Feet and Guts

Feet and guts...probally 2 of the most important things you need to take care of while on the road.

I'll start with feet. Blisters, hot spots, trench foot, mangled toenails, cracks, and other foot nasties try their hardest to take you out of commision when you abusing your bodies like we have and will continue to do on the road. Brendan and I have been sticklers about foot care since the beginning. This may include draining blisters when they occur (in a special way), covering hot spots with an decent covering, applying Mole-skin to open rubs, stopping as soon as we feel a rock in our shoe to prevent issues, etc. So far we have been pretty fortunate with our feet but with all of our preventives and treatments its not by chance happening. These things have to get us another 300+ miles and were doing our best to treat them right!

One of the other most important isues is guts. By this I mean maintaining good nutrition, eating enough on the road to maintain energy without getting sick, and getting inenough calories. The last issue is not something were facing so far in the trip. Thanks to our hosts we are actually eating like kings! Tonight for example we had steak, potatoes, corn, rolls, salad, angel food cake with fruit...were not exactly starving out here folks! Getting enough in on the run is an issue however. After 30+ miles in 1 session everything taste terible and eating becomes a tedious shore. Your senses say "Forget it...were almost there...yuck!" while your mind says "You know you should be eating more...do it or your body will bonk". The best case scenario on this situation is you have something you absolutly LOVE...like junior mints or cinnamon bears. That makes the job a bit easier. Worst case scenario is your stuck eating another cruddy bar!

Anyways...after day 4 our feet and guts are doing fine, its my unlistened to MP3 assortment that is lacking!

Nolan

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Day 3: Reva to Bison

Hey Everyone!

All is great here and we made it 32 miles today from Reva to Bison. We left Reva from Linda and Rev. Henry Mohagen's home around 6:30am after a stellar breakfast...Thank you Henry and Linda for your wonderful hospitality!! You are wonderful people and Linda, thank you for your "talent show" with your ventriloquist skills. Truly amazing!!

The day started out as a chilly, but gorgeous day. As the day progressed...of course we had to content with the wind, and by the end of the day it got up to somewhere around 20+ mph. That is not only tough physically, but it is very mentally draining! But, all in all- we made it.

We hit an area 20 miles into our run with major road construction. It was crazy and one lane with a pilot car would get you in and out. I tried to stay with that old guy, but he proved too fast for me!! I will tell you that it was like running and pushing our carts through a few inches of sand, or "mashed potatoes" as Nolan describes it...he's not far off on that.

Nolan was a bit a head of me again since I am the videographer & picture guy. Just as I was running up to an approach, I see this white car...they pulled out closer to the road and I thought they were locals so I went up to the car to say hi. It was amazing- I hear "Hey, do you know which way Bison is?" I commented, "I hope it's this way" I am only 2 miles from Bison at that moment. As I approached the car, I see two guys, two video cameras and guess who? It was my Uncles John & Uncle Clair from the Twin Cities (500 mile drive just today). What a GREAT surprise!!! Also, just before we got into town we met Dorina who wanted to be the FIRST to welcome us into Bison...and she baked cookies for us!!! Thanks so much.

Well, then we went into Bison, met up with Terry Haggart and went to his home. We went into town and ate at the Prairie Lounge and you have to order the Bacon double cheeseburger---I guarantee you have never seen anything like it!! (And I finished it...)

What a great day. Thanks for tuning in...

Brendan~

"Be an inspiration"

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Hi guys,

This has been a great and trying day! I just emailed my brother and sister-in-law and told them how everyday it seems you have a wide range of emotions. Sometimes your excited to be on the road, sometimes you wondered how in the heck you got yourself in this situation, other times you hear a good tune on the MP3 player and life is good again. Wild, wild day.

It has been great getting to know Brendan's uncles. What an awesome surprise for both Brendan and I.

I don't to double up on anything Brendan posted so I'll cut this short.

So far so good,

Nolan

PS - Someone put an awesome quote on our guestbook saying "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go". Awesome!

