Ari's Angels - Sunday, June 17th

Hi Friends,

I think it is Sunday afternoon. . .and I’m pretty sure we are in Camdenton, Missouri. John Hardy and I did an all night pull last night through the middle eastern section of Kansas through towns like Pratt, Mt. Vernon, Wichita, and my brother’s personal favorite town to navigate through El Dorado. We finished up in Yates at about 8:00 A.M. RAAM time (EST). At that time we were a whopping 14 hours ahead of the maximum time allowable by RAAM. We’ve been gaining speed and time all the way across the country.

It’s hot and humid here in Missouri. Trish Hardy (Bill’s wife) has just joined the support crew and has jumped in with both feet having been trained and now working the follow vehicle with Bob Skold for this evening following John Hardy and I as we finish the trip across the state.

As we rode through the prairies of Kansas last night I had my iPod on and listened to one of my favorite Garth Brooks songs about the ones the wolves pulled down. There were many sounds in the night in my music free ear and with all that time to myself, and I couldn’t help but get the chills as I thought of the words to his song. Yesterday the team went through the town of Greensburg Kansas. This town was completely wiped out by a tornado in May. I also thought about my friend Nora in California whose sweet little angel of a grandson Jake passed on a few weeks ago – losing his battle to NF and JMML Leukemia. We ride for those the wolves pull down. My prayer is for them and our mission is to help them however we can.

Tonight we’ll be riding for the 2 million running from or in the grips of the NF wolf.

Life for me is made up not so much of the moments that I breathe, but more of those moments where my breath is taken away. RAAM has been full of those moments – and for that affirmation of how good it is to be alive and healthy enough to do this I am grateful.

Riding to enable a cure.
Steve
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Shanon's Soldiers - Saturday, June 16th

Our Soldiers spent most of their day pedaling through Kansas. Their first checkpoint was Montezuma, Kansas at 1:15am EST. By 11:25 PM EST, our heroes had entered Missouri and had checked into the first time station there at Collins, MO. The distance between these two stations was 394.7 miles!

The word from the team is that the crew has a great "keep on truckin' attitude. They tell us that sleep is light....but when you watch these guys riding hard and pushing on......it certainly makes you feel like you aren't contributing enough!

Pat Mahoney gave Greg Thielen the summary quote for the day, " It's all down hill from here" ... Greg decided not to break the news to him!

Tomorrow is Father's Day and I am struck by the tremendous sacrifice that all of these guys are making for Shannon, Ari, and all of the children affected with NF. I would imagine that in a lot of ways all of the dads on both teams and their crews are doing this race for their own children, as well. It is hard not to be moved by the lengths a father would go to for his own. If you guys want to leave any comments for our Soldiers wishing them a Happy Father's Day, I'm sure they'd be much appreciated. These guys have passed the half-way point and will have to dig deep from here on out. We're pulling for you!!

Go Soldiers,
Stacy
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