Pedaling For Alfie

Hello Everyone!

2008-10-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

No i haven't forgotten about you guys, it's just been a pretty hectic time for me here so far in Oregon, but do not worry... I will be posting a final donation amount as soon as we have all the deposits in. There is still time to help donate to the Orlando family. With the donations total, I will also post a few favorite pictures from our adventure. I know I have said this many times before, but both Kyle and I are so moved by the generosity and support we have received from everyone while on our trip, both from back home and along the way across America. Not only did this trip change our lives forever, we were able to help the family of a dear friend to us as well. So please, check back within a week or two to see the progress we have made! Thank you all again for the continual support and positivity!

2008-09-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

WELCOME TO PORTLAND!!!

2008-09-23T13:57:00.001-07:00

So we are here in Portland, Oregon! We rode 112 miles into the night to get here from Biggs Junction. Wild night, but well worth it to finally be here. I'll update later today hopefully with more pictures for everyone!

oh, by the way...

2008-09-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

WE ARE IN OREGON!!! Since the last update, we have beasted our way through the deserts in Idaho, all have had at least two flats, got sunburn on our faces, ate terrible gas station food, seen the Craters of the Moon, oh, and CROSSED INTO OREGON!

Arco, Idaho

2008-09-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

Hello from potato country! We crossed into Idaho two days ago after a night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. As of right now, we are 240 miles from the Oregon border! Today we are going to be riding through Craters of the Moon National Park, so that will be a cool sight indeed. We spent the night at our first KOA where we scored a killer deal on a little cabin, showers and laundry. The owner of the Kampground is a retired school teacher from Michigan, and was so into our ride that he gave us a touring cyclist discount. Good guy, with plenty of historical information for us about Idaho and it's atomic energy past. The weather has been absolutely beautiful for riding during the day, so we have almost no complaints there. On our way out of Wyoming we were fortunate enough to pass through the Grand Teton National Park, which in my opinion are the most majestic mountain's i have ever seen. It is almost overwhelming to see such magnificent landscapes and know that you have pedaled yourself from your driveway to their foothills. I have about one million pictures for everyone to check out, but those will have to wait till the next town library, we are almost ready to hit the road this morning!

Wyoming

2008-09-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Just a quick update with a bunch of overdue pictures. Since the last update, we've stayed in an abandoned Masonic Lodge, a dude ranch, and a city park. All the while the weather has been staying pretty chilly, but yesterday in Lander, Wyoming (which to us, has been the redeeming town for Wyoming. Cool, young people in this town who all love the outdoors) we were able to stock up on some cold weather clothing. While in Lander, we also met a young couple from Georgia on a tandem headed east, and shared the city park with them last night. We are still riding with Guillermo, and Aaron from Hoboken and it has been awesome, and looks more than likely that we will be finishing up our trip with those guys. Good dudes with positive attitudes. Also, today is Kyle's birthday, so if possible send him a message or call or whatever you can. We were lucky that Lander is home to the Snake River Brewery, so we had a few rounds in celebration of Kyle turning 21 on the road. Today we start climbing, so hopefully more stories and updates soon!

Quick Update!

2008-09-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, we are in Rawlins, Wyoming! Woo! It's actually not that exciting here, but we have had some cool happenings over the last few days. After crossing the Wyoming border, we were fortunate to have caught an awesome tail-wind for about 27 miles. It was great, but as our luck usually turns out, that tail-wind quickly turned into a SEVERE head-wind, and also dropped about 25 degrees. It was almost unbearable. And to top that off, the most sinister clouds were looming above our heads, waiting to open up with freezing rain. Turns out, Kyle realized he lost his rain jacket somewhere in Colorado. Not good. As the rain began to pour down on us, we flagged down a pick-up truck with two hunters heading to Riverside (the nearest town), and asked if we could get a lift to avoid the cold. They were nice enough to hitch us in, although we sat in the bed of the truck and basically lost feeling in all of our limbs. Anyway, once in town we sought out shelter and warm food or coffee. While sitting in the Bear Trap Cafe in Riverside, two other touring cyclists walked in seeking the same. We got to talking, and found out the two guys live in Hoboken, New Jersey. Small world. The Bear Trap Cafe also rented out small motel room-like cabins for a decent price, so we decided to split a room with the guys. We woke up the next morning to 37 degree temperatures. Not at all the weather we were expecting. From there we rode into Rawlins, where we are right now and soon to hit the road. We split another room tonight because the local campground was going to charge us just about the same to set our tents up in the cold. This morning the other guys suggested we hop around the motels in town to see if we can sneak a continental breakfast from motels we didn't stay at. That plan worked brilliantly. I think we each had three different continental breakfasts, the Best Western was by far the best! I will be sure to update within the next day or so with tons of pictures, we just wanted to fill everyone back home in on our progress!

