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.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Beetle Mania

The other day a plague of beetles descended upon us on Route 29. I've never seen so many bugs. We were literally in danger of being hit by a beelte every other second or so. Ryan dubbed it "The Beetle Gauntlet." On top of that, the endless fields of corn we'd been riding through were really testing our mental endurance. Ryan started to lose it. It was a hot day. I'm not sure of the temperature, but it felt hot. We went 69 miles from Chenoa to Emden, where we stayed in the American Legion Post 506.
We stopped just out side of Chandersville for some black raspberries


The corridor of corn
In the morning a family-run diner called Garbers gave us breakfast on the house. An older gentleman named Dwayne, who owns an auto dealership across the street from the diner, gave us some pocket flashlights as a memento. Some wonderful women at a bank in San Jose (which we've heard locally pronounced not as 'SAN ho-SAY,' but as 'san JOE-s') let us use their computer to plot a back-roads course to Missouri (our atlas only has the busier roads).

Just south of Easton a scary-looking storm started breathing down our necks. A great darkness was gathering in the west around a glowing electric green core. Horrifying. We saw flashes of light and heard rumblings in the distance. Not being a couple of guys to mess with mother nature, we stopped at the first house we passed, which was thankfully home to some wonderful people. The storm persisted until close to dark, and our hosts invited us to stay the night. The weather-shortened day kept us to 32 miles.

Yikes

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1 comment:

Albert said...

ROAD TIP - Good protein in those beetles. Entomophagy is short changed in my opinion. You should have snacked on nature's delight for an extra energy boost. I prefer them to weevils which are in all too ready supply in the silos your cruising by.

July 9, 2008 at 4:25 PM

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