RunAcrossTheUSA.com

[Matt]

RE: May 24-26. Our friends and family were with us Monday at 2 a.m. when the Greyhound pulled into Stephenson, MI. Within a few minutes we were on our way. After several bus stops, we finally arrived in New Jersey at about 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Soon we were starting our run across the U.S. The first day we were able to travel 40 miles before stopping at a really crummy hotel. Wednesday was rainy, we got lost, and we ran through a ghetto. In our travels we ran over the Ben Franklin Bridge and through the blueberry capital of the world. We went about 27 miles before stopping at the Holiday Inn Express on Walnut Street in Philadelphia—we were definitely “living it up” compared to the hotel on Tuesday.

WGRD (Grand Rapids radio station) called us this morning for an interview, which will play Friday morning. Eric Zane and his fellow announcer will be doing weekly radio updates.

The Ogo needed service from AT&T; so, our first priority Thursday morning was to find an AT&T wireless store in Philadelphia. Well, we have been unable to get it working and are now looking for other wireless Internet options. This post is being relayed through my mom. We will let you know when we have Internet access.

Can you believe this....while we were searching for the AT&T store, a guy on a bike approached us and asked "Are you guys doing something big?" The guy is a close friend of Dave Bronfenbrenner and Scott Sehon, who ran across the U.S. in 2003 and were one of the influences on our run.

Finally, we were on the road again and ran/walked 32 miles. I got to run an extra two miles to retrieve my wallet that I left at a pizza place. Tonight we stopped in a small town called Empreeville, PA. The terrain was hilly but we finally got to see the sun today. It was 30 degrees warmer today than yesterday. We decided to conduct our first test of human kindness today by knocking on someone’s door and asking them if we could sleep on their lawn. The first door we tried was a friendly one and we are now camping in the backyard of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Not only did they give us a place to stay but they provided us with water, bananas, apples, carrots, sandwiches, and ice. Today we set our new speed record as I got the stroller going 16.3 mph.

We are doing fine and are excited to continue our journey tomorrow.