Health and Fitness Tour

A day of reflection on the “Big Push” and on September 11

2004-09-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

9/11 was a terrible tragedy for our country. We reflected today with prayers for those who lost their lives and for comfort for their families. It is important that people remember the loved ones they lost when they where at their brightest, shining with the most love and exhilaration for life, their family, and people around them. No matter what happens it is a waste of time to expend your energy worrying about what you’ve lost, or about negative things that other people think. The important thing is that you have to face things and go forward. You have to be willing to overcome any adversity. It may take time, but you have to make sure that you never quit moving forward for a better life. You have to believe in yourself and give it everything you have and be satisfied with yourself; This is important in every aspect of your life and especially in your health and fitness.
It is a fact that your attitude will control your life. You can allow a positive or a negative attitude to control you. If we can focus on a positive attitude we all can achieve things we never thought possible when it comes to health and fitness. If you’re sedentary right now, stay positive, and you will be able to achieve great things.
The key is, not thinking about what you can’t do, but focusing on what you can. That is why I am doing the tour. To help unite one community at a time to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all. It’s just like the old saying: “winning is not everything, it’s the only thing.” This is especially true when it comes to winning the war on obesity and unhealthy living in America.

We know our country will never be the same, and we now have a new type of war that we must confront. We are battling a war of terrorism not only at home, but also abroad. However there is another war we are waging where even more lives are lost. Now, our new and more insidious enemy threatens to conquer this nation. It is Killing us. It is robbing us of our resources and our productivity – The very things that have always made this the greatest nation on Earth. As a nation, we must take action against this foe. We must act swiftly and with all our might. We are losing over 300,000 lives every year to the enemies of obesity and unhealthy living. Winning this war has been the purpose of my Big Push across America and ultimately my 50 state tour. It is also the purpose of my book: A Nation at War. The intent is to provide people with a battle plan to help people win the war on obesity and unhealthy living in America.

I’m not going to quit doing my best to provide everyone with a battle plan to win this war on obesity and unhealthy living in America, because there is always a way when you never give up!

6 to 8PM – We updated the log, the remainder of the tour photos, and did some other maintenance to the website.

Headed home to Houston

2004-09-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

9AM – We loaded up the trailer and got ready to head home towards Houston. Before we went home we had planned a stop in San Antonio where we were going to get some video work done for the healthandfitnesstour.com website.

12 to 5PM – We stopped in San Antonio and went through the Beta tapes from various TV interviews that I had done throughout the tour.

5:30PM – We went out to eat at a local restaurant and then decided to spend the night in San Antonio because it was getting late.

8PM – We Went to bed.

Meeting with Mayor Flores of Laredo and Offical push over U.S. / Mexican border

2004-09-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Kevin’s Log – 09/09/04 Thursday 6AM CST – Laredo, TX to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Thursday, September 9th is the official push over the Mexican border from Laredo, TX to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico!
Total miles pushed: 4
Total Tour Miles: 2,091!

8:00AM – We got ready to drive to City Hall and meet with the Mayor of Laredo, TX. Rudy Sanchez met us at our hotel once again to show us the way to the Mayor’s office.

9:00AM – We arrived at the Laredo City Hall and I did a couple of interviews as we waited for the meeting with the Mayor.

MEDIA - CBS KVTV TV Channel 13, Univision KLVO TV Channel 27

9:30 to 10:15AM – I met with Mayor Elizabeth “Betty” Flores of Laredo, TX.

10:45AM – I pushed my chair from the Laredo, TX City Hall over the bridge to cross the border into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Half way across the bridge there was a ribbon set up which I broke through to signify the official end to the “Big Push.”

3PM – Dora, Andy, and I went to the market in Nuevo Laredo to buy some gifts for friends and family and to spend some time relaxing in celebration of the completion of the “Big Push”

10PM – We went to bed.

A day full of Media events in Laredo

2004-09-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

MEDIA 6:30AM – TV Interview: NBC Today Morning Show KGNS TV Channel 8 with anchor/reporters Steve Lyerly and Christina Medina.

9AM to 2:30PM – Dora worked on finishing the arrangements for tomorrows meeting with Mayor Flores at City Hall in Laredo, TX

MEDIA 3:00PM - Newspaper Interview with Nancy Martinez: “Laredo Morning Times”
Photo editor Ricardo Santos

9:30 PM – Rudy Sanchez met us at our hotel to drive with us to the KVTV studios. Because the studio was difficult to find, he had offered to come with us so that we would not get lost.

MEDIA 10PM: TV Interview: CBS KVTV TV Channel 13 evening news with anchor Richard Noreiga.

11PM – We went to bed.

Kevin pushes into Laredo with friend Rudy Sanchez

2004-09-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 36

6 to 9AM – Dora and I took care of some miscellaneous tour business. We caught up with some email and updated the website. Dora made some calls to the media, and called the Mayor’s office in Laredo to set up a meeting for Wednesday.

10:30AM – We packed up the trailer and checked out of the hotel in San Antonio. We loaded up in the Jeep and got ready to drive to Encinal, TX where we had ended the push yesterday.

1 to 5:15PM – We reached Encinal, and I got out and got ready to push into Laredo.
Rudy Sanchez, local athlete and fitness trainer from Laredo joined me in biking from Encinal to Laredo. It was 36 miles from Encinal, TX to the city limits of Laredo, TX. We took three breaks along the way. During the breaks, we were met by various media.

MEDIA: KVTV-TV CBS 13 Laredo – Reporter Christina Garcia; KGNS-TV ABC 8 Laredo – Reporter: Mireya Billarreal;
KLDO-TV Univision 27 Laredo – Reporter: Juan Rodriguez;
Newspaper: Laredo Morning Times – Reporter: Nancy Gonzalez.

All of the media did a great job on the interviews. KVTV CBS and the Laredo Morning Times both got a lot of images of me pushing because they drove along side me for a few miles.

6PM – We checked into our hotel in Laredo and spent some time visiting with Rudy and the Sanchez family.

7PM – We took a break for dinner.

8 to 10:30PM – We uploaded and emailed the pictures from the day. We also updated the log and sent a few emails to get ready for tomorrow.

11:30PM – We went to bed.

Happy Labor Day! Today I broke the 2,000 mile barrier on the "BIG PUSH"!

2004-09-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 55
Total miles to date: 1,992

8AM – Dora and I watched church on television. The sermon was about having faith and believing in what you are trying to accomplish.

*Note* When it comes to health and fitness I hope that all people can have faith and believe that they will be able to get fit and in shape.

1 to 7:30PM – I pushed on from San Antonio towards Laredo down the feeder road of I-35. The push took 6 hours with one half our break for food, water, and Gatorade.

I ended the days push at the limits of Pearsall, TX. With today’s miles added I have pushed a total of 1,992 miles so far on The Big Push. I am certain that I will break the big 2,000 mile mark by tomorrow.

7:30PM – We loaded back into the truck and drove back to the Sponsor hotel, Woodfield Suites.

9 to 11PM – We uploaded the days pictures to email to our webmaster, Dody Lira. We updated the log and sent a few emails.

11PM: We went to bed.

I wheeled 55 miles from San Antonio towards Laredo, TX

2004-09-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Kevin has pushed 1,937 miles on the "Big Push" and has approximately 150 miles to go to the Laredo, TX/Mexican boarder

2004-09-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

I have a total 1,937 miles pushed to date! I have approximately 150 miles left to go to the Laredo/Mexican boarder.

8:00AM – We decided to take a little bit of Labor Day break and see the sites in San Antonio.

12 Noon – We had lunch at one of the popular restaurants on the river walk. The restaurant was glad to accommodate our requests for a health meal.

5 to 6:30PM – We continued to work on our regular tasks for the tour. Dora continued to make media contacts, and we made updates to the website.

7PM – Dora and I went to eat a healthy dinner in the Hemisphere restaurant in Hemisphere plaza.

10:30PM – We went to bed.

September 3, 2004 was declared "Kevin Saunders Day" in San Antonio, TX

2004-09-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

7 to 8AM – We packed up to move to another hotel.

11:30AM to 12 Noon – We went to meet with Mayor Pro Tem Richard Perez of San Antonio. I was presented with a proclamation declaring September 3, 2004 Kevin Saunders Day in San Antonio. I presented Mayor Pro Tem Perez with a sculpture thanking them for their commitment to fitness and health for the community of San Antonio and for their support of the Health and Fitness Tour of America.

Mayor Pro Tem Perez told us about how Mayor Ed Garza had started “Fit City” a health and fitness initiative for San Antonio. He told us to find more information by going to http://www.sanantonio.gov/ and looking under the Fit City link.

We told him that we’d like to offer our services to help from the Health and Fitness Tour of America and our partners to help San Antonio to achieve their goals of becoming a healthier city.

MEDIA: 3PM – Newspaper interview with Bill Pack from the San Antonio Express.

4PM – We unloaded the truck and checked into the Woodfield Suites hotel.

7PM – Dora and I went out for a healthy dinner at the River Walk downtown San Antonio.

11:30PM – We went to bed

*Note* I have a total 1,937 miles pushed to date! I have approximately 150 miles left to go to the Laredo/Mexican boarder.

Kevin wheels into San Antonio

2004-09-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 37

7 to 8AM – We packed up the trailer and got ready to push on to San Antonio, TX.

8AM – Dora started making contacts for media in San Antonio.

8:30 to 11:30AM – I pushed 19 miles from New Brunfels to the San Antonio city limits. I ran into construction so I had to get in the vehicle for a couple of miles to bypass it to get back on the feeder road of I-35. When I hit the Anderson Loop the feeder road was stopped and we were only 2 miles from the San Antonio city limits when the feeder road ended, and the traffic got to heavy. We loaded up and drove to downtown San Antonio.

11:30 to 1PM – I took a break for lunch and for water and Gatorade.

1 to 4PM – I pushed around the city of San Antonio. I pushed for 16miles around the Alamo and to the Hemisphere Plaza, as well as to other interesting sites around the city.

4 to 5PM – We went to the hotel and checked in for the evening.

5 to 6PM – We downloaded pictures, and updated the log for the day.

7PM – We went out to dinner for the evening.

10:30PM – We went to bed.

Pushed from Austin to just outside San Antonio, TX

2004-09-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 59

8:00AM - Started pushing towards San Antonio, TX. I pushed on the feeder road of I-35. I ran into some construction where I had to go around, but I got back on the feeder road as soon as I could to keep pushing towards San Antonio.

11:30 to 1PM – We took a break for lunch. I took in a lot of fluids during the break.

1 to 3PM - I kept pushing towards San Antonio so that I could be there on time for the meeting with Mayor Garza of San Antonio at 12:45PM tomorrow.

3 to 4PM – We took another break for water and Gatorade and for some fruit.

4 to 7PM – I continued to push on the feeder road toward San Antonio. Due to the rolling hill country that I pushed through today, I averaged just under 10mph. I ended the push just past New Braunfels, TX at 7PM.

7PM – We loaded up and drove back to our sponsor hotel, Baymont.

8 to 9:30PM – We uploaded the days pictures, and emailed them to our webmaster, Dody. We also worked on updating the log and prepared for meeting with the Mayor’s office in San Antonio tomorrow before 1PM.

Note* Dora was working extra hard on meeting and proclamation with Mayor Garza just a few minutes prior to the city Council meeting at 1:00 PM in San Antonio.

10:30PM – We went to bed.

Meeting with Mayor Wynn of Austin was BIG SUCCESS! Today was declared "Kevin Saunders Day" in Austin, Texas

2004-08-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

6:30AM – We watched the interview that was taped yesterday on KXAN NBC from the hotel room. Kate did a great job with the interview and all of my points from the tour came across clearly.

10AM – We loaded up the truck and got ready to drive to the Governor’s office near the State Capitol Building in Austin

11:30AM to 12:15PM – We had a meeting at the Governor’s office with Heidi McConnell, the Governor’s advisor on budget planning and policy. Heidi accepted a sculpture on behalf of the Governor Rick Perry that I presented from the Health and Fitness Tour of America. I told Heidi about the grassroots initiatives that we were working to start with state, city, and community leaders across America. I showed Heidi our facilitation guide and let her know I would send her copies via the email or on a disk via mail. Heidi was very interested in the information and assured me that she would pass the information on to the Governor. She informed me of the progress of the Governor’s Fitness Council that has worked to have the fast food removed from Texas schools by 2006 then have candy machines removes and then all frying machines by 2008. I congratulated Heidi on their success and also offered a plan for education for children when it comes to health and fitness so they would be able to know how to determine what foods are good for them. I mentioned how successful the DARE program had been in regards to helping kids learn about the negative affects of drugs and how we hoped help communities and states to do something similar with the Health and fitness Tour of America only in this case to help kids learn what adequate exercise and proper nutrition are. Also to provide information that would help all segments of the population from kids to adults so they would be able to figure that out for themselves what’s good, and what they want, once they have a good foundation of easily understood information on health and fitness.

12:30PM – We drove to White Lion Internet Service which was only a few blocks from the Governor’s office. White Lion is the company responsible for the creation of the KevinSaunders.com website. We had a chance to visit with Steve and Daphne while we waited for a file that was being sent to there office.

2:30PM – We returned to the Baymont for a short meal break.

2:45PM – Coach Snyder from K-State University called to commend me on what I am doing on the Big Push and on what I plan to do on the 50 state tour. I told him of my battle plan to get America Fit and motivated. I told him that as I was pushing across the country that there were days when the index was over 110 degrees that I thought of the Kansas State Football players and how hard those young men work and how much they sacrifice to enable Kansas State to remain one of the best teams in the country. I also

3:30 to 4:15PM – Meeting with Mayor Wynn was a BIG SUCCESS! We Met with Mayor Wynn of Austin at the Municipal Building on 8th St. Mayor Wynn told me about all of the great health and fitness initiatives that he had already helped create in Austin. I showed him our facilitation guide and told him that it might help him create some new ideas to help him and his Austin in Motion program designed to help the city of Austin to reach their goal of being the fittest city in America by 2006. Mayor Wynn was very enthusiastic, and truly has a winning spirit about health and fitness and about improving his city. He has a great program in place called http://www.austininmotion.com/ that has virtually the whole city involved in making Austin, TX one of the fittest cities to live in America. I applauded Mayor Wynn’s goal enthusiasm and energy and goal to have Austin, TX become the fittest city in America in 2006!

5PM – We drove by the KXAN studio to pick up a Beta tape that we had left with them to dub a copy of the interview they had done with me yesterday morning.

6 to 10PM – We worked on sending emails, making contacts, updating the log, and emailing photos.

10:30PM – We went to bed..

Media- KXAN NBC TV Interview and then pushing from Bastrop to Austin Airport

2004-08-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 27

MEDIA: 9AM – TV interview with KXAN TV Channel 36 NBC; Reporter – Kate Weidaw and her husband Nathan, the photographer, did a great interview. Kate and Nathan told us that they had just moved to Austin, TX four months ago from Pittsburg, PA. I told Nathan that he wouldn’t be seeing any snow storms or blizzards in this part of the country, so he could rest easy about that. He said the great weather was one of the reasons they had moved to Houston.

9:30 to 11:30AM – I pushed 17 miles from Bastrop, TX to near the Austin airport on highway 71. We stopped at the airport because the traffic was very heavy, and there was no shoulder at all on the side of the road.

11:45 – We loaded up and came back to our sponsor Baymont hotel.

1 to 2:30PM – I pushed 10 miles around downtown Austin and the State Capitol.
1 to 5PM – Dora followed up with the media (television, newspapers, and radio) in Austin, San Antonio, and Laredo. She also followed up with the Mayor’s and Governor’s office in Austin, as well as the Mayor’s offices’ in San Antonio and Laredo.

2 to 7PM – Andy and I updated the activities, the log, the pictures, and the map for the healthandfitnesstour.com website.

A day off from pushing, checking the route for tomorrow

2004-08-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

11AM – We drove down HWY 71, which turns into Ben White Blvd., into Austin. We checked the route to see what would be the best way to push into Austin tomorrow.

12 Noon – We stopped for lunch and then continued on to our sponsor Hotel, Baymont.

1PM – We unloaded the trailer for the next couple of nights and checked into the Baymont Hotel in Round Rock, TX.

2 to 8PM – We uploaded pictures, updated the log, and made other updates for the website. We had gotten behind over the last couple of days because of all the work that needed to be done on my book and with contacting media for the tour.

