Planning the Trip - Part 2

So yesterday I was reminded of the reality of what I'm going to be doing - I realized that we are only 88 days away from our departure in San Diego.  Only 88 days away from what will probably be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and my family will be there with me to help me through it.  Although many may look on this as just a middle aged guy checking off something on his "bucket list", its really much more than that.  In the movie The Bucket List Morgan Freeman's character tells a story about how the ancient Egyptions believed at the entrance to heaven a person is asked two questions: "Have you found joy in your life?"; and, "Has your life brought joy to others?".  Their responses determined if they would be allowed to enter heaven.  Of course, he tells it much better (but then again, he IS Morgan Freeman);



And of course, part of the irony is that in this movie his character talks about the questions that would allow one to enter Heaven and in another movie he actually played God;



Yesterday I realized that both of these clips from Mr. Freeman's work are really appropriate for what my family and I are trying to accomplish this summer - we've prayered to be able to make a difference and we're hoping that God will provide us with this opportunity to do so.  I have found so much joy in the health and happiness of my children and now I would like to have the opportunity to bring joy to others.  Now could I do this by teaching at Sunrise for the summer?  Yes, perhaps.  But the chance to be able to make it possible for eight children to attend camp this summer, I think, is the best joy I could bring.

It doesn't matter that I have been looking forward to this for two years, that its something I knew I had to do ever since the 2,000 miles of the original Connor's Army mission.  I reasoned back then that if I could ride 2,000 miles and raise over $10,000 then I should be able to ride 3,700+ miles and raise $50,000.  So now, only 88 days out we find ourselves trying to get all the planning done and begin booking the accomodations we'll need upon the way.  We're still working on adjusting the route in regard to where we stay as we find motel and hostel availability.  We are hoping to connect with people we know along the way who might let us stay on their floor/couch/lounge chairs, whatever.  For instance, we've adjusted the first day from 50 miles to 80 miles so we can actually stay in a place where we might have a chance to eat dinner.

Now don't get me wrong, we are not looking at this as a luxery vacation for the family that we can hide in the mantle of doing good for others.  The whole point of this is to spend as little money as possible, especially since all the family's costs are coming out of our own pockets.  And, the more we save, the more we can use those sponsorship monies as more funds to add to the monies we are trying to raise for Sunrise.  If we can reach our fundraising goal AND add another couple of thousand dollars on top of that, it would be a dream come true.  The more money we can raise for Sunrise the better.  Its part of the reason that my daughter Sarah is using her thirteenth birthday as an opportunity to fundraise for Sunrise.  She really feels that she wants to celebrate this important turning point in her life giving to others.  Part of the way we want to reward her for what she is doing is that we are going to try to get to San Diego early enough so that we can spend her birthday at the San Diego Zoo.  Its sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to take her there so we've been saving up to take her before I start pedaling east on the 23rd. 

With that in mind I'm still trying to work out the kinks on the bike.  As you may know, I'm not spending money on a fancy bike to carry my butt across the country.  I'm using a fifteen year old steel frame I dug out of the trash one day on a drive in to work.  I've upgraded it as much as I have been able to afford using gift cards received at birthdays and holidays, buys on e-bay, parts I've cannibalized from road finds, and deals I've been able to get from my sponsors at Adams Cyclery of parts that have come off of other bikes as people have upgraded.  I've got a little more tweaking to do but once I have everything dialed in I will get it tuned up at Adams and we're ready to go.  I still need to fix the gearing a bit and I've just upgraded my saddle to one I had been using on my mountain bike (its got more padding for my tushy) so now I just need to ride.

And that's the next step of my planning is to get my fitness level up.  I'm averaging 18 mph on a fifteen mile ride in to school and I can generally average 17.5 mph over a 30 mile course of rolling hills.  Now if I can build on that over the break next week I may have a good solid core.  And that's the difference between training for what I'm doing and training with the HBC guys on the weekend.  I'd love to join them but many of them are really about hammering it out and basically making the rides a team time trial and I really need to get my body used to maintaining a steady 17 - 18 mph pace for longer distances than just 30 miles (which is when they usually stop).  As we get closer to June 15 (my last day at school) I'll start taking the REALLY long way home and try to log in as close to 40 miles as I can.  I'll have to work on climbing hills and trying to maintain a steady tempo up hills like this up Snake Hill Road in Lloyd Harbor, NY;


View Larger Map

Just follow it on up and check out the switch back that is oh, so much fun!!!!!!