COLORADO!

2008-08-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

Good riddance Kansas, finally. As of right now, we are in Fountain, Colorado. Colorado is absolutely gorgeous. Klye has family here that were kind enough to put us up, let us use their shower, air our tents out, clean our filthy clothes, raid their refrigerator, and whatever else it is that we do when we are back in a civilized world. We really can't thank them enough for all of their help, and kindness. This may not come as a surprise, but Kansas was as bad as everyone said it would be. We were hoping to make up some time in Kansas by CRUISING through the flat lands with an awesome tail-wind, but it turned out all we had was a head-wind and scorching sun above our heads. We heard a few sources mention that riding at night is a great way to beat the heat in Kansas, so we tried our luck that way. It was a great way to beat the heat for sure, but not as easy as we thought it would be. The one INCREDIBLE advantage to riding at night, is the mind-blowing amount of stars that are visible out here. Almost every night was like a trip to the planetarium. Our words can never describe the sights illuminated in the Kansas night skies. While in Kansas, we also met up with a few other riders who are West-bound as well! We happened to see two bicycles outside of a pizza hut in town that were obviously those of tourists, so we decided to go inside and see what was going on. While inside, another West-bounder happened to catch a sight of our bikes and got the same idea. It was really great because from the beginning of the trip till now, we have yet to meet anyone going the same way as us. It was like a class reunion or something. Yesterday afternoon, we were lucky to get an interview with a local news paper to help promote our ride furthermore. I believe the name of the paper is the Fountain Times. Tonight we head for Denver to meet up with a friend of ours who will show us around the city while we are in the area. Both Kyle and I are extremely excited for this leg of our trip, because from here on out there will be so many amazing natural sights to be seen. The Rockies are already over-whelmingly beautiful. Hopefully more updates, and pictures, so check back when possible!

UPDATES!

2008-08-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, sorry I haven't updated in a long time, every computer we get to somehow would not let us upload our pictures to it, and we figured an update without pictures is pointless. So here they are. Since the last update, we have left Kentucky and gone through both Illinois (Hillinois) and Missouri (Misery). We are now in Pittsburg, Kansas. The Ozark Mountains were a trip, we actually had our worst day because of them- some 37 miles I believe. But all is well here in Kansas so far. When we left Kentucky, we got to take a ferry across the Ohio River into Illinois and soon after that we rode across the Mississippi River into Missouri. Sometime in Missouri, I believe the town was called Ellington, we were able to switch out our cassettes and chains with the new ones the guys at Shrewsbury Bicycles sent out to us- which really made a Huge difference when passing through the Ozarks. We have been meeting some of coolest people, all out here with a different story. Yesterday we met a 29 year old who is a recovering quadriplegic, who was once informed that he had a 1-in-1000 chance of ever feeding himself again, and is now out on the road in his custom road trike riding from California to Washington D.C. Both him and his mother have been having the time of their lives out here, and we can understand why. Seeing the country by bicycle, in our opinion, the best way to do it. Last night we were fortunate enough to find a Mexican restaurant after a 75 mile day into Kansas. After we ate ourselves in weight, we set out to find Lincoln City Park, which is the town's park in which touring cyclists can set up camp for the night. By the time we found the park it was dark out and kinda hard to navigate ourselves around so we settled for a spot amongst some trees. When we woke up, we realized that we pitched our tents on the Golf Course that sits near the town park. When we got out of our tents, there were golf carts, and lawn mowers all around, we found it pretty funny that we were just sprawled out with our tents and bikes all over their golf course. So that is that, nothing TOO exciting, but still having a ridiculously incredible time. Keep spreading the word about our ride, and check back for more updates!