7 to 8PM – I watched the closing ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. It’s always kind of a bitter-sweet thing to me to see the closing ceremonies. I know as an athlete, that most athletes are relieved when the pressures of the games are over. Some athletes however, may like another chance. The beautiful magnificence of how the ceremonies end is reminiscent of how they began.
The most important thing in the Olympic games is not winning, but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering, but fighting well. “Buron de Coubertin”, The Olympic Creed.

8 to 11PM – I did some more revisions to A Nation at War. Since I had just watched the ending of the Olympics, I thought it would be good to start off my book with a good quote:

“The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.” –W.J. Davidson

The reason that I chose this quote is because one thing that I’ve noticed on the Big Push and Health and Fitness Tour of America is that so few people have really done any planning in regards to their health and fitness. This quote really talks about planning in life in general, but now that 2/3 of our society has become either out of shape, over weight, or obese, it will soon be a necessity for people to plan for their life long health and fitness needs and work more on prevention and health problems. If our society continues to move in the same direction it is currently, it won’t be much longer before our entire health care system as we know it could collapse. It is my hope that my tour, and book will have a positive impact on many people’s lives and serve as an important wake up call for them to start to make time for health and fitness activities and education.

Giddings, TX to Bastrop, TX

2004-08-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 48

7 to 8AM – We loaded up the truck and got ready to push on to Bastrop, TX on the way to Austin.

8:30 to 11AM – I pushed on down HWY 77 for 18 miles into La Grange, TX. We decided to take HWY 77 because we ran into some heavy traffic and construction on HWY 290. There were a few slight hills which slowed my average mph down just below 10.

11AM to 12 Noon – We took a lunch break and I drank a lot of fluids for hydration.

Noon to 4PM – I continued to push from La Grange onto Bastrop, TX. There continued to be some slight hills, but I still managed to make good time. When we got to the edge of the city of Bastrop we hit some heave traffic so we pulled over and decided to stop for the day.
4PM – We loaded up the truck and checked into our hotel for the evening. We took a break for dinner and then resumed our work.

6 to 11PM – Dora continued to work on media and events for the rest of the tour while I continued to work on correcting my book.

11:30 PM – We went to bed.

Chapplle Hill, TX to Giddings, TX

2004-08-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 39

7 to 8AM – We loaded up the truck and got ready to continue the push towards Austin.

8:30 to 10AM – I pushed for five miles from Chappell Hill into Brenham, TX. We looked around the town of Brenham, TX and took some pictures in town. We went by Blinn Junior College to see where Michael Bishop had led Blenn Jr. College to two national Jr. College championships in 1995 and 96. I had come to know Michael through my work with the K-State football team when he came there to be our starting quarterback in 1997. At Kansas State in 1998, Michael had led us within 2 double overtimes of a trip to the national championship game with Tennessee. Michael is now leading the Toronto Grand Rapids Rampage team to victory. He threw a 67 yard touch down pass for a victory on Aug 25, 2004. Way to go Michael!

10 to 12 Noon – I continued to push from Brenham toward Giddings, TX for fifteen minuets through the rolling hills of Texas. The hills made my average mph a little less than I had expected.

12 Noon to 1PM – We took an hour break for lunch and fluids.

1 to 4:30PM – I continued to push on towards Giddings. The scenery on the way was really breathtaking. We stopped along the way for two different breaks to get water and Gatorade, and to take in the beautiful landscape.

4:30PM – We loaded up the truck and headed on towards our hotel for the evening.

6PM to 12 Midnight – We took a break for a healthy dinner and then got back to work. Dora continued to work on media contacts for the remainder of the tour while I worked on revising my book. I realized that in order to get my book up to par I would have to put a tremendous amount of time into revisions and updating the book up to a very high standard. I found that there was still a lot of information that I felt would be important to people. The book is taking a lot of time on this tour, but I feel that it is necessary, and worthwhile.

12:15 – We went to bed.

Houston to Chapplle Hill

2004-08-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 47

7 to 8AM – We packed up the trailer and the Jeep and got ready to push on towards Austin.

8:30 to 9:30AM – I went to meet with my trainer and owner of HealthSpan, Robert Davenport to get some input on my new book, A Nation at War. Also present was Wayne Hunt, owner of Pfit, and also an instructor of personal trainers. Wayne and I discussed some key elements that would enable this book to be a great help and influence for people across America battling with obesity and unhealthy lifestyles which accounts for 2/3 of our population. Robert gave me some suggestions about improving the content of the book, and also about the arrangement of information. Robert and Wayne told me that they would keep working on ideas, and I told them I would do the same. I told them that I had to leave to head on towards Austin.

9:45AM – We hit loop 610 and the feeder road on HWY 290 as I started my push towards Austin, TX. I pushed for three hours and covered approximately thirty miles at 10mph through the slightly rolling hills.

12:45 to 2PM – We took a break for lunch and drank a lot of fluids.

2PM – I pushed on for another 17 miles to Chappell Hill. Along the way we passed a historical monument for Washington County, the first county in Texas. We took a water break at the line to Washington County and then loaded up for the day.

4:30PM – We loaded up the truck and drove to our hotel for the night.

6PM – We finished unpacking for the night and took a break for dinner.

7 to 10:30PM - Dora worked on media contacts in Austin, San Antonio, and Laredo. I continued to work on revising A Nation at War, and Andy helped me.

11PM – We went to bed.

Media events in Houston

2004-08-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 25

5:30AM – We got ready and drove to the KHOU CBS TV station in Houston where I was appearing on the morning news program.

MEDIA: 7:30AM – I had an interview with Channel 11 KHOU CBS anchor, Debora Duncin. Debora did a great job with the interview and I was able to speak about all of the major points of the tour including the fact that I would be working with Houston Community leaders to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens in the Houston community. Debora joked that the bad thing about having me on the show was that now she could not have any excuses for getting in better shape. She told me about how she had recently had a child and was using that as a reason to slack on her fitness, but after meeting me she would not be able to use that excuse anymore.

8:30AM – We returned to the apartment. Dora sent email to media and city offices in the Austin area while I made some phone calls.

9AM – We uploaded, resized, named, and emailed the photos from today’s interview at KHOU.

9:30AM to 1PM – Andy continued to work on creating files for our newspaper clippings while Dora ran some errands and continued to work on making contacts in the Austin area and I worked on editing my book, A Nation at War.

MEDIA : 9:50AM – I had a phone interview with Palestine, TX radio station KNET 1450AM host Gary Richards.

12 Noon – We took a break for lunch.

1 to 3:30 PM I pushed another 25 miles at Memorial Park to stay loose. This is also where I had trained to prepare for the “BIG PUSH”

4 to 7 PM – I continued to edit my book, A Nation at War. Dora continued to work on media for Austin and to look into contacts for San Marcos and San Antonio. I finished editing my book and emailed it to Phil Elmore for a final review.

7 to 9PM – Dora and Andy went to buy groceries and office supplies and to run some general errands.

9:30PM – We went to bed.

Today was Kevin Saunders Day in Houston, TX

2004-08-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Declared Kevin Saunders Day in Houston, TX by Mayor Bill White

Total miles pushed: 25

7:30AM – We drove to the Conroe City Hall

9AM – I received a proclamation from Mayor Tommy Metcalf of Conroe that declared Monday August 23, 2004 Kevin Saunders Day in Conroe, TX.

11 to 11:30PM – We drove to Print Power, a local print shop that was scanning our oversized proclamations and newspaper articles. We waited for the scans and then took a short break for lunch before driving to the Houston City Hall.

12:30PM – We drove to the Houston City Hall where I would be presented with a proclamation declaring August 24, 2004 Kevin Saunders Day in Houston, TX.

12:45PM – I received a proclamation from Mayor Bill White proclaiming August 24, 2004 Kevin Saunders Day in Houston, TX.

2PM – We drove back to Print Power to have them scan in the newly received proclamation from Houston. Igor and the staff at Print Power really did a great job with the scans, and they were even able to scan the Houston proclamation while we waited.

2:30 to 5 PM – Went to Memorial Park and pushed 25 miles to keep arms loose.

3 to 11PM – We returned to the apartment and continued to work on updating the website and contacting media. I emailed Dody Lira all of the new scans that we had from Print Power. Because I liked thought that Print Power did such a great job on setting up the newspaper scans, I asked Andy to make all of our other newspaper scans look like the ones they did for us. He worked on that, while Dora and I continued to work on media contacts, computer maintenance, and editing my book.

12PM – We uploaded, resized, named, and emailed all of the days pictures to our webmaster Dody Lira.

12:30PM – We went to bed.

Today was Kevin Saunders Day in Conroe, TX

2004-08-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Declared Kevin Saunders Day in Conroe, TX by Mayor Tommy Metcalf
Total miles pushed: 25

8AM to 3PM – We caught up our thank you letters, and also worked on some computer and website updates.

1PM – Dora made calls to prepare for tomorrows meeting with Mayor White of Houston where I would be presenting him with a sculpture on behalf of the Health and Fitness Tour of America and a copy of my book.
Dora also made calls to media including Television stations, newspapers, and radio stations.

1 to 3:30 PM – Went to Memorial park to out in 25 miles to work out soreness.

4 to 6:30PM - We went to a local print shop, Print Power, to scan all of the articles and proclamations that were too large to scan on our scanner. We got those files ready to put up on the healthandfitnesstour.com website.

7 to 9PM – We cleaned out the trailer and unpacked some items that we decided we would be able to leave in Houston. We reorganized the trailer and changed out some boxes that were worn for new boxes.

9 to 11PM – I worked on different components of updating the healthandfitnesstour.com website.

11:30 – We went to bed.

A great day of church and spiritual reflection

2004-08-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

9:30AM – Dora and I left for the Lakewood Church in Houston. The Pastor was Joel Osteen. He spoke about how we’ve all been approved and accepted by God before we were even born. God knows our hearts, and he knows when we’re trying to do our best. He spoke about how anything is possible with God. We shouldn’t have a “poor old me” attitude, because God has put more in us than we can even imagine. Nothing will keep you from going forward faster than wallowing in your own mistakes.

Everybody criticized Michelangelo when he started chiseling on a big piece of rock. They asked him what he was going to make out of a big ugly piece of rock, to which he replied that he saw a beautiful angel trapped inside.
In the same way that Michelangelo chipped away at the rock, God will continue to chip away at us until he finds the beautiful angel within.
God loves us with an unconditional love, even though some of us have made poor choices. God will never walk away from you, regardless of the choices you’ve made, that is unconditional love. Don’t let your value be based on how people treat you. Don’t let the rejection by other people cause you to reject yourself. You are one of God’s masterpieces, and no matter what happens, God can help you turn it around. Quit being against yourself, there are enough things and people in this world that are against you that you need to go forward and be bold by making better choices. Quit looking at how far you have to go, and start looking at how far you have come.

*Note* This really touched my heart and what I am trying to do for people across America with the Health and Fitness Tour. I am trying to inspire people to make better choices when it comes to health and fitness by working with city, community, and state leaders to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all by providing clear and easy to understand information when it comes to health and fitness. The word inspiration is derived from Greek words which mean to light the spirit of someone from within through God.

After the service I met Pastor Joel Osteen and told him that he was a great inspiration to me. He truly is an inspiration to millions of people in America and across the world. He definitely may be the next Billy Graham. I gave him a copy of my book. I told him that watching his sermons on TV while we were on the road had been a great blessing to us on our tour. He thanked me and offered his blessings to us and what we were trying to do for the American people in terms of fitness and health.

Phillip Garcia and Mack Cervera, deacons of the Lakewood Church, both prayed for us and asked for God to heal my spine so I will be able to walk and run again someday. We talked about how we have to be ready everyday of our lives to receive God’s gifts.

All afternoon was an inspiration and a blessing to Dora and I. We left the Lakewood Church rejuvenated and ready to complete our mission on the Big Push, and ultimately the 50 state tour.

2PM – We took a rest on Sunday afternoon.

8 to 10PM – We worked on getting our next few days planned out in Houston. We also updated our log and did some general computer maintenance.

10:30PM - We went to bed.

Pushing from Conroe to Houston

2004-08-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 34

7 to 8AM – We loaded up the truck and got ready to push on to Houston.

8:30 to 1PM – I pushed as far as I could from Conroe toward Houston until the traffic was too bad to continue on. When the traffic was getting too dangerous I got in the Jeep and we drove to our apartment, on Memorial Drive and International Blvd just outside loop 610 right by I-10, where we would be staying for the next several days.

2 to 3PM - We unpacked and unloaded the trailer.

4 to 7:30PM – Dora and I went to some appointments in Houston and caught up on some business that we had to take care of.

8 to 11PM – I sent emails and tried to bring everything up to speed on the websites and the log.

12 Midnight – We went to bed.

Pushing with my good friend Tom Rupakus from Huntsville, TX to Conroe, TX

2004-08-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed 34

7 to 8AM – We loaded up to get ready to drive back to Huntsville and push to Conroe.

8AM – I went out into the lobby to meet Tom Rupakus, a wheel chair friend of mine who rides a hand-cycle. We took him along and drove back to Huntsville.

When we were in Huntsville we picked up some newspapers. The reporter, Kurt Allen, did a great job on the story. He covered the points that the tour hopes to get people excited about health and fitness and to demand healthy food and places to exercise and be active regularly. There was a picture of me on the front page of The Huntsville Item.

9:30AM – We started our push on the feeder road in Huntsville along I-45. We took two breaks for 15 minuets each and arrived at the hotel at 1:30PM. We averaged around 10mph.

*Note* I took it easy to day and took the chance to visit with Tom and see the great scenery. One thing that always amazes me every time I see it is the great statue of Sam Houston which stands on the feeder road going north along I 45. The statue stands 67 feet tall, it is an incredible site to behold and a tribute to a great man and the legacy he left in Texas. The 25-ton steel-and-concrete colossus is comprised of 10-foot sections, each containing five layers of concrete reinforced with steel straps. The outside layer includes a fiberglass mesh.

Tom and I had a chance to visit. Since I was taking it easy we averaged just around 10mph with the hand-cycles. Tom shared with me how he never was an athlete, but he still enjoys exercising. When we discussed health and fitness, Tom shared his views on how it’s not all about being an athlete, but how it’s more about getting involved and having fun when you exercise, because not every one is meant to be an athlete. The important lesson we can share with people all around America is that we all can exercise at some level and improve our health and fitness.

1:30PM – We hand-cycled into the Baymont hotel in Conroe. We visited for a little while as we waited for the media, but big meth lab bust story broke, and the editor said that he had to send the reporter and photographer there. We remarked on how sad it was when drugs are more important and bigger news than someone who’s traveling across America working to improve the health and fitness of our citizens, communities, and our Country.

2:30PM - We took a picture in front of the Baymont sign at I-45 with the Conroe Baymont hotel manager, Robyn Gonzales.

3PM – Tom got in his truck and headed back for his home near Galveston in San Leon, TX.
3 to 5PM - Dora and I came in to the room and started working on sending emails to the media in the Houston area. We sent emails to the newspapers, television stations, radio stations, as well as to the Mayor’s office.

5:30 to 8:30PM – We worked on the log and on downloading the pictures and sending email updates to our webmaster, Dody Lira.

8:30 to 10PM – I took Dora out to eat a health dinner since we had a pretty tough week.

11:30PM – We went to bed.

Kevin Saunders Day in Huntsville, TX

2004-08-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Declared Kevin Saunders Day in Huntsville, TX
Total miles pushed: 47

7 to 8AM – We loaded the truck, checked out of the hotel, and got ready to move on to the next town.

*Note* It was pouring rain in the morning and it looked like it was going to hold up for the day.

8 to 10:30AM – Dora made calls to the media and city officials in Huntsville, Conroe, and Houston. I worked with my webmasters to try to get the php coding updated on my online store at Kevinsaunders.com. We also had to put a link up at healthandfitnesstour.com to make it possible for people to get to the online store. There were a lot of issues to work out with the sites, so I called for the help of my friends, Brandon Richards and Dody Lira.

10:30AM – We drove from Athens to Jacksonville and then through Palestine and onto Corinth. It was an 89 mile drive that took an hour and a half.

12 Noon – I ate a granola bar and an apple in the truck and got ready to push.

12:30 – 5PM – I pushed right down HWY 75 into Huntsville and up to the Walker County Courthouse where I had a meeting with Mayor Steed Smith of Huntsville.

