School involved in helping us with raising the money we're trying to raise for the ride.  The idea is that if a good percentage of the student groups at SHS (there's about 100 of them) can do some type of fundraising for the event (we're looking at it as a Team Sunrise event) then we might be able to raise enough at the school to send one child to camp for the summer.  That's $6,000 and for the school to come together to do that would be amazing!  However, if you're reading this and you would like to contribute on your own, you can go here and donate safely and securely!

My back!!!!  A lot of things could have happened when I had the encounter with the car door back in July 2010 but so far I seem to be doing well.  I didn't break anything and the only permanent reminders I seem to have are my scar and my tattoo!  We're not sure what the herniated disc issue is from but the one injection I had seems to be holding steady.  There's a little bit of pain but I'm going to set up another injection soon and with any luck I'll be ready to roll all 3600 miles!

RECycle for Sunrise is taking off!!!!  What started out as a way to try to raise more of the funds I need to underwrite the costs of the cross country trip has started doing so well!  Just today I sold three bicycles and two of those were from people who contacted me.  Folks are donating bikes for the effort (thank you sooooooo much Andrea!) and I know that the bikes are going to great homes so they'll make people doubly happy - those who'll get to ride them and the kids at Sunrise who'll benefit from the sales!  I'm not going to be a bike mechanic full time but I'm learning a lot and I know if something happens on the road I'll be ready for it.

So, its been a week and a half full of great things for Connor's Army and I thank you all my readers for believing in me, reading my words and for supporting something that I truly believe in my heart of hearts will make a difference in the lives of eight children far beyond what we can imagine.

So for now I'll leave you with this cool little picture that I found online.  I just thought it was funny and it shows some of the problems that cyclists face now are nothing new under the sun.  Oh, and if you made it this far, feel free to leave some comments!!!!

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

Ride Me to the Moon - And A Happy 100 To Us!

So tonight I left school at 4:40 PM and by the time I got 1/4 of the way home it was almost pitch black and I found myself riding to the moon.  Okay, so it wasn't quite like the picture above and I wasn't trying to smuggle a small alien in the basket of my bicycle (extra terrestrial or illegal).  And to be honest, I only went airborne once or twice as I was bumping over potholes in the near pitch blackness (I really need to get a better headlight if I'm going to commute at night).  But as I looked up while heading due East on the way home the vision I saw was more like this;

Now, a little known fact about me and my musical tastes.  At one time in my life I was very into Dinah Washington and I had more than a few of her albums on tape (yes, this was before CD's were popular, back when the walkman was the coolest thing to have) and this was one of the songs I used to listen to a lot:

So this song was playing through my head as I saw myself on a dark ribbon of road punctuated periodically by the headlights of the cars behind and the orange moon stretching just above it.  It was as if I could pedal right to the moon if I kept going!

Now I have to mention here that my association with the moon today started at 2:15 in the morning as Amy and I woke up to watch the first total eclipse of the moon on a Winter Solstice since 1638 and we thought we'd wake up the kids to have them witness it as well - c'mon how often do you get the chance to see that.  I think they've calculated that the next time this will happen is 2094!

So we woke the kids up and this is what we saw:

And it made me so happy that I could share this with my kids, even if I knew we were all going to be loopy and sleep deprived the rest of the day.

But now as I rode home riding to the moon I was grateful to be alive, grateful to be able to just see the moon stretch before me, feel the cold air (it was 21 degrees) and the road under my tires.  And I'm reminded of why I escaped relatively unscathed from my accident.

But there others who can't ride to the moon.  People whose immune systems are compromised and becuase of that they can't be riding outside in the freezing weather, they can't take the chance that they're going to fall in the dark and suffer a severe case of road rash.  People like my friend Dana who needs experimental treatment in order to survive the latest attack from cancer.  The children from Sunrise Day Camp, some of whom I came to find out this past summer, have never ridden a bike themselves because they've never been well enough to learn.  For them time is not always on their side - which is another reason why I want to ride for them this summer.  I can put myself out there and hopefully give them a chance to enjoy a summer playing and running as much as they can.  Now that Allan Rosenburg at Coinland.com has offered to sponsor us again we are $1000 closer to this goal - now we only have $7000 more to go to reach our goal and make this cross country trip a reality to help these kids!

And now for the second part of the title.  WITH THIS POST, CONNOR'S ARMY HAS NOW POSTED 100 TIMES SINCE 2006!!!!!  WOOHOOO!!!!

I think this deserves a bit of a celebration;



Yes, we rock!  And its all thanks to all of you!  Keep spreading the word!  And speaking of rockin' I will leave you with this last little sound bite from Pink Floyd in honor of our lunar eclipse!  Enjoy:

	Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

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