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 2, 2008

We have not been to Chile

But we have been to Valparaiso. Indiana, that is.

We awoke, the other day, from blissful slumber on the most attractive, most well-groomed lawn you've ever seen, anticipating a solid, 80 mile ride to Valparaiso, where Ryan knows friends from his last trip through the area. Midway through the afternoon we were setting a pretty leisurely pace, having spent some time in a library in Lakeville, updating the blog and talking with a few cool kids (what's up Bryan, Jacci, Kimmi and Austin?). We were about 30 miles along the trail, riding passed a cemetery in North Liberty on Route 4, when some guy in a pick up drives by in the other direction and says, "Guys need a ride to Valpo?" So I'm like, "that guy just offered us a ride. Who is that guy?" And Ryan says, "is that him?" And I'm all, "Oh yeah, it probably is. You are sharp." So our host Willis had borrowed a pick-up and surprised us en route, and so we covered more ground yesterday in the seat of a pick-up than on the saddles of our bikes. Is that cheating? I guess so. But on a 3,500 mile plus journey, we're calling it negligible, and hoping to be forgiven. Excuses, excuses. You can tell I'm a little guilty about this. But just LOOK at these LEGS!

And these tans!

And these flowers!

So, clearly, we could have made the trip, if we had to. Any way, Willis, his wife Ginger and her mom, Phyllis, have offered us everything imaginable and made us feel as at home here as we could possibly feel. We're in good hands in Valparaiso, Indiana. If we had only reached the Chilean version, we would BE at the Pacific, already. But think of all the fun we would miss going through that vortex! There's a La Paz nearby, too. I think there is a strong latino demographic, here, which might explain the naming trend.

It looks like a hassle to navigate safely into Chicago proper from here, so we're going to leave our bikes, spend some time in the city, and pick up the trail where we left off in a couple of days.
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1 comment:

Albert said...

Nice gams. But choose Mach 3, Nair or Miss Gillete to join the cyclist's hairless tradition. It's just done.

July 23, 2008 at 12:06 AM

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