Mission Completed!

 

Bob's restaurant ;)

 

Joel brainstorming on how to fix the car

 

Deer Lake Cabins

 

Bob making dinner and Joel and Josh playing horse shoes

 

state line

 

ownage! too legit to quit!

 

God held off the storm just long enough to get us to the state line!

the line between the two

Today we reached the state line.  It was everything we had expected...and yet a bittersweet moment.  The beginning of the end.  We've reached the end of our journey and now all we have left is to drive home.

Today we finished the last 70+ miles.  The biking part of it was the same as always.  This time though the atmosphere was different.  Everyone was excited, anticipating the moment that we would get off the bike and straddle the state line.  When it came, the smiles didn't seem to fade; the cameras kept taking pictures; and the storm kindly held off for us.  We realized that the dream that we had months ago finally became a reality.  The crazy mission that people told us was ridiculous became our achievement. 

856 miles...few people can say that they have been a part of a team that biked that distance in eight days.  I can say that.  We can say that.  We've made a lot of memories doing this, and I can honestly say that I am proud to be a part of this group.  I want to thank them and I want to thank you.

So thank y'all for your support...your prayers...and your belief in us and our goal to bike across the state.  Pictures to come still...hang tight with me until then!

wind, hills, car problems, snake, fishing, and smores

Wind- It was definitely tough today. We had the wind in our faces about half the time and blowing across us the other half of the time.

Hills- We were going up and down hills just about the entire time...talk about some tired muscles!

Car problems- Dr. Patterson's car died twice today.  We finally decided that it was the alternator and got it fixed at a local mechanic's garage in Mt. Vernon. Thanks be to God that it went out today on an easy day rather than earlier in the trip!

Snake- Today Reba and I experience yet another snake experience.  It was a small grey one on the road as we were walking back to our cabins tonight.  After an almost meltdown from her, I finally dragged her past it on the other side of the road ;)

Fishing- There are a number of lakes here at Double S Ranch where we are staying and JT wasted no time in throwing out a line and fishing.  Soon the rest of the boys joined him and they caught a number of fish- including a catfish.  Pictures to come!

Smores- We are wrapping up the night by roasting smores.  Eating marshmallows, Hershey bars, and graham crackers while sitting in lawn chairs out on the dock over the edge of the lake at sunset...nothing gets better than this!

Well y'all...one more day! We will reach Texarkana tomorrow! More to come then....

Star Trek!

 

Going to Star Trek tonight with the team!

Heart

90% heart...

With a trip like this, you would think that it would take mostly endurance and being in great physical condition.  You're right. It does take a lot of that; but in comparison with heart, physical condition only makes up about 10%.

You see it takes heart to commit to a huge project like this and follow through with it.

It takes heart to wake up every morning early and try to prepare yourself for another day on the bike.

It takes heart to push through the muscles burning and cramping, lungs screaming for air, and the soreness and tightness that sets in after a day or two.

It takes heart to overcome the fear of riding along the highway on the shoulder with cars whizzing by you at speeds up to 70 mph.

It takes heart to get on the bike and ride when you're biking into or facing 20-30 mph winds that threaten to take you out and push you back.

It takes heart to bike up hill after hill after hill and not quit.

It takes heart.

This is a fun adventure.  We are making lots of memories.  But the credit first has to go to God's blessings and then to the heart of this team.  A coach once told me that you should have a heart so big that no one can hold it in their hand..no one can measure the size of your heart.  The heart of this team is huge.  It is immeasurable.  For eight people of different backgrounds, majors, and ages to come together as one unit and spur one another on to achieve one common goal is unbelievable.  It reveals one very important thing- the immeasurable heart of this team...my team.

Great trip, great people!

You never know who you will meet when you bike across the state.

Last night around 10, KTAB News Abilene featured our bike team's story complete with interviews with Dr. Patterson and Rebekah. Today we met several people at different stops that we made along the way who had seen the story on the news and recognized us!

Not only that...while eating lunch at a picnic table rest stop along the highway, we met a wonderful couple who were driving from Florida to Alaska to vacation there and see friends along the way.  They took pictures of us and asked if we would mind if they posted those pictures to their blog!