Mayor Smith commented to the reporter from the Huntsville Item Newspaper that he thought it was a great thing that I was doing in pushing my wheelchair across America and ultimately all 50 states to help unite the communities to create lasting health and fitness initiatives and make it so that the people and citizens in communities all across America would demand proper nutrition and balanced meals. He used the comparison of how now you can go to the restaurants and order low carb meals because people started to ask for it and now restaurants are offering it. He said he thought it would be better if people started asking for health well balanced meals. And if people in the communities started asking for places to exercise and be active to stay health.

*Note* Mayor Steed Smith mentioned that Chuck Norris’ Ranch, “Lone Wolf”, was about 30 miles from Huntsville. I told him about how Chuck Norris and I knew each other. I also commented on how I was a fan of his show, “Walker Texas Ranger.” The monument that was right at the front of the Walker County Court House was dedicated to Samuel Walker, one of the first Texas Rangers in 1836. We thought that’s probably the person that Chuck Norris plays in the series when he goes back in time in his show “Walker Texas Ranger.”

I presented Mayor Steed with a certificate from the Kevin Saunders Health and Fitness Tour of America and an autographed copy of my book, “There’s Always a Way.”
The Mayor had a proclamation prepared for me naming today Kevin Saunders Day in Huntsville.

MEDIA Present: The Huntsville Item: Photographer – Richard Nira; Reporter – Kurt Allen

6PM – We got back in the Jeep and drove for about 30 minutes to our sponsor hotel Baymont in Conroe, TX right of I-45.

6:45 to 7PM – We checked in and unloaded the trailer for the night.

8PM – We downloaded the pictures from the day and emailed them to our webmaster.

9 to 10:30PM – I took Dora out to the Salt Grass Restaurant for a healthy meal.

12 Midnight – We went to bed.

Another day of pushing from Palestine, TX to Corinth, TX

2004-08-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 42

8AM – We drove from Athens to Palestine and pushed from there to HWY 75, 34 miles. With the slightly rolling hills it took 3.5 hours.

11:30AM to 1:30 PM – I took a 2 hour break for fluids and a small snack.

1:30PM - I continued to push on down HWY 75 for 8 miles to Corinth. The hills were a little less steep so I was able to get back into a steady average speed. The push took around 45 minutes.

*Note* During the day Dora continued to call and make media contacts in Houston as well as try to contact Mayor White of Houston.

2:30 PM – We drove back to Palestine to do a newspaper interview.

3:45 PM- MEDIA: Interview with The Palestine Herald Press; Reporter Mary Rainwater
Andy took a picture for Mary, and we told her that we would email it to her when we got back to our hotel in Athens. We had one more night in Athens before we moved on to our sponsor Baymont hotel in Conroe, TX.
Media: KYYK 98.3 AM; Set up interview with Patty Underwood.

4:15 PM – We left a copy of my book and some brochures about the tour with the office of State Senator Todd Staples from district 3. Senator Staples’ assistant said that the senator was really into health and fitness and that he would be sorry that he missed us.

4:30PM – We drove for just under 2 hours to get back to our hotel in Athens.

6:15 PM – We got back to the hotel and took a break for a healthy meal.

7 to 10 PM – We worked on the log and the www.healthandfitnesstour.com website and the www.kevinsaunders.com website. We uploaded pictures, and I worked on editing my book.

11 PM – We went to bed.

A long difficult push from Athens, TX to Palestine, TX

2004-08-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 66

8 AM - I pushed from Athens to Jacksonville, TX for 40 miles. It was really slow going from Athens to Jacksonville because there were a lot of rolling hills to slow down the overall speed.

*note* While we were taking a break on the way to Jacksonville Brent Bumpas stopped by and gave us a donation. We gave him some flyers. He said that he really admired what I was doing and that he would pass out the flyers at his work and at his church.

11:30AM to 12:30 PM - I took a break for water, Gatorade, and an apple for 1 hour.

12:30 to 1:30 PM - I then continued on from Jacksonville to Palestine for 26 more miles.

Media: The Athens Daily Review; Reporter Brad Bennett.

5 PM – We stopped on the way back to meet the Mayor in Jacksonville before we returned to our hotel in Athens. After several tries at reaching his office we finally found out that the Mayor was out of town, so we loaded up and drove back to the hotel.

Media: Jacksonville Daily Progress; Editor – Larry Krantz

6:15 PM – We returned to the hotel and took a break for a healthy meal.

7PM to 11:30PM – We downloaded pictures, sent email to our webmaster Dody Lira, worked on my book cover with Insight Publishing, the publishing company for my two books that are coming out: “A Nation at War” and “Conversations in Health and Wellness.”

12 Midnight – We went to bed.

From Dallas to Athens, TX

2004-08-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 53

8:30 AM - I met with a couple of my friends, Rick Gore, Chris Cooper, and Jan Mattern, from the Dallas area who were at one time the greatest wheelchair athletes in the world. They are still into health and fitness and they now race hand cycles. They agreed to push some of the miles with me on my way to Houston. We pushed 20 miles on the hand cycles. It was really inspirational to see my old friends again that I had trained with for the games back in the 80’s and 90’s. They were in great shape and still working out. They said they hadn’t pushed a racing wheelchair in several years now. They were strictly hand cycling. They said hand cycling was less stressful on the shoulders, and it was more like floating compared to pushing a racing wheelchair. Andy can attest to that, because he tried to catch him, but they just flew off and left even though they were arm powering their vehicles.

1 PM – I pushed on to Kaufam, TX on HWY 175 for 5 miles. I then pushed another 28 miles onto Athens, TX.

5 PM – We checked into the hotel and unloaded the trailer for the evening.

7 to 11:30 PM – I worked on editing my book as well as updating the website, downloading photos, and sending out emails, etc.
12 Midnight – We went to bed.

A day of reflection

2004-08-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

9:30 to 10:30AM – Dora and I watched church on the television.

11 AM - I took today to reflect back on the tour.

It is a great privilege to travel around this incredible country and see the things that people can accomplish when they work together for a common goal like creating lasting health and fitness initiatives by providing clear and easy to understand information for all people in their communities. It is indeed an honor to be able to work with the city and community leaders to provide resources and tools to help create those lasting health and fitness initiatives and especially pushing down the highways across America to inspire and motivate all Americans to get fit. I know we can win this war working together and helping one another to be the best we can be.

Overall it has been very rewarding and I feel that we are really making a difference when we take the battle against obesity and unhealthy living to the communities, where people live, work, and play. The challenge of course, is having to take over the entire tour while on the road. The most important thing that I learned from the added stress of redoing the website, taking over the media and city contacts, and taking over the routes on top of pushing the miles is to leave the past of this past week of the most challenging times behind me. The past is the past and there’s nothing I can do to change it, but I do have the power to change the future by letting go of the past and letting God take over. I can stay mad about the added stress and work that his been added to me, or I can look ahead and look forward to new doors and opportunities. It reminded me of people who have struggles with weight and unhealthy living. Even though they may think there’s no chance for them, and that they may be depressed and living in the past of the way they have been living, they need to focus on the future and what they want to achieve and doors will open for them. On this tour we are trying to open doors for people across America when it comes to health and fitness.

We took the afternoon to rest and get ready to leave Monday morning for Houston.

10:30 PM – We went to bed.

A bit of rest and some routine maintenance

2004-08-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

8AM to 5PM – We took care of a lot of errands. Andy and Dora did laundry, and ran errands to Wal-Mart and Best Buy. I continued to work and send emails to Dody Lira so that we could get the healthandfitnesstour.com website updated.
Andy and I had sent just under 200 pictures into Dody to update to the healthandfitnesstour.com website. We also sent an updated press kit document, a current activities page to be updated, and many other corrections and additions for the site.

6PM – Dora and Andy washed the Jeep.

7PM – Dora and I went to eat dinner at the Salt Grass restaurant since they serve the food with no butter and no oil. It is very important to be able to eat at restaurants where you know what you are getting when you order it.

10:30 PM – Went to bed.

Kevin Saunders Day in Dallas, TX

2004-08-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

Friday August 13, 2004 was Declared Kevin Saunders Day in Dallas, TX

8AM to 12PM – We made some contacts with the media and Mayor White’s office in the Houston area. We also contacted the Mayor’s office in Conroe, TX.
I worked on my final edit of “A Nation at War.” I also tried to get some opinions from the publisher and some of the top PR marketing people about final changes to the draft and cover design.

1 to 3 PM – Dora was still trying to make a final contact with CBS and a couple of newspapers in Dallas, but she did not get a response.

3:30 PM – We departed for Mayor Laura Miller’s office in downtown Dallas, TX.

4:20 PM – We arrived at city hall and went directly up to Mayor Miller’s office on the 4th floor. There I met with Sheila Stokes the head of “Lighten up Big D” in Dallas, Jessica Rios, the Mayor’s scheduler, and Crayton Webb, the Mayor’s chief of staff. They all greeted me enthusiastically. Crayton asked me how the tour was going since he last saw me. I told him the tour was going well, that there were some challenges, but that there are always challenges when you try to accomplish anything worthwhile in life.
Sheila Stokes presented me with a proclamation in Mayor Laura Miller’s office. We took some pictures in her office, and also in front of the seal of the city of Dallas.
I talked with Sheila Stokes about how we could work closer together with their efforts in “Lighten up Big D” to help create lasting health and fitness initiatives and help make Dallas a healthier place to live for everyone in the Dallas community.

5:30 PM – We went to West End Market in Dallas for dinner at the Newport Seafood restaurant. They had great food. Our server James, and the manager Cheryl took great care of us. When she found out that Mayor Miller had named today Kevin Saunders day in Dallas she told us that there would be no charge for our meals and congratulated us for our efforts on the tour. I signed a copy of my book “There’s Always a Way” for her and thanked her for her great Southern hospitality.

7:30PM – We drove back from downtown Dallas to our Baymont sponsor hotel in Grapevine.

8PM – Opening Ceremony for the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, Greece - This was a special evening for me to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics since I have had the privilege to personally be present in 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, and 1996 Atlanta. This years Olympics are especially noteworthy because the modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896, and now they are returning to Greece in 2004 for the first time since their inception. The Olympics and Paralympics represents the real life drama of the human mind, body and spirit breaking barriers, transcending limits and reaching new heights of excellence, achievement, and possibility. This is exactly what we want to achieve with the health and fitness tour of America in winning the war on obesity and unhealthy living by working with communities and challenging the city and community leaders and citizens to transcend current limits and break barriers by adopting life long health and fitness initiatives for all.

In the Olympics, records are always broken. There is always somebody who is going to run faster, jump higher, and perform at a new level. Our health and fitness tour is about proving tools to communities and people across America to help them break the barriers and win the war on obesity and unhealthy living.

10 PM – We went to bed.

Securing a Meeting with Mayor Laura Miller's Office

2004-08-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

8AM to 12 PM – We continued to work on media contacts and worked on getting a definite date on going to Mayor Laura Miller’s office. Dora heard back from John Pronk at ABC. He basically said the same thing as NBC had told us. He was interested in the story, but his schedule was too full at the moment for him to be able to cover it.

1 to 4 PM – We found out that we would be going to the Mayor’s office late Friday afternoon to receive a proclamation. We also found out, that it was too late to do any media in the 4th largest media market in the nation. Media in a market this large need at least two weeks advanced notice to do a story. This is a valuable lesson to learn as we move towards Houston.

5 PM – We met with the general manager of the Grapevine Baymont, Peggy Chavez. We talked about the tour and about the importance of health and fitness. She told us that she was working very hard to keep in shape after having her son, Cutter. She told us that she had never had a problem with weight before, but now she was beginning to struggle with it. I asked her if she would like to be a pen pal of the tour and make a real effort to win her battle. We told her that we greatly appreciated her allowing us to stay and we took a picture with her in front of the Baymont sign at the Baymont hotel in Grapevine.

5:30 PM – Dora and I departed the Baymont hotel to meet with Kimbal Simpson and his wife Janie at the Remington’s Seafood restaurant in Addison, TX. Kim has been a long time friend of mine since college. He is now a successful attorney of over 30 years in Garland, TX. We visited about our families, and had a great meal reminiscing about great times.

9:30 PM – We headed back to our Baymont, hotel.

10:30 PM – We went to bed.

Working for Media in Dallas

2004-08-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

8 AM – Today we really threw all of our efforts into contacting the media, and into getting the website back up and running. Dora sent out multiple faxes to all of the local television and radio stations, as well as to all of the newspapers in the area. Dora got a response from NBC, who informed her that they were interested in the story, but because we had not contacted them earlier, they would not have time to cover the story.

11 AM – I was able to speak with Joshua Robbins from Serafin and Associates. I asked him if he knew of any firms in the Dallas area that I would be able to work with to help me finish out the Big Push in Texas. He said he knew of a firm. He told me about Laurey Peat from a local firm. He said he would call her and have her call me.

1:30 PM - I started working with Dody Lira who is a computer technician, and was going to be the webmaster for the healthandfitnesstour.com website. He said that he would be able to help me get the site fully functional so that all of the links would connect and that he would correct the errors that were currently on the site. We would also have to change the contact information on the site since my crew was the only crew on the tour now and we needed a home base. We provided my permanent address at 403 Delaware St in Downs, KS.

2:30 PM – I spoke with CPA Gayle Dornfeld about her taking over the Kevin Saunders Health and Fitness Foundation which is the non profit entity that operates the tour. Since she handle the Coastal Bend Community Foundation which is an umbrella organization for many non profit organizations, she said that handling The Health and Fitness Foundation would not be a problem. However, since she is located in Corpus Christ Texas, she instructed me to call Bank of America and open an account for the Kevin Saunders Health and Fitness Foundation. She also told me to get a lock box to which checks that we received from donors could be sent and deposited on a regular basis. I told her that I would take care of that immediately.

4 PM - I called Mayor Laura Miller of Dallas’ office and spoke with her assistant. She said it would greatly help if I would send her some samples of proclamations that I had received in other cities on my tour across America. I told her that I would try sending one via email, and also via fax so that she would be sure to get a couple of samples.
4:30 to 6 PM – Dora and I continued to try and contact other media in the area by phone, email, and fax.

6:30 to 9 PM – Dora and I discussed how we could work to get media and continue to have a positive impact on the communities that we go through, not only with the media, but with the community leaders and citizens.

10 PM – We went to bed.

Edgewood, TX to the outskirts of Dallas, TX

2004-08-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 42

7 to 9 PM – We packed up the trailer and continued to work on making media contacts in Dallas.

12 PM – We drove back toward Edgewood so that I could make up some miles. We stopped at an auto body shop where Andy borrowed a ladder to fix the safety light that was out on the top of our trailer. After it was fixed we drove to where I needed to start pushing.

1 to 6PM – I resumed the push from outside of Edgewood to outskirts of Dallas, TX. The heat index was over 100 degrees and there were continuous rolling hills.

*Note* We had tried yesterday, and earlier in the day today to contact the Mayor of Terrell, but the Mayor was out of town. We were told that there would be no one available to accept a certificate from the Health and Fitness Tour of America on behalf of the Mayor.

6:30 PM – We decided to move on towards Dallas and check into our sponsor hotel Baymont in Grapevine, TX.

*Note* While I was pushing, Dora continued to try to get a hold of the right people from the media in Dallas. She had little luck, mostly getting voicemail boxes.

7 to 7:45PM – We unloaded the trailer and checked into the Baymont.
Dora met the general manager of the hotel, Peggy Chavez. Peggy was very excited to have us stay with their hotel on our tour across America. Peggy said that she would be willing to help us in any way that she could.

8PM – As soon as we got unloaded, Garry Jones, and his wife Debby were ready at the hotel to take us out to dinner. Garry was also a rugby player, and has put together a youth rugby team in the DFW Metroplex area for kids aged 12 to 18. Garry and his wife Debby are very good friends with Gary Kennedy and his wife Lydia from Shreveport.
The rugby fraternity of brothers is a great one which has connections virtually all over the world.
Garry and Debbie Jones showed us a great evening in the Dallas area.

11:30 PM – We got back to the sponsor hotel Baymont, and went to bed.

Mineola, TX to Edgewood, TX

2004-08-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 37

7 AM – We started making calls. I called Verio and found out that our website wasn’t completely loaded because all of the files had not been completely transferred from the other server. The two files that were missing were the .swfs files, which are the Flash files on the home page, and the .pdf files, which were all letters, proclamations, photo album, the map, and press kit from the web page.
I immediately started making calls to try and get these documents transferred. The technician from Verio told me that it would only take a couple of minutes to transfer these files.

