Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciusko

I've perhaps pronounced his name several hundred ways since entering into the Mississippi city that is one of his many namesakes. A great travesty it would be if while visiting with us tonight, you didn't learn a little about the man with the title- Supreme Commander of the National Armed Force of Poland. But I fear mutiny, so the history lesson will have to wait.


230 miles.


The Viva Catie team biked 230 miles today. That's five trips to Nashville. On a bike.

Group A (pictured left) biked 100 miles today. Through rain, heat, police officers, and a two-lane road, these four riders truly set the pace for the day. The other three groups were challenged to ride 40, 90, and 20 miles. Several groups ignored the posted mileage for their leg and rode on.

There are certain times in one's life where words don't quite cut it. Today, watching 17 men and women pedal down the Natchez Trace Parkway toward a cause greater than self, I found myself unable to place definition to what I witnessed. I wanted to tell them how incredibly proud I am, to tell them how much faith I have in the future because of them, to tell them how each mile they bike they are truly changing the world. But all I could do was face them with tears in my eyes, clapping as they finished each leg, and offer them my prayers of gratitude and safety.

On the last leg of today's journey we encountered the type of hard summer rain that makes you want to sell your possessions, buy a tin-roofed house in the country, and take up hobbies of old. SAG support had to force the riders off the road and into the cars. The bikers would not relinquish their task without a fight. They know too well the battle fought against this horrible disease called cancer, and they know the toll on it takes on the living. Overcoming each obstacle, climbing each hill, they in some small way offer their energy to those who face much larger mountains.

We've had a successful Day 1. Day 2 begins the last of the easy days. We're gearing the riders up for the extreme heat that is to come in the bowels of Louisiana and Texas. Thank goodness it's a dry heat.

No?

More pictures are to come tomorrow morning. We're 1/6th of the way to Austin. Thank you for your support along the way. Please know it means a great deal to all of us.

Good night from Kosciusko, Mississippi. I've got to think the Commander would be proud of the mighty thing passing through his city tonight.