Day 57 Palatka to Daytona "Finish Line"

Today will be the last day of our trip. We are leaving from Palatka and riding a short day of 47 miles into Daytona. There are a lot of emotions floating around this morning. We are all so very happy to reach the end of the ride but there is another part of us all that will miss the bus we have lived on the past 57 days. We will miss pleasure to ride our bikes everyday all day. We will miss our crew that has made this all happen up until now. I don't think that we could have made it this far without each and everyone of us. So there is a lot on our minds this morning. The ride was slow because we couldn't get there early. We were supposed to be at the track at 3 for the news. This was good. It afforded us a lot of time to talk about the day and tell each other how we were feeling. The main things that we had been talking about up until this point weren't even a factor today. There was no wind, it wasn't very hot, the roads were smooth, and we didn't need to ask the girls about the GPS. Haha inside joke. The day passed in a blink of an eye. When we saw the Welcome to Daytona sign we knew we were there. All we had to do at that point was take a lap around the track and get some pic's in Victory Lane. This would be the icing on the cake for our long and very hard trip. Jimmy's face lit up as we went through the tunnel and onto the track. Besides some reporters we were the only people there. It was amazing. without him knowing it we all let Jimmy take off on his own to cross the finish by himself because this was his day to shine. He has worked harder than anyone on this trip. He has also amazed everyone here with his drive to push through pain. For those of you that weren't there aren't words to describe what has happen these past 57 days. With the three crashes and the surgery. A normal person would have packed it up and gone home a long time ago but Jimmy stayed and pushed himself everyday. There were a lot of days that I was in a lot of pain and I had no idea how he was still peddling a bike but he was. I have said it many times on this trip but Jimmy you are inspiring and you are my hero and my best friend. We have also used this T.S. Eliot quote before but I can't think of a better way to sum up the entire trip "Only those willing to risk going to far can possibly find out how far one can go". After the first day Jimmy told me that he truly thought that he was pushing himself to the point of possible death. He had never pushed himself that far past his comfort zone. He continued to push himself everyday on this trip and we all gave him everything we had to support him. There were so many amazing things that happen along the trip that will never make this blog but the bond that all of us traveling together have made will last a lifetime. We would like to thank all of you for helping and supporting us on our quest. Please continue to pass along the information about the site. We will continue to raise money for SCI Research and we will have a24 hour event in the last summer. Please check back and go to www.qualcomm24.com for more info. Thank you again for all that you have all done.

JB & Cory & Crew
Eastbound and Down/DONE!

Day 56 2 da Go

This morning was a little questionable if Jimmy would be able to start the day but once again He rises to the occasion. It was a slow start while he struggled to get oxygen into his lungs. We rode pretty slow for the first half hour but then slowly started to speed it up from there. Jimmy was in a lot of pain but was hiding it well. We rode through Gainesville and headed southeast. Today the wind is gusting up to 30mph at times. So we have got to stay on our toes. We've only got today and tomorrow to go. So we decided to slow it down and take it easy for most of the day today. Big thanks to Jim, Red Dog, Billy, and Megan for all of the help today. At the end of the day we had ridden 67 miles and Jimmy is pretty beat up but we are ready to get to Daytona. If nothing else "Just to prove it to those guys that thought that Jimmy couldn't do it".

Day 55

Today we were excited to get on the road because Tim "Red Dog" Ferry and Billy Wood were joining us. The road was supposed to be flat and the wind wasn't supposed to be very bad either. On mile 28 though the day would take a substantial change. Jimmy slowed down to take a drink and ended up riding into my back tire and crashing pretty hard. It seemed that the ride may be done with only two and a half days until Daytona. Jimmy was in a lot of pain from hitting the ground. He had scrapes on his hands, hip, and ribs. He has also broken another helmet. His elbow seems to be ok because he was wearing a skateboard elbow pad. We think he has cracked or broken ribs though. Much to all of our surprise Jimmy wantedto get back on the bike and ride. He is determined to finish this thing. Although the rest of the day would be ridden at a much slower pace we got it done. Jimmy is in a lot of pain and needs to have some wounds cleaned. He is in good spirits and hopefull about tomorrow. We will all go to bed tonight after we say a prayer for Jimmy. Jimmy & Cory East Bound & Down Crash Video: http://youtu.be/ivjm5Lp8Caw

Day 53-54 Time Catching Up...

