Anne's 3rd Great Bicycle Adventure for Hospice

[AnnieBikes]

Dear all, I will be off the forums for about a month as I leave on Tuesday for Portland, OR for my next big fundraiser (and perhaps last if I reach my goal) for the Wellmont Hospice House in Bristol, TN. I rode the Southern Tier in 2007 and the Underground Railroad Route in 2008. Both these rides were with WomanTours, which has been discussed on this forum recently. The ride is called the Northwest Loop, is 1500 miles over 30 days. There is a map of the ride on my website, address below this post. On the first two rides I raised over $68,000 for Hospice. I hope to reach my goal of $100,000 on this ride! WOW! I am so excited to help in the renovation project that the house will soon undergo. I have raised $5500 in the past week with my letter campaign and have received several donations after this article was in the paper yesterday.

Click here to read the article

My husband is the Medical Director of Hospice and the wonderful work that the nurses and staff do for patients with a terminal illness and their families is just incredible. We honored 30 nurses and staff on Friday night with a BBQ at our house...great fun!! It can be a very stressful job and a change of pace is always welcomed by them!

Please keep my safety in your thoughts and prayers for the next month. I do so appreciate the fantastic women on this forum. The support for newbie questions and any other questions has been so helpful to me. The weight loss threads are incredibly encouraging and have helped me to lose the 5 pounds I never thought I could. Thank you so much to everyone on this forum. You are WONDERFUL!

[Tri Girl]

Best of luck to you, and many safe and happy miles. What a wonderfully worthy cause, and I'm incredibly humbled by your tremendous fundraising efforts. You are a good woman doing good for so many.
Please take lots of pictures and please share your adventure with us when you return. We'll be anxiously awaiting your return. Be safe. Have fun. Enjoy the great Pacific NW.

[AnnieBikes]

Wow, you made my day, Tri Girl! I am crazy busy today as I get ready to fly out in the wee hours of tomorrow. TRYING to fit everything into my 40# weight allotment, including bike clothes, tools, and gear!! I am throwing things OUT right and left!!!

[redrhodie]

I look forward to reading your reports! I read most of your Southern Tier in one sitting. You're so inspiring.

Have fun, and stay safe.

[AnnieBikes]

Well, I am on the road. I started my ride from Portland on Sunday and had a wonderful send off from Dave and Edna, who came down to the Salmon Street Fountain where we had our picture taken. They immediately got a dozen cameras to take pictures with and were such great sports about it. They did not know that they would be tagged for that job when they came to meet me. Edna was the first person I have met from TE. She and Dave were like old friends. Who says you can't meet someone nice on the internet?

Everyone was talking about the recumbents at dinner on Sunday night!

Thanks again for all your help with the photo ops at the beginning of the ride. It was a short ride to Troutdale and today we started our trip up the gorge to Hood River. What a day! I saw ALL the falls and climbed up many of them. I sure am glad that I have been wearing my Keen cycling sandals or I would not have been able to walk up many of those paths.

Just wanted you all to know that I have reached $10,000 so far in funds raised for the Hospice house non this ride! I am so excited. That puts me up to $78,000 total for my three long rides. My goal is $100,000, so I am really thinking that I might make it! Thanks so very much for your support!

Bye for now...off to bed!

[Tri Girl]

Glad you made it there safely. You've raised 10K already??? Awesome!!! Be safe, and keep us updated!!!

[evangundy]

Hi Anne,
Likewise, it was great fun to meet you, too. I think you won't have any trouble meeting your fund-raising goal for such a worthy cause. It seemed like a fabulous group of women you're going to spend a month with. It was fun taking pictures of the group, with a bunch of their cameras. The two official photographers had some each, I had some, Dave had some, other friends/family had bunches too. It took about 5 minutes to take pics with everyone's cameras.

The tour/route sounds like lots of fun. We'll be following your blog - it is always neat to hear area descriptions through the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time - makes us remember why we love those rides too, if we've started taking things for granted :-)

Your stop at Fabric Depot made me smile - that is one of my favorite stores. It's where I buy most of the fabric for the bodysocks I make for the recumbents.

Have a great month and we'll keep in touch

Edna

[AnnieBikes]

I am now in New Meadows, ID and doing great. WE have a layover day and are going to spend the afternoon at the summer place of one of our cyclists. Her husband and the husband of another of our group are going to cook out for us! Sounds like a great rest day! My total raised so far is over $13,000. I am almost half way through my ride and almost halfway through my fundraising! My goal is $32,000. That is a high goal!

The woman are great. It has been very hot but we are hydrating continuously! ...and eating lots of salty stuff. The scenery through the Salmon River Gorge was spectacular. We have had some really long climbs but my Felt FW3 has been perfect. The compact crank is working very well for me. We have ridden ust over 600 miles and have climbed over 27,000 feet! I am getting very strong in the legs!!!

We are seeing many, many cyclists on the Transamerica Route. We were on the Lewis and Clark route and are now back on the TA. They look really heavily loaded. I am glad this is a supported ride! My husband and I do hope to do the Northern Tier in the near future.

Thanks for all the support and don't forget that you can follow my ride at the address below.

[AnnieBikes]

Well, TE friends, I am back home after a month long ride for hospice, my 3rd great bicycle adventure. It was great, had an awesome ride and saw the incredible state of Oregon. From the Columbia River Gorge, to the high desert, to Hell's Canyon in Idaho, to the John Day Fossil beds, the Cascade mountains and Sisters, OR, then to the Pacific Ocean and Oregon coast, it was just spectacular. What a great way to spend a month! I loved it.

Best of all, I have raised, so far, on this ride $19,300! Wahoo! For the three rides, 2007 Southern Tier, 2008 Underground RR, and 2009 Northwest Loop, I have raised over $87,000 for the Wellmont Hospice House in Bristol, TN. My final goal is $100,000 so I still have a little ways to go! However, the money is still coming in so there is hope!

Thanks to everyone who has written, pm'd, and donated. I really appreciate your support and encouragement.

I took a fall last Friday, the second to last day, in Astoria, on a wet trolley track. I rode a century into Portland the last day but am suffering the effects of the fall still, no big fractures but something funny in my elbow, a "tuft" fracture of my thumb, and a broken sunglasses frame that made a hole in my head under the helmet! I had no stitches because there was no clean edge to stitch! I have not ridden yet but hope to by this weekend when I have my first "home ride" planned. My bike is supposed to arrive home tomorrow. I miss seeing it in my den every day!

[Tri Girl]

I'm so glad you're back home safely! Sorry about the fall, but hopefully you'll heal back up in no time (and a hole in your head- yeeouch!).
It's so very beautiful out there. I hope to get to see it in person some day- preferably by the seat of a bicycle.
Congrats again on your fund raising efforts and the bike ride!! Impressive!