Day 10, 11, and 12 (Change in Itinerary)

Hi Every,

By the way Adrian, thanks for that Wild, Wild West, not! A little insider joke between colleagues. They must miss me at work! Yeah right.

Well, I made it to the Boston area but with much frustration. The onboard GPS that comes with the Goldwings is very unreliable when in the big cities like New York and Boston. It would literally not let me out of the cities before it would keep saying "Off Course", even though it would send me in that specific direction. This is actually a known issue for Goldwing owners. So, I have decided to start use my external GPS system (TomTom 720) and give that a try instead. The other one gets me to the city but that is all that it is good for. I'll never buy a Garmin, that is for sure. don't fbe fooled by them. Yes, I could pay $200 for the updates but my TomTom 720 updates for free through the Internet and you have to wonder why it won't find roads that have been around forever as opposed to paying for the updates.

I'm currently in Farmington, NY (western NY State) and will be heading to Cleveland, via Niagara Falls, NY. I figure I may never get out here again so I'd better do it now.

I spent Tuesday evening at my Uncle Roly and Aunt Kirsten's home in Medfield, MA. It was so good to see them after 16 years. I even got to see my cousin Christian who is really smart, good looking, and working on his MBA. By the way Christian send me the pictures you took of us. I forgot to take some. Well I was scheduled to visit Dana-Farber Comprehensive Cancer Center here in Boston but did not hear back from them and waited around until 11:30pm when I had to head west. They sounded like things were really crazy for them right now anyway, so I didn't mind. OK, I didn't want to get lost in the Boston area, again. The ride to Massachusetts was really nice though. After leaving the White Plains, NY area where the home office for The Leukemia & Lymphoma office is located the scenery was beautiful. I saw the best looking old and newer homes/mansions that I think I've every seen in my life. There were some very old colonial mansions in Connecticut that I so wanted to stop and take pictures of but being behind schedule deterred me from doing so.

As you will notice in this update, I'm actually having to go backwards in telling you everything. Yesterday after I checked out of the hotel in White Plains, NY, prior to my visit to the LLS home office up the road, I got a returned call from them and was very disappointed. So much, that I thought I was going to have to end this trip and come home. No, seriously! After explaining my legitimate frustrations about the major communications issues or there lack of, between LLS and the cancer research centers that I had already visited, I was basically told that my expectations were higher than the support that LLS could offer. I almost felt like I was wasting mine and everyone else's time and effort. Not what someone who is traveling all the way around the country, wants to hear but there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

Basically, when I had showed up to a few of the cancer research centers along the way, they had no idea who I was and what I was trying to accomplish. Luckily though, after explaining it to them, they were very gracious and gave me a tour of their facility and explained to me about some of the research that they are involved in. I will say though, it is amazing what strides researchers and doctors have made over the years when it comes to leukemia and lymphoma. It is a tremendous amount of dedicated time, effort, and most of all money. What I really want to do though is get the cancer research centers to e-mail me what they have been doing because so that I can put something together for those of you that are reading my blog site. This way would be much more effective and I won't hack it apart in trying to explain.

So anyway, I went to visit with Nancy Klein (Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer) and Pamela Edelstein (Director of National Media Events) and after discussing what had happened they offered to help me fix the situation and move forward. Do you want to talk about a big stress relief or what? Nancy had me working with Pamela on re-doing my itinerary to work with what we have confirmed already. So this means not going up into Maine and working my way around and down and cutting out some of the originally planned visits. Pamela called the LLS chapters directly to have them help coordinate my visits with their designated cancer research centers which, is how this normally works, as I have also discovered. This seems to be working very well and after my visit to Dana-Farber Cancer Research Center, I will head towrds Cleveland, OH. and then Columbus, OH. After working with them, I felt so much better and that I was getting the specific support I needed to accomplish this trip. I should also say that I met Andrea (misplaced her business card) who interviewed me for their June E-News letter that goes out to people that I don't know at all but the interview will be in there. I'm sure to cancer clinics and local LLS chapters.

I'm really not going to bore you with my journey through each of the states as I was just riding and trying to make as much progress as possible. I did get smart in New York and was told about the E-Z Pass which is good in most of the east coast states. This way I don't have to stop at each of the toll booths and dig out change for the toll roads. Basically, I attached this electronic device on my windshield and make sure it has enough money and I can go through the toll booths without trying to dig out money from my pockets on the bike. Motorcycles really get ripped off though when it comes to the toll roads. Yes, I'm pulling a one axle (two wheeled) trailer but they are charging motorcycles twice the amount of a car and how many wheels does a car have? 4 How many wheels do I have with my trailer, 4. Someone please explain the logic behind this thinking. I will be contacting the American Motorcycle Association's legislative group to bring this up and see about having it changed. I understand about tractor trailers and counting the axles but my bike is not a tractor trailer either. OK, enough of me whinning.