8 AM to12 PM – We started to call the media and make contacts in the Dallas area. We called several television stations and newspapers and left voicemail messages, but did not receive a response.

9 AM – The website was working great. All that was missing now were a few files to update such as the map, the log, a few pictures, press release, and donate form.

12:30 PM – I pushed from Mineola to through of Edgewood through the rolling hills of Texas. The push took about 3 hours and 30 minuets.

4 PM – We drove a La Quinta Hotel in Terrell, TX off of I-20. We were happy to discover that the hotel had a high speed internet connection.

*NOTE* It was extremely hot out today, over 100 degrees with the heat index! We did not have any luck with meeting any Mayors in the smaller towns that we pushed through. We did not receive any calls from media contacts in Dallas.*

5 to 6PM – We unloaded the trailer and unpacked in the hotel. We sent a few emails and got organized for the next day.

10 PM – We went to bed.
The stress of now having the entire weight of the tour on us, wore me down early today. Not only would I have to push and meet with mayors and do media, but we also now had to make all of the media contacts and contacts with city officials on our own. We also had to make sure that the web site stayed current, and try to make sure that it would be back up as it has been down for nearly two weeks.

*Note* Today Jason from Verio helped us out a lot by uploading all of our flash files onto the Verio VPS server. He was really not supposed to do that, not only was it not his duty, but it was actually against Verio policy. He told me he admired what I was trying to do and that he was willing to do it to help me out. He was able to get all of the flash files to function and to get the site back up as much as possible with out doing the major revamping that still needs to be done.

A more relaxed day with a visit to church

2004-08-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

10 AM - Dora and I went to church at the Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler.
The services started at 11 AM with pastor Dr. David Dykes. He gave a great sermon on the Devil and how he speaks lies and is the father of all lies. He can’t be recognized by his external looks, because he is the master of disguise, but he can be recognized by his words because he is the creator of all lies.
I gave brother David a copy of my book and a flyer from the tour. At the beginning of the sermon he told his congregation of several thousand about how I was pushing my wheelchair across America and about how I was the first person with a disability appointed to the Presidents fitness council. He told them that I would be available after the service for anyone who would like to get a brochure and talk to me to find out more about our tour. Many people took flyers, thanked us for what we were doing, and wished us the best and gave us their blessings for the tour. Dora and I were very grateful and thankful that brother David took the time to acknowledge and support out efforts at the beginning of his sermon. We feel that it is the support of the church and other organizations like that which will help us to get the support and funding that we need to make a difference.

1 PM – We left church and went for a healthy lunch.

2-6 PM – I spent the afternoon logging all of the articles that I could find about the tour on the internet.

10 PM – We went to bed.

I pushed from Tyler, TX to Mineola, TX today

2004-08-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 35

9 AM – We looked at laying out our route from Tyler to Dallas and Dallas to Houston, Houston to Austin, Austin to San Antonio, and San Antonio to Laredo.

We picked up some copies of The Longview News Journal and The Tyler Morning Telegraph.

11-11:30 – We met with Kenny, the Manager of Redball in Tyler. He worked for Gary Kennedy, the owner of many different stores in the area we were traveling through including this one in Tyler.

12-12:30 PM – We ate lunch

1-4PM – I pushed on toward Mineola for 35 miles on Highway 69. I took it easy, and took a few 5 to 10 minute water and Gatorade breaks. The push took around three hours.

The weather was in the 90’s and slightly windy during the push today.

*Note* We noticed that The Longview News-Journal reporter Marissa Alanis had put the website healthandfitnesstour.com in her article. The website is still not working at preset time. I hope that people will go to my site Kevinsaudners.com or check in a search engine to see more of what I am doing.*

4 PM – We drove back to Tyler, TX and the Holliday Inn where we were staying for the night.
6-7 PM – We downloaded the pictures for the day and updated the log.

*Note* In the Longview/Tyler area we got really good coverage in the Newspapers and television coverage. We also got a good response from the City officials and police departments. Things went fairly smoothly for our first time of doing things on our own.
Marissa Alanis from the Longview News-Journal said that she would probably be able to help us out with media contacts in the Dallas area.*

7-8:30 PM – Dora and I went to the mall in Tyler.

Today we left Longview, TX for Tyler, TX

2004-08-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 38

8 AM – I started making calls to the Longview City Hall, the Police Department, and the Longview News Journal newspaper. We scheduled everything for 11 AM with Mayor Moore of Longview. I also scheduled everything for the City of Tyler, TX with the Mayor’s office. We called Channel 7 KLTV ABC in Tyler and arranged for an interview at both Mayors’ offices. We planned to meet the media and the Mayor in Tyler at 3:30 PM.

8:30 AM – Ernie Paulson of Channel 4 KARK of Little Rock called and told us that he would be airing the special today that he filmed while I was there. He wanted to know what I wanted him to say, and he also wanted to point people to the healthandfitnesstour.com website. I told him that our message was being received exceedingly well by citizens of all ages in the communities we went through. People have been very receptive and very appreciative, but we were having some challenges with funding our non-profit foundation. I asked him to mention that we’d appreciate any individual or corporate support. Ernie said that he would be more than happy to mention this point when he did the interview. I told him that since the healthandfitnesstour.com website was being transferred to another server, that he should just mention the kevinsaunders.com website and then they could follow a link to the healthandfitnesstour website. At least by going to kevinsaunders.com people could see what I’ve done and what I am currently doing.

9 – 11 AM – We packed up the trailer and got ready to leave Longview for Tyler.

11:30 AM – We had a meeting with Mayor Murray Moore of Longview. He presented me with a proclamation declaring August 6th 2004 Kevin Saunders Health and Fitness Tour Day in the city of Longview. He encouraged the city of Longview to welcome Kevin Saunders to Longview on his amazing journey. I presented Mayor Moore with a plaque on behalf of the Health and Fitness Tour of America as well as a copy of my book, “There’s Always A Way.”
I also left the Mayor with enough brochures for the Mayor and the city council members.
I challenged the mayor to appoint a board of community health and fitness leaders. I told him that we would support him by providing resources and tools to help all of the citizens of Longview to have access to start lasting health and fitness initiatives.

Media present in Longview: Longview News Journal: reporter Marissa Alanis, photographer – Kevin Green ; KLTV ABC Channel 7 Tyler: Chris Howell – photographer, Morgan Palmer – reporter.

12:30 PM – I got a motorcycle police escort out of Longview on Highway 31. My push from Longview to Tyler went through a lot of rolling hills, but lucky for me there was more rolling down than up. I kept my average above twelve miles an hour.
I took a couple five to ten minuet water and Gatorade breaks when I saw some shade where we could pull off the road.
The police called us when we were outside of Tyler and told us that they would not be able to escort me into the city.

3:30 PM - I pushed right down Highway 31 into the Tyler city limits and took a right turn on Bonner Ave which ran right into the Tyler City Hall. I met with Mayor Pro Tem Joyce Armstrong Scurry. She presented me with a proclamation declaring today Kevin Saunders Day in Tyler Texas. She encouraged all citizens to join in recognizing the Kevin Saunders Health and Fitness Tour of America Day in Tyler, TX.

Mayor Pro Tem Joyce Armstrong Scurry accepted a plaque from the Kevin Saunders Health and Fitness Tour of America and a copy of my book on behalf of Mayor Joey Seaber of Tyler, TX.
I also left her with brochures for all of the city council members.
I asked the Mayor Pro Tem to challenge the Mayor for me to appoint a board of community health and fitness leaders. I told her that we would support Tyler by providing resources and tools to help all of the citizens have access to information to start lasting health and fitness initiatives in their community.

Media present in Tyler: KLTV ABC Channel 7; The Tyler Morning Telegraph newspaper: photographer – D.J. Peters, reporter – Mark ________

4 PM – We drove directly to the Holiday Inn Express.

4:45 PM – I called The Visibility Company to make sure that everything was going smoothly with the transfer of the website from the current server to the Verio Server and to check to see if they had been able to update the photos before the transfer. I was assured that the site had been moved smoothly and that all photos were updated. This gave me a little peace of mind considering some of the recent challenges we’ve been facing.

5 PM- We checked into our hotel for the evening.

5-5:30 PM – We unpacked the computer, printer, bags, and other things we needed in the hotel from the trailer.

6 PM – We watched local KLTV ABC Channel 7 and saw that Morgan Palmer, and Chris Howell had done an awesome job on the story. The interview was a lengthy one, and they really did a great job of telling the story. They even put a link to our website on the screen during the story. Morgan had told us earlier that they would send a copy of the Beta tape to our home in Downs, KS.

7-9 PM – We had a high speed internet connection at the Holiday Inn Express which allowed us to discover that we had about 2000 emails to sort through.
9-11 PM – Andy came down to our room and downloaded and emailed the pictures to The Visibility Company from today to the ones that dated back to Shreveport so that the healthandfitnesstour website could be updated.

12 Midnight – We went to bed.

Media and then pushing into Longview, TX

2004-08-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 50

5:00- AM -We departed to KTBS Channel 3 TV for 6:30 AM interview.

Media: 6:30 AM - I was interviewed by anchor-woman Sonja Bailes. She was an awesome anchor person and asked some great questions. I was able to cover all the points mention the website and thank Sam’s Town for there wonderful southern hospitality of providing us the rooms with the most comfortable beds to sleep in! I also thanked Mayor Hightower and the city for being in great support of the tour and accepting the challenge to shape up Shreveport, and I thanked Gary Kennedy and all the Rugby players from the Shreveport club for showing up to support me.

8-11 AM Packed and got ready to push on towards Dallas, TX.

1-1:30 AM – We stopped by RedBall Oxygen, Garry Kennedy’s place in Shreveport. We again thanked Gary for his support and stayed to take a picture with him and his employees.

1:30 PM – We pushed on to Longview, TX. We departed out of Shreveport to Highway 80 past the Liberty Bowl. The Liberty Bowl had a special meaning to me since that’s where my alma matter Kansas State University had played in their first bowl game in 1982. I pushed from the Liberty Bowl to Greenwood, LA: 7 miles.
From Greenwood I pushed to Waskom, TX: 6 miles. A mile East of Waskom we passed the state line into Texas. I knew that I just had to finish pushing through key cities in the State of Texas to finish the Big Push before my fifty state tour.

3:10 PM – I took a water and Gatorade break and ate an apple in Waskom, TX.

3:10 PM – I pushed 16 more miles from Waskom to Marshall, TX where I took another water and Gatorade break. The push from Waskom to Marshall took 1.5 hours.

3:40 PM – I pushed from Marshall to Hallsville for another 13 miles. I took another Gatorade and water break in Hallsville and then pushed for another 10 miles into Longview.

The road from Marshall to Longview was full of rolling hills. This slowed my overall speed down a bit and I arrived in Longview at 6:10 PM.
6:30 We checked into the Motel 6 in Longview.

7-9 PM – We got supplies, groceries, etc. at Wal-Mart and a grocery store.

9-11 PM – We downloaded pictures and emailed them to The Visibility Company and updated the log.

*Note* I found out today from The Visibility Company that we were going to have to handle all of the contacts with the media, city leaders, police, and hotels ourselves from the road. I also found out that I was going to have to move the website to a private server at Verio. This is going to be a great challenge in addition to the regular challenges that we’ve been dealing with as I push on the road. *

12 Midnight – Went to bed.

Spent the day doing media and meeting people in Shreveport

2004-08-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

4:00 a.m. CST – We took the hotel shuttle from Sam’s Town to KSLA’s studios for an interview on the morning news segment. The interview only lasted about ten minutes, but I was still able to hit all of the key points about the Tour and to encourage all the citizens of Shreveport to work to make their community a healthier place.

6:00 a.m. CST – We were picked up by the shuttle and we returned to Sam’s Town.

7:25 a.m. CST – I called in to Sherry from station KYXK 106 FM in Arkadelphia, AR for a phone interview. I had met with Sherry while I was in Arkadelphia, but was unable to do an interview with her at that time. She was very interested in my progress and about the mission of the Tour.

9:00 a.m. CST – I received and made various phone calls regarding the Tour.

2:00 p.m. CST – We met our police escorts outside of our hotel. There were three squad cars and three police motorcycles on hand to escort me the five blocks to the city building where I was scheduled to meet Mayor Keith Hightower of Shreveport. I presented the Mayor with a sculpture on behalf of the Health and Fitness Tour of America and challenged him to work with other city leaders to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens of Shreveport. The Mayor presented me with a proclamation that declared today Kevin Saunders’ Health and Fitness Tour day in Shreveport.

I was also able to meet several people from a local rugby team who became interested in what I was doing when they saw my story on the news. They came out to meet me and presented me with a team t-shirt and ball cap. One member of the rugby team, Gary, offered to take me out and show me the city, and invited Dora and I to have dinner with him and his wife. I accepted both offers.

After speaking with the Mayor and the members of the rugby team, I did two brief interviews with KTBS Channel 3, the ABC affiliate, and KTAL Channel 6, the NBC affiliate. We left a b-roll tape with Channel 3 so that they could use the footage during tomorrow’s morning interview with me.

After the interviews, I took some time to get some photos with the escort officers. They then escorted me back to Sam’s Town.

*Note* Early today, an older man approached Dora and asked if I was the man in a wheelchair pushing across America that he had seen on TV. Dora told the man that I was the older man told me that he was very grateful for what I was doing. He told her that he had been feeling sorry for himself because of his poor health, but that my story inspired him and that he was going to try his best to work for better health. This was one of the greatest moments during the whole trip.

5:30 p.m. CST – I met up with Gary, the rugby player, and we left in Gary’s truck to see the city. Gary had read my story in today’s Shreveport ARK-LA-TX “The Times” newspaper and was very inspired by it. Gary wanted to be able to spend some time with me, since I mentioned in the newspaper it was my rugby buddies who helped me get back into shape and enabled me to have a productive life again. He offered to take Dora and me out to dinner with him and his wife. We did and we had a great evening.

11:00 p.m. CST – We got back to the hotel and went to bed.

I pushed the remaining 28 miles to Shreveport, LA

2004-08-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

7:00 a.m. CST – We finished packing up the trailer and got ready to leave for Hosston, where I stopped pushing yesterday. Before I could start pushing for the day, we first had to return to Mayor Shipp’s office to pick up the proclamation we missed yesterday.

9:30 a.m. CST – We returned to Mayor Shipp’s office and picked up the proclamation from Texarkana that was already framed for me.

10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. CST – I pushed on into Shreveport from Hosston.

2:00 p.m. CST – I received a police escort for about two blocks to our hotel, Sam’s Town Hotel/Casino, where we will be staying for the next two days. Sam’s Town offered to sponsor us while we were in Shreveport. I just wanted to thank them. If you are ever in Shreveport, I recommend staying at Sam’s Town. It is an excellent hotel and everyone there is extremely nice.

Three television networks and a newspaper came out to see me push into the hotel.

4:00 p.m. CST – Dora and Andy took a hotel shuttle to KSLA Channel 12, the Shreveport CBS affiliate, to leave them some b-roll so that they will be able to use it during their interview with me tomorrow during the morning news. After leaving the tape, the hotel shuttle took Dora and Andy to a local bike shop to buy some spare tubes and replace the tires on his bike. We had replaced the tubes on his bike before, but now we discovered that the tires were also bad.

7:30 p.m. CST – I went to bed very early because I was extremely exhausted from pushing in the extreme heat today.

I met with Texarkana’s mayor and then pushed 40 miles from AR to LA

2004-08-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 40

8:00 AM – We loaded up and got ready to meet the Mayor of Texarkana and to push. We were loaded and ready to go by 9 and made it to the Mayor’s office by 9:30.

9:30 AM – We drove down Stateline road to the office of Mayor Horace G. Shipp of Texarkana, AR. I had a thorough meeting with the Mayor and explained to him the points of our tour. I challenged the Mayor to work to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens of Texarkana. I presented the Mayor with a certificate and a sculpture on behalf of the Health and Fitness Tour of America. The Mayor presented Dora, Andy, and I with special state lapel pins. He had also prepared a proclamation from the city to present to me, but forgot to present it. We will pick it up in the morning.

Media Present: After meeting with the Mayor I did a brief interview with KTBS Channel 3 ABC of Texarkana. Reporter Julie Moore and photographer Mike Moore both did a great job in getting the interview. The station was able to use a lot of the B-roll footage that I provided them, as well as a lot of material that they filmed themselves to put together a great piece.

