Who Are We?

Here's the two minute drill...

Two friends; one crazy adventure: to raise money for the Search Dog Foundation, SDF (a non-profit that raises and trains search and rescue dogs). How to get attention for this cause? By biking from Maine to Key West in less than two months. Chance of success? Maybe. Crazy? Definitely. Awesome adventure? Undoubtedly.

Or if you're feeling courageous, the full lecture...

Team e2 is the brainchild of a graduating high school senior (Evan Smith) and a graduating master's student (Evan Patronik). Evan Smith and I met about 4 years ago through his older brother and have become close friends, mostly through our similar personalities and tastes of outdoor activities (such as swimming in the Atlantic during early February of last year). On a whim one night, we decided to undertake a "crazy adventure" during the summer of 2008: a bike trip logging nearly 3,000 miles from the tip of Maine to the bottom of the Florida Keys. On its own, this journey would be fulfilling enough for the both of us but we had hoped to gain something more. This led us to idea of using our trip to raise money for a more than worthy cause. We have involved ourselves in a fundraising effort with the "Search Dog Foundation" (SDF), a not-for-profit non-governmental organization based out of California. Their mission is to produce the most highly trained FEMA Advanced Certified Canine Disaster Search Teams in the country. These teams are trained to search for live victims of natural disasters or terrorist attacks. The teams are provided at no cost to fire departments and other emergency service agencies throughout the country and are essential in the post-disaster rescue effort. We are spreading the word of our charity ride to individuals we meet on the ride (which is why you may be at this website) and with companies around the country. Feel free to donate to the cause using the link provided on this page, as well as check out our pictures and blog in order to follow us on this amazing and crazy adventure!!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Day 30: Aug 10 - High Schoolers Rock




Today started out very foggy, with our tent (we had set it up the night before for the illusion of us sleeping in it) soaked from the dew and our shoes and bikes covered in sand as we pedaled out of the campsite on the sandy road. I got some good shots of some horses as we pedaled through the country and the day went by relatively quickly. For lunch we stopped in Atkinson GA next to a church (the Church of God of Prophecy) and I decided to head in and see if they would offer us a table inside out of the heat to eat at. It was Sunday, so they were in service, but before I knew it, we were at a table with our food plus tons and tons of food that they were offering us as well. They were more than helpful and let us stay for quite some time. We ended up talking with the Pastor and one of the parishioners (I can't for the life of me remember their names and I think I lost the paper where I wrote it down). The pastor is in our photo gallery though!


After lunch we kept riding and came across a bridge over the Satilla River. This was the bridge we had been waiting for, too. All this trip, we've been keeping our eyes open for a bridge or cliff or something to jump off of and finally we got the perfect one. We rode down under the bridge where there was a boat ramp and several families and groups of friends hanging out on the water on the gorgeous afternoon. I asked a lady if the water was deep enough to jump off the bridge, to which she responded: "Well, I don't know how deep it is, but people jump off it all the time." Good enough for me. We got changed into our suits and a fisherman actually found the deepest part of the water for us with his depth finder. The jump was exhilarating and we finally got our leaps!! The pictures are great and will be in the photo gallery soon. While we dried off, some guys our age gave us some soda and hung out chatting with us before they sped off in their boats and jet skis for a day on the water.

So we finally arrived in Folkston, GA at about 6 pm. I had tried calling the Fire Department earlier in the day but to no avail. When we arrived in town, we stopped a lady coming out of a Rite Aid and asked her where the fire station was; directions ensued and we found that the station was volunteer only and wasn't actually occupied. So great. We didn't want to ride ahead to the campsite which we found out wasn't actually even open, so now we had no place to sleep. We asked a guy about the police station, but he said that probably wouldn't work and suggested we just sleep on the Amtrak station platform (that sounds great!). That seemed like our only option, so we went to a deli/seafood place for dinner (didn't want to cook) while night time approached. Esmith and I were feeling a little sick because I think we got our hands on some bad water at some point in day, so dinner was a little slow; though Esmith was definitely more under the weather than I. We were trying to decide what we wanted to do about sleeping when I finally decided that to just buckle under and ask the high schooler behind the counter. When we had ordered, he was pretty interested in what we were doing and seemed legitimately excited about what we were doing, so I figured why the hell not ask him? It went something like this:
ME: "Hey, what's up I'm Evan. This is gonna come across as weird, but do you live around here?"
JUSTIN: "Uh, yeah, why?"
ME: "We don't have a place to stay tonight and we were wondering if we could crash at your place...even just camp in your backyard."
JUSTIN: "Ha, no problem. Let me call my grandmother and see if it's ok."
*goes into kitchen and calls grandmother...a few minutes pass*
JUSTIN: "Hey, my grandmother wants to know if you happened to ask an older lady this afternoon where the fire station was." *I say so* "Yeah, that was her. She says it's cool."
BOOYAH!!! We hung around the deli while Justin finished up working...drank about a gallon of sweet tea so he would have less to carry into the back...and followed him home on our bikes. His grandparents, Ellen and Dean, were great. Dean was retired from the military (he'd been all over) and Ellen worked as a correctional officer at the State Pen right outside of town. Her shift was 5pm to 5 am the next day, so they were wide awake when we rolled in. We chatted it up, exchanging the normal descriptions of our journey and finding out everything about each other. Justin is a senior in high school and will be attending college for classical guitar (he's pretty good). We got to watch the Olympics and saw the men's 4x100 free race. Oh. My. God. I have never been more excited about a sporting event in my life. That was by far the best race I've ever seen; up on my seat, practically standing on the recliner, watching Lezak make the most incredible comeback ever. We were all screaming and yelling and it was absolutely ridiculous. I was jacked up on energy for the next few hours. Esmith got the fold out futon and I got the floor (still infinitely more comfortable than being in a tent on my pad...actually one of the better night's of sleep I've gotten on the trip). We exited quietly in the morning because Ellen needed her sleep with her flipped schedule.

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