5 days till we leave

Ready to see AMERICA by BICYCLE

For daily updates go to that you can go: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/tourdemiller

Our home page will be:

http://mikenbern.tripod.com/

This will serve as a hub to find all our pages (maps, itinerary, journal, how to email us )

We we are now over $18,500 in funds raised --- just $6,500 short of our goal. If you have not had a chance to donate yet -- Be sure to click the link on the top left -- "Help the Miller's Fight Cancer"
Or you can send a check-made payable to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Be sure to put Participant ID: 150474715 in the memo so it will be counted towards our goal.Mail them to:

Lance Armstrong Foundation
PO Box 1150
Austin, TX 78716-1150

Our departure is at hand - the days have counted down and we are nearly ready to leave for Oregon. We look forward with anticipation to the people we will meet, the things we will see, the challenges we will face, the growth in mental toughness, the conditioning, the friends we will share a meal with along the way. It is hard to believe -- but it is here.

I trust you will follow us on the daily journal site (above) and please leave us some comments in the guestbook there http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/guestbook/?o=1gci&doc_id=2509&v=1S The folks I have talked to that have done this say that is a big encouragement. So write there early & often.

this is a pic of my new frame

We will be glad to be back on our road bikes ....we have been riding the Mountain bikes since the others shipped earlier this week

Thanks for your prayers, support, well wishes and interest in our trip

I look forward to hearing from you while on the road
THANKS
Mike Bernice Michael & Derek

11 days and counting

This will be the second to last post on this blog after that you can go to:http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/tourdemiller for the daily journal and http://mikenbern.tripod.com for our home page

they are easier to edit and upload pics than this site.

We we are now over $17,400 in funds raised --- just $7,600 short of our goal. If you have not had a chance to donate yet -- Be sure to click the link on the top left -- "Help the Miller's Fight Cancer"

Or you can send a check-made payable to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Be sure to put Participant ID: 150474715 in the memo so it will be counted towards our goal.Mail them to:

Lance Armstrong Foundation

PO Box 1150

Austin, TX 78716-1150

I finally got my new frame and got it all put together. We took a 42 mile shakedown ride this morning before church. It rode very nicely. This afternoon we will pack the bikes into boxes and UPS will pick them up tomorrow for their trip to Astoria. We will follow them out west on June 14th .

here are a few pictures we took this week on our rides.

Thanks for checking in and be sure to hit the links at the top and bookmark them in your favorites

16 days till departure --- Memorial Day Weekend

We spent the weekend in St. Augustine FL camping. I had to ride my old bike because my other one was in the shop having the components put on the new frame. It felt weird to be riding "old faithful" she has over 22,000 miles on her. The frame geometry is different than the new carbon fiber one I have been riding for the last year.

Michael was able to come over and spend two out of the four days with us. It was nice to have all 4 of us together. We did not do long rides instead we got in just over 40 miles each day. We will have plenty of long rides again soon enough. Getting back earlier let us enjoy the BIG surf that was caused by the high pressure system just off the coast.

Derek spotted the castle to the right along A1A north of Villano Beach. In keeping with the mindset of seeing the country and that every ride is not a race; we pulled in the side street to look at the castle.

It was Sunday morning and Derek saw the plaque to the left. Many of our friends and clients have told me they would pray for us on this journey and we want to share God's love with those we meet along the way. I thought it was neat to be reminded of Jesus in this fashion.

Our fund raising is took a nice jump this week as over $1,000 came in. We are now closing in on $17,000 raised.

If you have not had a chance to donate yet -- Be sure to click the link on the top left -- "Help the Miller's Fight Cancer"

Or you can send a check-made payable to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Be sure to put Participant ID: 150474715 in the memo so it will be counted towards our goal.Mail them to:

Lance Armstrong Foundation

PO Box 1150

Austin, TX 78716-1150

25 days till departure --- great week of riding

We had good weather with no smoke and lots of nice rides. We had normal rides Mon and Wed before work . Friday we rode with "Bikin' Bob" from the Villages(pictured to the right in Red). He is 71 and has rode cross country 3 times. We shared some good conversation and got some pointers from the cross country veteran.

