Photo of the Day

Phil Keoghan and me. April 2, 2009 Cedar City, Utah

I've resurrected an old picture from almost 2 years ago for today's post.

Back in 2009 Phil Keoghan set off on a cross-country ride to support MS. He happened to come through Utah on my birthday, and thanks to a very supportive and understanding wife who let me drive the 4 hours to Cedar City, and sleep in her van in a Wal-Mart parking lot, I was able to meet, and ride with Phil. 

Phil is currently on another cross-country trip. This time he is attending screenings of "The Ride", the movie made about his 2009 ride. There are still a couple of stops left before it finishes in New York on Friday. 

For more information about The Ride, and Phil's cause, go to http://www.noopportunitywasted.com/.

My ride with Phil, pt 2.

As promised, (only a few days late) more pictures from Cedar City...

The high school madrigal choir sent us off with a Maori war chant, and traditional "sing-away'

everybody's ready to go.

this little guy wanted to come along

heading up the canyon

Jason is 11. He rode his dad's old 80's heavy steel 10 speed with us. We stopped for a break about 5 miles up the canyon, and most everyone turned around. Jason is showing Phil how to make an origami dragon.

I know these pictures don't look that all that bad, but the majority of the road - especially heading back down was twisty with several blind corners, and cars, motorhomes, and semi's tearing down the canyon at breakneck speeds.

My plan was to ride at least 39 miles on my birthday - a mile a year. Riding up the canyon with a group of 7 cyclists, a motorcycle and an airstream trailer being pulled by a suburban felt comfortable and safe. While we were riding up, I kept on watching the traffic barrelling down the canyon in the opposite direction, and I kept on noticing the non-existent shoulder, especially around the numerous blind corners. about 5-6 miles up, we stopped and everyone else turned back. I decied to continue on with Phil. After another 5 or so miles, realizing that the farther up the canyon I go - the higher the chance of some inattentive motorhome smearing me all over the road, I stopped and turned back down. This is added to the fact that he has been training for this for a while, and I am fat and out of shape he was quickly pulling away from me, leaving me behind.

the weather in Cedar City was almost perfect, it could have been a little warmer. didn't hit weather until almost to Springville.

back in civilization, unfortunately.

So, my birthday ride ended up only being 10 miles instead of the expected 39 miles. The big benefit of the day was I made it back in time to meet my family for a impromptu birthday dinner. It was a good birthday!

Phil is posting daily videos of his ride on his website. The ride from Cedar City to Kanab is day 6. I'm in it. Go here to see all of the videos on his daily blog.

My ride with Phil, or, How I spent my birthday.

I mentioned in the last post that I was going to go down to Cedar City and ride with Phil Keoghan. Well, I did. Here are some pictures from the trip... I only had my cell phone with me to take pictures, so I apologize for the quality. And I took a ton of pictures, so I'm sorry for the length of this post.

I left after work on Wednesday the 1st. Here I am on the way down.

Home sweet home - for the night. I didn't want to spring for a hotel room, so I camped in the van in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It was COLD the next morning.

Happy Birthday to me! Kelly gave me a pack of Ding-Dongs for my birthday cake. Mmmm. Breakfast!

Quite a lot of people showed up to see Phil. One lady brought the Amazing Race board game for him to sign.

He arrived around 8:35

Cedar City welcomed him with the SUU marching band,

a madrigal choir from one of the local high schools,

and cheerleaders from SUU.

Phil thanked us for all coming out to see him, and he explained why he was doing this. Then he mingled with the crowd, and did several interviews with some local TV news crews.

I was finally able to get my picture taken with Phil.

and I even got him to sign my jersey.

I did not tell him what to write.

This is Phil's Dad, John Keoghan. He is driving the truck across the country following Phil.

More pictures tomorrow...

I'm gonna do it!

On Saturday, I talked about Phil Keoghan and his ride across America. In that post I said that you could register to ride with him at each leg of his journey, and the closest he was coming to my little corner of the world was Cedar City, Utah – a four hour drive away.

I also mentioned that, as fate would have it, I have April 2nd off from work.

What I haven’t mentioned is how patient and understanding my beautiful wife is in regards to my wild, half-cocked ideas. She knows how much I would enjoy something like this, so she is going to let me go! Yes, you read correctly, I am going down to ride with Phil Keoghan on Thursday! Since it is a four hour drive, and registration for the ride begins at 8:00am. I am driving down Wednesday night and plan on sleeping in the van in a nearby parking lot.

This will be me, except in a van, not a tent.

Have I mentioned how understanding my wife is? She is not only letting me go, but she is letting me take “her” vehicle down there. Yep, I got myself a good woman there!

I have printed off and signed my registration forms already. I just need to go home and start getting stuff ready. I have a feeling that the first three days of this week are going to be some very, very long days.

signed and ready to go!

I really hope that there is an opportunity to take pictures, even if there isn’t expect a post-ride report Friday or Saturday.

Phil Keoghan's Ride Across America update

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about Phil Keoghan and his ride across America.

Well, His ride started his ride today, from Victorville, Ca. You can follow his progress from his site, http://www.philridesacrossamerica.com/ or you can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/philkeoghan.

The Closest Phil is coming to Salt Lake City is Cedar City on April 2nd and Kanab on April 3rd. You can register to ride with Phil when he comes to your area. I have the 2nd off. If it wasn't so far down to Cedar City, I would be tempted to go down there and ride with him.

Good luck Phil!

Phil Keoghan to ride across America

Phil Keoghan, the host of The Amazing Race will be setting off from Los Angles on March 28th for a 40 day, 3500 mile bike ride across the United States. He will finish on May 9th in New York City. He plans on averaging 100 miles a day, and has pit stops planed in 30 cities along the way.

The ride is intended to support the national Multiple Sclerocis society, and Phil will be attending Bike MS rallys along the way.

Here is a link to the story, and a press release from the National MS society and CBS.

I don't have much to add, except Cool! If there are any updates, I will be sure to post them.