Message Board Comments |
|
Patti said... Hi Guys! I actually saw some of that news footage on channel 6 news Saturday morning! You both looked good, but they didn't show any interview. Just you two riding into town. I also overheard a gentleman talking to the person who hands out free food in Hannaford about celiac. I didn't catch the whole conversation, but at the end she thanked him and said, "You may have saved my life." Nice to know there's other people out there spreading the word with you. Keep up the good work and stay safe....Patti Anonymous said... Hi Ms Erskine, it's Scott and my little sister LeeAnn. Glad to see that your trip is going well. Your pictures are awesome. I have been telling everyone about your trip for Celiac!! Hope the hills get smaller every day. Scott and LeeAnn Anonymous said... Hi Regina And Alex and Bev, I have been really enjoying your stories and following along on your trip. (I am still glad it is you out there and not me.) The pictures are awesome. Thanks so much for sharing. I am printing and passing along your stories to some who don't have computers. I have to share with you I actually saw a label today that said on it naturally gluten free product. Keep safe, Lois Anonymous said... Hello! Ralph and I also saw the footage of you riding into town..."my famous friend"! Glad things are going well. We're following you closely and thinking of you. Take care! Debbie Anonymous said... Hey Ms. Erskine! I hope youre having fun riding :-) Griffin Miller Anonymous said... Hi Ms. Erskine! Hope your trip is going smoothly. Keep up the good work! Mackinleigh & Katryna Anonymous said... Dear Miss Erskine, Hello this is Jennifer again here. I am with a 5th grader that
is going to be coming to our school. Anonymous said... Hi Ms.E! It's me Alyssa. I wrote to you last week. Today we're
being shadowed by 5th graders. Bye For Now, Anonymous said... Hey Ms. Erskine! You did a great job on biking so far. I can't believe you're already in Arizona. I would be like crying right now if I had to climb big huge hills. Best of Luck. Sincerely, Anonymous said... Hi Regina, Your story really inspired me a lot. I've been to Alberquerque before lots of times because I lived in Clovis, New Mexico. See ya bye!!!! Anonymous said... Hey, you're doing awesome on you're biking. I can't believe you're already in AZ. That's great. Your pictures are really cool. It's amazing how you're doing this to spread awareness. I dont think I could ever climb hills like that. We're proud of you. Best of luck. Adie Broadwater Anonymous said... Hi!!! It's me Aaron, you know the one who has a cuz with celiac :) Well I think it's a great thing you are doing, so keep up the the good work. Anonymous said... Hi! You're doing a great job! We check your website a lot to see where you are in computer class. Keep up the good work. Your future student, Anonymous said... Hi Ms. Erskine, Looks like you've went through some beautiful places in the desert. Makes me want to visit there. Good luck next week! Mr. Lamoureux Anonymous said... Dear Ms. Erskine, I hope you are having fun. I am enjoying reading about you in computer class. It seems like a lot of hard work. I think it is great what you are doing. Keep up the good work. Your soon to be student, Anonymous said... Hey Ms. Erskine, Hope you have a fun, safe, adventurous ride!!! Thinking of you..!! return safe!! ur #1 *+*peace out*+* ~*+*~Vickii~*+*~ 3<< Anonymous said... Dear Ms. Erskine, I heard your trip is going good. One thing I'm surprised about is that you can stand that heat and keep riding! I hope the rest of your trip goes well. Good Luck, Ben Farley Anonymous said... HELLO!! I heard you went up and down a lot of hills and it must of took a long time right? Well anyway, u are really comitted to this ride for what you did (going back to where the RV picked you up). This is so cool that you are doing this!! Write more soon!! Lindsay Morin Anonymous said... Hi Ms. Erskine, I am a future student. It must be pretty tiring riding your bike that far. Hope your having fuuuuuun. Andrew Pooler Anonymous said... Hi Ms. Erskine, I hope that you are having fun riding your bike. Good luck on next week. Hope you have fun! GOOD LUCK! WINNIE OGWETA Anonymous said... Dear Ms.Erskine, This is one of your future students checking in to see how everything is going! Looks like your having fun! Hope to see you next year and you can tell us all about it. We are so anxious to hear how everything is. Keep up the great work! STAY SAFE!!!! Sincerely, Brittany and Britni!! Anonymous said... Hey Ms.Erskine, I hope that you are having a good trip! It looks like your having
fun so far...I think you have done an awesome job! By the looks
of your pictures the places you have visted look beauiful! And you
