60 miles and we will be on the US Mexico border! We left Beville this morning, 130 miles away from Laredo. It was a nice easy ride of 70 miles. Well it was pretty bumpy and hilly but since I took it easy. We drove to the border and got our permits after my ride was done. We wanted to make sure we had all the proper documentation to cross the border and we had extra time today so we just went ahead and did it. We were not sure how hard it was going to be to get the permits tomorrow and found out that it would be hard because it is the weekend. So, now we are ready! 60 miles tomorrow will put on the border, we will stay on this side and then cross on Monday morning around 8:am. I am getting pretty excited! In two days we will be in the roads of Mexico! Please stay tuned for that ;) To Liliana and Ava: Mijas, I hope you girls are having a great weekend. I am almost in Mexico! Today I was on the road that leads to Laredo and guess what? Well, looks like this time of year butterflies migrate south to warmer weather. Well, I am also going south so today I had a wonderful experience! That's right, I was pedaling down the road and suddently hundreds and hundreds of butterflies started to appear on the road! So I was surrounded by them, they were sooo beautiful! It was one of the best things I have seen during my trip. Well papi is going to bed now, please make sure you girls are good to each other and to your sister Sulema. Be good at school and be nice to your friends and teachers. Love papi, PS. Tell mami I love her

Houston and Beeville Texas

Hello Every one, Sorry, I was not able to blog about our day yesterday. It was a hard day for me, we covered 82.6 miles to get to Houston. My body was hurting and I felt pretty tired at the end. With a tired body and a sore spirit I took off on the road again this morning. I am pedaling down Highway 69, I am tired. My legs are sore, my knees hurt, my wrists are hurting too. I am pedaling down Highway 69, mile 80. Its been several hours since I got on the road. My mind begins to wonder; I remember Lance Armstrong's coach saying "I go out with Lance for a training ride, he follows me on his bike. I am on my motorcycle, Lance follows, i speed up to 35 miles and lead him for a while. Eventually I let him take the lead" Wow! Lance can do that? I bet I can do that too! well maybe not 35 but maybe 32! Nah I'm tired and I'm sore I better not. Then I hear my wife saying to me "Ascary, there are very few people in the world who can do this and you are one of them you just have to work though the pain" Then I see my daughter Ava, she is such a cute little devil; she is going to be just like me:) Then I see Sulema, my baby could do no wrong in my eyes. Then Liliana, my oldest: "pedal faster papi, pedal faster, you have to train for your trip to Mexico!" she just to say to me during my training. Then, the pain, the sweat, the soreness, the hurt, it all becomes one thing.. Fuel, I go from my pace of 20-22 miles an hour to 25, then 28 miles an hour; "pedal faster papi pedal faster" I hear her again. 29, 30 miles an hour.. How can Lance do this! But I pedal harder again 31 miles an hour 32 miles an hour.. I want to spit but I rather not, I do not want to waste my energy on that, a little drool that is all I can manage. 33 miles, I hold it for a few seconds back down to 32 miles an hour, I hold that for 3-5 minutes then I slow down. Now I think, "Man! Love is a wonderful thing! You can tell that you have had a good day on the road when you do not want to get off your bike. But after 8:30 minutes on the bike I need to stop and call it a day.. Oh yeah miles today? 160..BOOM! its on! hahaha Please stay tuned, Ascary To Liliana, Ava, And Sulema: Mijas, don't forget: when in doubt think of those whom you love, trust me it always works. Love papi PS. Tell mami I love her check out the interview with nbc 33 in Baton Rouge: http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/biking-better-healthcare

We made it to Texas!

Hey everyone:) Beaumont Texas! we made it to Texas, if you can believe it! It was a good day today. We made it here in 8 hours, a little slower than we wanted to but we made it right? So we finally left Louisiana and its great people. We got a great going away gift from a Louisiana local:) just about 20 miles short of the Texas border a guy in his truck stopped to ask Kate what we were up to and where was I going. She told him and then he gave her $20 bucks! He said to buy us dinner at least for tonight. That definitely made my day and Kate's too! I think we will be able to load a video of me going up a bridge in, wouldn't you know it Bridge City. Now this bridge was crazy! it was soo steep just looking at it made me want to swim across it instead! I had already been on the bike for several hours and had covered about 90 miles so going up it was a little hard but I made it and it was a great feeling:) The body is holding out ok, the knees still a little sore but icing them really helps. Well we are now looking for a place to park and go to sleep, we are trying to get up early in the morning and head out towards Houston, It is about 90 miles so it should be a little easier on me:) Stay tuned people Ascary To Liliana and Ava: Hola hijas, I Hope you girls had a great day today and that you are being very good at school. I am in Texas now and will be in Mexico very soon, as soon as I see mami enedina I will hug her and tell her you girls miss her ok? I love you girls and I miss you very much. I really can't wait to see you. Love papi, PS. Tell mami I love her

