Today’s Stats: 62 Miles, +/- Elevation. 955/745, Total Miles 1,814. Again an early start to beat the heat and was good until the last 20 miles. The early riding is great with very little traffic and cooler temperatures.
Carnegie Library in Newton. Wealthy businessman Andrew Carnegie donated money to build over 2500 libraries around the world from the late 1800’s until 1929. A touring cyclist from Chicago George Christiansen has visited many Carnegies by bicycle and has a blog about his travels. http://georgethecyclist.blogspot.com/
Remember Airmail?
Shawn is also riding coast to coast as Eastbounder. She is completely blind. She is amazing and attempting something that no other blind cyclist has.
Shawn Cheshire is a US Army veteran and former paramedic. Shawn lost her vision 10 years ago from traumatic brain injury. Shawn represented the USA in Rio Paralympics as tandem cyclist. She is also the world holder for fastest time to rim to rim to rim crossing of the Grand Canyon by a blind athlete.
If you want to read more about Shawn and her mission the website: https://www.choosingtosee.org/
Jesse is the guide. They have blue tooth headsets. Jesse rides in front of Shawn has music playing that enables her to follow behind him while also listening to Jesse’s voice commands.
Jesse with Shawn following as they leave the gas station. They are making a documentary film of this epic adventure.
The support vehicle that follows behind.
Traveling with Pat & Mark 
Amazing..biking blind…you are going to have many early starts, if this weather keeps up
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Wow, you are meeting lots of interesting people on your ride.
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WOW. Talk about trust. I would imagine that they have some interesting stories.
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I think what you guys are doing is amazing but Shawn… now she is REALLY REALLY AMAZING! Keep up the great stories coming. Safe travels.
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Shawn is quite an inspiration! You need to write a book after this cross country journey about all of the interesting people that you have met, or just put all of your blogs together into a book.
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Mark and Pat…..You guys have met so many interesting people during your journey. I was blown away by the story of Shawn Cheshire. What a courageous women.
Jeff
Sent from my iPhone
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Shawn is truly inspirational, and so are you guys by the way! Blind skiers are some of my favorite students teaching skiing with the National Sports Center for the Disabled, and people I talk to are always the most amazed by the blind skiers. Another inspirational blind athlete is Erik Wiedemeyer, the first blind person to climb Mount Everest. He lives in Golden, CO and was (is?) on the Board of Directors of the Anchor Center for Blind Children, which was where Donna worked for the last six years before finally retiring for good. She loved it. Amazingly, Erik has kayaked down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in his own kayak. This is really big water, class 4 and 5 rapids. Just like Shawn he is paired up with a sighted kayaker who wears a headset. I can’t even imagine it.
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Hi Mark and Pat! Thank you for sharing your adventures. Thinking of you both – for safety and well being.
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WOW!!!! How incredible!!! Thank you for posting the link to their ride!!
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Oh my, what an inspiration Jesse is. Her story and those of her support staff are inspiring. Guess we can accomplish anything we set our minds to doing. Just like Pat & Mark. The blog on the visits to the Carnegie libraries so interesting. Thanks for sharing your amazing experiences.
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Oops, meant to say Shawn, not Jesse; but he is to be commended as well.
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