Saturday hit the road to horse country with Derek, and John and Don. It was nice to be out with 5 of us. The horse to the right was born a few weeks back and like Derek is growing up quickly.

We are under 4 weeks now. Bikes will be shipped on June 4th to assure they are in Astoria when we get there.

If you have not had a chance to donate yet -- Be sure to click the link on the top left -- "Help the Miller's Fight Cancer"Or you can send a check-made payable to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Be sure to put Participant ID: 150474715 in the memo so it will be counted towards our goal.Mail them to: Lance Armstrong Foundation PO Box 1150Austin, TX 78716-1150

32 days till departure.... Smokey in Florida

Our fires have now burned over 330,000 acres in Georgia and Florida. We are thankful that the fires for the most part are over 40 miles away but the smoke is here. It has encroached on our training; which is minor in the big picture. We are praying for safety for those nearer the fire and strength for those fighting the fires.
We had to move our Friday morning ride into the back room and onto the trainer. A stationary device spawned in Hell. If you have ever had to spend time on one you know what I mean and if not I can not explain it here.

Our training overall is going well. We have have ridden over 6,000 miles in the last 12 months. That does not count any off road riding which I did 2 days a week from Oct to Feb. I would say that we are ready and in the next 30 days we will just continue to log some miles and saddle time.

Derek is pictured here with his new bicycle. It is a Specialized Allez. I might add it is a double XL frame to accommodate his nearly 6'5" body.

We are now up to $15,686 raised so far.

If you have not had a chance to donate yet -- Be sure to click the link on the top left -- "Help the Miller's Fight Cancer"Or you can send a check-made payable to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Be sure to put Participant ID: 150474715 in the memo so it will be counted towards our goal.Mail them to: Lance Armstrong Foundation PO Box 1150Austin, TX 78716-1150

39 days till Departure and over $15,000 raised

Do not forget to click on the Itinerary link to the left to look at my other website
This was a few days off with no riding. Bernice and I went to San Diego for and Ameriprise Circle of Success conference. We stayed down in the Marina area of the city.. the pic to the left is out of our room on the 22nd floor.


We met our friend Darrell and his fiancee Ronni. They took us to LaJolla for an evening of great food, views and excellent conversation. He gave us some good pointers on the upcoming trip as he rode cross country last summer.

This was our last few days off the bikes as we will now put the final push in our training. We have been asked will we be ready and the answer is training wise we could leave tomorrow. We have base mileage of 6,000 miles in the last year and some specialized riding (hills and intervals)as well.
For exercise in San Diego we kayaked in LaJolla on Thursday in some big surf in the Pacific (sorry no pics --- BIG WAVES and my camera do not mix) Then Friday we went to the SanDiego Zoo for a behind the scenes tour.
Friday night we had a party at the Miramar Air Station. This site was the Navy Top Gun school and is now an air station for the Marines. We got to see F18's, F16's, Hornets and several types of helicopters. The highlight though was talking to the pilots and being able to shake their hands and tell them we appreciate their service to our country. It was a very moving time with them.


We then had dinner and had a front row space to hear the band Smash Mouth. I was 2 feet from lead singer Steven Harwell as he sang Walking on the Sun , All Star and others. Very cool to have a concert in a small venue like that.


We crossed 2 milestones this week. We are under 40 days till we leave and over $15,000 raised. We had multiple people promise their donation would be on the way soon. Only $10,000 to go to hit our goal.

If you have not had a chance to donate yet -- Be sure to click the link on the top left -- "Help the Miller's Fight Cancer"Or you can send a check-made payable to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Be sure to put Participant ID: 150474715 in the memo so it will be counted towards our goal.Mail them to: Lance Armstrong Foundation PO Box 1150Austin, TX 78716-1150

Since you stopped by leave a comment and let us know. Feel free to ask questions if you have them.