The title of this blog came to me because of a comment sent to me by my Daughter saying she hadn’t heard from me on the blog in six days.

Firstly it sounds like the makings of a hit Song title to me that I personally could sink my teeth into and I’m sure a lot of truck driver’s families can relate to the title.

Secondly it has been a very busy six days since my last blog. We have since the great divide rolled through Calgary and were hardly noticed by the citizens of Calgary too busy with their day to day lives and the upcoming Calgary Stampede to take the time to notice 4 Paraplegics rolling through their town without a horse. Yes that’s right without a horse because we had asked to be included in their festivities for this years stampede but were turned down ( you guessed it )because we didn’t have a horse.

Not that these fine, courageous, brave, selfless gentlemen giving their time cranking special wheelchairs across Canada to bring attention to the need for 10 million dollars to fund this miracle science that will enable crippled spinal cord injury victims to walk again would not have wanted to could they have. You see they don’t have that option since they can’t walk but that will soon change with all of our help.

We did have two very special gentlemen from two TV Stations attend and take some video for TV and we thank them from the bottom of all our hearts for coming out, caring and making us feel good about what we are doing.

We understand that the Stampede is Important to Calgary but then again so was our message. The rats are walking again after having their severed spinal cords reattached and regenerated.

You would think that people who routinely climb onto the backs of sometimes cantankerous animals for a pleasure ride would be interested in a story about the miracles being performed at Hamilton’s McMaster Medical Center Hospital. I’m sure that more than a few of them have ended up on their heads on the ground and received spinal cord injuries and I bet these same people know at least a few of them that are now tied to a wheel chair. Our message was simple for just 30 cents per Canadian we can give them an insurance policy should they have the misfortune of severing their spinal cords. A policy that would give all of them a get out of jail free card so to speak should they have the misfortune of severing their spinal cords in a fall.

Christopher Reeve (Super Man) severed his spinal cord in a horse related accident and was a quadraplegic. I bet he would have liked to have heard our message before he committed to the experimental embryonic stem cell transplant therapy he under went in Israel. A therapy that because of the anti rejection drug therapy necessary for his body to accept the foreign embryonic tissue caused his demise due to a common infection.

The Mayor was understandably busy but couldn’t he have assigned a representative to meet with us.

Next time we will try to bring a horse. By then we will have proven the medical miracle using financial help from others with a bigger heart and huge social conscience and these unselfish men will then be able to stand up and walk. They may even get the chance to look the Mayor and the citizens of his town in the eye without them having to stoop to their level and ask they why they didn’t care enough to help.

I have said  before that the big cities are busy, they work to make ends meet and they don’t have time for the disadvantaged in their midst. I always equate them to being so busy and uncaring that they would step over their dead in the street and not notice the victim lying on their street so that they can meet a deadline in their lives.

Calgary didn’t disappoint us or our expectations in the big city and we moved on towards Red Deer to a completely different reception.

We stayed at the Motel 6 pictured on this blog. The staff’s courteous manner and attention to detail made our stay a special occassion. A special thanks to Motel 6 for the generous donation of rooms and for demonstrating that you have a huge coorporate conscience. Your facility was top notch and a must stop location for accomodations when you are in Red Deer.

The reception in Red Deer was hosted at the offices of the Canadian Paraplegic Society. This was an entirely different event for us in that it was arranged by local volunteers. Firstly Lorelei Fiset-Cassidy worked very hard on our behalf to make our news event special. Lorelei from the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce connected us with a meeting with the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Buck  Buchanan who gave us the official welcome to the city, acknowledged our efforts and commended the athletes for their initiative.

This is one politician we could all listen to. It was obvious that he was from a small town with a big heart and huge social conscience.

Next we were introduced to Red Deer South MLA Cal |Dallas who brought us greetings from the province. This was special for us in that it was the first recognition on this trip from a provincial Government Official and it was most welcomed from our group.

When we were introduced the team cyclists asked me to speak first and I must say that for the first time on our tour I felt relaxed during my presentation. I felt that I was amongst friends. Not only were they friends but they were friends with a social conscience.

It was easy to speak to them about our mission, about us being six messengers that needed their help to deliver our important message and it felt so good speaking to such a  large gathering looking them in the eye as I spoke and knowing that I had true friends and allies with us on our journey.

This was a special meeting much like the meetings in Kelowna and Golden where we had others come out to meet and speak with the four athletes who shared the same type of injuries and handicaps that our four athletes shared.

After our athletes were introduced we fielded questions about the trip and athletes backgrounds then after the meeting we stayed around to answer questions with the other persons in chairs and with neurological disabilities.

