2026 Bicycle Challenge
Route 66 → $66,000
On August 22nd I turned 60. Four days later Jeri and I will be loading up a camper van for the first time and will be driving to the western edge of Arizona. From there I will be riding historic Route 66 east for 12 days while Jeri drives the van behind me. We will stop at every roadside attraction on the way and document the whole thing.
This is my Bicycle Challenge, and it happens to also be Route 66’s 100th Anniversary year.
I've been fundraising through cycling for two decades now. The last three years, it's been personal in a different way. I've been in treatment for multiple myeloma, on an every-other-week schedule, and I've reached what my doctors call an almost total response. This trip exists because Labor Day gave me an extra week off treatment and Jeri and I decided to use it as big as we could.
I've come to believe that roughly 75% of my life is behind me. That's not a complaint — it's a fact I want to act on. I'm committed to making the next 25% the most impactful. This ride is one way I'm doing that.
My goal is to raise $22,000 for each of my 3 chosen organizations for a total of $66,000.
Every dollar raised goes to 3 organizations I have supported for 3 years running,
each doing work I have watched matter up close:
Great Cycle Challenge/Children’s Cancer Research Fund, HealthTree Foundation, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Donation links for all 3 organizations are at the bottom of this page!
Route 66: Final Wrap Up
Final Wrap Up
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bags are all unpacked. Laundry is almost all done. I am starting to pack for my business trip tomorrow. It has been a quiet day.
September 12th, 2026 - Day 18
Day 18 - September 17, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
The final day. It went well. Packed all our stuff before we left the RV camp. Jeri found another Route 66 dinner for breakfast. Then we hit the road.
September 11th, 2026 - Day 17
Day 17 - September 11, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
The last full day. It has been a great trip. The van life has been fantastic. The biking was really good (I may have over done it a couple days.) The only significant thing we did not like was shooting from the hip every day that I was biking. It took too much time and energy to map out tomorrow each evening. Next time we will have an outline at least.
September 10th, 2026 - Day 16
Day 16 - September 10, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
I made a critical error this morning. Biking is done. Right? So what do I do with the extra time? I fill it in with all the work, fundraising, and other email stuff I have let slide. Right? Very clearly that was wrong!
September 9th, 2026 - Day 15
Day 15 - September 9, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
It is surprisingly hard to slow down. Good thing there are two of us on this trip. Jeri slowed me down this morning and I slowed her down this afternoon.
September 8th, 2026 - Day 14
Day 14 - September 8, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 71 miles, 5,190’, 6hours 21minutes
And that’s a wrap! Today I biked what I had planned to do today and tomorrow. Not only that but when I got done this afternoon, Jeri and I drove 2 hours toward home. (After, of course, Jeri made me take a shower. Ha!)
September 7th, 2026 - Day 13
Day 13 - September 7, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 89 miles, 2,789’, 5hours 51minutes
Sorry! Not many pictures today. I actually took Zero. There were some cool rock formations, but I did that a couple days ago. There were a lot of old broken down Route 66 businesses, but that seemed too sad to capture. Then when I got into Albuquerque. It was too hot and I was too tired. Fortunately, Jeri got this picture of me just before I rode out of town this morning.
September 6th, 2026 - Day 12
Day 12 - September 6, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 41miles, 942’, 2 hours 50 minutes
Mostly a recovery day for me, BUT NOT FOR JERI!
September 4th, 2026 - Day 10
Day 10 - September 4, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 91miles, 2,884’, 5 hours 57 minutes
Arizona is DONE! That feels very good. I wondered if I would get it done today or have to come back and finish it tomorrow. Started at 5:30am and had 75 miles done by lunch. While it kept getting progressively hotter, once I was within 20 miles, I put in my head phones, turned the music up, and goterdone. (It did help that I had a tail wind.)
September 3rd, 2026 - Day 9
Day 9 - September 3, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 44 miles, 1,066’, 3 hours 27 minutes
Done biking today by 9:30am and had 0 flat tires. Had a great breakfast sandwich, iced coffee with oat milk, and a cookie bar while waiting for Jeri to catch me in the van. She had a peaceful morning sipping her coffee and watching the wild donkeys.
September 2nd, 2026 - Day 8
Day 8 - Sept 2, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 61 miles, 800’, 3 hours 24 minutes
What a day! We got to stand on the corner of Winslow, Arizona, eat a brisket hamburger, pull into an RV park that beautiful, bike 61 miles at 17.9mph, and change 5 flat tires and 1 blown tire.
September 1st, 2026 - Day 7
Day 7 - September 1, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 40 miles, 1,722’, 3 hours 15 minutes
What a beautiful day. Wow! It was a cooler start (I rode with a long sleeve shirt under my jersey) but sunny and much less wind. About 30% of my ride was on Route 66, and the rest was on I40. Pretty normal for this part of the world.
August 31st, 2026 - Day 6
Day 6 - August 31, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Bike: 45 miles, 3,186’, 4 hours 14 minutes
I slept in this morning! Did not start to really stir until 5:30am. Ha! We did go to bed - as in turn off the lights - at 8:30pm. Clearly we needed the sleep. I was on the road by 6:05am.
August 30th, 2026 - Day 5
Day 5 - August 30, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
54 Miles, 1,250’, 3 Hours 53 minutes
My first ride of this trip is in the books. (Well it is in my Strava account.) I woke up at 4am, tried to go back to sleep until 5am, and was on the road at 5:45 am. I was back “Home” by 10am. Ha! It was a great ride in the scrub desert. Way different than Michigan that is for sure.
August 29th, 2026 - Day 4
Day 4 - August 29, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
No touristy stuff today. We are saving that for the ride back. AND it was a much shorter day. We took our time getting packed up. We even took a walk before hitting the road. When I started to get twitchy, Jeri said we could go.
August 28th, 2026 - Day 3
Day 3 - August 28, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Only one tourist stop today. The Cadillac Ranch just west of Amarillo, TX. Planted here in the 1970’s they are a little worse for ware. We took some pictures, left our mark, and kept driving west. Only 400 miles tomorrow. Yeah! I am getting tired of driving and riding in the van.
August 27th, 2026 - Day 2
Day 2 - August 27, 2026
Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
Day 2 is pretty much in the books. Everything worked great last night. I actually slept very well. We did use our camper toilet in the middle of the night. Emptying the toilet cassette this morning was significantly less dramatic than I expected.
August 26th, 2026 - Day 1
August 26, 2026
Day 1 of Route $66,000 - Arizona & New Mexico
The day went really well. Picked up our house for the next 18 days and made it to Springfield, IL. We were told the rule of thu
This is my 6th year raising money to fund a cure for childhood cancer. Any kind of childhood cancer is the worst kind. It is completely unfair for kids to struggle this way, and I can only imagine how hard it is on them and their parents. But we can fix this!
DONATE NOW!
Dana Farber is one of the top multiple myeloma centers of excellence in the world and they have a fundraising arm called the Pan-Mass Challenge. They have raised over $1 billion dollars for cancer research of all different kinds. Curing any of them leads to curing them all.
This is my favorite Multiple Myeloma organization. Unlike others, they have the CureHub, where patients can load all of their medical files and get a digital second opinion on treatment. And the best part! All this data (50,000 patients to date) is available to researchers to find a cure. I am all for that!