And We're Off!

Well as you'll notice from this blog the entry is a lot shorter.  Mainly becuase we are now OFFICIALLY ON THE ROAD!!!!!!  We left yesterday afternoon at 4:30 (only 2.5 hours later than we had originally planned) to the rousing cries of bon voyage from Phil Rosenberg and his camera.  As you may remember from a previous blog, Phil is filming a documentary of our journey and he has spent the past week putting together interviews of me and the family for the pre-journey footage.  He came at 2:00 (we originally hoped to be out by 2:30 at the latest) to film our departure but with all the last minute trauma (we just couldn't get ourselves together and kept having to go back and get/pack things we had forgotten about) we didn't pull out until 4:30.  We didn't have anyone see us off, I guess that's our own fault for not making more of it to everyone we know.  It would have been nice to have some folks see us off.

And now, as is my wont, I am going to go off on a tagent just for a moment because I need to vent.  You see, my wife has been working so hard on this project.  The kids have given up a lot (particularly their summer with friends) to do this.  I have been training hard (900 miles ridden in the last month alone) to get ready for this and yet we can't see to get any media exposure.  We were able to make an incredible connection with a woman named Gina Nemo who is a relative of our friends Hilary, Jaime and Scott.  She has been a godsend and in just few days seems to have gotten us some media bites.  It's just very frustrating that no Long Island news media wanted to cover this event.  Now, don't get me wrong, I AM NOT DOING THIS FOR MY OWN PUBLICITY.  I've had enough of my own accolades in my life.  But the publicity would help us get the word out about Sunrise and the more people hear about it, the more likely people mighyt be to give, and for yet another child to go to Sunrise.  So, if you're reading this, please spread the word - we truly need all the help and connections we can get.

Okay, enough of the soap box for now.  You want to know what has happened to us since we left the starting gate.

Well, to begin, since we left at 4:30 we hit HORRIBLE traffic!  It took us almost two and a half hours to get to the rest stop on the Jersey Turnpike.  We had dinner and prepared to head out and then we realized we had gone the wrong way - we were 60 miles or so off course.  Sooooo, we pulled up the trusty GPS (thank you Magellan) and we headed onto our route.

And here is where it took the real road trip feel - instead of checking into a motel for the night we slept for a few hours at a rest stop in Pennsylvania and drove through the night.  I wish there was lots to share about what we did today but the bottom line is we drove, and drove, and drove and just because we could, we drove some more.  The kids have been great troopers and they have handled it with such excitement and patience, I sometimes have to look at them closely to make sure they really are our kids and not some cruel trick played on us by alien doppelgangers.

So tonight we find ourselves in the bucolic setting of Greenville, Illinois!  Yes, we managed to cross NJ, Pennsylvania and MOST of Illinois before we finally stopped.  It has been a great adventure and I have to admit that much to my chagrin (and a credit to Amy's patience) I slept most of the day today.  I was just completly wiped out from last night's drive that when I wasn't driving I just slept. 

As a result I missed a bit of what the family experienced such as - wind farms, mountain passes, rain (yes, I slept through the rain) and most of the license plate game!

But we've now made it almost a quarter of the way to San Diego and we're a bit closer to starting the ride to change the lives of some children fighting the hardest battle of all!  And don't forget - if you want to give, even a little, just go to the Connor's Army Ride Across America event site and make a donation - even $5 will make a difference!

Stay well and I will write more from the road very soon!