Another quote on the road came from a friends of mine from Sturgis I called when I got cell recpetion..."Keep Smiling." Man did he give me that advice at the right time today. Thanks Randy

Day 2 - Buffalo to Reva

I knew that sooner or later Brendan and I would have very differant journeys even though we are running the same route on the same day in the same style. Today our differant journeys started.

This morning I woke up and left Linda and Wally's about an hour before Brendan departed their house. The reason behind that is that I have a nagging ache behind my right knee and knew I would be walking more than Brendan would want to. I felt it starting a little yesterday on the run but its not something that is due to speed, but more prolonged abuse! And as you can assume, 439 miles IS prolonged abuse. Nothing serious but a dull thing that actually has been around for some time. It comes and goes but I decided this morning that if I am going to last 14 days I need to take it easy and play this thing right. In the back of my mind I figured it could be an issue from the get go just didn't know when! One step in front of the other and Minnesota will eventually come!

I ended up walking ALL 24 miles and made pretty good time. I thought Brendan would be coming up on me in no time, within the first 2 hours, however with all his picture taking we ended up keeping almost the same distance apart. Today run, stop, take picture, run, stop, take video, run... actually equaled walking at a fast rate.

Overall this was a pretty good day, we arrived in our destination before 1PM which gave us lots of time to get settled in and get plenty of rest.

Henry and Linda Mohagen have taken us into their home and made was feel like kings today! They have been so kind and cooked us one heck of a meal! It's a long lonely road between here and Baffalo and it feels nice to be in such good company.

The run in the morning should be intersting as there is about 10 miles of contruction. Sounds like both lanes are shut down and the lane to use is a track in the ditch headed up by a pilot car. Hope we can keep up with that pilot car!

Anyways, better stretch some more and get some ice on my knee and hit the hay before long!

Thanks for watching us on the road,

Nolan

PS - Reva is home to the Reva Turtle Races so we actiually fit right in here running with oiur BOBS!

PPS - Brendan will ad his post soon.

Top O' The Morning To YA!! (actually 9:30pm...)

Anyway, I must first give a HUGE thanks to Wally and Linda Stephens in Buffalo...they are truly wonderful and hospitable!

I don't think I've ever seen such a big home and it turns out that they have 3 children and many others- (foster kids, foreign exchange students, they board kids, and also house the biggest kids of all----hunters) Ha Ha

They also own the Nation City News Paper and Wally is a teacher/track coach. I thought it was great when he came to say hi to us on our run and he had Ebony and Abraham (grand kids) and Linda's father (spry 90 year old who by the way, started running late in life- he competed in his first Marathon (Grandma's Marathon at the age of 65!!!) How cool is that?!

My wife was with us again and biked over 35 miles today! Holy Cow Man...and she bucked that nasty wind. She is our hero. We saw beautiful country like the Slim Buttes, which are truly amazing. The Battle of Slim Buttes (check it out in your history books).

Nolan was a bit hurt today and went ahead. We started out the day with an awesome breakfast of fried eggs, great coffee, and pancakes to die for!! Thanks Linda & Wally-

We made it to Reva and are staying with Rev. Mohagen and his wife Linda. They fed us wonder food and visited their friends, Bonnie and Keith Hanson. He has wild turkeys that he feeds in the back yard and you should have seen the Tom that was struttin' around!! He was a monster.

We came back to the Mohagen home and Linda showcased her talents as a vantriloquist!! You better believe it...and she is phenomenal! It was a show for sure- Thanks Linda-

Well, gotta go to bed now, and get up for a 35+ mile day. It's gonna be a long one (probably 7-8 hours) and will arrive to Terry and Mary Haggart's in Bison. I already like Terry cause he is Air Force (I was an old Intel guy once stationed at Ellsworth AFB).

Take care,

...and stay tuned!

Brendan~

Day 1 - Capitol, MT to Buffalo

WOW...what a day! The morning started with Ruth, Bill, Tom, and Mary cooking us breakfast of homemade biscuits and gravy. Due to nerves I was only able to eat half of one, although I really do think it was awesome that they had such a feast for us. Also hard to eat to many knowing you get to add 40 miles on top of it.