By the way, I want to give a shout out to my awesome wife. Lisa has been behind the scenes and helping me with the itinerary and coordination as well with the cancer research centers. I could not do this without her. Because of her job and our zoo (two dogs and a cat) Lisa was not able to do this trip with me but I'm glad that is the case because this trip would have put her over the edge in many ways.

OK, there really isn't much more to tell. I'm working on my Photobucket.com account to allow all of you to see all of my pictures. I still have some uploading to do though. And I'm working on the video but it really isn't turning out the way I'd like so more to come soon.

Oh, before I forget. Below is my new itinerary as well:

Revised itinerary

Tuesday, May 26, 2009.

Date City Cancer Center Contacts

Wednesday
May 27 Boston Dana Farber (cancelled)

Friday
May 29 Cleveland am. Cleveland Clinic
Comprehensive Cancer Center

Columbus pm Ohio State James Cancer
Hospital & Solove Research Center

Monday
June 1 Chicago Robert H. Laurie Comp.
Cancer Center

Wednesday
June 3 Rochester Mayo Clinic & Comprehensive Cancer Center

Monday
June 8 Seattle Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Cancer Center

Thursday
June 11 Irvine Choa Family Comp.
Cancer Center

Friday
June 12 Tucson Arizona Cancer Center

Tuesday
June 16 San Antonio

Contacts: LLS Home Office - Pamela Edelstein
914-821-8848
edelsteinp@lls.org
Pete West Cell : 210-563-0509
pwestjr@gmail.com

Travel blog: https://crusinforacure.blogspot.com/

Donation site: https://www.active.com/donate/crusingforacure

"Cruisin' For A Cure"

This blog was created to journal a new journey that I'm taking in mid-May until mid-June 2009. I hope you enjoy this blog site and feel free to add you own comments as I'm sure I'll find them encouraging during this long journey.

I will be traveling via motorcycle (07' Honda Goldwing GL1800), around the United States to raise $50,000.00 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. When I say around, I literally mean around the country. I will be driving to each of the four corners of the country which include Florida, Maine, Washington State, and California. No, this is not the official "Ironbutt Tour" for all of my fellow motorcyclists.

I was actually inspired by several people. My wife Lisa, has participated in two "Team In Training" 1/2 marathons in both Nashville, TN (Country Music Marathon) and and San Antonio, TX (San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon) to help raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Team In Training is endorsed/sponsored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. After talking with her about my idea, she was very supportive and is helping me with the logistics of this trip. The other two people that have encourage me are two children that had these horrible blood cancers. The first is a little girl by the name of Madison Suggs who is an Honored Hero for the South Texas Chapter of Team In Training. Thank God that Madison is in remission and we wish her and her family good health and prosperity. I was honored to have met Madison and hope to see her at the send-off party in May.

The other individual is a little boy from Bothell, Washington which is the area where Lisa and I use to live up until September 2006 before moving to San Antonio, TX. Many of you may have recently heard about Brenden Foster on the national news (CNN). Brenden was well aware that he would not have much longer to live but his focus was on another cause. That cause is homelessness. Brenden wanted to do something to help a specific group of homeless people that needed food in the Seattle, WA area. Recently because of Brenden, there has been a national effort from people all over the country that wanted to start gathering food up for homeless people throughout the country as well as the Seattle area. All of this because of a little boy who was more concerned about others, than himself. It is times like these that I feel ashamed of myself for complaining about certain things when my situation is so much better than others. It took Madison and Brenden to remind me of this. Writing this is beginning to get difficult for me because a few weeks ago, it was reported that Brenden passed away.I would have been so honored to have met him but since his passing, it is my hope to meet his family when I arrive in Seattle, Washington.

As it stands right now, I'm looking at a departure date of May 16, 2009 (12:00pm) from the South Texas Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (parking lot). We are trying to set up a send-off party with anybody who wants to attend but I'm hoping to get people that have been affected by these blood cancers such as patients, family, and friends. I'm also hoping that friends from the San Antonio area motorcycling community will come as well to help support this effort. There will be local news coverage and hopefully some national news coverage so we can spread the word and get the entire country involved.

Please, help me, help the victims of these horrible blood cancers। Do or did you have family members or friends that were stricken with these cancers? If so you understand what they or you have been through. We need to find a cure now!