Wow it is hot here in Wyoming! Last night we stayed in Riverton, and it was in the high 90s all day yesterday. I'm doing my best to stay hydrated and cool, the smoke haze from the wildfires was blocking out the sun for awhile so that helped!
Thursday I came across a group of 3 guys cycling across country to raise money for cancer research, check them out on Facebook _ Transamerica tour 2012
They are a dedicated group, and were very generous. They looked at my Walmart bike, and informed me that it was a "peice of crap" and I was probably using more energy moving it through the Rockies, then was neccessary! Stephen Steele woke me up on friday morning and told me to bring my bike over to thier campsite. When I got over there they told me I could borrow thier spare bike for the rest of my journey and also gave me some gear and extra things I would need. Subsequentley yesterday was the best ride so far and I think I am now officially hooked on biking!! The bike is great, The ride was much smoother yesterday, and even though it will reach 100 today I am looking forward to the 70 miles!

Yes that is a large Jackalope behind me!

WE have stopped at some sights a long the way, it was fascinating driving through Craters of the moon national park, and we all really enjoyed driving through the Tetons, and taking lots of pictures of the mountains!

We even managed to get a family picture!

And a family picture of the bears we saw.

Thanks for all the support and prayers! Keep them coming!

Well we are ready to leave Jackson WY, we have new brakes and should be able to handle the rest of the elevations!
As beautiful as Jackson is we are ready to move on! I was hoping to run today, but think I will continue biking for the rest of the week at least.
We woke up to 36 degrees this morning, but it will climb into the 80s this afternoon!
I think the next few days will be remote locations so I will update soon.

Our home for the night.....The people at Auto tech auto repair are kind enough to let us stay in the rv on their lot tonight....They understood that a hotel is not in our budget! actually new brake pads and rotors are not in our budget either....It has been frustrating encountering all of these bumps in the road, but the end result will be worth it.
There are so many veterans who have sacrificed so much, and continue to sacrifice each day for us to enjoy our freedom and I just hope this run is bringing awareness to the needs of our veterans!
I

This trip has been a great experience but it has also been very trying!!  We changed our route slightly to avoid some roads that we felt were too small for the RV. So we decided to head to Jackson and then back on to route 26. This descision seemed to be a good one until we hit the steep 10% grades dropping down into Jackson. Donna informed me that the brakes were not feeling right  when I stopped for a drink. So I decided to jump in and ride the last few miles down with her. Talk about a scary ride!! we got to the bottom and pulled in to the first parking lot we could find. As we sat there thinking about what we were going to do Pastor King of Mountain view baptist church came over to us and offerd us a place to hook up in front of his church. It never fails to amaze me how God answers prayers and knows our needs before we do! We had a great night and all the children slept very well and we woke up refreshed and ready to face the day. We have an appointment at 2 this afternoion to get the brakes and rotors checked. Hopefully it wont be too expensive and we will be bak on the road soon. The mechanic on the phone mentioned if we need parts he would have to order them, but it would only take a day or 2. Hopefully they just needed to cool down, and we are good to go......
We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers, and they are needed more than  ever right now!

Well we are at a KOA in Arco Idaho tonight, we passed through Craters of the moon national monument today, It's a pretty crazy place, rolling green hills then suddenly huge rocky craters everywhere! It was pretty neat to see, I biked about 90 miles today, it felt good, and I wanted to try to get back on schedule.
My leg is feeling good, I was able to run with the Boise recruiting CO on Wednesday, we did 3 miles at Ann Morrison park, then I ran another 23 that afternoon. The next day my leg was stiff and sore though, so I think I will give it another week or two, but it did feel good running again, and it was great running with a Co of soldiers again, I learned some new Cadences, and joined in some old familiar ones! A big thank you to the Boise recruiting Company for letting me join you guys,and for your support! Especially to Mark Erwin, with Team RWB for setting it up, and Capt. Chris Collins for arranging everyting!

I'm gearing up for some pretty big mountain ranges the next week or so, I've been looking forward to running across the Rockies since I started planning this thing. As Donna was looking at the atlas today she found a road that goes around the Rockies, and questioned whether that would be the best route...absolutely not! I didn't come all this way to run around the rockies, we've got to go right through them! I'm sure some thoughts and prayers would be appreciated, especially for Donna!
I'll try to get some more pics on here soon, lots of beautiful places, and friendly people a long the way (for the most part) It's amazing how people here can cope without a walmart within a couple minutes driving distance, but it sure is a beautiful fascinating journey!

Today I am taking a rest day, and we are exploring Boise, so we figured this would be a good opportunity to put a few photos on here so you all can see what life looks like for us lately!

The Biking is going well, I've never been much of a cyclist, but it seems to be giving my leg a chance to heal a bit.

As I was riding the director for the Oregon cyclist association pulled me over and wished me luck on my journey!   

As I mentioned before we had a harowing ride on a dirt road through the midle of nowhere, but at the end of it we were able to see "the painted hills" it was great, and the kids loved it!

More cycling, we reached some pretty high elevations!

But the mineral springs at Kahneeta resort felt great!

We will continue to add photos as we have time, we find ourselves pretty busy trying to keep up with our schedule!

We made it out of Oregon and into Idaho today!
Today was challenging...It was hot amd my "well planned" route led me to a few dead ends. Some minor alterations were needed, but with the sun beating down, and the airconditioning not working in the rv everyone was a bit frustrated!
Keeping hydrated is a constant process, and my supply of Nunn tablets is depleting quickly! If anyone knows of a good way to find coupons for this let me know!
I am going to need to look at my route and maybe make some changes where it's needed, having the RV follow me down a dirt trail on a mountaintop can be a bit scary. I am almost in Boise, and am looking forward to running with some soldiers this Wednesday.I think it will be a much needed morale booster, for me and the family.
My leg has been wrapped all week, and it is not too painful when I ride, Hopefully it is healing quickly, and I can get back to running full time!

