Pedal Trans-America 2008: The Sandusky Fire Department

A message from the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation

Ryan and Dwight hope to raise $10,000 to support the burn camp, which will host 70 children between the ages of 8 and 18. They are determined to reach the West Coast as a personal challenge as well as helping young burn survivors.

Started in 1991, the Arthur C. Luf Children's Burn Camp is located in northern Connecticut on 176 acres. Every summer, burn survivors come to the burn camp, which is a safe and fun environment that helps kids heal emotionally and physically. The Burn Camp is free to the children, who come primarily from the Northeast and some foreign counteries, but any burn survivor child anywhere is welcome. More than 70 adult counselors, primarily active and retired firefighters and burn unit nurses, occupational and physical therapists, child psychologists and even a doctor will serve as mentors for the week.

It's also our goal to promote burn awareness and fire prevention and education, which we do year around. We sponsor a burn survivor, burned in a car accident that involved speeding and drinking alcohol, who speaks to high school students throughout Connecticut. We also support the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital, helping to purchase equipment.

Friday, June 27, 2008

The Sandusky Fire Department

The enormous, 420 ft. tall, 120 mph, Top-Thrill Dragster

We rolled into Sandusky, OH, home of the great Cedar Point Amusement Park and some of the biggest roller coasters in the world, on Wednesday 6/25. The firefighters invited us into the break room, where most of them were eating dinner, and we started talking about our trip. They were really cool guys. One of them bought us some "pop" and the whole shift pitched-in to buy us dinner. Alex gave us some spending money and some money for the charity and when the crew found out that we were visiting Cedar Point in the morning, Jeff and Zach gave us their tickets to the park.

While we were hanging out and eating dinner, the thunder storms hit again. We still had another twenty miles to ride that night from Sandusky to Fremont but the weather was terrible and dusk was approaching. When they saw how bad the thunder storms were they invited us to stay the night in the firehouse. We had our own rooms with beds and we got to use their shower and laundry room. That night we hung out for a bit, watched a movie and got a great nights sleep, out of the rain. They were an awesome group of guys and seemed very tight.

In the morning, Jeff, one of the firefighters took us out to eat for breakfast and back to his house to hang out while we were waiting for the park to open. We played some Call of Duty 4 on his Xbox and I owned Jeff and Dwight. Jeff and his wife gave us some spending money for the park and invited us back for dinner, after the park. We had a great time at Cedar Point and riding all the roller coasters but I probably had the most fun ripping down the street in Jeff's ride. Sooo sweet.

A Russian made motorcycle and side-car. It was a stolen German design. It even had a machine gun mount on it....