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| Biking across the country has
reminded us of what a great country we are privileged to live in. Not only
regarding the beauty scenery and the friendly people, but also the wonderful
freedoms we enjoy. Someone is not
telling us where to live, what job to have, or where to go to school. This is
truly the land of opportunities.
One of the aspects of our “Coast to
Coast” bike ride was raising funds for and awareness of an organization that is
trying to preserve the values that have made this country great: the Alliance
Defense Fund (ADF). ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy,
training, funding, and litigation. They work in the areas of
religious freedom, sanctity of human life, and traditional family values. Please
visit their website at www.alliancedefensefund.org
for more information.
Various folks have asked how they
can contribute to our goal of raising $100,000 for ADF. You can donate online
at www.alliancedefensefund.org/sdonate/billing.aspx
You can also send a check to:
Alliance Defense
Fund
15333 N. Pima
Road, Suite 165
Scottsdale,
AZ 85260
Please make the check payable to “Alliance Defense Fund” and
put “EV05074322” and/or "Talbott Bike Ride" in the check's memo section. This allows the dollars to be credited to
our fund raising goal. I should repeat that all dollars that are donated to ADF
go directly to the ministry. We have solely funded the bike trip from our own
means and want all contributions to help advance the work of ADF. Thank you for
joining with us to keep the principles that have made this country great from
being eroded away. | | |
| Well everyone, we did it!!! Thank you so much to all of you for your support and prayers. This trip truly would not have been possible without all of you praying for us and cheering us on!! So, thank you!!
Thursday, July 26
Thursday we left Lancaster and headed on out. We had left our bikes with the "bike doctor" over night and he graciously repaired all of them for us. Thank you so much Luke from Shirk's Bike Shop!! You have helped us so much on this trip!! We HIGHLY recommend Shirk's for any and all bike needs... They are pros at what they do!!
After leaving Shirk's, we headed on towards Valley Forge. It was a beautiful and historic trail to ride on.
Unfortunately, once we arrived at Valley Forge, we again had bike trouble. Kate had a tire that went flat twice. (And as you will see in some of the pictures, our friend Joel also rode with us the last two days of our trip. Thanks Joel for coming!)
After we finally fixed that, we headed into Philadelphia via the Schuylkill River Trail. It was a wonderful trail to ride along because it was paved, unlike other trails we had to ride on earlier in our trip!!
 
Another guest on our trip was our friend Dan, who guided us along the trails and took us into Philly and showed us where to go. Thank you sooo much Dan for helping us and being such a wonderful and knowledgeable guide!! You were truly an invaluable help to us!!
We had a few more flats along the trail, so we were not able to travel across the Ben Franklin Bridge into New Jersey that night because the bridge closes at 7pm. Because of this, we spent the night in Philly.
Friday, July 27
Friday we left Philly and headed toward Ocean City, where the whole crazy adventure would come to an end. We all had mixed emotions that day as we didn't want the trip to end, but we knew that it was time for it to be over.
We had another guest join us Friday- Tim, a co-worker of Dad's. It was great to have you along, Tim! Thanks for the tour of Philly, and your continuous encouragement!
After taking a quick bike tour of the city (what a rush to bike in Center city Philly!), we crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge and entered New Jersey!!
 
Right after entering New Jersey, we were to go through Camden NJ. The police laughed at us when we told them we were going to go through that section of the City and warned us to be very careful! Needless to say, we were! And as we were biking through the area, we could not help but be amazed at the fact that God had slowed us down with the flat tires the day before, and spared us from being stuck in that part of the city at nighttime needing a place to sleep!
We made our way through NJ, occasionally seeing unusual signs along the way:
And soon, we came to the bridge that would take us into Ocean City!! After 90 miles of biking that day, we were about to end that hot day. And after 3800 miles total, we were about to end our trip!! Wow!!
 
We rolled down 5th Street and onto the Boardwalk to quite a welcome:
 
After dipping our back tires into the Pacific in Oregon, our front tires went into the Atlantic Ocean!
  