Well so far the bike riding is going well! It is a lot less pressure on my leg, but at the end of the day I am stiff and sore! Hopefully my leg will continue to heal, and I can be back to running in a few weeks! The past few days we have been going through lots of small towns, and remote areas.
\My route took me on a little detour off the highway, and onto NE Gosner rd. It was about 20 miles of treacherous, edge of the cliff dirt road kind of biking, and was probably even more terrifying for Donna driving the RV! At the end of it we were able to visit the painted hills, and that was beautiful! My next big stop will be Boise Idaho, I wil be running with some soldiers, and Team RWB atheletes, I am looking forward to it, and can't wait to meet some fellow runners! I will be in Boise on Wednesday the 20th.

Even though there have been some roadblocks, and curve balls we were not expecting, my reasons for doing this are driving me on. Giving up is not an option for me. I have a lot of buddy's who don't have this choice, a lot of guys I know came home from war with scars that prohibit them from running, biking, even walking. And a lot of good friends who never made it home. These guys are on my mind every day.
I am hoping to raise a good amount of money for my charities, these are groups of people reaching out, and trying their best to provide a better quality of life for Veterans and Soldiers. So keep the donations coming! and I'll do my best to continue moving forward!

A New Challenge!!

Well I like a challenge so this is really testing me!! I went to the Emergency room in Madras to get my right leg checked out because the pain was pretty bad. I thought it would just be shin splints but it turns out that after an x-ray I have a stress fracture of my Fibula. So the Doc said I cant run for a couple of weeks. I was pretty upset but immediately started to think of my options. I have decided  to bike for a couple of weeks as it doesn't hurt when i am riding. I wanted to keep the integrity of a cross country journey by my own strength and without vehicular assistance in place so I think this is the next best thing to running!. I think biking over the next couple of weeks will be a challenge but the good news is I will be able to make up the miles and get back on track with my schedule. Please pray that this will work out and that I will be back to running soon. Even with the problems I am really enjoying the journey and having a great time seeing some amazing places with Donna and the kids.
Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers.

It seems like wifi is hard to find out here in the mountains, but tonight I am nursing a sore ankle. My issues really started snowballing Friday night (literally) when I ran into snow running towards Mount Hood! the weather has been quite wet since we arrived in Oregon but I really didn't expect this much snow!  I cut my run short Friday night due to weather, and woke up Saturday with terrible shin pain, I did end up finishing my route for Friday, but proceeded to forget to turn on my athlete live tracker! Also we decided to stop and change the oil in the RV before preceding through Mt. Hood national park, and that turned into a 3+ hour event!
So this morning I started out gingerly hoping to walk/light jog the 38 miles, but only ended up making it 9 before coming to the realization that ice and rest tonight, would go along way for a successful second week. I'm thinking it may be a bad shin splint, so Ice and a wrap will hopefully help me pull through it

 Even with a few setbacks and disappointments the support a long the way has been very encouraging, so many people stop to ask me what I am doing and wish me luck, and even hand me a few dollars.
This is definitely a learning curve, I am figuring things out and adjusting as I go. It is fun eating as much and as often as I want!

Your donations are greatly appreciated and thank you for all the support and kind words along the way!

Day 3 is done! who knew Portland was so hilly?? It was good weather and I met some really nice people along the way. Terrible moment came when I witnessed a green sedan hit a dog and take off, poor dog won't make it, but a nice couple stopped and were going to try to get him some help. that really put a damper on the day.
Tonight we drove up to Battleground WA to visit with the Barney family. Larry Barney served with me at Fort Richardson AK, and Donna and Shana spent a lot of time together while we were in Iraq. The kids are having a great time, and its great visiting with old friends!
Looking forward to tomorrow, Still running through Portland, it's great to see the city this way!

Day 2 is done.What a long day! The stiffness from yesterday caught up with me, and I was glad to find a shortcut that saved me a few miles! Tomorrow I am in portland, for thos of you interested in joining me, i will be starting at 9am at the corner of 185th, and NW Union st.  You can check out the rest of my route on my map, or on myathletelive.com
Hope to see you out there!

After a few setbacks we have made it to Oregon. The journey here was longer than expected, but we saw some great sights a long the way, and met some nice people!
I started running this morning from Cannon beach. It was perfect weather for a 38 mile run, cool and sunny. there was about 20 minutes of rain towards the end of the day, but really it was ideal running weather!
Cannon Beach was beautiful, the kids enjoyed playing in the sand, and despite the cool temperatures, even managed to get soaking wet.

It was a good day, I am a little sore and tired,, but looking forward to what tomorrow holds!

Anthony Rimel, from the Cannon beach gazette met us this morning to take a few photographs of the start of the run. he write this article last week:  http://www.cannonbeachgazette.com/news/local_news/article_7d926a22-ad23-11e1-aa64-001a4bcf887a.html

and will include an update and photo soon.


We stopped for dinner at camp 18 restaurant. its an old logging site, and has really neat wood carvings and lots of fun things to look at. The kids loved the wooden bears inside, and the warm fireplace and comfy couches!

Once we are able to get the photos off the camera we will upload a few from the first day!

I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from people tracking my progress today through My Athlete live.

http://track.myathletelive.com/VEmap.aspx?name=374095

I really like the system they use, and it has been such a posative experience working with them!

Thanks everyone for the continued support! Don't forget to keep the donations coming, so this can be a big success!