After finishing the interview we drove to the post office on the line between Texas and Arkansas for a photo opportunity. We were told that this post office is the second most photographed federal building in the U.S. Andy took my picture with the officer who was going to escort me to the city limits of Texarkana.

I pushed down Highway 71 all the way from Texarkana to Hosston. The road had a shoulder that was not too bad to push on, though it was rough at parts. I am very thankful that there was some shoulder to push on because the traffic was very bad. There were more semi trucks down this road then there has been during any other day of pushing.

6:30 PM – After reaching Hosston we loaded back up into the Jeep and drove back to the Baymont in Texarkana. We did some maintenance on my racer and got ready to leave for Shreveport, LA.

Our day off

2004-08-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

Today we took the day off. Dora and I went to church for both morning and evening services. We had a little bit of time to rest and get ready to push on towards Shreveport, LA.

Today I pushed 47miles from Hope, AR through Arkadelphia

2004-07-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 47

11 AM – We drove back to Hope, AR to pick up miles we missed yesterday and also to visit Bill Clinton’s childhood home. We wet tour guide Louise who took me on a tour of Clinton’s home. I left her a copy of my book, and a copy for Joe McNiel a young man from her church who was also paralyzed. Joe was also getting into wheelchair athletics, but was having some problems. I left Louise with some brochures to hand out to people including Joe and I hope that he would be inspired by it.

*Note* Andy had a flat tire for the past two days. We stopped at a bike shop near Arkadelphia to get the tire repaired, but the tire blew again. We were unable to find a tube that would fit Andy’s bike so he was unable to get many pushing pictures.

1 PM – I pushed to make up my miles from Hope to through Texarkana. It was a total of 47 miles and took just over 4 hours. I pushed around some in Texarkana, AR & TX.
4:30 PM – We got back in the Jeep and drove closer to the Texas state line and at the Texas/Arkansas sate line at the US post office to take pictures. I had my arms raised in victory for health and fitness for two sates, one arm was held high in Texas and the other arm was raised in Arkansas. Then I pushed over to the Texas state line and had my picture taken as I pushed over the line.

6 PM – We went back to the Baymont hotel and took a break for a meal.

9 to 11 PM – We uploaded the pictures for the past two days and updated our log.

11:30 PM – Went to bed.

Today I pushed 53 miles from Caddo Valley, AR to Hope, AR

2004-07-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

6:00 a.m. CST – We packed up the trailer and got ready to leave for Texarkana.

7:15 a.m. CST – I pushed five miles from Caddo Valley to the city hall of Arkadelphia to meet with Mayor C.T. Hollingshead, City Manager Barbara Copelan, Rick Brumley, the director of Arkadelphia Parks and Recreation, and Ann Kelly, the City Director of Arkadelphia. Ann Kelly represents perfectly how beneficial a healthy lifestyle is. She is 73 years old, still works out and is still in great shape. She is going to be a pen pal of the Tour to keep us updated on how her fitness program is going.

8:30 a.m. CST - We headed to the Arkadelphia radio station KYXK 106 FM for a taped interview with Lanny Brothers. I told him all about the Tour, how I was doing the Tour to inspire and motivate all people to get fit, and that we were providing tools and resources to help community leaders. I told him that people could learn more by going to our website, www.healthandfitnesstour.com. Lanny recorded our session and wanted to play it several times to his listeners. He was also interested in having us on again sometime soon.

We met another DJ named Sherry at the radio station office who told us that she would like to do a phone interview with us from the road. We took her information and I agreed to do an interview with her.

10:00 a.m. – We went by the new Arkadelphia Parks and Recreation facilities. Director, Rick Brumley gave us a tour of the new building, which has been open for only about nine months. The facility was impressive with a huge pool, indoor track and basketball court, walking trails, and a baseball field. I told Rick that I’d love to work with him on improving the health and fitness of the citizens of his community and also work with him by providing tools and resources to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens.

10:30 a.m. CST – I pushed 20 miles to Gordon, AR. The push took about 2 hours.

12:30 p.m. CST – I took a short water and Gatorade break and then pushed another 11 miles on to Prescott, AR where we met with Mayor Howard Taylor. I presented the Mayor with a plaque and a copy of my book. I told him about the purpose of the Tour and left him with brochures for the city council.

2:45 PM – Breaking for lunch, I ate an apple and a granola bar and drank Gatorade and water.

*Note* - The terrain from Arkadelphia through Gordon, Prescott, and Hope was very hilly. It took a lot of endurance to be able to push up and down the hills.

3:00 p.m. CST – I pushed on to Hope, AR. It took about an hour and a half to push 17 miles. When we arrived, we went directly to the Hope City Hall where we met with Hope City Manager, Catherine Cook. We presented her a plaque and my book for Mayor Dennis Ramsey in front of a sign that noted Hope as the birthplace of President Bill Clinton. This was a great moment for me since I had the opportunity to work on the Presidents Council for Physical Fitness and Sports during President Clinton’s time in office. We also left Catherine with brochures from the Tour to leave with the city officials.

4:30 p.m. CST – We immediately got into the Jeep and drove to meet with KTBS Channel 3, the NBC affiliate in Texarkana. At the station, we dropped off some a Beta tape of b-roll for them to use during out interview on Monday.

6:00 p.m. CST – We drove on and checked into one of our sponsors’, Baymont Inns and Suites, hotels in Texarkana.

10:30 p.m. CST – We went to bed.

Today we did it all; wheeled, met with people, and caught up on chores.

2004-07-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

7:30 a.m. CST – We departed for Malvern, AR for a meeting with the Mayor and the local newspaper.

8:30 a.m. CST – I met with Mayor Northcutt of Malvern as well as Richard Tart, the Police Chief, William F. O’Keefe, the Assistant Chief of Police, and other city leaders. They told us about a new Boys and Girls club that they are planning to open late next year. I told them about the mission of our Tour and about Imshapingup.com. They were excited to learn that they could gain free access to the website to gain beneficial information and tools. I presented the Mayor with a certificate from the Health and Fitness Tour as well as a copy of my book in front of the Malvern City Building. They wished us all the very best. The Mayor told me about how he had seen me on TV the previous morning.

9:00 a.m. CST – We immediately drove to Benton, AR to fix a flat on Andy’s bike at a local bike shop.

9:45 a.m. CST – We met with Benton Sheriff, Phil Mask and the Saline County Chaplin, Doug Burk. Doug received a plaque from the Health and Fitness Tour on behalf of the Mayor of Benton. I went over the key points of the Tour with Doug and Sheriff Mask to relay to the Mayor. I gave them each brochures with information about the Tour and asked them to encourage the Mayor to look at Imshapingup.com, which offers free resources to city officials. These resources enable communities like Benton to create lasting health and fitness initiatives and provide easily understood information that everyone can use. With the support of the community and with all citizens working towards a healthier community, the war with obesity can be won one community at a time. They were very receptive of our invitation and both wished me well as I pushed on. They told me that they would make sure that the Mayor received the information. I left Doug Hunt with a copy of my book.

While in Benton, I also spoke with reporters from The Benton Courier Newspaper and the Bryant Banner. I covered the main points of the Tour and told them that we were a non-profit foundation and that we whole-heartedly welcomed the support of any individual or organization I told her that the readers could find out more at www.healthandfitnesstour.com

11:00 a.m. CST – We drove back to Malvern, AR and finished our push from Malvern to Caddo Valley, a total of 32 miles.

3:30 p.m. CST - We finished our day of pushing. During the day, there had been a few light sprinkles. Later in the afternoon, those sprinkles became a full downpour.

While it rained, we made calls to the mayor and the media in Arkadelphia to set up times for meetings tomorrow. We also followed up on contacts in Hope, AR, and other cities we would be traveling through, for meetings with city officials and media in that city.

6:00 p.m. CST – We uploaded pictures and updated the log for the last few days. And we printed out certificates that we would be presenting to the city officials over the next couple of days.

11:00 p.m. CST – We went to bed.

Pushed the 44 miles from Little Rock, AR to Caddo Valley, AR

2004-07-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 44

7 AM – We departed for the State Capitol in Little Rock for a meeting with Ernie Paulson and KARK Channel 4 of Little Rock. Ernie Paulson did a more in-depth interview about the tour and wanted to make a longer piece that would air later in the week. Ernie’s photographer, Charlie, wanted to get various shots of me pushing around the Capitol Building on my way out of town. The entire interview and shoot took approximately 2 hours.

10:15 AM – We departed Little Rock on Highway 5 for Benton, AR. It was 12 miles to Benton. At Benton I had to push on the side of Interstate 30 for 9 miles to Highway 67. From the junction of Highway 67 to 229 I resumed pushing. There was a pretty good shoulder to ride on, but there were a lot of steep hills. I pushed for 14 miles into Glen Rose. From Glen Rose it was 4 miles Perla, AR. In Perla I took a water and Gatorade break and then pushed 5 more miles into Malvern, AR.

5 PM – We loaded up from pushing and drove to our hotel to rest for the evening. We checked into the hotel and unloaded the trailer. Dora and Andy went to the grocery store to stock up on food. We ate dinner and got ready for the next day.

11:30 PM – Went to bed.

Spent the day meeting with media and government officials

2004-07-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

5:30 a.m. CST – We departed for an interview with Ernie Paulson of KARK Little Rock. The interview started at 6:32 a.m. and lasted for about three minutes. Ernie was very excited about the story and wanted to follow up with us before we left town. We gave him our number and he told us that he would call.

After returning to the hotel from the interview, we rested for a while and I prepared for my meeting with Chris Pyle, with the Governor’s Office, at the capitol building.

2:30 p.m. CST – We departed for the meeting with Chris Pyle, the Policy Advisor for Family and Faith for the state of Arkansas.

3:45 p.m. CST – We arrived at the State Capitol building in Little Rock, Arkansas. We went to the second floor of the building where we met Chris Pyle in the Governor’s Reception Room. There, we discussed Governor Huckabee’s Healthier Arkansas Initiative and how what I was doing with the Tour could Arkansas’s efforts to reduce obesity and unhealthy living. I told him that one of our sponsors, Imshapingup.com, was providing free memberships for government officials at both city and state level and how this would be the first virtual health and fitness portal. It would provide easily understood information that was measurable and could be used for accountability. Chris thought that it was a great idea and said that he would like to go ahead with working with us and that he would check into the website.

After our meeting we met some interesting people who worked at the Sate Capitol building. They told us the history of the building and about former President Clinton recently doing an interview for 60 Minutes in the Governor’s Reception Room. They also told us that the movie, “Stone Cold”, staring Brian Bosworth was also filmed at the State Capitol building. Most of the building was closed off for the filming of the movie.

6:00 p.m. CST – We departed the State Capitol building and went out for dinner.

7:00 p.m. CST – We packed up the trailer in preparation for an early departure in the morning.

11:30 p.m. CST – Went to bed.

We ran errands and met with the media

2004-07-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

5:00 a.m. CST – We departed the Baymont hotel for KTHV CBS Channel 11. We arrived at 5:40 a.m. and met with producer Laura Kelley. I went on the air at 6:35 a.m. with anchor Amy Fox. The interview lasted approximately 5 minutes and I was able to cover all of our main points for the Health and Fitness Tour of America.

8:30 a.m. CST – We departed for an interview with the Star Herald and Jacksonville Patriot newspapers in Cabot, AR. We arrived at 9:45 a.m. and went in to interview with sports reporter Kevin Grinstead at 10:00 a.m. He was very interested in the Tour and asked many questions. He wanted to support the Tour any and every way that he could as the sports editor. (I have heard from him since then. They printed a couple of articles in all five of their area papers. He said to be sure to update him with anything new.)

Noon CST – After lunch, we returned to the hotel and uploaded the photos into the laptop. We had been having problems with our wireless modem all week, but we were able to get a slow connection. Andy called the wireless company and tried to figure out what was wrong with the high-speed connection. After two hours on the phone, going through step after step of modem configuration, we were told that the card would not work because we were out of the service area. When Andy got off the phone with tech support, we noticed that not only had the high-speed connection not been established, but now the slower connection was also unavailable.

2:00 p.m. CST – Because our email was down, Dora and I dropped Andy off at a local store to send out some picture files. We also wanted to get some of the larger proclamations scanned, but the store did not have a scanner large enough. While Andy was at Kinko’s we made some copies of our Beta tape of b-roll at a store in downtown Little Rock.

7:00 p.m. CST – We returned to the Baymont hotel and went out for some dinner.

11:00 p.m. CST – Went to bed.

We took today off

2004-07-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

8:00 a.m. CST – For breakfast, we had a healthy bowl of cooked oatmeal, six egg whites and a cup of coffee.

10:00 a.m. CST - Dora and I went to the mall near the hotel and she got her hair done.

3:00 p.m. CST – Dora and I ate a late lunch at a great local healthy restaurant. I always love finding place like this. There never seem to be enough.

5:00 p.m. CST - We worked on catching up with bills, journal, shopping for medical supplies, groceries etc.

11:00 p.m. CST – We went to bed.

Much Needed Rest

2004-07-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

We finally got a day off!

8 AM- We had breakfast a cowl of cooked oatmeal and 6 egg whites and a cup of coffee.

Dora and I went to the Mall near the hotel and she got her hair done.

3 PM – Dora and I ate a late lunch at a local great healthy restaurant.

We worked on catching up with bills, journal, shopping for medical supplies, groceries etc.

11 PM -Went to bed.

Today I pushed 63 miles from Stuttgart, AR to Little Rock, AR

2004-07-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed 63

8 to10 AM – We packed and loaded the trailer to get ready to move on to our sponsor Baymont hotel in Little Rock, AR.

10:30 AM – Pushed from Stuttgart to Hummoke, AR 14 miles. It took approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach Hummoke.

Break 11:45 – Took a 5 to 10 minute break for Gatorade and water.

12 Noon – I pushed on to England, AR for another 14 miles. We arrived in England at around 1:15 PM.

Break 1:15 PM – Took a 15 minute break for an apple, granola bar, Gatorade and water.

1:30 PM – Pushed on for 34 miles into North Little Rock, AR. Half way through the push we took a short break for fluids. The heat and humidity was almost unbearable today.

*Note* - Dora called local Little Rock television station channel 7 contact “Angela” an hour before we arrived. Angela told Dora they would meet us out on the road when we got close to North Little Rock on Highway 165. When I passed the sign that said “Welcome to North Little Rock,” Dora called again about the television station meeting us. They said that they would be coming out in a white van with channel 7 logos on it. I pushed another 15 miles on into North Little Rock and noticed thunderstorms coming in from the North West. Andy had a flat tire on his bike just ½ mile before we reached Interstate 440. We pulled over at a gas station and Dora again called Angela at the TV station. Because of the lightning and thunderstorms rapidly approaching, and the fact that we were already well into North Little Rock, we decided to quit for the day. Dora called again to Angela at channel 7 to let her know that we would wait at the gas station for the camera crew. Angela told Dora that they were short staffed, and that it was doubtful if anyone would come out to meet us. Angela said that she would try to meet up with us at a different time.

4 PM – We loaded up and drove to our sponsor hotel, Baymont. On the way we ran into rain where we had to pull off the road momentarily because it was impossible to see through the downpour.

5 – 6 PM – We arrived at our sponsor hotel, Baymont. We took a short meal break and then uploaded pictures and updated the log.

7 – 10 PM – Unloaded some office supplies and other things. We straightened up and organized the room to work more like an office. Dora bought a new Lexmark 3 in One printer, scanner and copier at Office Depot, since other one had been broken on the road.

11 PM – Went to bed.

The day was spent running errands and meeting with the mayor of Stuttgart.

2004-07-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

7:00 a.m. CST – First thing in the morning, Dora went to Wal-Mart to exchange the printer.

10:00 a.m. CST – Since we had a little free time, we decided to get the oil changed and to wash the van and the trailer. Again, I had the privilege to meet and extraordinary citizen that overwhelmed me with their support of the Tour. After having a casual conversation with a woman who was also getting her oil changed, she gave the Tour a donation and told us that we had truly inspired her. I told her that I appreciate the gift, but that it was the support of individuals like her that made the Tour possible and gave me the encouragement I need to continue. I also mentioned that she could follow my progress by visiting www.healthandfitnesstour.com and that I would love her to stay in touch.

