In Closing

Well, it's been about a week since I got back from the trip. I don't recommend taking the greyhound...anywhere. Because of all the stuff I had, it was much cheaper to take a bus from Colorado Springs to Southern California. That was an experience in itself, but I'm sure you all want to hear about the actual trip, the experiences we had and what I learned and so forth. So here it goes...

I worked with both Christian and Nate in the warehouse at APU during the fall semester of '09. It was probably early October when everyone at work was eating in the cafeteria. Christian came in and the first thing he said when he sat down was, "I'm going to cycle across the country this summer." The other guys were thinkin, 'yeah right.' I immediately became interested. I found out that it was going to be a fundraiser for diabetes research. I thought, 'what a cool thing to do, cycle across the country to raise funds and awareness for diabetes.' My mom has type two and a few other family members has diabetes as well. I was in. I think it was the next week that Christian, Ryan, and I met for the first time at the Chipotle off of Lone Hill. This was the first time I met Ryan. Ryan had everything down on paper (his vision and plans). I could tell he was serious about this. I found out his reason for starting something like this - his girlfriend having type one. I thought this is awesome. Now began a long year of preparation, making phone calls, going from company to company getting turned down left and right. At first it was very discouraging, but as time went on it got easier to talk to people about what we were doing.

We left on June 6th, 2010 from the Santa Monica Pier. We had a big event for our launch; a mix of family, friends, and sponsors were there to support us and see us off. I had so much adrenaline going, this was going to be an exciting trip. We got lost in South Central, but later found a trail that took us all the way back to Azusa - our first stop. All of you know about day two, one of the toughest days on the CURE. I could probably fill an entire book if I told all of our experiences. As the trip went on the days began to blur a little bit. We were forgetting what day it was and the date.

For what we were doing, things could not have gone any smoother. We missed all the storms. We were sandwiched between the storms (storms in front and storms behind us). There was only one day of rain (the 4th of July), and we hit one lightening storm toward the end of one of our days. That was one blessing. Another blessing would be the drivers. Although we got the occasional driver who is against cyclists on the road, we had no major problems (no one got hit). Another one was with our bikes. We were bound to have bike trouble, and we did, but it was nothing that couldn't get fixed. We also met many great people along the way. One couple stands out to me in my mind...We ended up stopping in a neighborhood in Indiana for lunch, and this couple came out. They were interested in what we were doing, and they gave us 'friendship bread.' Their hospitality was awesome. They asked if we needed anything thing else. We couldn't have asked for a smoother trip. I have no doubt that God had his hand in it.

The guys I was with was a blessing in itself. The group dynamics couldn't have been better. For the most part, we all got along, each person brought their own unique personality, and they all fell into place. Their were difficult times during the trip, it wasn't all butterflies and roses, but we got through it. The biggest thing that I learned was patience, and doing what I needed to do, even if I didn't want to. I learned more of what it's like to work in a team.

I just want to say thank you again to all our sponsors and supporters, family and friends. I want to say thanks to the Ezaki's; Brandon was a very big part of this trip, will always be in our hearts. This is a journey that I will never forget.


-Matt Kaiser