Amy and I area also in the process of trying to get a few more sponsor to help us purchase supplies that we'll need for the journey - we're hoping someone can help us gather together the things we'll be needing (3 tires, 6 tubes, 6 spokes - three for each of the two types of wheels I'm taking, 4 derailleur cables, 4 brake cables, degreaser, a spare nine-speed chain, brake pads) basically the replacement parts that we'll be hauling with us (hence the need for a van and a support driver) in case I break down in the middle of nowhere.
But the closer we get to the event, the more excited and scared I get.  My biggest fear is that my body will give out somewhere along the route and I'll feel as if I have let the kids of Sunrise down.  My greatest hope is that this turns out to be a jounrey without problems and that I will find joy in it and bring joy to others at the same time.  If I can manage to reach my goal and indeed raise $50,000 then I will feel that I have done some good in this life.
And now, since its been so long since I've actually posted a music video - this is the official video for a song that I plan on choreographing to for this year's Spring dance concert - Panic! At the Disco performing "The Ballad of Mona Lisa".  And for those of you who are fans of the Steampunk look - enjoy!!!!!!


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

Summing It Up - Again!

(And I Have No Idea What the Answer Is)

So I have a couple of confessions to make - the first is there is no way in Hades I could ever solve the above equation.  You see in high school I transferred halfway through my senior year to a lovely high school called C.E. Ellison High School  in Killeen, TX (actually, it was the second high school I transferred to since I actually spent three weeks at Copperas Cove High School) and the only math class they could fit in my schedule (becuase of all the band classes and drama classes) was Algebra II.  Algebra II was taught by a lovely                             (insert perjorative adjective of your choice here) of a man who couldn't give a                    's (insert funny animal of your choice here) patootie about math.  You see, in the great tradition of Friday Night Lights he was the head coach of the football team and his class load consisted of one Algebra II class, two driver's ed classes and supervision of two study halls (during which time he caught up on his newspaper time).  As great fortune would have it, I had this teacher for three out of my eight classes - yayyyyyy!!!!!  So, as fate would have it, when he taught Algebra II he sat at his desk and read while we did problems out of the book which he would grade and hand back - and I didn't learn a lick of math!



My second confession goes like this, "forgive me reader, for I have erred and it has been 41 days since my last entry".  Now, I know that since this is the Lenten season I should probably do some sort of penance so I have taken it upon myself to watch as amany episodes of "My Little Pony" as I can before my brain turns to permanent tapioca.  I would offer to do a daily Rosary Novenabut since I am already doing that for Lent anyway I thought the MLP penance would work better.  That, and I need to write to you what I've been up to.  So let me explain, no there's is too much:





So I figured I would catch you all up by doing a little weekly highlights event of what has transpired over the last five and a half weeks;

February 15 - 19

Okay, so all of that talk about riding with a vengeance didn't really go as planned.  One thing snowballed behind another and the next thing I knew I had only logged 60 miles this week.  But I did get to spend some time with the family and Amy was busily rehearsing for her featured role in the Broadhollow Theatre Company production of Nine!

February 20 - 26
So this winter we decided that we wouldn't go anywhere for break since Amy was in rehearsals.  He show didn't open until February 25th but rehearsals were intense and she was out late in rehearsals this week.  I spent my time riding as much as I could during the day and trying to sell more bikes for ReCycle for Sunrise.  I only managed to sell one bike but I got to spend a lot of time with the kids and we played and had a lot of fun.

Amy's show opened on Saturday the 25th and the whole family was in attendance and I have to say (from a biased opinion) she was AMAZING!!!  But of course!  She was French to the extreme and her role allowed her to improv with the audience which is something she enjoys doing.  Although I don't have any "official" youtube videos for the production (I can't even seem to find any "unofficial" version either) here is a "trailer" a member of the cast put together as an ad for the show.   Although you see her being interviewed and you see little snippets of her in the clip, it really doesn't do justice to the amazing performance she gives.  But if you listen closely, the voice you hear singing "Folies Bergère" is that of my lovely wife;

So in between being a stage husband and taking care of the kids, we managed to take advantage of the weather and have some fun outside.  We really couldn't travel anywhere due to Amy's schedule but the kids and I took some bike rides, I fixed up Sarah's "new" road bike for the cross country, and I did manage to log 105 miles this week - my first "Century" of the year!!!!  My fitness level seems to be in good form for this time of year and I'm looking forward to trying to build on it.  Of course, who knows what will happen once we're actually going cross country but for now I'm highly optimistic!!!!

February 27 - March 4
This week saw us all getting back into "the groove" as we all went back to school.  I spent much of my time at school as we had so much left to do on Beauty and the Beast.  It wasn't really practical for me to ride home since we were staying later at rehearsals and Friday was the Syosset High School Sports Night.  Stacey Kerley and the kids in Peer Helpers worked to raise close to $700 and Sam Daniels and Steph Grayson worked on their own section to do even more fundraising!  It brings us just a bit closer to our goal.  I myself had the chance to only participate in the teacher challenge version of dodge ball.  My team lost and I was the next to last on my team to be knocked out - ohhhhh, it brought back so many memories of middle school.  Of course, all I had running in my head was this scene;



Primarily because in middle school (where I was all of about 4'6"), I was basically considered "target practice" because I was small and quick.  They figured if they could hit me, they could hit anyone.  Well, I almost lasted to the end at Sports Night.

And despite all of the the lack of riding I managed to log 55 miles in 4 rides - basically riding to school and back two days that week.  Not much but better than nothing.