In addition, we stopped at a little ice cream, soda, and gift shop in Jacksboro and all of us got ice cream floats.  The ladies who worked there were so sweet and genuinely interested in our trip.  Several of us got blue tongues from the Krazy Kolor ice cream that we ate....which the ladies thought was quite funny (as they had tried to warn us that would happen).

Then, when we arrived at our hotel in Graham, we met a couple of HSU alumni who were there for their kids' dance performance and seemed excited for us about our adventure.

Wow the amazing people that God allowed to cross our path just on this one ten day trip! Now with almost six hundred miles done and just about two hundred and fifty to go, we are on the home stretch! Next stop-  Mckinney (my home city)!

 

KTAB news

 

KTAB news

 

Picnic Lunch

 

Ice cream floats!

 

Blue tongues and teeth ;)

Pics of our Abilene day!

 

Enjoying and living our seconds...

 

In the paper!!

 

Dr. Patterson's interview with KTAB at Austin Elementary!

 

National Bike to Work and School Day! (We are in yellow :)

 

Joel and JT participating in the kids' warm-up at Austin Elementary before our presentation ;)

Abilene get ready!!

"Hey y'all, we are the HSU leadership Bike Ride Across Texas Team! All of this started with one crazy idea for a class...."

Today our team did a number of presentations around Abilene at different elementary schools to raise awareness for child obesity, health, and fitness.  Our intro to the kids sounded a little like that sentence at the top.  I mean who would've thought that a bike ride across Texas could turn out to be such a great leadership class? One where we get to plan everything, promote a cause, and get actual training in a real situation not just a simulation?  Brownie points to our great and creative professor, Dr. Patterson, for that idea! So today we went to Austin, Taylor, and Lee Elementary Schools to do our presentation for the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade classes.  JT and Josh led us off with the first presentation at Austin; Brandon and Joel followed with the second presentation at Taylor; and Reba (Rebekah) and I (Jacqueline- Jac) did the final presentation at Lee Elementary.  The kids loved it! We also made time to take part in the National Bike to School and Work Day ride that Abilene participated in this morning starting at City Hall on Walnut St.  In addition, KTAB news came and took footage of us at Austin elementary as well as interviewed Dr. Patterson and Reba.  It will be featured tonight at either 6pm or 10pm!! So be watching for us!

Now, with all that behind us, we will begin the second half of our ride across the state tomorrow!  Once again, please be praying for our safety over the next few days and continued good health.

HSU's interview of us

video

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAHeAK9uIQg&list=HL1368748513&feature=mh_lolz

Go here to watch our video from the first half of the trip! Sorry it's a link and not the actual video..the blog had issues uploading it.

Hero's Welcome

People cheering, taking pictures, and holding signs....

This is what met us yesterday when we rode triumphantly into campus at Hardin-Simmons University. We biked in the entrance to HSU off of Pine Street and rode under the clock and over in front of Moody Center.  Smiling and soaking up the attention from all of the wonderful people who came to support us and interview us, we stood as one group, one team, one family by our bikes- the tool that had connected the eight of us on one mission.

How do you describe a journey like this?

How do you tell people what it's like biking across the state in ten days?

How do you share all of the stories, the laughs, the jokes, the contests just as they happened in the moment?

We want to try. We want people to know our story. We want to be the catalyst that brings change to our community, city of Abilene, state of Texas...change in attitude towards the importance of fitness and health. So as we hang in Abilene for today and tomorrow keep following our blog as I will be using this time to post different unique stories and experiences we've had over the last four days.

God's blessings on y'all!

Elite 8

Eight bikers..over 900 miles to ride in ten days...300+ miles already done!!

The adventures of the elite eight continue! Today we left Kermit around 9 am to head for Andrews and as many miles past Andrews as we could go. We ended up biking about 115 miles and then doubling back in the cars to our stopping place in Andrews at the luxurious Spanish style Casabella Bed and Breakfast.

Today has been quite a day...I've never felt such a comraderie among the members of our team. We sent goofy pictures back and forth by text to each other, took videos of us dancing in the car as we drove back to Andrews after our day's worth of biking, biked at top speeds and tried to catch up with each other, cracked stupid jokes, and so much more. This has definitely been a day of making memories!