We especially enjoyed giving those that wanted an opportunity to ride one of our bikes and what a wonderful feeling watching the smiles and gleam in the eyes of individuals inflicted with such debilitating injuries.

Paulette Vanoosterom,  Special Event/Fund Development Coordinator with the Canadian Paraplegic Association (Alberta) also worked very hard to host this event on short notice.

We all enjoyed meeting the attendees of this event and I hope you all will keep in touch with us on our journey.

A very special thanks to Tom Klodt, Paulette and Loerelei for your efforts and hosting a successful event. Please continue to fund raise on our behalf and next time we pass through your kind caring town the athletes all hope to be walking.

After red Deer we moved on to Edmonton where we were to meet the press at the Town Hall.

The trip from Red Deer for the most part was uneventful with just the usual horns honked and people hollering encouragement as we travelled along their highways.

Near Edmonton we encountered a brief storm and the bikers pulled off to the side to sit out the high winds and hail.

We are prepared for all kinds of weather and the guys were suited up in their special rain gear. The storm persisted for what seemed like an eternity but was actually less that 20 minutes. At first the guys decided to stay on their bikes because of the difficulty transferring from them into their chairs and then into the chair lifts into the Van.

Harvey in his wisdom and partly because of his staunch British upbringing had an umbrella along. When we caught up to them we got a picture that we want to share with all of you of Harvey with his prominent proper British pinkie held out straight with its very own plastic splint, you have to note his now very stiff upper lip and of course true to his British background Chuck holding the umbrella over them. We were all laughing so hard at the sight of Chuck holding Harvey’s Umbrella that we couldn’t load them into the recovery vehicles.

The team are really close and do look out after each other and Chuck well what can I say, Chuck is at times just amazing. Being around Chuck reminds me of my years growing up on the Farm where everybody did what they could do to lighten your load and no one was allowed to stand around with nothing to do. My Father would ask why are you standing around doing nothing and if we told him there was nothing to do he would reply. “If you  can’t find something to do on the farm then you aren’t looking hard enough because on the farm there is always more to do.

This sums up all that Chuck is about. Raised in a Family of 10 kids he always finds something that he can do to help us and to make our day easier. He helps lift the heavy tailgate on our trailer, lessening our workload. He carries bags to our rooms on his lap on the wheelchair and he does my laundry when he sees I am overwhelmed with workload.

In my eyes I see Chuck differently than what you or others might see him. Chuck isn’t handicapped, He just can’t walk.

In Edmonton another large city we again failed to connect with the Mayor’s Office and were left to fend for ourselves with the public and the media.

There was some other more worthy event in the city of which I am not privy to and the media, the mayor and all of the mayor’s deputies were occupied to the point that they couldn’t spare us 10 minutes of their time to hear our message.

I am still left wondering each time we encounter so much indifference to human suffering and social need why these people run for public office.

It should be a high priority on their resumes for public office to include the need for a social conscience yet each time we arrive in a large city we encounter politicians with no social conscience and no heart.

I hope their other event went well and I hope that they scored the political points I’m sure they calculated they would receive by attending the other event to totally exclude ours and totally miss the important message we were delivering to them.

Anyway in case some of my readers wish to forward my message on to these political misfits and try to help them develop a social conscience here it is for you to forward.

The Rats are walking. Scientists at Hamilton’s McMaster Medical Center have successfully reconnected the severed spinal cords on lab rats and the rats recovered and are walking.

The operation to reconnect the severed spinal cord uses a section of small intestine from your own body (Therefore there is no rejection of the tissue used) to harvest and culture a special type of nerve cells that can be trained into becoming developed spinal cord re-connective nerve tissues.

These cells which are a type of juvenile stem cell grow to reconnect the severed spinal cord. The doctors are also using a compound also found within your own bodies called guanosine to stimulate the adult stem cells found within the spinal cord to grow and develop into cells that insulate the spinal cord.

In effect the doctors have repaired spinal cord damage on lab rats and the Rats are walking. Humans can also receive the same treatment but first Lab Clinical trials must be conducted and this will cost a lot of money.

10 million dollars is needed immediately so that Dr Rathbone and his team can complete these trials on Humans. 3 million  dollars alone is needed just for the lab equipment necessary.

We challenge this mayor and the city of Edmonton to raise the equivalence of 30 cents for each member of your community. If very citizen gave us 30 cents we can reach our goal of 10 million dollars.

Despite the dismal showing of the media and government officials we had a very successful meeting at Edmonton City Hall. Paulette Vanoosterom from the Canadian Paraplegic Association arranged for her counterparts in Edmonton to meet with us at City Hall.