make them sound very exciting and fun! Sincerely, Anonymous said... Hi Ms Erskine, Sounds like you've been having fun on your trip so far. You make everything sound so interesting, makes me want to do that. Keep up the good work. I can't wait intill you get back so I can ride that final stretch of land. Hopefully we will be able to ride with you at the end. Good Luck! Connor Montello Anonymous said... Hello Ms.Erskine, Great job and good luck! I have checked out your photo gallery and your pictures are awesome!!!!!!!!!!! Sincerley, Victoria Cummings Anonymous said... Hi Ms. Erskine, I hope ur butt doesnt hurt that bad.. Are you having fun riding your bike? I hope you are. Did you run into any bad luck yet? Man I'm amazed. I can't even ride my bike 2 miles without resting for like 30 minutes. Well good luck on your bike trip. :). Chnanna Sok Anonymous said... Great Job Guys! Love you, MOM Anonymous said... Ms. Erskine, Good luck. Hope you see the Grand Canyon soon if you haven't already. Mr. L Anonymous said.. Hi! Good luck making it across to New Mexico. Your future student, Courtney Walker Anonymous said... I think it's so cool that your doing this. Good luck! You are my hero. Anonymous said... Dear Ms.Erskine, I like what ur doing. I'm hoping u will c better sites. Can't wat till u get back. I'lll be with u on the last of it. I'm going to geting a new bike. I hope u like my letter. Anonymous said... Ms.Erskine, I hope you have a good time riding your bike. I love to ride my bike. I think you are doing a great thing to help raise money for celiac. I wish you good luck. Nick Adams Sara Ruminski said... Hey!!! How are you? I hope you are doing ok in AZ. My aunt lives there and I have learned a lot about celiac since you told us about it a couple months ago. I hope to see you next year because I wont see you this year! :-) I think it's so neat that you are really traveling on a bike throughout the U.S. It seems so surreal .......I can't even ride a bike for a mile. Well, I hav'nt tried ...well maybe I might when I get older! *****~BYE~****** Anonymous said... Ms.Erskine, I hope you see the Grand Canyon if you have not already. Is it hard to bike for an entire day? Is it true that every 133rd person has celiac disease? Must be hard not to eat certain things!! Sincerely, Matt Pooler Anonymous said... Ms.Erskine, I think you're doing the right thing and I hope that you succeed. When I have you as a teacher next year you've got to tell me what the Grand Canyon looks like and what it was like riding 1,000,000 miles. I hope that you meet other rv camps that let you stay for free. ANDREW STROMSKY Anonymous said... Ms. Erskine, I hope you have a fun time on your bike ride, we will be watching you on the map. I hope you are spreading awareness for celiac. I will see you when you get back! David Lyden :) Anonymous said... Ms. Erskine, We hope your having a great time exploring the United States. We have great wishes and hopes for you.We hope that you are doing ok and you are have fun!!!!! Be safe. Kara & Kalli Anonymous said... Dear Ms. Erskine, How is your trip? That tumbleweed was huge! I hope you have a safe journey home. James dello Russo Anonymous said... Hey!!! I saw some of your pictures...they're cool, can you take a picture of some lizzards and post them up? Thanks, Alex Bernardy Anonymous said... Dear Mrs.Erskine, I hope you have a good time on your trip. How do you keep from getting really really sore? My aunt has celiac disease and I know how hard it is for her so I completely cheer you on. Good luck! OlIvIA L :) Anonymous said... Dear Ms.Erskine, Hi, this is Mullyna Oul and Mashia Taylor. We just wanted to say Hi and good luck on your trip back to Maine. Could you take some pictures of some lizards? That would be great. If you happen to run into some monkeys could you take a picture of it and put it in your photo gallery! Mashia wanted to ask you that. Sincerely, Anonymous said... Dear Ms.Erskine, How was the interview. I didn't see the footage of you. Sorry:(
You future heath student, Anonymous said... Hi Ms. Erskine, I think it's great how much awareness you guys are spreading! I think it's great your headed back to where you were picked up in the RV to cover every inch! Good luck and stay safe! i CANT WAIT for you to come into Portland. We are going to ride in with you from Hannaford! Sincerely your future students, Anonymous said... Yo, Alex and Regina, Wow, you guys rock. Adam and Pam here. We finally sat down and caught up with your trip. The pix look stunning, and certainly remind us of our days of biking out West. We're very envious! I'm sure that it's not coming easy, not by a long shot. Making it through long -- really, really, really long! -- stretches of desert really stretches one's endurance, and you guys are doing it. It must have felt a little like heaven when you got to places