Thank you so much Dave and Dolly, Ron and Kim, and Grandma for coming to see us at our finish!! It was so special to have you there!!!
After celebrating for while with our friends at the Boardwalk, we headed to Tim's house in Sea Isle where he and his family so graciously fed us a huge lobster and seafood dinner!
Thank you so much Tim and family for your wonderful hospitality: the delicious dinner, room to sleep in your house, etc. We greatly appreciate it!!
Well, we did it!! Thank you God for giving us the strength to do it and the safety while we traveled!! We could not have done it without His help! And thank you again to all of you for supporting this crazy family as we lived out a dream. Your support was priceless to us! If you have any fruther questions, etc: teamtalbott@comcast.net.
Thanks again! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Rachel for Team Talbott
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| Greetings from Lancaster, PA! We made it to our home town and are now two days away from finishing!! Here's a summary of what has happened since we last wrote to you all..
Saturday, July 21
When we last wrote, we thought that our support team (aka. Mom and Lydia) was going to be leaving. Well, they ended up spending Saturday with us, and we had a great time riding on the Youghiogheny Rail Trail.
That night we ended up riding longer that we hoped to though, and got caught in the dark on the trail. But we were able to get to Ohiopyle.
The Park Rangers were not too happy about this...(neither was Mom)
Sunday, July 22
Sunday, Mom and Lydia headed home. Thanks again Mom for spending two weeks with us again and for encouraging us!!
We started at Ohiopyle and finished up on the trails.
And then we hit the Appalachian Mountains again.
We spent Sunday evening with friends of the family, Ernie and Erma, in Bedford PA. They were such gracious hosts! Thank you so much Ernie and Erma for your gracious hospitality and for all your wonderful food!! We greatly appreciate it!
Monday, July 23
Monday we left Bedford and rode toward home! We were able to avoid one big mountain by riding for about 10 miles on an abandoned section of the PA turnpike. It was a neat trail and definitely a highlight of the day!
Mom again graciously rode out the two hours to meet us and took our bags just for the day! Thank you again Mom for doing that for us!! And thank you Cathy for driving with her = )
We rode to Chambersburg, PA that night after about 80 miles of riding.
Tuesday, July 24
Tuesday was the day we were to arrive home, so we were all very excited!! The closer we got to home, the more familiar things became and it was a wonderful feeling!!
Our friends Herb and Jackie graciously came out that day to carry our bags for us. Thank you so much Herb and Jackie for not only carrying our bags, but for taking videos of our trip and lots of pictures!!
The first city that was familiar was York.
Then we crossed the Sesquehanna River and entered Lancaster!!
 
Our friend Dan met us in York and rode with us to Lancaster.
Our Aunt and Uncle also met us in Lancaster! (Thanks Linford and Mary Etta)
We rode to Dad's office and friends welcomed us there! (Thanks so much SALT class from Calvary and Kate -(Dad's assistant) You have helped us in so many ways and have allowed Dad to go on this trip! Thank you!)
 
Then we went home...
It was so wonderful and so special to have so many friends and family members welome us home! Thank you one and all for making the day so special for each of us!!
Wednesday, July 25
Wednesday we had a group that rode with us to Shady Maple for breakfast. Thanks everyone for joining us!
 
And thank you as well to everyone that met us at the restaurant to celebrate with us.
It has been wonderful to familiar faces again and to have you all join with us in our homecoming! Thank you everyone!! Hopefully we'll be able to see even more of you soon!
Thursday, July 26
Today we are headed down to Philadelphia, through center city, (the bike route) and into new Jesey! We hope to finish Friday, late afternoon, or early evening in Ocean City. (5th street and Boardwalk) I think 5th Street will take us to the ocean! We'll keep you posted!
Please continue to pray for our safety, and good working bikes!
Rachel for Team Talbott
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| Dear Friends and Family.
We are in Lancaster!!! We made it home! Thank you God!! I wish I had time to post all the pictures of our welcome home party, but they'll have to wait till tomorrow. But THANK YOU so much to everyone who made our homecoming so special  It was so wonderful for us! And also a special thank you to Herb and Jackie for coming out to carry our bags today so we didn't have to take them over the last few miles! I promise, more picture will be coming, but I wanted to let you all know that we are home!!!
The plan now is to ride with whomever wants tomorrow to Shady Maple, then head out Thursday to NJ and hopefully finish Friday!! Wow... I can't believe this adventure is coming to an end.
Thank you all again for your support. It means so much! Again, pictures will be coming!
Rachel, for Team Talbott
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| Well yesterday, Friday July, 20, was indeed a tri-state day! But before we could start crossing state lines, we had bike trouble. We were biking along and heard a funny noise on Dad and my tandem. I looked down, and we had no chain on our bike! It had broken and fallen off a few yards back.
We fixed that (hopefully!) and continued on our way. Soon, we came to the West Virginia boarder!
We biked a whole 12 miles in WV, and crossed into (drum roll please) PA!!!
Val and Sheila kissed the ground as soon as we were over the state line:
And the rest of us were pretty excited too...
We found the PA "S" route, which we will be following the whole way through PA. Part of it also runs concurrent with the Old Historic Highway- Rt. 40.
We are excited to finally be in PA and are pressing on to be in Lancaster by Tuesday evening. Please pray for safety and strength these last few days. Thank you so much everyone for being our "support team"!
Since we were having some trouble downloading pictures yesterday, here are some past picture favorites:
Can't find a barn? Why not try an old school building?
Bike trouble from July 19.
Wednesday we found this at the top of one big hill we climbed. It was the bucked from an old machine called "Big Muskie". Big Muskie was used in coal mining and could remove 325 tons of earth at on time!!
The "support vehicle" is always ready with cold water and snacks. Thanks so much Mom!!
These pictures were from when we were with the cousins in Dayton. Kate learned how to play polo! Thanks Dudley for teaching her!!
 
Well, sadly our "support vehicle" is leaving today to go back home. But we'll see Mom and Lydia soon! Thanks Mom so much for all your support, encouragement and snacks = ) See you soon!!
Thank you again friends and family for your support! As a reminder, please let us know if you are planning on coming with us to Shady Maple or to NJ!
Rachel for Team Talbott
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