Last entry, Home at last!!!!

Well, we are all now home and trying to get back into the swing of running our businesses. We actually arrived here on Saturday night. Mom and I came to Austin from Dallas, and Raleigh went on to Houston, and of course Dennis stayed in Dallas. My daughter Jessica and my new son-in-law J. came in from Dallas to pick mom and me up from the Austin airport. Jan and both Chelsea and Bo are over in Italy where Chelsea has been doing study abroad for the first part of the summer. Jan and Bo went over to bring Chels home and do some sight seeing. It was great to see Jess and J., and I really appreciate them picking us up and being there at the airport.

As I look back on the trip, it really was just about everything I had hopped it would be. I knew from past experience that there would be some ups and downs and that there would be several challenging days along the way. I really feel we could not have had better conditions than we did. Wind and cold seem to be pretty good all of a sudden when you get back to Texas and see 106+. We really did get to see so much of the country side along the way. The other thing that stands out in my mind is how many people were interested in what we were doing and how many people donated to our charities. We had so many people give us $5, $10, or $20 all along the way. It shows just how generous folks are when they are given the oppotunity.

I know Raleigh and Dennis are pretty darn glad the trip is over. I am very grateful to both of them for agreeing to make this journey. They didn’t know what they were getting into, and I’m proud of them for sticking with the trip and finishing it in grand style. Of course mom was fantastic on the trip. She kept a very positive attitude and was very supportive at all times. This really was an extremely unique experience to have three brothers and their mom do something this far off the wall. We will all have great memories that we will be able to look back on forever.

Well I am hopeful that the second half of 2009 might be a bit less eventful. From moving into our new office here at ABC, to having my first child get married, to this incredible bike journey, this has been quite a six months. With Jessica and J. on their own, and Chelsea going to A&M for summer school in July, and Bo going to be a counselor at Camp LaJunta, Jan and I will get to spend some quality time together here in Austin and I am really looking forward to just being at home. I hope that all of you who have followed our trip are enjoying your summers, and I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon.

Take care, Bobby J

Welcome to Calgary

What a great day!!!!! We have arrived here in Calgary and we are all very excited to have finished the trip. We left Nanton extra early this morning in hopes of avoiding the wind. We had a quick breakfast at a local diner and hit the road with lots of determination and energy. The morning was very pleasant and the wind was much less than yesterday. We figured we were about 45 miles from Calgary so we did a turn of about 24 miles and then took our first break of the morning. By this time the wind was out of the west and didn’t slow us up at all. As with the past couple of days, we had lots of sunshine. After about 40 miles we were suddenly at the top of a hill and all of a sudden we could see downtown Calgary in the not very far distance. This was a great photo opportunity so took a couple of pictures.

Once we got back on the bikes, we were all really pumped about being this close to our destination. After about another 10 miles or so, we all of a sudden hit the Calgary city limits sign and our goal was achieved!!!!! By this time traffic on the hwy was getting pretty busy so we pulled off to the side and took lots of pictures of the city limits sign. We shared high fives and hugs and tears of joy. We were all pretty excited about finally getting off the bikes and thinking about heading home to our families.

After all the pictures, we headed to our hotel which is near the Calgary airport. We stopped and had lunch at a local bistro and enjoyed the Calgary sunshine. After checking into the hotel, we did our usual hot tub relaxing and then got changed and went to dinner. We are now getting repacked and planning our exit for tomorrow morning. We have a 2:10 flight to Dallas and then mom and I head to Austin and Raleigh goes to Houston.

We are all really ready to get home to our families and friends. This has been a long almost 5 weeks but it really has been everything we thought it would be . We knew it would be difficult at times and spectacular at other times. The opportunity to be together as brothers with our mom was very special and one we are very grateful for.

The support we have received from family and friends is something that we will always remember. Thanks to everyone who has sent messages of encouragement, they really were inspirational and helped us all along the way.

Of course one of the primary reasons for this adventure was to raise money for three very important charities. To those of you who have made donations we sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts. All three of the charities are very special to us and we each have a personal connection to them. We still have a bit to go to hit our overall goal but I’m sure we will soon.

I look forward to seeing everyone when we get home. I hope your summer is going well.

Thanks, Bobby J

Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-That's all folks!

CALGARY! Today we hit the city limits of Calgary, Alberta, Canada! The moment we hit the city limit sign - we were DONE! It ended up only being a 40 mile ride from Nanton after a night in a really old hotel - on really old beds with really old sheets and towels that ripped when I tried to dry my back. It did really have charm though.