Day 53,
Today we woke up to Jimmy not feeling well. So it took us a little longer than usual to get started. We finally got on the road around around 1pm. We had to start out slow because Jimmy's stomach was upset which led to a lot of other issues with his body. We ended up stopping at a store in the middle on nowhere to get him some ginger ale to try and settle his stomach. After a 15 min break we got back on the road and JB slowly started to feel better. The good thing is it isn't as hot as it was the past few days. We got into Tallahassee around 5pm just in time for traffic. We are staying in the awesome Wal-Mart motor home park tonight. Let's hope Jimmy feels better tomorrow.



Day 54,
Today once again JB isn't feeling 100%. His back is pretty tight which threw his entire body into spasm. I worked on him for about an hour and he also took a warm shower to calm himself down. We finally got on the road about 1pm once again. We started out slow again today. The road out of Tallahassee is pretty hilly. Which is hurting his left hamstring. The good thing is the road is pretty smooth and it is a lot cooler today than yesterday. I saw a few snakes on the side of the road today and Jimmy didn't see any of them. Big E stopped us today to give us Jimmy's elbow pad because we grabbed the wrong one before we left. Jimmy was feeling tight and need to get started pretty quick but I had to do a nature break since the bus was there. It took about 5 minutes and JB was out of sight. Big E suggested that I draft behind the bus to catch back up. I said ok and I'm glad I did. It was a lot of fun because I was riding at 42 mph with little effort. Big E could see me on the camera as I motioned him to go faster. When we finally caught back up to Jimmy I. was peddling at 53.3 mph. That's pretty fast on a flat road. We were almost half way done around this time. We stopped for a quick break and got back on the road. After lunch Jimmy was finally feeling a bit better. So we picked up the pace on our way to Perry. We are excited to stay in a KOA tonight. We will have hook ups and maybe be able to do laundry. We ended up doing 60 miles today. Which is about 10 miles past the RV Park. Billy Wood and Red Dog are already there waiting on us to show up. They will be riding the last few days with us.

Day 52

It rained pretty hard last night which worked out in our favor because it helped cool the temperature and humidity significantly. The road was straight and not very hilly. We only climbed about 500 feet which is a lot for Florida but not a lot compared to the last two months. The majority of the ride today was done on HWY 20 which except for one incident with a truck had much nicer drivers. We ended up doing 72 miles in just under 4 hours.

JB & Cory
East Bound & Down

Day 51 "Bad Drivers"

Today started out with a grudge match between Big E and Cory at Emerald Coast Dirt & Vert BMX track, where the RV has been parked for the last 3 days. Big E won!!!! After the friendly competition Jimmy had an interview with the NWF Daily News. We set off on to HWY 98 where we found nothing but hostile drivers that were obviously in a big hurry. We got swerved at, honked at, cut off, flipped off and cursed at more today than we have in the last 50 days. Although we had bad experiences with the drivers today we did encounter one of the prettiest beaches when we rode through Destin, FL. So far the 2 worst things about Florida are the drivers and the humidity, hopefully they both will be better tomorrow.

JB & Cory
East Bound & Down

Day 49

Robertsville, AL to Oriole, FL

We had an early start today even though we were up until 1:00 am trying to figure out why the LP gas detector alarm kept going off. We had a large group riding with us again today. The Charlotte group and Greg came back for another day and we also had Andre and Jody join us. The humidity played a big factor the day today. It was hard for Jimmy to regulate his temperature, we had to keep pouring water over his head to cool him down. The Florida state line sign was so small some of the group rode right past it, we had to back track to take our photo. Reaching this sign was so significant to the two of us, now we can say we rode bikes from California to Florida!!! We still have a week left but the end is in site!! We stopped for lunch at the bay park right before the three mile bridge in Pensacola. The shade and the breeze coming off the water was a welcomed change. After lunch we rode over the 3 mile bridge where there was an accident on the other side. This worked out to our advantage because the traffic was stopped on both sides which made it easy for us get across safely. As we came through Pensacola the drivers weren't as nice as we have experienced, we got a few fingers and a lot of horns. We reached the 54.5 mile mark to end the day. We are taking a much needed rest day tomorrow after riding 11 straight days. We are heading to Barber Motorsports Park to watch Jimmy's client, friend and fellow M4M rider race his Indy car. Go JR!

JB & Cory
East Bound