Hello every one, 1000 plus miles!! Yes we left Baton Rouge this morning at 7:am and arrived in Kinder Louisiana. 115 miles in 7 hours and my legs are screaming! No I am fine just a little sore but taking a day off yesterday was good, my body need it. We are getting ready to eat some Tuna again! Hahaha I don't think I will ever eat Tuna again after this trip :) Today was a very good day for riding, it was all flat roads and very little wind. Here is what I eat and drink daily during the ride, more or less: 6 bottles of gatorade, two waters, one recovery bottle and two cokes, two cans of tuna, one apple, one bannana, two healthy bars, 3-5 energy jells, i-2 small bags of chips, chocolate bar (this does not include breakfast or dinner). I have only lost 2 pounds and hopefully I will not lost much more than that. As I metion earlier, yesterday was a day off for me so I did loundry and worked out at the YMCA for a little bit. I am happy to be back on the move, I enjoyed the day off but this is better. Except when I get flat tires, I do not like that very much specially when it happens like it did today: After lunch I pluged my cell phone in the car so it would chrage, I told kate to go ahead for the next 30 miles and I would catch up (we are trying to save money on gas) the road had a nice big shoulder so I felt safe to ride alone for a while. Well sure enough, 3-4 miles to get to where Kate was waiting for me...pffffssss, yeah a flat. I had not place a spare in my sit bag after I used the other spare on a prebvious flat. SO, I had to walk, if you know me you know I hate to walk, specially after biking for 50 miles!! Yea that was fun, specially since I had to walk with out shoes so as not to ruin my biking shoes. But we made, we are here in Kinder Louisiana and tomorrow if everything goes well, after 109 miles we will be in Beaumont Texas! Please stay tuned:) Ascary To Liliana and Ava: Hola mis amores;) I hope you girls are having a good weekend. Make sure you are good little girls, do not give Yaya and Yayo too much trouble ok? I love you girls and I miss you very much. I think about you all the time. Today I rode my bike in the fog! it was very nice actually, I went out on the road earlier and it was very foggy! I liked that a lot it was like riding on clouds! I am going to go to bed and I will make sure that I dream about your girls. Please be nice to you sister Sulema and to each other ok? I love you girls and I can't wait to see you. Love, Papi PS. tell your mami I love her

Hello everyone, It is Oct 11, day nine of the trip. I had a relatively easy day today, 85 miles from Bogalusa to Balton Rouge. The roads have turned completely flat now and even though there are a lot of bumps and cracks on them, I like them just fine. Today was another rainy day, not too cold but it got pretty dark at times with so much rain coming down. Also today was the first time I saw a group or cyclists out on the road! Well kind of out, I was on about mile 50 and it was raining, not too hard but a steady drizzle, nothing that would stop a cyclist (so I thought) I rode past an old country store that had a nice little shed and there, under it, where at least 3 cyclists, huddled into one little group trying to avoid being touched by the rain! I rode past it and waved and they just looked at me like I was out of my mind for being out there..may be I am.. :) I have not talked really much about what has been going on in my head while I am on the bike: I do, every morning when I get on the bike, think about my beautiful wife and children. How the sacrifices made by those who love me have allowed to be doing what I do. I am thank full for them and all the good things that come my way..then I think, is this really going to work? what is going to be the end result of this? I know we will get some donations, I know we will make some people happy. Will we be able to get enough attention that enough people donate and we can built the clinic? Yes this is a great feeling, to know that I can push my self to limits I did not know, that I can keep going despite the physical and mental pain that being on the bike for over 8n hours at a time can have on someone. There is too the sadness that comes to me when I realize that at that point when I am pedaling tirelessly I am out there, alone, my wife and children hundreds of miles away thinking about me, worry, sad, crying. I have seen my efforts and the efforts of so many others come to life in the smile of so many children time and time again. And trust me when I am out there on the long roads I also see all of those beautiful smiles. Why? is the most common question I got when it comes to this trip. Why?...because it is the right thing to do..I also love to see the children smile :) Well those are some of my actual thoughts on the bike, (when I'm not thinking about food!!) I have to admit, now after 9 days my body seems to be getting tired, I am considering taking at least half of the day off tomorrow.. Well I guess I will have to since I am being interviewed by a local news channel station here around 9:am! Ahhhhh the pains of being Internationally famous!! hahaha I hope every one had a great and safe weekend, stay tuned, Ascary To Liliana and Ava: Hola mijas, I hope you girls had a great weekend with your cousins. I had a good weekend, I spent a lot of time on the bicycle and I am tired but happy because I am almost half of the way done and that means I will get to see you girls very soon. I hope you girls are being very good to each other and to your friends at school. I miss you girls very much and I can't wait to see you. Love papi, PS. Tell mami I love her here are a bunch of clips from the weekend. enjoy!