A couple of prayer requests as we continue our bike ride across the state these next seven days...

1). Safety- as riding along the shoulder of the road is always a risky thing
2). For continued good health
3). For our sore muscles
4). For good weather
5). For the funds to continue to come in

And on behalf of the whole team, I just want to thank everyone who has been following our page, praying for us, supporting us financially, and helping us raise awareness for child obesity and the importance of health and fitness.

Casabella Bed and Breakfast

 

Bob and Joel

Pics

Flying colors of orange and yellow...

With a bright and shining sun rising above us, we set out on our 106ish mile bike ride from Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Kermit and our stopping place- First Baptist Church.  A number of us were proudly wearing our orange and yellow bike across Texas t shirts and jumped at the chance (at any stops we made) to tell people about our adventure.  Once again Bob and Joel set the vibe for the day with a ten mile stint in less than thirty minutes.  Dr. Patterson followed with the next few miles and Brandon, Josh, and JT rode consecutively after him.  Rebekah and I biked the last few rough hills before we came to more of a plateau.  All in all we whipped out the 100+ miles in about six hours and are all safe and already set up for the evening at the church.  Josh called the local newspaper and we did an interview with one of the journalists.  Then we all took much needed showers and ate some awesome fajitas that Rebekah and I made (that's not bragging...it's truth :) We will be wrapping up the night in the next few hours with Andrews and beyond as our destination for tomorrow.

put your head down and pedal

Face in the wind....bike partners set...uphill climb ahead.

we began our ride around 8 this morning, mountain time. Bob and Joel took the first ten miles; Brandon and JT the next five; Dr. Patterson the next five; and Rebekah and I had the next ten miles. Then we started the cycle over...adjusting the distances to our comfort. Our safety vehicles drove behind us with their emergency flashers on. Around two hours ago we finally arrived safely at Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We set up tents and are now about to make dinner.  Our stops for the rest of the ride will be Kermit, Andrews, Snyder, Abilene, Graham, Mckinney, Scroggins, and Texarkana. 107 miles down..a little under 800 to go! Wish us luck!

Day 1- driving to El Paso

We're here!!! We arrived in El Paso around 5 pm this afternoon.  Though a scenic and fun drive filled with Catch Phrase car games, conversations, jokes, riddles, I Love Lucy shows, and more, we were happy to finally arrive and get settled in at Grandview Baptist Church (where we will be staying). After settling in, we played some basketball in the church's gym to stretch our legs and get some exercise. Tonight's festivities also included a trip to Wal Mart, dinner at Chipotle, and a drive to a mailbox to mail some Mother's Day cards. Tomorrow we plan on leaving around 7:30 to bike about 100 miles to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, our stopping place for tomorrow night.

Countdown!

Less than a week till we leave and we are all extremely pumped!! Yesterday we met at the track around the football stadium at HSU and put in some training miles. Thirty laps (equivalent to 10 miles) later we packed up our bikes and returned to our studying for finals this week. 

Sponsors

May 1, 2013 Updated Information

Bike Ride Across Texas

Beginning May 11, 2013 a team of six Hardin- Simmons University leadership minor students, one professor, and one sports and recreation instructor (Bob Sanderson) will be biking almost nine hundred miles across Texas, the second largest state in the United States, from El Paso to Texarkana. That is 1/3 of the way across the country. It will be in a relay type fashion with two riders at a time going for a certain amount of miles and then letting the next two get on the bikes and do the next leg and so on. This may seem like a crazy idea…but it is possible!!

The trip itself is two-fold. The first reason for the trip is to gain experience within our own leadership studies program. We will be and are, currently, learning more of what it means to work together in a group to accomplish a specific goal.  Our goal, currently, is to be able to make the trip happen with the help of generous support and donations.

The other purpose of this trip is to raise awareness to the benefits of physical activity. We will be visiting some schools promoting awareness in fighting child obesity, promoting health, fitness and bicycle safety. It is meant to encourage our society as a whole that a healthy lifestyle is not out of reach, but just takes discipline and motivation.