Pedal Trans-America 2008: Hannibal, MO

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.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Hannibal, MO

After a long day on the bikes, Dwight and I checked out downtown Hannibal, MO. We celebrated passing into a new state at a local bar/restaurant with a beer. On our way out, we ran into a couple that looked like they had been well-traveled, like us. We talked for a bit and found out, Justus, the guy in the couple, had made a pontoon houseboat and was taking it down the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico with little use of an engine, just floating down the river, Huck Finn style.

He asked us to come along! He said we didn't have to decide then but we exchanged numbers and he told us to call him if we wanted to go with him, even if it was just for a day and travel about 20 miles downstream. After a quick talkover, we figured that the southeastern flow of the river would take us about 15 mile off course but in the end, we knew that opportunities like these were what made the trip so awesome.

We stopped at the Hannibal Fire Department after our encounter with Justus and talked to Mike, the Battalion Chief of the crew. He invited us to stay the night. We got to take showers and we even ate with the rest of the crew (they cooked us some brats on the grill).