It was a short drive to Capitol, MT from Bill and Ruth's house to start the run. To get a mental picture, Capitol is a town of 2 buildings, both not really in working order anymore and not used. There was actually a pretty nice crowd at the start line for us considering it was COLD and WINDY. Typical Montana wind! Ernie, the mayor of Capitol, MT had us come over and he presented to us the key to the city. We all stood around for a few minutes and laughed at how this is the "only key to this place" and how the key has a striking resemblance to a sardine can or Spam can key. What a memory.

The next 13 miles clicked along pretty uneventfully, which on a run like this uneventful is OK. We both had a friend biking with us the entire run(Tate Latz with me and Mike Bogard with Brendan) as well as Brendan's wife running and biking with us. 5 people on the road today!

Once we make it to roughly the 13 mile mark we turned onto Highway 20 and it was a LONG and WINDY Run all the way to Buffalo. We were SO lucky to have a few people sag wagon for us or wait for us on the road just to say hi are show their support, which was really nice. It was fun to see people on the road and broke the day up nicely!

I arrived in Buffalo at about 12:30 PM about an hour before Brendan who arrived at about 1:30. We decided that with as much support we had on the road today we could spread out today without the situation becoming to unsafe.

Anyways, after arriving we went to the cafe in town and burgers and fried. Made for a nice end the run, only being topped by the shower at our host families house, Linda and Wally Stephens.

So, its now 6:37 PM and I am going to ice and massage a bit and hit the hay before the sun goes down!

Thanks for following and maybe we'll see you on the road!

Nolan

HEY EVERYONE!! (It's me...Brendan)

I wanted to share a few thoughts with you...even though Nolan has a great posting. It was great to start out in a town with a population of 0! Pretty cool when a wonderful showing from the local bandwagon and started out with a bang!

Mike Boggard and I had an awesome day today, even with winds that reached 25-35 mph and gusts well over 40 mph. Thanks to the man upstairs for placing the wind mostly at our back. He is an Optomitrist at Ellsworth AFB and had an awesome adventure in Nicaragua recently...COOL stuff.

I took a ton of pics along the way and video to capture our experience along the way. We came across an area with 100+ buffalo and had the Odell Family help by driving in front and "blocking" us from the wild beasts!

We made it by without incident and didn't try to pet them---I don't think that would be pretty.

My AWESOME wife, GI Joni (Jonette), ran and biked with us, and was a champ against that wind- She is gearing up for first IRONMAN!!! Holy cow- Great training.

Bill & Ruth Rosencranz along with daughter Mary and husband Tom Riley were a GREAT support crew!! It really helped having folks cheer us on. THANKS to you all and for such a WONDERFUL night at your ranch!! You are family now, so we will be staying in touch and having you over for supper--- Hope you are ready to come over to the Murphy Household!

My picture taking and video making slowed me down, but it was worth it. When I am all done my friend Russ Miller is going to help me edit and make a phenom video of our journey---

We will also have thousands of pictures to chronicle this wonderful experience. We may not have as many pics and videos on our posts as we go because it takes so long to download anything, but will definately have a DVD and CD produced for not only a historical account, but also for entertainment & informational purposes...

Stay tuned and THANKS for YOUR POSTS on our guestbook. Keep em' coming---it really helps us get through these long days. We read every word you place on our website.

Take care,

"The Journey...is definately the REWARD"

Brendan~

Longer then we thought...

Turns out that the first day of our journey is going to be a little longer then were bargaining for. We were planning on the running roughly 34 miles to Buffalo tomorrow but that was measured from the state line. We will actually run from Capitol which is going to add about 6 miles.

So...long story short, we will start this journey with a 40 miler. More than we wanted but I guess you have roll with the punches out here.

