A few weeks back, we introduced you to Derek and Dylan Thomson.
In case you missed it, here’s a little info on them. They are brothers; they grew up in Concord and both hit big educational milestones this year with Derek graduating from Emerson College in May and Dylan doing the same from Concord Christian this past Saturday, via Skype. That’s because the brothers are currently pedaling their way across the country to raise money for the Connolly Tough Fund, which benefits retiring Concord High Principal Gene Connolly and his family in his fight against ALS. On Monday, they were somewhere in South Dakota after checking out Mount Rushmore this weekend.
The Thomsons embarked on their 4,500-mile journey from San Francisco to Seabrook on May 24 and were (and still are) planning to make it in about 50 days – considering Dylan needs to be back for his first preseason of UNH soccer. Seems reasonable, says this guy, sitting at his desk and not on the seat of his bicycle for long hours each day.
Those long days of riding can mean anywhere from 70 to 100 miles a day (which equals nine to 12 hours a day), and the Thomsons are, for the most part, camping each night, either at a campground, a park or just on the side of the road. They’ve stayed in a few hotels, but can you blame them?
And how we know this is because we touched base with Derek via email, as well as kind of stalked their social media accounts. It almost felt like we were on the trip too.
So far, Nevada has been one of the more difficult legs of the trip, with “mountain after mountain, climbing 5,000-8,000 foot mountains a few times a day,” according to Derek.
They even had a stretch of 175 miles in Nevada with no available food or water. Just the kind of things you have to plan for on a bicycle trip across the country.
Subway has been kind of the go-to food because as Derek put it “they’re everywhere and we can fill our water bottles with ice cold water.”
And as you would expect, they’ve had their fare share of bike problems along the way. We’re talking multiple flat tires, Dylan’s spokes coming loose and Derek’s pedal arm falling off. They don’t call it an adventure for nothing.
As of this weekend, the Thomsons had surpassed the $11,000 mark of the $20,000 they set out to raise during the trip.
And just so you know, we plan on periodically catching up with the Thomsons because it seems like a fun trip and it’s for a good cause.
But if you can’t wait for the next update, you can see for yourself where the Thomsons are right now with live tracking on their website, cyclingtheus forals.com. It’s also where you can donate and help them reach the $20,000 mark – or higher. And for more pictures and updates, check out Instagram (@cyclingtheusforals) and Facebook (facebook.com/cyclingtheusforals).
