Today my good friend, Author Renee Jean kicked off the event of a lifetime. She is riding her bike across the US from Chicago to California along Route 66 and she will do it in 22 days.
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The mission of this ride is to raise funds for five charities that assist those who live with PTSD. It is a cause that is near and dear to her. Her book series deals with different causes of PTSD and shows how her characters move through their lives day to day. The culmination of the series is the book Sharing Strength, where all the characters come together in a support group.
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She began her ride this morning and has crossed 138 miles thus far. She is a remarkable woman and I'm proud to call her my friend. I've watched as this ride went from a vague idea of something she thought would be fun to do then moved to a serious endeavor. She has put in hours upon hours of training and poured a good deal of her own money into buying equipment for the ride. There will be zero profit for her from this ride, all the donated money goes to the five charities she has chosen to support. She has links on her website for the charities and a help the charities button that goes to the GoFundMe page where you can donate to help these wonderful charities.
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Renee set off from Buckingham fountain in Chicago at 7am this morning. The bib numbers she will wear each day all have a name on them, honoring those who live with PTSD or whose lives were lost due to it.
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Also on her website is a button designated see the route. If you click this button you can see route maps for each day of the ride. These maps show how many miles Renee will ride each day, as well as her rest stops. In total she will ride over 2,300 miles. Accompanying her on this trip is her mother, who will be driving the chase car that is carrying all her supplies and spare bikes.
This is a huge undertaking and I can't stress enough how supremely proud I am to know this woman. She is amazing.
UPDATE: Renee completed the ride on time and raised a little over $4000 for her chosen charities. It was an amazing journey that ended with her riding onto Santa Monica Pier in CA with a police escort. The promotional service for the pier had their media guy there and he filmed the entire thing and it was put up on YouTube. It was amazing to see her ride onto the pier and complete her journey.