Alabama to Mississippi

October 10th,
Day 8 of our trip is over!
Sorry, all but we were not able to find Internet anywhere yesterday so we couldn't blog!

well yesterday was a very hard day, i was only able to do 69 miles from Eutaw to Meridian Mississippi. I wanted to do 127 miles but a very strong head wind limited me to 69. Well today I woke up with determined to make it to the border of Mississippi and Louisiana, it was hard. After mile 100 I was getting tired, I put my head down and considered stopping. Then i looked up and there was a hawk directly above me flying slow in the same direction I was going. I took as a sign and pushed my left pedal a little harder, then the right, then the left again, then just like that I was again going about 17 miles an hour. The hawk had picked up speed too and it followed me for about 5 minutes, then it took off. I feel the hawk gave me wings today because after that I was able to make it to Louisiana!! Yes after 138 miles we are here tired and hungry but happy that we met our goal for the day. Tomorrow should be an easy day for me I do not think I have to go more than 90 miles to get to our next point.
stay tuned,
Asscary

Liliana and Ava:
Hola mijas, I hope you girls are having a lot of fun this weekend. Please be nice to your cousins Isabel and Jake. I love you girls very much and I miss you I am getting to see many beautiful places but none of them compare to you girls, I love you and I miss you and hope to see you very soon.
Love, Papi
PS. tel your mami I love her

Saludos a toda mi familia...los quiero mucho y los extrano.
Ascary

Hey everyone! Well day six is over now. We did a total of a 100 miles today. I got my first flat tire! That was the most exciting thing that we went through today:) This morning was tough for me though, having to recover from my 150 miles from yesterday proved to be a difficult thing to do. I spent the first 2 hours trying to get into a rhythm for the rest of the day but once I got into it it was find. Let me just tell you all this: I love dogs and they love me (so I thought) a total of 23 dogs have chased me down the road ever since we came in to the State of Alabama! All kinds of dogs; big dogs, small dogs, pretty dogs, not so pretty dogs, skinny dogs, fat dogs, and even a two legged dog! (ok that may have been a big chicken) so make that 22 dogs and one big chicken ;) Hopefully that will stop once we get into Mississippi tomorrow. My legs seem to be doing ok, I am having some back spasms that I am controlling with ice. My conditioning its good too I do not get really too winded and my recovery is pretty fast so I am gaining more confidence as the trip goes on. I hope we have a good day tomorrow because I would like to make it to Laurel Mississippi which is 127 miles from here Eutaw Alabama. Thank you all for your prayers, calls, texts, comments and good wishes. Stay tuned, Ascary To Liliana and Friends: Hola mija, I want you to all to know that I wear my helmet all the time. I do not get on my bike until the helmet is on my head because it is very important to be safe. Yes Kate follows me all the time with the truck and do not worry I am going to do my best not to fall of the bike. I hope you are all being very safe and careful when playing with each other and with your brothers and sisters. Please be nice to each other and do behave well in Class ok? Love Papi. PS. Lialiana, tell mami and Eva and Sulema that I love them very much.