March 5 - March 11
This week really caught me by surprise.  The weather sort of sucked and between that and long hours at school I didn't really ride.  I logged 54 miles in 3 rides and drove a lot in order to get home in time to watch the kids as this was Amy's last week in Nine.  I am so proud of her and the job she did in that show.  She truly is talented and she showed how its supposed to be done.  Since I know she never reads my blog and won't read these words I can gush all I want about her.  She really is a phenomenal performer (even if she'll never admit it - I guess we're both alike in that regard) and the more I see her perform the more I wish we could figure out a way for her to go back and do it professionally.  She really is in her element on stage, particularly in performance and I'm so proud to be her husband. 

Oh, and this Friday also saw our annual 10 out of 12 rehearsal in which we have an entire day set aside to rehearse with the orchestra and try to get the technical elements working in the show.  It wasn't easy, especially as the costumes came in and the kids just wanted to play with their costumes.  It took an hour just to get the Wardrobe costume put together and fitted properly.  We have SEVEN racks of costumes!!!!!  We've never had this many ever.  Sunday couldn't come soon enough as we all needed a break.  We had a family movie night and watched Miyazaki's Porco Rosso - if you don't know its sort of an Anime retelling of Beauty and the Beast - we thought it appropriate!  Here's a trailer for it - fast forward to :58 to see Porco Rosso;



If you haven't seen this movie - do yourself a favor and rent it today!!!!!

March - 12 - 18
This week was only devoted to the show.  We opened on Thursday to a great house but not as full as we would have hoped - only 450!  But the audience loved it and everyone was just enthralled with the work the kids did.  The kids got a standing ovation!!!!!  They truly deserved it for all their hard work.

By Friday the word had gotten out what an incredible show the kids were doing and we sold out five minutes before curtain.  What a high for the kids to have going into that performance.  It was also the night they filmed the production and the kids were phenomenal!!!!!  When the kids finished performing "Be Our Guest" the audience applauded for 45 seconds - literally stopping the show.  It was a first for Syosset High School theatre and the kids were in a tizzy not sure what to do.  But troupers that they are they smiled and kept going!

Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and although we didn't sell out, we came within 30 of selling out and that in itself was pretty phenomenal.  The kids weren't as sharp (darn those full days off!) but they still put on a great show and this time the audience gave them a standing ovation that lasted a full minute after "Be Our Guest"!  That was amazing and I hope the kids will remember that always and remember just how rare that is.  Here is a clip of our version of the song;



On Sunday the kids were totally pumped up about the show and rightly so - they sold out yet again!!!!!  We all felt bad because that meant that a few little ones wouldnt' get th echance to see the show but they had an amazing time and they got so much deserved praise.  It truly was sad to see it go. 

WE had an amazing continuation of tradition in our "Act Three" Parody followed by a great cast party hosted by the Treidel family - Cara is the last one so its the end of an era!!!!!  And the cast bought us all "Connor's Army"  baseball caps which the boys did not take off at all - even when they went to sleep!

And of course with all of the craziness entailed in the show I only rode 12 miles this week!
March 19 - 25
This week started out with one last hurrah!  The annual Board of Education performance in which we take snippets of the musical and perform them at the board meeting.  We put together "Gaston", "Beauty and the Beast" and "Home".  It was a great experience and it was really nice for the kids to get the accolades they so richly deserved yet one more time!  This isn't a clip from that night but it IS a clip of our version of "Gaston" from the production;




It took Amy and I (okay, mostly Amy - and once again may I say I have the most amazing wife!!!) two days to pack up the 14 boxes of costumes from the show and we finally got them out on Tuesday.  I thought the guys on the loading dock were going to ban me for life!!!!

And then it was on to Shakespeare!!!  We held our auditions on Wednesday for All's Well That Ends Well.  There were fewer who auditioned than I had hoped and I fear its becuase we've taken on too many student directed shows which are now pulling away the talent of the pool.  We'll have to do something about that for next year but for now we have a really good (if somewhat young) cast that I think will  help me find a great interpretation of Shakespeare's "Problem" play. 

And the good news is that I managed to log 88 miles at an average speed of 17.72 mph!!!!  If I can just keep building on this shape I'll be ready in no time.

This week
And that brings me to this week.  I have logged 42 miles so far in the two days that I've ridden and I'm really trying to push myself to ride almost every day unless there are particular extenuating circumstances.  The wind has really been torturous but I have to get used to that.  One of the down sides of cycling in Kansas is that althought its flat (a good thing) there is nothing to stop the wind from "sweeping" down the plain and barrelling right into you!!!!!!  So, I just tuck my head and pedal harder and all the time hope that I'll be able to keep building my fitness level up so that I'll be ready in 87 days when we leave San Diego!!!!!

Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting us at Connor's Army, thanks for helping us help the kids at Sunrise, and EXPECT more frequent blog posts now!

Stay well and I'll See You on the Road (numerous times if I can help it!!!)!