Tennessee Adoption Tour » Uncategorized

From Kathy Scourby

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Greetings,

Day 3 of the bike Tour began with a bang (literally). We started out in the rain again and we hadn’t gotten more than 2 miles down the road when a big limb of a tree (the roots weakend from all the rain) fell across the road right in front of several of the riders. Amazingly, no one was hurt or fell off their bike…it just scared us all!

Today we rode into Nashville. The rain stopped by about 10 am and by lunch time in Centennial park in Nashville, it was a beautiful sunny day. Centennial Park was another big celebration where we celebrated with families that shared their adoption stories.

Once we left our big celebration at lunch, we got to ride right down Broadway through downtown Nashville surrounded and escorted by our THP trooper escorts. What an amazing sight!

I think we are now done with the rain. The rest of the ride was full of rolling hills and lots of beautiful farm country that surrounds Nashville. At times I felt like we were in the middle of a postcard as we rode past horses, cows, barns and finally a picture perfect blue sky!

We said goobye to two of our troopers today and gained four more. Most of these new troopers had been working the presidential debate in Nashville last night and had been up all night getting Obama and McCain to the airport early this morning but still rode with us today!

This was our shortest day in terms of miles and really more of a rest day as we head over the Cumberland plateau tomorrow. This was a tough day for me both physically and mentally as I was very sore and struggled up the hills. The great thing about this bike ride is how all the riders are there to support each other. When one of us thinks we can’t pedal another step, someone else is there to encourage and push us up another hill and on another mile.

We ended the day with 72 miles under our feet in Lebanon, TN at another celebration with many of the folks who work so hard at all the agencies throughout the state that work with the children that are being placed for adoption.

We’ve had some good bonding moments today and some great laughs. All of us have gone to bed early to ice down and soak our sore muscles. Keep good thoughts for everyone tomorrow please….it’s going to be a difficult day!

Apparently my blackberry truncated the list of some of the people originally included in the first email. Please pass on to anyone I may have missed. Thanks.

Kathy

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From Marilyn Cauley

Friday, October 10th, 2008

09 Thursday 2008

SAG – 3 Rest stop / Sparta Tennessee

Traveling west on Highway 70, Ellen Loveless / 417 Crestview Drive / Sparta Tennessee / 38583; met bikers headed east, thus recognizing the plight of the bikers as per what she had heard from the news. She honked and cheered the bikers as she drove and immediately stopped at pit stop #3 to share her experience of adopting a young lady 14 years ago. Her testimony states that the experiences and joy she encountered was well worth the efforts of adoption and she is a strong advocate of encouraging others to do the same. She said that this was a great thing that the bikers were doing, to all involved a job well done. As she was leaving she shared with the support staff that she would like next year to be a part of the Sparta celebration be bringing her message chair to give the bikers messages.

Marilyn Cauley/DCS Memphis

SAG #3 Support Staff

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Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Tuesday night by Jennifer Schaefer:

Today was AWESOME. Sure it was a hard day on the bike (the weather refused to cooperate), but the celebrations more than made up for being rained on and fighting a hurricane-force headwind. I think my favorite part of the day was when we got to stop at a school…I don’t remember the name of the school or what town it was in (that’s how tired I am!!) but they brought all the kids into the gym and the kids had made awesome signs for us. We handed out bracelets and talked to some of the kids, and Jesse and Eric both stood up and talked about adoption. The school had towels for us and hot coffee, and you just couldn’t pry the smile off my face with a crowbar (at least not until I was fighting my way uphill into a wind that threatened to pick me up and take me to Oz). Then we made our way to another celebration and lunch at a church in Camden, and were very welcomed there–that celebration always has such a great meal for us!! Someone from the Northwest DCS office stood up and told us how many adoptions that had been finalized that year (and forgive me, it’s been a long day and I don’t remember the number but it was a LOT). That really put the rain into perspective…it made being cold and wet totally worthwhile. After that, it was a LOOOONG way to the next celebration in Dickson, and we hit some rolling hills and the wind kicked up and…well, let’s just say it was rough. THANK YOU ERIC AND HANS for not leaving me to fight the wind by myself!! I don’t think I would have made it alone. But I did make it, thanks to my fellow riders pulling me through the wind and up the hills, all the way to the celebration at Dickson. I’m telling you, those folks in Dickson really know how to throw a party! There was a ton of pizza and cokes and music and they just made us feel so welcome. The funny part is, everyone kept thanking us for riding. It’s like they don’t know that THEY are the ones WE should be thanking. We ride for a week to raise awareness, but the folks who work to help children find their families are working hard every single day. It is a privilege and an honor to ride in the Adoption Tour, and it seems like so little for the children who deserve so much.

So, all in all, it was a GREAT day. Cold, wet, windy…and I loved every minute of it!

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