Roughly our run to buffalo tomorrow will take about 8 hours. We hope to be done by 2:00 PM if we start at 6:00 AM

Talking to Ruth and Bill Rosencranz who are hosting us tonight on a ranch 10 miles from Capitol, MT it was easy to remember why we are doing this run. Bill himself has lost 5 brothers and sisters to cancer. Amazing and sad!

I'll be posting again tomorrow night after our run. I better get going for now, it seems that the more I write the more nervous I get so I'm going to cut this of for now.

Nolan

PS - We had a blast today talking to the Sky Boys Ranch about our adventure! The 23 guys seemed really excited about what were doing and really seemed to grasp the idea of how and why we are doing this! Thanks for having us guys!

Post on the road...

Here's our first post from the road...but I'm cheating and driving. We are driving up to our starting point in Capitol, MT. Some long days are our on our horizon!



READY OR NOT HERE WE COME!



With well over 3000 miles in prep miles for this thing it still feels like I am diving into the deep end with this thing! In about 18 hours we will be on the road and the rest will be history. The weather right now is about 33 degrees and WINDY! Could be a COLD and WET next couple of days but it looks like by Monday or so we should be getting a better round of weather.



OLD FRIENDS



Before leaving Rapid City I went out to the Black Hills Children's Home got to see all of my old friends and kids. It felt great to see everyone there and I am still proud to say I got to be part of what they have going on out there! I know there are a few teachers and kids out there following our journey so to them a big thanks. Enjoy the journal postings and DONT FORGET...EMAIL US ON THE ROAD at nolantaylor@pocketmail.com. I miss those guys a ton and think of them often, it was great seeing everyone. Also, I know a couple of the kids will be watching this journal and are wanting a shout-out so hello to them and I'll be thinking of you guys on the road!



MR TECKY!



Ah man...I can already tell trying to cross the state with MR. TECKY is going to be rediculous! Brendan has been pulling out a camera of some sort every 10 minutes wanting to get video, pics, or video and pics. Good thing I'm not in charge of the technology portion of the trip because I would be tying a note to a pigeons foot and sending them off.. instead we have a laptop for updating our web page, an HD video camera, 2 digital cameras, and more cables for recharging and uploading all of that info then NASA carries on their shuttle missions!



ONE THE ROAD!



We just turned on to Highway 20 for the first time right now and I tell you what, you plan and dream, and think about it for so long, its a wild thing to actually be on the road and look at the shoulder and imagine yourself out there.



KEEP YOUR EYES HERE!



Watch the web page for updates and videos and pictures from our adventure...TRUST ME...were not carrying all this equipment for nothing!



See on the road,



Nolan

Rapid City Mayor names 25 April - Chemo Is Harder Day!!

Hello everyone!

Today was unbelievable...in many ways. It was my last day of work for 3 weeks, I finalized packing, the National Guard hooked me up with a loaner laptop so I can upload info from the days' journey to our website, I met with Rapid City Mayor, Alan Hanks, who is not only very cool, but his family was also affected deeply by cancer, Nolan drove into town (haven't seen him for months-great to have my buddy back),

...and the COOLEST THING TODAY...occurred when Mayor Hanks proclaimed Friday, April 25th as "CHEMO IS HARDER DAY" in Rapid City!!! Can you believe that?? WOW- We are both speechless and grateful!

And yes, I will be framing my Executive Proclamation signed by the Mayor- You can bet on that!

Nolan and I caught up some while we drove around town getting a few more things for the trip. We both got a new toy and will make the miles we endure more bearable.

My sister-in-law, Jill Trautman and her two boys, Tyler & Dawson came over to check things out and get the new "Hot off the press" Chemo Is Harder bandanas--- Just so you all know, Jill rides horse and is going to be joining us with her horse while we run. AWESOME!!! Tyler is going to ride his bike with us too. It's a family event I tell you---

Keep posted- It is late, can't sleep tonight either...but am heading to bed soon. It is almost midnight and therefore it is almost "CHEMO IS HARDER DAY!!!" Can't get any better than that.

Brendan~
"Be a part of the Dream"