We woke and ate at a local diner and hit the road. The Navigation System in the car said that we had 57 miles to go, but that was to the center of downtown Calgary, and we had already decided to get to the city limits and call it DONE! At 40 miles, we hit the sign, just after Mom had seen a sign that said “NO SLOW MOVING VEHICLES”. We knew that we had arrived at the end of our ride. I cannot explain to you the feeling of finishing a ride that started in Austin and ended in Calgary. There have been many rough spots along the way - and many beautiful and wonderful spots. Both will make wonderful memories. I can’t tell you what this has really been like. Averaging 70 or so miles every day for 5 weeks, 40 today seemed like we were cheating. We hugged each other, thanked God for our safety and health and fellowship, took pictures, and headed to the hotel.

I would like to offer a prayer:

Gracious God

Thank you for the gift you have given us in this trip.
Thank you for brothers and mother who have accompanied us along the way.
Thank you for the safety that you gave us and the friendly people we met across two countries.
Thank you for our families at home who love us, support us, and have allowed us to accomplish this ride.
Thank you for all of the people who have followed us along the way and given us support and prayers.
Thank you for helping us to finish this ride and still praise you and still love each other.
Thank you for using our efforts to bring attention to the various causes that we have chosen.
Thank you for the donations that people have given to those causes.

Thank you for being the loving and gracious God that we count on every day.

In your name.
Amen

Grace and Peace
Dennis

Almost there

What a day!!! We got up early as usual and grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and hit the road. We all were pretty excited about this being our second to last day on the trip. What was strange about this morning was that we didn’t need to put on layers of clothes. The temperature this morning was about 65 which was something new for us. When we first got on the bikes, the wind seemed to be with us. The first 10 miles or so were just great and then things changed. We were now going straight into the and when I say wind I mean gale force wind. Our speed dropped from about 18 mph down to 8 mph. There were no hills to speak of but we did seem to be climbing a bit. The ride from Lethbridge to Ft. Mcleod was a total of about 22 miles and the last part was a killer.
We then change direction from west to north and so now the wind was a cross wind and for a bit it was actually at our back. With the now 35 mph wind at our back we were screaming across the plains. This lasted for about 15 miles and then we started heading more west and so the wind became our enemy once again.
We stopped in Clairesholm for lunch and were just beat. We took a good break and rested a bit and then hit the road again. We needed to go another 25 miles to get tour destination of Nanton. Once we got here, we all just wanted crash. This had to rank as one of our most taxing days.
We found a unique hotel in what I guess you could call downtown Nanton and got our room for the night. This place was originally built in 1901 and has a pretty cool bar and restaurant. The rooms however leave a bit to be desired. When you walk into your room and see that the bedspreads don’t match you know this isn’t a Holiday Inn.
Tomorrow we head to our final destination which of course is Calgary. We will need to go about 65 miles to get there and we are already saying our prayers for a tail wind for our final ride of the trip. It’s hard to believe we are this close to the end but we are all very excited and ready to head home.

Dennis does his "Happy Dance".

WIND! The Wind today was absolutely, unanimously, the absolutely worst wind we have dealt with yet. The wind was sustained at about 35 mph and gusted to 40-45mph. It was constant and from the West. When we started the ride this morning, we were in Lethbridge, Alberta and began heading West to Fort McLeod. It was about 22 miles headed straight into that wind. At that point, we did get to turn North onto Albeta 2 and the wind was either directly hitting us from the left side, or slightly from the front or, gloriously but only occasionally, slightly from the rear.

When it was slightly from the rear, it allowed us to maintain a faster pace, but still threw us around the highway like rag dolls – especially when big trucks came by. When it was directly from the left side, we were all three leaning to fight it (at one stop, I had my hand on the handlebars, and the wind blew the back end of the bike about 5 inches around). When it was slightly at the front – we were barely moving and fighting every minute.

We stopped in a town called Claresholm for lunch, after going 51 miles. The food was good, but mostly we just stared out at the wind knowing that we still had 25 miles to go to get to Nanton. After lunch, there was nothing to do but get back on the bikes, so away we went. Fighting the wind the entire way, we arrived in Nanton at about 3pm.

We are staying at a very old Nanton hotel called the Auditorium Hotel. It was built in 1902 and has a bar and restaurant inside it that we will probably stay here and not move for dinner and breakfast. The rooms are upstairs, no air conditioning except the window, and the bathroom had no towels, but some were given when asked.

The owner of the hotel is a really cool guy that when he saw our vehicle and cut the room rate in half as a donation to the cause. Let’s just say the athe place has character, and the owners are gracious.

This is the second to the last night of this ride. We are at the finish line! I cannot believe that we are that close to being done, nor that we have actually ridden our bikes to Calgary. I am over 50 lbs lighter than when I started training 14 months ago and I have a beard (for now). It will be one heck of a memory, but I am ready to be back home. We changed our flights so that we will arrive in Calgary tomorrow, and fly home on Saturday! See you all soon!

Grace and Peace

Dennis