Day 2: Sunflower AZ to Pine AZ

The guys arose early and attacked their first full day in the mountains. They left Sunflower around 7:00am and started their hill work to Payson. David had the first flat tire about 3 miles up a 7 mile climb but they had a couple of spare tubes for moments like these. They reached Payson about 11:30am and called on the local Catholic church. Fr. Bill was able to provide them with lunch but did not have a place for them to stay so they pushed on to Pine, AZ, where they are spending the night with Roger and Carol Fornoff at their home. The Fornoff's are parishioners of St. Tim's and have hosted many retreats at their home. The Fornoff's opened their home to Daniel and David with about a 2 hour advance notice. The guys are feeling the effects of two days of touring, but the spirits are strong. They have covered about 110 miles so far.

The Wheels are Rolling

Daniel and David have begun their epic bicycle journey. About 50 people showed up at Our Lady of Mount Carmel to wish them well and send them on their way. About 20 brave people brought out their bikes and escorted them out of town; some even stayed with them all the way to just past Fountain Hills - yes, right before the 'real' hills begin and into the mountains.

Last report, they are staying somewhere near Sunflower tonight. Got some fresh water from a local resident out of a garden hose and cleaned up in a creek nearby. Tomorrow, they will be in the mountains all day and plan to make Payson by sunset.

Here is a link to pictures from the send off:http://picasaweb.google.com/raisingdoughforspo/SendOff?authkey=Gv1sRgCMiR-OKU0fCBlQE&feat=directlink

Final Pre-Trip Update

Friends,

We leave this Sunday, at 6:00 in the morning. We would love it if you would come see us off. We'll be gathering at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Tempe right at 6, for a prayer, blessing, and send-off. If you would like to ride out with us, then bring your bike, and you can ride out as far as you like. Just make sure you bring a helmet! We want to thank you all for all the support you have given us, and ask for your continued prayers as we are traveling the 3,000 miles to St. Paul. God has done so much for us. I feel like He has just been guiding us on a string, and everything always works out. It is just incredible how much He blesses you when you go out on a limb and put your trust in Him! He never has, and I know that He never will let us down, and I can already see the way He has worked through this trip to touch lives and bring souls closer to Him. Please continue to check the blog regularly, as we will be updating it whenever we have the opportunity. I hope we see many of you on Sunday. God bless you all, and remain faithful at all times!

The Pre-Pedal Happenings

We are famous!! Thank you again to Joyce Coronel for writing a story about us. You can see the story online here: http://www.catholicsun.org/2009/may21/local/bike.html
We would like to extend our thanks to the Oertle family for hosting us in Carlsbad, CA and for opening the doors to present our mission to the men's and women's groups they are a part of. A big thank you also goes to Kenny and Angie Lake for all of the support they have given us. We were truly inspired by all of the prayers and all of the work God is doing in and through these groups in CA. David and I have gotten pretty good with the paper cutter as we spent almost a full day putting together letters and handouts, we ran quite the operation at David's house! We are speaking at all of the masses this weekend at Mt. Carmel and have already recieved tremendous support! Thank you so much for all of the prayers and support you have all given us so far, it is inspiring us to use this opportunity to do as much as we can.

We are in California!

That's right. Over this weekend and most of next week, we are here in San Diego, meeting with a few different groups of people about SPO and Tour de CROSS, and raising some money. We are extremely excited, because we originally came out to speak to one men's group of about 30 men, and afterward we were invited to speak to two more groups, as well as a luncheon of over 100 people. Tonight we will be sharing our trip and our faith with a group of about 100 confirmation students, and hopefully we will in some way be able to inspire some of them. The fundraising is going awesome, and we know it is only because of your support and prayers, so thank you for that. This is what we have found: when you take a step out in faith, and put your trust in God, He opens up so many more doors, and blesses abundantly. Oh yeah, and we have our bikes here, so we've been doing some riding around the Carlsbad/San Diego area. Lots of hills! The weather is beautiful, and riding along the coast is great.

We just signed up for Twitter, so we can keep some regular updates going during the trip. Check it out, sign up if you haven't, and follow us at http://twitter.com/tourdecross.

We have decided on our location and date of departure: the morning of June 7th from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church (OLMC). OLMC is located in Tempe on Rural between Broadway and Southern. If you are interested, there will be a group of people riding out with us. You can jump on a bike and ride 1, 5, 10, 20, however many miles you want with us. Just remember, you need to ride back to the church after, so don't ride too far.

In short: Things are great when you trust in the Lord, follow us on Twitter, see us off on June 7th, and God is good!

Get Excited!!!

Because we sure are! With the help of the very gracious Natalie Cordray, we just finished our promotional video and got it posted! Take a look at it, because it's pretty sweet. I also put up a map of the tour, so you can take a look at where we'll be going. We have had some very exciting developments, including some sizeable donations. In fact, one person will be matching the first $1,000 that we raise. So get donating!

In other news (pun intended), we are going to have an article in the Catholic Sun on May 21st! For those of you who don't know, the Catholic Sun is the local Catholic newspaper. One of the editors, Joyce Coronel, is a good friend of ours, and was happy to do a story on the trip. Thanks Joyce! So we are VERY excited to see what kind of response we get from that. We also purchased our bicycles last week, and have already put several hundred miles on them! We are getting more and more gear, but still are in need. It takes a lot of gear to bicycle across the country! That's what we've got for now, but we'll keep you updated as things keep happening. Remember, top right hand corner to donate. Most of all, keep praying for us, and we are praying for you. God bless.

Update!

We officially have our donation link posted. You can see it in the top right hand corner of the blog. We're working with Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC), so donations go to them, designated to come straight to SPO at ASU. A small part of donations will help cover the expenses of the trip, and most of them will go to support SPO at ASU. Donations are 100% tax deductible, and a tax receipt is available upon request. Talk to us if you have any more questions! Our contact information is available.

We have one month and two days until departure, and let me tell you, we are getting super excited! We are leaving the morning of June 7th from the OLMC parking lot. Several people have expressed interest in riding the first few miles with us, just to kind of see us off. So, we've gone ahead and opened that up. If you've got a bike, and want to go ahead and ride with us for a few miles, or 10 miles, or 20 miles, or whatever you want, the let us know! We are really looking forward to it.

Finally, we will be updating the blog more often now. We'll have a video and some pictures up within a week, as well as a map of our route and all the places we will be stopping. We love you all, and thank you so much for all of your support. God's peace be with you.

David and Daniel