Virginia is for Lovers and Rollerbladers

Early this morning we said goodbye to Richmond and the beautiful downtown Marriot Hotel, as we strapped the skates back on and began our journey towards Washington, DC. We skated 35 miles on some back roads between Richmond and our destination for the day, Ruther Glen. Today turned out to be the coolest skate (temperature wise, mid 70's) of the trip to date.

The most eventful aspect of today's skate was the few big trucks that cruised by with some terrible fumes coming from their load. As northerners, we are still uncertain exactly what is contained in these trucks, but locals tell us they carry pigs and chickens...and subsequently, their droppings. Although the odor almost knocked us on our backs, we've faced this adversity before, and were able to push forward to continue the skate.

During our skates we keep tabs of any comments that come from passing vehicles. While Carson and I were warming up our legs early in the skate, a car passed by with a slight swerve. Upon inspection, I noticed it was a woman with two children in the back seat. As she passed, the visibly angry woman proceeded to lean out of her window and tell us in an angry tone that we "Should get a car!". It is arguable as to whether this comment ranks up there as a top pick, nonetheless Carson and I got a little chuckle from it.

Dan and Jason maintained a solid pace throughout the day and I will indulge our readers in some new information from the skates. Dan and Jason both enjoy the social aspect of skating. During the skate today the two were overheard testing each others musical knowledge. I've quickly learned that we all have our routines that help us get through a tough days skate.

It's almost time for dinner and maybe some cake but it might be an early night for the troops as we have another long skate planned for tomorrow. We'd like to welcome two additional skaters and recent college graduates tomorrow...Vicki Kohan from Syracuse University and Elaine Lambrinos from the University of Vermont.



Yours in skating,

Sean S.

A Visit From the 10th Wonder of the World

July 21st began no differently than any other day, except for the prompt wake up by Tatar saying, "Guys get up; we have to be out of here in like 25 minutes." With that simple message, we jumped out of bed, got some food and quickly got ready for our visit to the Commonwealth Autism Society (Richmond, VA) and sat down with them. We picked apart the mind of John Toscano about the business aspect of fundraising for a while. Afterwards, we followed John over to the St. Josephs Villa for children in Richmond, where they have over 600 children they service, whether it is an after school program for children or programs aimed at children with mental disabilities. We toured the grounds of the villa for a bit and were all reenergized about our cause when we saw the smiles across the childrens' faces. One child in particular, George, felt it necessary to have us continually race through the parking lot. After breaking a good sweat, we went to a local Italian restaurant, Mary Angela's Pizza Subs, where John purchased our dinner for the night.

We then went to the hotel and checked into the downtown Marriot hotel, which was donated to us graciously by Peter and Marti Cawley. Realizing that it was starting to get late we opted to relax at the hotel, needing to rest the legs. Early in the day, however, I received an unexpected phone call from some friends from college, including the “10th Wonder of the World Todd Marsh” (Ben Tatar, Spring 2007). The guys ended up rolling into Richmond at about 8:30. They were just passing through to Wilmington, NC and knew we were be on their way down, so they decided to come join us for dinner. At dinner, and afterwards, we shared tales about our journey with the guys, ranging from the dog chases in Georgia to the vast hills of North Carolina. The guys stayed with us for the night and departed early from the hotel. The Rolling for Autism team, instead, opted to remain in bed and rest on our day off from skating, looking forward to continuing the northward trip tomorrow. As for now, time to get down to doing some work and making some phone calls. Keep reading on and we’ll be sure to keep updating everybody about our trip.

Jason O.

"Ya'll be careful of them bears"

Hi All,

Our tour north continued today as we skated through rural Virginia. The scenery was pleasant skating alongside acres of tobacco fields, cow pastures, and farmland. We even managed to meet a bull with two large baseball bat sized horns. While all of us were a little timid by the 800 pound animal, I quickly recalled from my cartoon days that bulls have a natural attraction to red. Consequently, catching the bull's eye was Carson's bright red shirt. The bull crept towards us with a glimmer in its eye as it neared Carson. Realizing this bull was far bigger and more fierce than all of the other large, dangerous bulls Carson has previously encountered, we quickly jumped in the van and drove to safety.


Our skate ended after a grueling 35 miles. Today concluded a whopping 125 miles in only three days, and the only way to truly reward such effort is through our weekly tradition, "cheat day". For those of you that are not up to date on our blog, every Sunday we take a day off from our strict "rollerbladers' diet," and eat fast food. All of the boys indulge on this tradition (except Carson who wore his skirt to Wendy's tonight and ate a salad) by feasting on Wendy's infamous Baconator Sandwich...and the 1600 calories that came with it.


Packed day tomorrow in Richmond. Time for some sleep.

Cheers,

Dan T.