1:30 p.m. CST – I met with Mayor Harry “Butch” Richenback of Stuttgart, AR. We left him with a plaque and a copy of my book. He gave us some great souvenirs from the city. As usual, I discussed all of the points from the Tour with him. It was a great meeting.

3:00 p.m. CST – We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up on some errands and paperwork. Dora had to go back to Wal-Mart to exchange the printer for a second time. While she was gone, Andy and I tried again to get a good email connection, but we could not secure one long enough to email anything. However, I was able to search for online articles about the Tour. I saved them to a file. Every time I read the articles about the Tour, I am so impressed at how well written they are. Everyone understands what I am trying to accomplish and their writing is very supportive of my mission.

10:00 p.m. CST – After finally catching up on all of our work, we were able to go to bed.

I pushed 57 miles from Marianna, AR to Stuttgart, AR.

2004-07-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

8:45 a.m. CST – We drove back to Marianna, AR, where we stopped yesterday, to continue the push towards Stuttgart, AR.

9:00 a.m. CST – Averaging 12 mph, I was able to make it to Monroe, AR in about two hours.

11:00 a.m. CST – I took about a 5 minute break to rehydrate my body by drinking water and to replenish my electrolytes by drinking a sports drink.

12:15 p.m. CST – We arrived in Clarendon, AR after pushing for approximately 10 more miles after my break. In Clarendon, we took an hour to eat, drink, and rest.

1:15 p.m. CST – The next 45 minutes was spent pushing the 10 miles to Roe. There was a considerable amount of traffic on the highway, so I had to be careful and go extra slow. Unfortunately, there was swampland on each side of the highway with hardly any shoulder to wheel on.

2:00 p.m. CST – After taking a 5 minute break to get some liquids in my system, I pushed on towards Ulm, AR; approximately 7 miles away.

2:45 p.m. CST – We arrived in Ulm and took another five minute water and Gatorade break. It was so hot and humid; I had to be careful not to dehydrate myself. After the break, we started the last six miles into Stuttgart, AR.

3:15 p.m. CST – After an exhausting day, we arrived in Stuttgart, AR. We loaded up our equipment and drove back to the hotel.

4:30 p.m. CST – After working hard all day, all I wanted to do was rest and get some food. So we took about an hour and ate some dinner.

6:00 p.m. CST – We tried to do some work after dinner, but unfortunately, we kept having technical difficulties. The Internet still was not working, so Andy was unable to upload the today’s pictures. In addition to the Internet not working, we could not get our news scanner to work. We wanted to scan a newspaper article about the Tour. Finally, we gave up and decided to exchange the scanner in the morning.

11:30 p.m. CST – We went to bed.

I continued wheeling toward Little Rock, AR.

2004-07-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 52

7 to 8 AM – We packed and checked out of the Baymont hotel. We left some flowers and a thank you card from us and the Health and Fitness Tour of America for the Baymont staff. They treated us with great hospitality and impeccable service.

9 AM - I resumed my push from West Memphis to Lehi, AR on highway 70 approximately 6 miles. From Lehi to Shearerville, AR it was 7 miles. At Shearerville we got on highway 79 South. I pushed on for 10 miles to Chatfield, AR. Andy was along riding the bike and taking pictures.

Break 11AM to Noon after pushing 23 miles. I had Gatorade and water and ate a little chicken and a baked potato.

12 Noon – I pushed on 6 miles to Hughes, AR and another 8 to Brickeyes, AR. From Brickeyes it was another 5 miles to Soudan, AR. This was a tough 19 miles because the wind was blowing pretty hard into my face. We decided to take a break before we finished our 8 mile push in Marianna where we met with the Mayor and the newspaper.

Break 2 to 3 PM – Had an apple, granola bar, Gatorade and water.

3 PM I resumed pushing the last 8 miles toward Marianna with the slight hills and intense wind in the face, it slowed my pushing down at times below 10mph. We arrived into Marianna just before 4 PM. Once in Marianna we met officer Kevin Evans who escorted us approximately 2 miles through the city limits of Marianna to Mayor Taylor’s office. I met with Mayor Taylor, and City Clerk Kendon Gray between 4 and 4:30 PM. I presented the Mayor with a plaque in recognition of his commitment to lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens of his community and his support of our efforts for the Kevin Saunders Health and Fitness Tour of America.
Several young girls from the community came by and brought their camera to take a picture with me since they had seen me on TV the day before in Memphis. Andy also took a picture of me with the young kids who were enthused about getting active in the Marianna area.
We had some laughs with the Mayor. He said he wanted arms like mine. I told him that if he worked out enough he could get some, and I asked him to join me on the tour. He said he’d think about it.
I also mentioned to Mayor Taylor that one of our tour sponsors: Imshapingup.com was providing free memberships to the city government so that they can log on and have access to easy to understand information about health and fitness.

Media present in Mariana: The Courier-Index: reporter Edie Sanford and General Manager MeLinda Huff. They took pictures and were also doing a story about our Big Push across America and out purpose to inspire and motivate all Americans to get fit by providing resources and tools for cities like Marianna to create lasting health and fitness initiatives by providing clear and easily understandable information about fitness, nutrition, and many other aspects of good health and fitness for all citizens.

Note: I had another flat tire today, and my 2nd pair of gloves is almost worn out.

5 PM – We loaded up the truck and trailer at the Mayor’s office and decided to drive on to Stuttgart, AR where we will spend the night.

6 PM – We arrived at our hotel and unloaded.

8 PM – We caught up the log and downloaded our pictures for the day so we could send them in to The Visibility Company so they could make the most recent updates to the website. However, we could not get a strong enough connection to the internet via our wireless internet card to send any of the updates to The Visibility Company.

11 PM – Went to bed.

Met with Memphis City Council and prepared to leave tomorrow.

2004-07-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

10:00 a.m. CST – The morning was spent running miscellaneous errands and getting ready to leave tomorrow.

2:30 p.m. CST – We departed the Baymont hotel and headed towards the Memphis City Hall. We arrived at City Hall just before our 3:30 p.m. meeting. However, after we arrived, we found out that the City Council meeting was running late so we had to wait a bit for the meeting to begin.

Several council members, including Chairman Joe Brown, apologized for the delay. Chairman Brown called me to the podium where I presented my plan for the Tour and challenged the City Council to work to start lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens. During the presentation, I covered all of the points for why I was doing this Tour. I told them that people could find out more information at www.healthandfitnesstour.com. In addition, I told them about www.imshapingup.com, an online source that provides health and fitness resources and clear, concise information to help them get into the best shape of their lives.

I presented Chairman Brown with a plaque and he thanked me for my efforts on the Big Push and the 50-state tour. The citizens in attendance gave me a round of applause and Chairman Brown presented me with a proclamation, a key to the city, and a pair of cuff links on behalf of the council and the City of Memphis. He also presented Dora with a pendant with the city emblem on it.

I thanked the City Council for their time and great Southern hospitality and told them that I looked forward to coming back on the 50-state tour and presenting them with an award for making Memphis one of the healthiest cities in America.

6:30 p.m. CST - We stopped for a quick, healthy dinner downtown and then headed back to the hotel. Some people may be wondering how I can still healthy foods while on the road. It is not as difficult as you might think. It is all about making smart decisions. Providing this knowledge is one of the goals I hope to achieve, with the help of www.imshapingup.com, during this Tour.

8:00 p.m. CST – Andy uploaded the pictures from today from his camera and resized them for email. We printed out the itinerary for the next day and caught up with the log.

10:00 p.m. CST – We did some pre-packing for the trip to Stuttgart, AR tomorrow. We wrapped it up around midnight and went to bed.

Spent the day meeting with the media.

2004-07-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

6:00 a.m. CST – We woke up and got ready to leave for a radio interview with WHBQ 560 AM. We arrived at the studio in time for my 7:20 a.m. interview with Eric and Eli. They were great interviewers because they kept the interview very upbeat. During this time, I was able to state the full purpose of our Tour as well as my personal story of my accident where I was able to turn a tragedy into a triumph. I mentioned our website, www.healthandfitnesstour.com, so that people listening would be able to find out more about the Tour. I also mentioned that we were a non-profit foundation and that I was pushing across America to help motivate individuals to live healthier lifestyles. In addition to educating everyone, the money raised during the Tour will be donated to the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the YMCA of America. Eric and Eli asked how people could help. I again referred them to the website and said that we welcome any individual or organization who would like to be part of helping sponsor our grass roots effort to help shape up America one community at a time. Be sure to check out the interview at www.healthandfitnesstour.com.

8:30 a.m. CST – Immediately after the radio interview we left for an interview on “Live at 9”, which airs on the local CBS affiliate, WREG Channel 3. We drove to the Peabody Center, which is where the interview was taking place. Alex Coleman and Marybeth Conley interviewed me. They conducted a fantastic live interview and I was able to get all of our points across in the interview. I left them with a copy of my book, There’s Always a Way. They were amazed at what I was doing and again asked what the viewers could do to help. I referred them to our website and pointed to my black shirt that had the website printed on it. They wished me well on the rest of my Big Push and on the 50-state tour. They asked me to come back and see the improvements Memphis had made after being named one of the fattest cities. I told them it would be an honor and privilege to return and that I was sure with them helping to motivate the viewers that they could become one of the healthiest cities in America.

After the “Live at 9” broadcast, another reporter for WREG Channel 3 pulled me aside. He conducted another interview with me for a program that aired later in the day. He also had his photographer take some footage of me pushing in my chair for the program.

11:00 a.m. CST – After the interviews we took a break for an early, healthy lunch at a local favorite restaurant in the Peabody Center and then returned to the hotel.

2:30 p.m. – We reattached the trailer to the Jeep and set out to meet some media for a short 1.5 mile push from the Airport Inn hotel to the Baymont. As we were leaving our hotel a reporter from the local Fox affiliate, WHBQ Channel 13, met us. They followed us to our starting point, where we met our police escort. I pushed the mile and a half very quickly averaging around 20mph the entire way. They were able to pull up along side me in their van and get some footage while I was pushing.

5:00 p.m. CST - We saw my story on CBS WREG Channel 3. They did an awesome story and covered all of our main points.

7:00 p.m. – While Dora and I were out at dinner, we met Todd and Regina Ainsworth. Todd told me that his brother was one of the top heart surgeons in the South and that he and his wife both work with the American Heart Association. He was sure that they would like to help us in our efforts in helping improve health and fitness for communities and people across America.

11:00 p.m. CST – Finally, it is time for bed. It may be hard for me to sleep tonight though. Memphis has been a wonderful city to visit. Everyone here has been so supportive of the Tour.

Happy Birthday Dora !!!!!!!!!

2004-07-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. CST - We took care of some computer problems and did general maintenance on the computer. We still have more to do: saving files, updating folders, etc.

Noon CST – Andy, Dora, and I departed for our meeting with a local Memphis television station WPTY - ABC 24 and WLMT - UPN 30. We had an interview meeting set for 1:00 p.m. CST at Audubon Park. We arrived at the park around 12:45 p.m. While I prepared for the interview, Andy took some close up pictures of my second pair of worn out racing gloves.

1:00 p.m. CST - WPTY and WLMT reporter, Rob Petrone, filmed me in front of the door of the Jeep with the Tour logo and website address showing. Then we did a camera interview where I explained that I was pushing my wheelchair across America, paralyzed from the chest down, to inspire and motivate all Americans to get in shape. I encouraged everyone to visit the website, www.healthandfitnessstour.com, for more information (as I pointed to the information printed on the Jeep door). I also mentioned that we were working with local city and community leaders to help provide resources help create and establish lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens. One of our goals is to help all citizens in communities like Memphis become healthier by providing easily understood information in an easily accessible format. When he asked what I wanted everyone to know, I replied that I would like to encourage everyone to get involved in making their community a healthier place to live and to never give up. Go Memphis!

1:45 p.m. CST – After taking some more video footage, we finished the interview and headed back to the Baymont hotel.
4:00 p.m. CST – For Dora’s birthday, I am taking her out to Graceland and then Beale Street for dinner.

We backtracked to make up the mileage we missed during the rain.

2004-07-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

Miles pushed: 54

9 AM- Dora, Andy, and I caught up with paperwork, phone calls, and truck and wheelchair maintenance. Surprise! I had to secretly order Dora flowers, balloons, and a stuffed animal to the room while we were out making up miles to Memphis for her birthday tomorrow.

2 PM – We departed the hotel to go to where we had stopped on Friday at the junction of highway 14 and 77. I pushed my hand cycle in order to work some other muscle groups, and get some cross training. Andy rode his bike and took some pictures. I pushed down highway 77, 29 miles through Denwood, AR to I 55 where we took a 15 minute break for some Gatorade and water.
I pushed on along with Andy biking another 15 miles through some very small towns located close together: Turrell, Clarksdale, Jericho, James Hill, Sunset, and Marion. I pushed another 15 miles past Marion towards West Memphis. The traffic was getting a little worse and we were right at the border of West Memphis. We decided to stop for the day. It was 7 PM when we stopped. I averaged over 12mph so we made pretty good time. We loaded up the truck and headed back to the hotel.

7:45 PM – We got back to the hotel. We gave Andy the night off because one of his college friends was in town. They went out to Beal St, a popular tourist attraction in Memphis.

Dora was surprised to find her flowers, and balloons waiting for her in the room. I told her that she could relax and I would catch up on the log and that we would go out for her birthday tomorrow.

10:30 PM – We went to bed.

Pushed as much as I could, but heavy rains and thunderstorms made it difficult.

2004-07-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 4 (miles were low due to very heavy rain and thunderstorms.)

6:30 AM – Andy picked up a new scanner/printer at Wal-Mart because our old one was broken from taking too many bumps on the road.

7:30 AM- We finished loading up our truck to leave. We were going to be staying in our sponsor hotel, the Baymont - Airport, in West Memphis, TN. We drove from Kennett to the Junction of highways 77 and 14. Thunderstorms had broken out on the way and it was raining pretty hard, but there was no lighting so I pushed in the pouring rain. I only got about 4 to 5 miles into the city of Dyess before the lightning and rain were so heavy that I was forced to stop.
We noticed the road to Bassett, AR was unfit for travel in my racing wheelchair because the road was gravel. We looked the map over as Bob Layne our CEO had told us to do if we ran into roads that didn’t work for us. We decided to take highway 77 straight south to West Memphis. Since we were unable to push anymore today we drove onto West Memphis. It was raining and lightning so hard that Dora had to drive very slowly at times. We arrived at our sponsor hotel, the Baymont Airport location in Memphis at 5 PM.

6 PM – I called Bob Layne, the CEO of the tour and owner of The Visibility Company, and updated him on our progress. I also asked him if it was okay to have Sunday off, because it was my wife Dora’s birthday. He said that would be okay and to tell her happy 19th birthday from him. Ha!

7 PM – Andy downloaded the pictures from the previous day and sent them to Jake Rodka at The Visibility Company who is now in charge of updating and keeping up the www.healthandfitnesstour.com website.

11 PM – We went to bed.

Met with local government officials and pushed approximately 59 miles

2004-07-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

7:00 to 9:00 a.m. CST – We spent the morning packing and loading up the truck.

11:00 a.m. CST – Later in the morning, I met with Mayor Donald Parker of Kennett, MO at the Kennett Municipal Airport. I presented him with a plaque on behalf of the Health and Fitness Tour of America as well as an autographed copy of my book, There’s Always a Way. Mayor Parker is the perfect example of how Americans need to lead a more active life. He is 81 years-old and he looks great. Mayor Parker told us that he is not letting his age slow him down. He still flies a plane and tries to exercise regularly. And his energy does not stop there; he told us that he wanted to help with the Tour however he could. What a great example Mayor Parker sets for everyone. As Mayor Parker proves, anyone can achieve a healthy and active lifestyle, no matter what age we are.

11:30 a.m. CST - I pushed towards Senath, MO during this time.

1:00 p.m. CST – When I arrived in Senath, I met with Mayor Bud Brooks and presented him with a copy of my book, There’s Always a Way, and a plaque on behalf of the Tour. The community leaders and Mayor Brooks were very much in support of our efforts to help America get fit. The support of local communities, large or small, is what it will take to win the war against obesity.

2:00 to 3:00 p.m. CST - I left Senath and pushed to the Arkansas state line.