like Phoenix and Flagstaff. Plus getting some TV coverage! Very nice. As I write this (Friday, 5/13, 4:15pm -- I know, I should be working), I wonder where you are. It'd be 1:15 there now, I think, unless you've already crossed a dateline... Maybe you're heading through amazing New Mexican country, perfect conditions, stopping for lunch at a beautiful desert oasis. Well, OK, maybe it's hot with a headwind. Point is, it isn't easy AND you guys are doing it. That's a really big deal. So keep it up and remember folks back East are pulling for you! FYI, I'm diving into the Fenway Park arrangements with a vengence now. I don't know exactly how successful I'll be, but my work begins. I'll keep you posted! Rock on! Adam and Pam (and Ellen) Anonymous said... Hello there. Sorry I missed your call. I was sleeping. Baby Pine is kicking for you two. Love, Pinecone |
Heading for the Grand Canyon Friday, May 06, 2005 |
| Greetings from Flagstaff, Arizona! Today we rested a bit after three hard days of climbing up from "The Valley" (as they call the Phoenix area) to Flagstaff, where we're now at about 7000 ft. above sea level. The change in weather over the last few days has been amazing too, as in Phoenix it was around 90 degrees, and here in Flagstaff today it was around 50 and we had periods of rain and hail. Perfect biking weather! But let me start where I last left off... We left from Congress, AZ on Day 10, heading north towards Prescott. Warm and sunny again, but right away we starting climbing up a big hill. Several miles and about 2000 vertical feet later, we topped out at a nice plateau ("Peeple's Valley") where there were ranches, grass and actual trees. I mention this because we had not seen naturally growing green grass or real hardwood trees since our 2nd day. It had all been dry and dusty to that point. We continued on towards Prescott, our stopping point for the day, and made it there after yet more hills and climbing. We still felt OK, and had a little daylight left, so we actually decided to push on a little further to try to gain a little cushion in our schedule. Another 15 miles and then we finally called it a night, pulling into the "Point of Rocks" RV park. Some RV parks have been nice enough to let us stay overnight for free when we tell them about our ride; sadly, this particular park wasn't one of them. Oh well. Day 11 started with (surprise!) another huge hill to climb, and when we reached the top, we were at over 7000 feet of elevation. Just for reference for all of you back in Maine, that's higher than Mt. Washington. At the top of the hill was a cute little town called Jerome, where we stopped, had a snack, and chatted with several people about our ride. Then we zoomed downhill towards Sedona. Strange as it sounds, we no longer look foward to the big downhills, becuase we know that we'll just have to climb up again! Oh well, the ups and downs are what creates the beautiful scenery, right? As we approached Sedona, the cliffs turned a disticntly reddish color, and we soaked up the views. We stopped several times to take photos and such, and at each stop we talked with more people about our ride and handed out more brochures, which at this point we have with us at all times. Hopefully people will take the time to read them and maybe even pass on what they have learned to other folks. We've run into a couple of people who actually have celiac, but the vast majority have never heard of it, so we are indeed spreading awareness. We continued on past Sedona, ambitiously trying to make it to Flagstaff before nightfall. Well, we didn't quite make it that far, so Bev picked us up in the RV and we drove into Flagstaff for the evening. We're determined to ride the whole way across country, so when we do get in the RV and drive ahead like that, the next day we drive back to where we got picked up and resume our ride from that point. So on Day 12, that's what we did. Fortunately we didn't have far to go, only about 15 miles to get back to Flagstaff. While we were getting ready to ride, the cell phone rang and it was Channel 2 in Flagstaff, the local NBC station! They wanted to catch us as we biked into town. So about an hour later, we met up with them, did a quick interview, and they shot some footage of us riding into town. We watched the report on TV later that night, and thought it came out very well. It definitely gave us a mental boost, too, to see the results of our hard work paying off in some wider exposure for celiac. Tomorrow we head north to the Grand Canyon, and then through the Navajo and Hopi Reservations on the way to Albuquerque. Should be interesting! As always, we'll try to keep you posted. There are more photos in the photo gallery, so check them out when you get a chance. And feel free to drop us a line! 'Til next time, Regina |