Dixon, Kentucky

2008-08-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

So we are just about out of Kentucky, hopefully by this afternoon, and it's safe to say that Kentucky has been a great time. We were very weary about this state from our first impressions, but things turned out for the best. We were lucky enough to have the chance to spend some time in Louisville thanks to a good friend of ours who picked us up in Bardstown and brought us to the city to show us around. We got some very important errands taken care of (new shoes and pedals because ours were almost useless, air out our wet and smelly tents, and laundry). We also got to eat some of the most delicious organic vegetables from our buddy's farm. To say the least, our time spent in Louisville was perfect. Last night, we stayed at the Utica Volunteer Fire Station. Utica, Kentucky let's travelers on the Trans American Bike Trail stay at the Fire House for free, as if it were a hostel. We were so blown away at their hospitality, and generosity, they even had a box full of goodies donated by the local church for traveling cyclists. I chose a few pictures that help sum up our time in Kentucky, so we hope you guys enjoy. Also, on another note, the donations we have been receiving for our fund is growing by the day, and the support we have from everywhere is almost unbelievable. We still can't thank everyone enough for the positive feedback, and encouragement.

-Kyle and Scott

Hello From Haysi!

2008-08-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

We are in the small town of Haysi, Virginia (population 189). Roughly, we are 800+ miles from good ol' New Jersey. This afternoon we will cross the Kentucky state line, and finally get ourselves out of Virginia. It feels like we've been in Virginia for two months. Since the last update, we have parallelled the Allegheny Mountian's loop down through the Appalachian Mountains, and caught up with the Trans-American Trail in Christiansburg, Virginia. We have hit a ton of cool cities, and towns along our way so far, Lexington, Roanoke, Damascus (Huge AT Trail spot where the town has 5 bike shops, 3 outfitters, one restaurant and ZERO cell phone service). In Damascus we spent the night at a hostel called "The Place", which has been our favorite spot yet. Good vibes, and good people in Damascus.

Hello!

2008-07-27T19:12:00.001-07:00

Hey all, we are in York, Pennsylvania as of right now! Both Kyle and I would like to once again thank all of you for the unconditional support throughout our trip so far. Even though we've only been on the road for three days, we feel that we have learned A LOT already about touring. We spent last night just outside of Valley Forge Historic National Park, roughly 80 miles from where we wound up tonight. Tonight we are fortunate to have had a shower, and a roof over our heads (plus free burritos), so of course things are pretty good for us right now. More updates soon hopefully!

Tomorrow!

2008-07-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day! We will be leaving from the Ocean Grove Fishing Club Pier, at 10am. A local Starbucks will be there selling iced coffee, and donating all of their proceeds directly towards our fund! Also, we are strongly urging anyone who is able, to bring their bike and help send us off. please check this site, and our myspace (myspace.com/pedalingforalfie) whenever possible for our updates from the road. We would like to sincerely thank all of our friends and family members, for all of their support. Please keep in mind that our ride is not just a ride for ourselves, but to help benefit the family of a dear friend to us!

2008-07-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

Alfred J. Orlando Jr. has passed away on Monday, June 30th. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his wife Elizabeth, and their three children. Despite this recent loss, our Cross-Country ride will continue as planned. The Orlando family still needs our support, and positivity. We leave from Ocean Grove, New Jersey at 10am, Friday morning of July 25th. We will be leaving from the Ocean Grove Fishing Club Pier. We are strongly encouraging friends, family and supporters of our ride to help send us off that morning, so feel free to bring your bike and pedal us off as far as you wish. Bicycling is a community, and we would love to see that community come together to help a family in need. Thanks again for taking the time to read what we are doing!

Al Orlando

2008-06-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

I Hope This Works...

2008-06-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

About:

2008-06-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

"Pedaling For Alfie" is the name of the cross-country bicycle tour that both myself, and Kyle Rogers will be taking come July 25th. We will be leaving from the shore of Belmar, New Jersey and arrive at the coastline of Oregon. Our coast to coast trip is a benefit ride for a good friend of ours, Alfred Orlando (Alfie). A little over a year ago Al was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Recently, it was found that Al actually has colon cancer. Al is now in stage four of colon cancer. As I mentioned, our ride is to help raise funds for both Al and his family. Al is a father of three children and a husband to his wonderful wife. Al is a former bicycle mechanic at the bike shop that Kyle and I both currently work at, Shrewsbury Bicycles. Seeing that bicycles are the common thread in our lives, we thought it would be best to ride ours in order to help a friend in need. I will be posting more updates, and a link to our paypal account for donations. If you have any questions about our ride, our cause, or whatever else it may be please let me know.