3:30 to 4:30 p.m. CST - We took a short break at the Arkansas state line. During the break, I ate an apple, some granola and drank Gatorade and water. Not only is it important to eat the right type of food to refuel my body, but it is also very important not to eat too much food. There is so much information in circulation now about what people should and should not do, that it is difficult to sift through it to find the correct information. Part of my goal is to provide individuals with the correct information, in an easily accessible way. The less time spent trying to figure out how to become healthier, the more time there is to BE healthier!
4:30 p.m. CST - I left the state line and pushed to Leachville, AR.

5:00 p.m. CST – Unfortunately we just missed Mayor Wells, but we did leave some brochures, business cards, and a note with his office.

5:15 p.m. CST – I continued to push until I reached Etowah, AR. Even though Etowah is a smaller community, their warm, enthusiastic welcome was huge! The energy I felt from the people cheering me on in the streets, gave me that extra rush I needed to finish the day. After drinking some more Gatorade and water, I continued pushing.

8:00 p.m. CST – We concluded our day near Bondsville, AR. After loading all the equipment into the truck, we drove back to our hotel in Kennett.

9:30 p.m. CST – When we arrived in Kennett, we ate a quick meal and ran some errands. It was about midnight before we went to bed.

64 miles is the distances I pushed from Advance, MO to Kennett, MO.

2004-07-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

7:00 a.m. CST – Due to some technical glitches, we were unable to receive the itinerary for today until about 7:30 a.m. We had a few mechanical difficulties that slowed us down while packing to leave our Cape Girardeau hotel. Unfortunately, these events made us late for our meeting with Mayor Harness in Advance, MO. We missed the mayor, but the Mayor Pro Tem was there to meet with us. I presented a plaque on behalf of the Tour to the city of Advance and left them with a signed copy of my book, There’s Always a Way.

12:00 a.m. CST – We left Advance and headed for Dexter. Because we were running late, we had to drive to a little outside of Dexter to meet some media. A reporter from the Dexter Daily Statesman met me outside of Dexter for an interview. The radio station KDEX also met me out on the road for an interview. At the Dexter city limits, the city police was waiting to provide me with an escort to the mayor’s office.

     We met and presented Mayor Joe Weber of Dexter, MO with a plaque and a copy of my book, There’s Always a Way, on behalf of the Tour. We told him that our goal was to provide resources and tools for the communities like Dexter to help its citizens live a healthier life. Mayor Webster was very receptive to our message and was eager to have his city become a part of war against obesity.

2:00 p.m. CST – As I left Dexter for Kennett, some of the media followed me to get some more coverage for the Tour as well as be a part of it.

     I decided to push the next 42 miles from Dexter to Kennett with only three short breaks for Gatorade and water. On one of our breaks, we met a woman, who had seen me on TV and was waiting for me to pass through. Her husband told her he had seen us on Highway 25 and that if she waited around, she’d get to meet us. She was a great lady and was very inspired with our Tour. She came up, talked with us, and gave us some water and a donation. There were also some local watermelon growers across the road who had a 350-acre patch who gave us a huge watermelon and a cantaloupe. They were excited about getting to meet us and were supportive of our mission. The enthusiasm these individuals showed, gave me some extra adrenaline and got me pumped up for the final push into Kennett, MO.

5:30 p.m. CST - Upon arrival in Kennett we immediately loaded up and headed back to Advance. It took approximately 1hr for the return drive. On the drive back to Advance I lay in the back, ate an apple and a granola bar, and drank water and Gatorade for energy.

     When we reached Advance, Andy and I got out and started pushing. It took almost two hours to cover 22 miles. By the time I was through, I was exhausted and my shoulders and neck were becoming strained and sunburned.

     After making up the mileage missed from this morning, we packed everything up and drove 40 minutes back to our hotel in Kennett.

10:30 to 11:00 p.m. CST – We finally checked in and had everything unloaded. We took a few moments to update the journal and downloaded the pictures that we took. Because the road was so busy today, and there was not much of a shoulder, it was difficult to take many pictures.

Even though the Heat Index was 110 and the temperature was 98 degrees, I was able to push 57 miles.

2004-07-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 57
Weather Heat Index: 110, Temperature 98 degrees. With the temperature that high, I continually pushed the fluids.

9:30 A.M. Pushed from the junction of highway 3 and highway 146 over the Mississippi River via the new bridge in Girardeau, MO. It was 4 miles from the junction to the MO side of the bridge. We met up with a Cape Girardeau police escort on the bridge at the MO state line.
I pushed another half mile to meet with Mayor Kundtson and the community leaders in Cape Girardeau, MO.
The community really came out to support our tour. Everyone on hand really embraced our message of trying to get all community members involved in creating a healthier community for all citizens in the Cape Girardeau area. Tracy Glen, the public relations officer for the City of Cape Girardeau did a great job in organizing the event. Several health professionals from Cape Girardeau were on hand, including: Dr. Bill Logan from the fitness facility at Southeast Missouri Hospital, Sandy Duncan from the St. Francis Health Center, and Maryann “Miki” Gudermuth with the Southeast Missouri Alliance for Disability Independence Inc.

Media Present: Wendy Ray reporter with KFVS a CBS affiliate in Cape Girardeau. Also on hand were Hunter Johnston from KRCU 90.9 FM a NPR affiliate, David Bloom from the Cash Book Journal Weekender, and Toby Carrig for a newspaper interview.

Mayor Kundtson presented me with a Proclamation declaring July 13, 2004 as Kevin Saunders’ Day in the City of Cape Girardeau. I presented Mayor Girardeau and the City of Cape Girardeau with a sculpture and challenged him to help make the city a healthier place for all citezens by the time I return on the 50 state tour.

Immediately after the meeting with the Mayor and community leaders I pushed off, with the help of police escort, through the city. I pushed through the hottest temperatures of the day, but I made sure to keep my intake of water and Gatorade high.

It took a total of 16 miles to reach the city limits of Cape Girardeau.

12:30 – 1:30 PM- I took a break from pushing for food and hydration.

I pushed from Cape Girardeau to Delta, MO approximately 18 miles. Then I pushed on for another 19 miles from Delta to just past Advance, MO.

I finished my push at 4:00 PM in Advance, MO. We loaded up and returned to the hotel in Cape Girardeau.

4:45 PM- Media interview with local newspaper reporter Toby Carring of The Southeast Missourian.

Pushed 52 miles from Chester, IL to McClure, IL.

2004-07-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

10:00 a.m. CST – This morning I met with Charlie Bargman, the Director of Parks and Recreation for the city of Chester, in front of the large bronze statue of Popeye. Elzie C. Segar, a resident of Chester, created Popeye’s character in 1929. We were told that Elzie was a small man who worked on the riverboats on the Mississippi River. Local legend has it that even though Elzie was small in stature, he never lost a fight. I presented Mr. Bargman with a plaque on behalf of their commitment to health and fitness for all of the citizens of their community. I challenged him to get in better shape and get the community in better shape before I returned in 2005 on my 50-state tour.

10:30 a.m. CST – Pushing around 12 mph, I wheeled the 28 miles to Grand Tower, IL.

1:45 p.m. CST - I took a break by the Mississippi River in Grand Tower, IL. We had a little lunch and got some pictures pushing by the river. We visited with two men from a research center in nearby Carbondale, IL.

2:15 p.m. CST – Averaging about 12 mph, I was able to wheel 24 miles to McClure, IL. For part of the trip, Andy road along side of me on the bike and took pictures. It was a very hot and humid day, but the roads were great for pushing. The scenery made some wonderful pictures. Be sure to check them out at www.healthandfitnesstour.com.

4:30 p.m. CST – We left McClure, IL and head for Cape Girardeau, MO to check in at our hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, we ate and took a short break.

6:00 p.m. CST – Andy drove to the Mississippi Bridge that crosses the Mississippi River to connect Illinois and Missouri. He wanted to check out tomorrow’s route and find some good spots to take pictures.

8:30 to 9:30 p.m. CST - Andy and I scanned in the latest photographs and finished the Tour Log for the day.

Spent the day resting.

2004-07-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

8:00 a.m. CST - Today, I had a chance to reflect on the past 3 weeks and 5 days. Because the Tour de France is in full swing right now, I wanted to write about that race and mention the similarities it has to what I’m doing. With Lance Armstrong going for his 6th straight record breaking win of the most grueling race in the world of bicycling, he is not only trying to beat the odds, he is also sending a message to the world that you can win against cancer. With the Tour de France lasting 3 weeks through grueling terrain and a fast pace, it takes a very savvy and well-prepared athlete to not only finish the event, but also an incredible one like Lance Armstrong to win it all.

     Now, coming into the 4th week of my push across America, I am also sending an important message. My message explains that if communities begin health initiatives and if a majority of the citizens use these initiatives to maintain a healthier lifestyle, then we can win the war on obesity. Since the beginning of the Tour, over half of the people we have seen are overweight or obese. The problem of obesity is real, but it is not unbeatable.

     When I was injured in the grain elevator explosion and left paralyzed from the chest down and confined to wheelchair for life, I had to use proper exercise and nutrition and apply principals of health and fitness to get my active lifestyle back. What I observe now, is a great number of people who are letting their bodies become overweight and obese because they do not have anything forcing them to be healthier and more active. What they do not realize is that some day in their future hey will suffer due to their poor health habits, from injuries like bad knee’s from carrying so much weight to health-related diseases like diabetes, heart diseases etc.

     I also want to mention about the four points I talked about with the two high schools in St. Louis and how they relate to Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France, and especially how they relate to our Health and Fitness Tour of America.
The points were:
1)         To NEVER give up.
2)         It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you choose to respond to what happens that is important.
3)         The only failures are the ones who don’t learn from their mistakes.
4)         Greatness is all around you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from someone who is successful at something that you want to do.

     Applying these four points is working for Lance and the other athletes in the Tour de France. The points are also working in Armstrong’s personal fight against cancer. I am using these same principles in the Health and Fitness Tour of America.
1)         To never give up.
a.         I’m not going to give up until I’ve made it through all 50 states and reached out to communities all across America. I’m pushing through all 50 states paralyzed from the chest down to inspire and motivate and to demonstrate that health and fitness is for everyone.
2)         It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you choose to respond to what happens that is important.
a.         In the case of being overweight and out of shape, it is not over until you are dead. As long as people get the information about health and fitness and start applying it to their lives, they can get back to healthy active lives.
3)         The only failures are the ones who don’t learn from their mistakes.
a.         Right now, we’re in the process of working with the communities across America to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for
all Americans. These initiatives can help people learn from past errors and use the knowledge start a new lifestyle.
4)         Greatness is all around you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from someone who is successful at something that you want to do.
a.         By providing all communities with information from the top fitness trainers and registered dieticians and nutritionist, we are providing them with access to the best information they can get. In addition, we are making it easy to understand.
b.         By the community embracing health and fitness, people can get the support of others in their community.
c.         By doing these things they can win the war against obesity.

“Side Notes” by Andrew Guzik
I have been riding a bicycle alongside Kevin and taking pictures throughout the Tour. While there may be some similarities between what Kevin is doing in a racing wheelchair and what the cyclists are doing in the Tour de France, there are also a great deal of differences. Both tours take a great deal of physical strength and determination, but the physical activities are vastly different. I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes in Kevin’s racing chair today and I can tell you that it is nothing like riding a bike. If I had to choose a sport to compare it to, it would not be cycling. The sport of rowing is a more accurate comparison. It takes a tremendous deal of coordination to be able to make your hands hit the push rims of the wheels exactly on time. If you lack this coordination and miss the rim, you run the risk of getting your hand caught up in the wheel of the chair and pulling your arm under. Although pushing the racing chair is more like rowing than it is like cycling, it is not exactly like rowing either. The posture is a great deal different than it is in rowing. In rowing, you are able to sit up and use the leverage to push through the water. In the racing chair you must lean forward at all times to avoid tipping the chair backwards. This puts a great deal of stress on your neck and back. Even a slight stretch backwards will tip the chair, something I learned the hard way. It takes a bit of practice just to get the chair to move, to turn, and to avoid falling out. I think I’ll stick to the bike for the remainder of the Tour.
*Note from Kevin: I’ve gone through one pair of racing gloves and two tires pushing from the Detroit/Canadian border to the Southern IL/Missouri border.

2:00 p.m. CST – For the rest of the afternoon, I did some maintenance work on the racing chair and washed the truck and trailer. We also worked on thank you letters to the people we have met along the way.

I pushed 42 more miles today between Waterloo, IL and Chester, IL

2004-07-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

11:00 to a.m. to 1:00 p.m. CST – It took me approximately 2.5 hours to push from Waterloo to Baldwin.

1:30 to 2:00 p.m. CST – There were many miles to cover and I was anxious to continue, so I only took a short break. I made sure to replenish my body by drinking plenty of water and Gatorade and by eating some food. Even when I am not on tour, I usually eat six well-balanced meals a day. It is important to do this to keep of my metabolism. Of course, these are not the large portions most people typically it. My plans for incorporating healthy initiatives in every cities, includes provide individuals with nutrition information similar to what I provided above. Armed with a motivation, clear goals, and accurate, easily understood information, anyone can achieve a healthier lifestyle.

2:00 p.m. CST – I continued on to Chester, approximately 18 miles. The road was extremely hilly and full of curves. It took me over two hours to reach Chester. But each hill and each curve was an obstacle I overcame. The more I do the more motivation and inspiration I encourage in every individual.

4:30 p.m. CST - We arrived at our hotel and unloaded. Before turning in we did some maintenance and caught up on our correspondence.

Began pushing again and met with some city officials.

2004-07-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 24

I pushed approximately 24 miles total from Columbia, IL to just past Waterloo, IL.
A police escort from the Columbia, IL police department escorted me to their jurisdiction line where the Waterloo Police took over and escorted me to the Waterloo city hall to meet the city leaders.

I met with Mayor Terry Kipping of Waterloo at city hall. Shawn Kennedy the city collector was also at the meeting. The Chief of Police, Joseph “Joe” Brauer was also present. The media present included Danny Kelley reporter from the Republic-Times the Herald and the Shopper from Waterloo, IL. Monroe County Independent Newspaper editor and reporter Ed Wienhoff was also there.

It was a hot and humid day of pushing. I was very hot and soaking with sweat when I showed up to city hall in Waterloo. It was in the 90’s and one of the most humid days this year.

4:15 P.M. Media: Radio interview on KZIM 900.60 AM in the Cape Girardeau, MO. area, with disk jockey, Todd.

8:00 P.M. -Ran errands: Picked up needed office supplies, gassed up and checked air pressure on tires.

9 to 11 P.M. – Transcribed log to word processor on computer and scanned and emailed pictures to the Visibility Company.

Today I spoke at a couple of local schools.

2004-07-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

9:00 a.m. CST – Roosevelt High School was my first stop today. My goal was to inspire and motive all 700 students listening to my speech. There were four important points I wanted leave them with. They were:

1)         To NEVER give up.
2)         It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you choose to respond to what happens that is important.
3)         The only failures are the ones who don’t learn from their mistakes.
4)         Greatness is all around you. Do not be afraid to ask for help from someone who is successful at something that you want to do.

     At the end of my talk, I presented an autographed copy of my book, There’s Always a Way, to the school’s library. I really enjoyed my experience at the school. The students were great and were very interested in hearing about the Tour and what I had to say.

10:15 a.m. CST - We head to Beaumont High School, where I spoke to a much smaller group of about 70 students. The school principal gave Dora, Andy, and I a “Not at Beaumont” t-shirt. This was the principal’s most popular quote. I also presented this school with a signed copy of my book, There’s Always a Way, as well as a copy of my comic book.

Today was declared Kevin Saunders day by Mayor Slay of St. Louis!

2004-07-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

9:00 a.m. CST – My day began with an interview at the CCIN studio for the “Hooked on Health St. Louis” show. I was very excited that I had the opportunity to be a part of this show. St. Louis is working hard to become healthier and I am happy to help in any way I can. The interview went great and everyone at the studio did an excellent job!

12:30 p.m. CST – Our next stop was at the historic St. Louis Arch. We met with Rollin Stanley, a representative from the Mayor Slay’s office. I received a proclamation from the mayor showing St. Louis’s support of the Tour. Because of their commitment to health and fitness initiatives like “Get Hooked on Health St. Louis”, I presented the city with a sculpture. I also challenged them to keep improving their efforts by getting even more community members involved in making their community a healthier place to live. When I come back on 50-state tour, I am going to see if they accepted my challenge.