Guy Coulombe Manager of client services (Edmonton) arranged for several members to meet with us beside the City Hall.

The group was small due to short notice but it was grand.

We met with the Canadian Paraplegic Officials and were well received by them.  Among their group was Ken Thomas. Ken is an Olympic medal winner . Ken competes in run wheeling and has done so since 1979. After the meeting I received an email from Ken giving us encouragement. Please check out Ken’s site at www.backwheeler.ca.

Just for the record Ken can go faster backwards in his wheelchair @ 12 km/hr than most of us can walk. He practices around the UofA and does 12 km a day. I warned our guys to watch their rear view mirrors for Ken because we don’t want Ken showing these guys up blasting by them in reverse
It was really nice meeting Ken with the group.

We also talked with Edgar Jackson, Client Services Coordinator for the Canadian Paraplegic Association and owner of Safety One 2001 Inc. Edgar it was nice meeting you and I hope you will keep in touch with us on our journey and become another messenger to spread the message.

You can start on your journey with us by passing our contact message ahead along our route to other cities with offices in the Canadian Paraplegic Society so that we can meet as many handicapped people as possible during our journey. Have them call me on my cell phone or email me to set up meetings and we will be there. We enjoy meeting others with disabilities and would like to give them the opportunity to hear our message directly from us.

We also would like to thank Guy Coulombe for advertising our news event and meeting us as well.

Another special meeting for us was with Daniel Palamarek B.A.(Hons), LLB Legal Advisor, Assistant Deputy Minister’s Office Aboriginal Relations, Consultation and Land Claims. Danial is the epitome of what can be accomplished by a person with a spinal cord injury. Thanks for the opportunity to meet with you Daniel and we will push hard to reach our goal of 10 million dollars so that possibly you and I can walk together and talk.

There is so much that all of us can learn from an inspirational person like yourself.

We left Edmonton with mixed thoughts and reflected on the individuals all in chairs that we had just met. I know from talking to the athletes that their cranking across Canada was a small hurdle compared to the hurdles that all of these men have already crossed in dealing with their injuries.

Everyday in a wheel chair is a challenge, getting in and out of vehicles, taking a shower, getting a motel room in which they can use the bathrooms.

What rocket scientist designs motels with doors that open inward against the bathtub. The bathrooms for the most part are small and people in wheelchairs need to be able to access the washrooms in their chairs, place themselves beside the toilet to transfer onto it. Taking a bath or shower is impossible if they cannot get the chair inside the room and close the door. If they could transfer onto the toilet then how do they get into the tub with the door in the way. To close the door the wheelchair has to be pushed outside and then how do you get it back inside after you get out of the tub. Magic just won’t do it for you.

Our last stop[ in this segment of our journey was Vegreville. Vegreville is one of the most beautiful towns we have discovered. It is small about 5000 people and it is clean with well maintained streets and buildings.
Unfortunately Vegreville suffered a major fire as we were driving into town we could see the smoke rising from within the town. The press of course was covering this major event and did not cover our meeting with the mayor.

We met with the mayor outside the town offices Richard Coleman. He was a pleasant person to speak to and we challenged him and his town to become messengers and to try to commit 30 cents on behalf of every member of his community.

Richard speaking as the politician said he would review or site and would explore what avenues were available to get involved. He also is a Rotarian said he would investigate that venue as well.

Even though the non committal politician shone through we felt that Richard displayed the traits of the community he served and his caring nature and huge social conscience stood out in our conversation. His first commitment was to his community and to us strangers he gracefully lent us his ear and kind words as we departed saying he would make no promises but would investigate what could be done within the community to give us financial support and more than that we could not ask at this time.

Again this is the kind of response we expected from a small caring community. Richard Coleman met with us, he listened and he committed to get involved by approaching the service clubs etc. We understand that small communities aren’t always flush with surplus cash and do not expect them to raise taxes in their communities in order to support our cause.

Vegreville is a beautiful town and I could easily find myself living there because of the people we met and the simple beauty of the town.

Thank you Richard for listening and becoming yet another of our messengers.

It’s Late, I have some pictures to attach but will do that tomorrow as it is a long process to do it properly and I will need my good friend Mark Vandermaas to take me through my training exercise one more time on Picture insertion 101.

If anyone is driving around Saskatchewan and sees the guys on the road open your windows so you can hear Chuck sing. He’s actually having fun gliding along the highways enjoying what Canada has to offer even in the 85 degree f heat.

Good night all and I promise I will blog again tomorrow night thanks to a major restructuring of my tasks.