After the meeting, we had a chance to visit with one of the photojournalist covering the event. During our conversation, he talked about the great sporting events he covered over the last 17 years and the great athletes he met. Because of his experience, what he said next really meant a lot to me. He said he really admired what we were doing for the people and communities of America to help them live healthier lifestyles. He also said to let him know when we would be back on the 50-state tour, because he wanted to make sure we would get great coverage in the St. Louis area. Without help from people like this photojournalist, the Tour would not be as successful as it is. I am so appreciative of everyone’s efforts.

5:00 p.m. CST – Tonight, the St. Louis Cardinals played the Cincinnati Reds and I was being introduced before the game. (The Cardinals won their seventh game in a row; I like to think I added a little inspiration!). We arrived at the ball field around 6:00 p.m. and we met Tony and his family at the stadium. Tony introduced me to Steve Sacks and his family. Steve Sacks set up the pre-game announcement with Marty Hendin, the Vice President of Community Relations for the St. Louis Cardinals. Just before the game started, I went down to the field. The announcer introduced me and explained about my Tour to motivate and inspire all Americans to get fit. He even mentioned that I was providing resources and easy to understand information to help all citizens like those in the community of St. Louis to get fit. The announcement ended by encouraging them all to make their community a healthier place to live. When he was finished, I tipped my hat to the crowd. They even had me up on the big screen! The fans were great and they gave me a big round of applause. After thanking the crowd, I head up to our seat to watch the game. On the way, I met a couple of the players. I told the players to play so hard that the Reds would doubt their ability to beat them and encouraged them to never give up.

Today I backtracked to catch up on my miles.

2004-07-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

I pushed 45 miles at an average of just over 10 mph. I pushed down old Rte 66. The people on the highways showed there support by honking and cheering me on. It really lets me know that people are starting to hear the message and understand what I am doing to inspire and motivate everyone to get fit.

The day was spent doing media and settling in

2004-07-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

5:47 a.m. CST – This morning I had and interview with “Today in St. Louis” on KSDK NBC Channel 5. (www.ksdk.com) We discussed the basic points of the Tour, including how I’m pushing across America paralyzed from the chest down to inspire and motivate the American people to get fit and meet with city and community leaders to provide tools and resources to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens. I explained the Tour was a non-profit foundation and that people could find out more by going to our website, www.healthandfitnesstour.com. And as always, I welcomed any support from companies or individuals who wanted to help support our efforts and help us continue to bring our grass roots initiative to communities across America.

Morning and early afternoon – After the interview, we spent the first part of the day unpacking and preparing for all the events we had lined up this week. It is going to be a long week, but I am ready! St. Louis is very supportive of the Tour and everyone wants to be involved.

3:30 p.m. CST – We left the hotel and headed for Tony’s house. Tony works for The Visibility Company and he helped plan most of the events this week in St. Louis. Before dinner, we talked a little business. Tony went through the week’s scheduled events to make everyone was up-to-date. It was soon time for dinner, or maybe I should say it was time for the party. Tony’s family, the three of us, and Brian (the head designer for one of our sponsors www.ImShapingUp.com) were all there. I really enjoyed sitting down for a family-style meal. Being on the road 24/7 makes it hard to do that. It was very thoughtful of Tony and his family to invite us. Unfortunately, a bad thunderstorm came through the area around 9 p.m. and ended the party. It knocked the power out of a large part of the city including Tony’s home. We stayed a few hours later than we expected to at Tony’s house. By the time, we were able to return to Baymont, it was late in the evening. We drove back in the darkness past blown over tree limbs and power lines. Tony’s house was without power for several days.

The whole situation made me think of how ironical people are. Almost everyday individuals face emergency like the one the storm presented. They do whatever it takes to overcome the crisis. However, an emergency like the nation’s obesity crisis, causes damages everyday and there are no signs of it slowing down. Why are they not approaching this situation the same way? I felt a renewed sense of determination for my mission. I MUST do whatever it takes to help America overcome the obesity crisis. Every city I visit and every person I talk to is a step in the right direction.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

2004-07-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

7:00 a.m. CST – This morning I reflected on the progress the Tour has made and I came to realize some important issues.

     I’m trying to aspire to life long health and fitness for all Americans so it becomes a way of life. As a society, we are used to starting something, finishing it, and then moving on with our lives and forget about it. For example, during K-12 grades, we get our diplomas and move on. Some of us get a job, others start careers, and others get even more schooling before moving on. Once we have jobs most of us put our time in and forget about work when we are off.

     I’m pushing across America with a plan to help ensure that health and fitness becomes a permanent way of life for all of us. We all need daily maintenance to keep our mind and bodies healthy and fit, so we can do all the things that a well-rounded life can offer. It’s important we understand the importance of lifelong health and fitness for our own sake, that of our families and loved ones, and for the betterment of our communities and our country.

     I want to help communities across America, and all individuals, establish a daily maintenance program, because we can’t all do it alone. That is why I’m working with city & community leaders to provide them with resources and tools to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all citizens. Our goal is to provide a common message and to provide a way for all communities and citizens to obtain clear, concise, easily understand information about health and fitness. It is hard enough to exercise and eat right without sorting through all the mixed messages and marketing hype.

Through one of our Tour sponsors, www.ImShapingUp.com, people can go online anytime to get the information they need.
The ImShapingUp.com site will allow different cites to compete with other cities for example ImShapingUp.com/FortWayne, IN (Name of School)4thgrade could compare all their students with those from ImShapingUp.com/Portland,MN(Name of School)4thgrade.
This site has a place for any group or individual that is interested. We feel this is a human rights issue and that every American has a right to information about health and fitness.

I’m carrying the message of the positive benefits that health and fitness has given me, and so many others, and what it can potentially do for our entire country. When we spend time applying the principals of health and fitness to our lives, we eliminate bad habits and start to make better choices. As we began to make better choices, we can enjoy a fuller and more abundant life.

Please contact us at www.HealthandFitnessTour.com and let us know how we can help you or your community become more healthy and fit. This site can also tell you how to be part of the ImShpaingUp.com community. This community offers a common message full of common sense when it comes to health and fitness issues.

1:00 p.m. CST – We packed up for to move on to our next destination. We traveled from Litchfield, IL to St Louis, MO.

We used this time to organize everything and to do maintenance on our equipment

2004-07-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

6:30 a.m. CST - Early in the morning a fire alarm was set off in the hotel by a guest by mistake. There was no fire, but the sprinkler system caused over $50,000 in damages to the hotel.

After everything calmed down from the morning excitement, Andy scanned some photos and Dora and I ran some errands. We discovered that the brakes were set too close together on the hand cycle, which was causing friction on the wheels. This caused me a lot of trouble when I tried to push the day before, because there was so much friction on the wheel from the brake pad, I had to push two to three times harder to go much slower than normal. I wasn’t able to find a place to pull off the road yesterday to try to fix the problem, so I was forced to forge on for over ten miles. These ten miles felt like 30 miles. It felt as though someone was hanging on to the back trying to keep me from going forward. I muscled on anyway, which took a great toll on me physically. We also find out that the cat eye on the bike was not set correctly. We had both of those problems taken care of at the bike shop in Hillsboro, IN. The owner, Andy, was a great guy who knew a lot about bikes and helped me get everything fixed up even better than before. After his help, I was ready to push to St. Louis.

There was heavy rainfall off and on all day today. But that didn’t stop us from getting our errands taken care and from getting everything ready to push of to St Louis, the gateway to the West.

Pushed a total of 51 miles from Blue Mound, IL to Litchfield, IL

2004-07-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

5:00 a.m. CST – I woke up and got things ready to go. We received a donation from Ron Sanderson, a guest at the hotel, that morning during breakfast. Again, I just want to thank everyone who has contributed to this Tour. With their support and enthusiasm, I know the Tour will be a success and that together, we will be able to win the war against obesity.

9:00 a.m. CST -   After breakfast, we drove to a meeting with Litchfield’s mayor, Jon Dunkirk Jr. We presented the mayor with a plaque and did an interview with the media present. Everyone was very nice and we received a warm welcome. Unfortunately, right after the presentation we had to leave immediately to catch up on the miles from where we left of the day before.

1:00 p.m. CST - From Blue Mound to just outside of Taylorsville, IL I pushed the hand cycle. The total distance in the hand cycle was ten miles. Outside of Taylorsville, we met Jane Long from the Taylorsville Daily, the local newspaper. She came out and took a picture right before a short rainstorm came through.

3:00 p.m. CST - Due to some mechanical problems, I had to move from my hand cycle to my racer for the remaining four miles into Taylorsville. The hand bike is usually a little easier than the racer, but today it was two or three times more difficult. Encountering this type of difficulty made me reflect on how hard it is for some people to get in shape who don’t put out the appropriate effort. Because I was tired the night before and I didn’t want to check my bike, I paid the price the next day.

     As we continued through Taylorsville on towards Litchfield, I noticed that some of the drivers were a little more careless. I guess it was because it was a holiday weekend. Regardless, we had to be much more cautious.

7:00 p.m. CST - We went back to the Baymont, one of our sponsors, in Litchfield and unloaded all of our gear to get ready for or trek to St. Louis this weekend.

Pushed a total of 64 miles from Champaign, IL to Blue Mound, IL

2004-07-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

9:00 a.m. CST - We got packed and ready to go. We left some thank you cards and spoke with people before we left.

9:30 a.m. CST - We met with Mayor Gerald Schweighart from Champaign. I presented the mayor with a plaque on behalf of the Kevin Saunders’ Health and Fitness Tour of America. I told him what an honor it was to be in Champaign, IL and what an incredible city it is. And that I was particularly impressed by the memorial at Parkland College. The memorial stands as a symbol of how, each athlete worked past their personal obstacles to reach higher levels and pursue their dreams. This makes a very symbolic gesture of the purpose of our Tour because now we are pursuing health and fitness for all Americans one community at a time. We are currently going through a series of plateaus as I wheel across America with this message of health and fitness to provide the resources and tools for all citizens. I mentioned how I wanted to challenge Champaign, IL to be part of the campaign and start an ImShapingUp.com/ChampaignIL so that they can compete nationwide with other kids and adults.

     Present for the media was Scott Hatch from CH 3 WICA. He said that the segment would air later that day at 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. as well as early the next morning. He also said that anybody could go to www.WICA.com to see the interview.

10:00 a.m. CST - We immediately left and picked up where Illinois State Trooper David Tendrix had escorted us the day before. Monticello, IL was the next town we came to. There I met with Mayor Bill Mitze and presented him with a plaque from the Kevin Saunders’ Health and Fitness Tour of America. Officer Sergeant Mike Morstattwer led us out of Monticello towards Cisco, IL.
The local newspaper, Piatt County Journal-Republican, took some pictures of me today. This paper is distributed weekly on Wednesdays.
I pushed on 7 miles west on Highway 48 to Cisco, IL. In Cisco, we met a couple of extremely helpful people: Roger Jebe and Lloyd Turner. Lloyd worked at a body shop and raced motorcycles. He helped us put on some slow-moving vehicle signs and a safety light on top of our trailer. It was very important for us to get these signs put up. Lloyd told us that when he came up behind us on his motorbike the he wasn’t sure what he was seeing and that he couldn’t tell how fast we were going. Because he owned a body shop and raced bikes, he thought that it was imperative that we put the slow-moving vehicle signs up high and he helped us rivet the light onto the trailer. We owe him a great deal of gratitude and thanks for all of his help. The people in the Midwest have really been good to us. It’s always great to run into friendly people who are willing to help.

     I met Roger Jebe when he cycled up and met us in Cisco. He wanted to know if he could ride along. I told him that we’d love to have him with us. When I first saw him, I thought he was probably in his 40s, if not late 30s. He was in great physical shape (great muscle tone and very lean) and he had a great bicycle and gear too. It was only after wheeling the first ten miles with us that he told me he was 60 years-old. What a shock! He said he had gotten into bicycling in 1969 and never quit. Isn’t that a great statement for health and fitness when it has the potential to take over 20 years off a person’s appearance?

     After we got into Decatur, IL, we went over Lake Decatur. We noticed that there were some people out being active on jet skis on the lake. I thought to myself how great it was that people were getting out and enjoying the day. It is important that people be physically active. It doesn’t matter what activity they use to by active, as long as they are active.

6:00 p.m. CST - We got a little break along the way when we met Mike Taylor from WAND TV ABC in Decatur, IL. He interviewed me and I told him that I was pushing across America to demonstrate that health and fitness was for everyone. I told him that we were a non-profit organization and that we welcomed any individual or organization who would like to support us in our efforts to bring resources and tools to help all Americans get fit. Immediately after the interview, I got through the city and turned onto Highway 48. I pushed 11 miles into Blue Mound, IL. Here we finished the push for the day around 7:30 p.m. We drove to the Baymont, one of our sponsors, in Litchfield. Here I met the hotel owners, Jane Douherty and Nancy Hyam, who are sisters. I gave them each a copy of my book and took a picture with them. Before we knew it, it was midnight and time to rest for the next day.

Met with different individuals and had police escort out of city

2004-06-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 5

Woke up and called presenting an award to Keiner on behalf of all of his efforts for fitness and sports. Left a message with his assistant, but was not able to get in contact with him.

I called Marty Morris, head of wheelchair athletics at the University of Illinois. We set up a meeting for 4 P.M. to give him a plaque at the Parkland College Olympic Memorial.

12 noon to1 P.M. lunch break

1:30 P.M. Met IL state trooper David W. Tendrix who escorted me as I pushed just over 5 miles west on Highway 10 to Hwy 6 in Seymour, IN. Also met with The Champaign News Gazette reporter and photographer Vanda Bickwell who took some photos as I was pushing out of town.

2 P.M. to 3 P.M. short break after pushing in Georgetown

Immediately after pushing we jumped back into the Jeep and headed for a presentation with Marty Morris at the Olympic Memorial in Parkland College.
We arrived at the Memorial just after 3 P.M. Andy took some photos of the park and we waited for 4 when Marty would arrive.

As we waited I noticed the memorial tribute and thought about how it reflected our tour’s mission. Part of the text on the memorial read as follows:

“Viewers of the memorial move through a series of intermediate platforms marked by light bollards and granite aggregate, reflecting the plateaus achieved then surpassed as the athletes pursue their dreams. Then to the climatic, final, inscribed granite platform beyond the gateway… the smallest but grandest plateau… representing the pinnacle of achievement, here they can view the surrounding countryside. It is this rising progression that is a metaphor for the path traveled by Olympians as they compete, strive, and excel through discipline and desire.”

Reading this inscription reminded me not only of the struggle that I would be undertaking on this tour, but also of the struggle that many Americans face with health and fitness. For some the challenge may seem overwhelming, it is a series of steps that will lead them to a healthier lifestyle. I hope that through this tour we can help, by providing the tools and resources and by motivating, many Americans to reach their next personal plateau, and then the next one after that in the cycle of struggles that leads to a life long health and fitness lifestyle.

4 P.M. I presented Marty Morse with the award for his tireless dedication to health and fitness for people with disabilities and for having coached three of the Olympic athletes listed on the monument.
5:15 P.M. Returned to the Baymont hotel left shortly after with Andy to go to Farm and Fleet, a store in Champaign. We bought flashing safety lights and slow moving vehicle signs for the trailer. We then went to Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club to buy some additional supplies and get some film developed.
Returned to the Baymont at 8:45 P.M:
We ran errands for a total of 4 hours. It was an unexpected 4 hours, but we are not letting the unexpected trials slow us down on this tour. The trials are often unexpected, but they are just a test of our perseverance and determination. We are continually having new plateaus placed in front of us and are trying our hardest to meet them and continue on. I hope that this determination is contagious and that it spreads to the American people through our tour message.

9 P.M. Began scanning in photos and updating journal to send in to, The Visibility Company, our command central for the tour. Finished with all updating at about 11: 27 P.M. and went to bed.

Pushed approximately 69 miles today Crawfordsville, IN to Champaign, IL

2004-06-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

6:00 a.m. CST - We drove from Champaign, IL back to Crawfordsville, IN. I met with Mayor John Zumer from Crawfordsville. I also met with a Journal Review reporter, Doug Hunt. During the interview and the meeting with Mayor Zumer we covered the same information: I am pushing across America to inspire and motivate people to get fit and I am providing clear, concise, easily understood information about health and fitness for all Americans. I mentioned that people could find out more about the Tour at www.heathandfitnesstour.com. I also told about how the Tour is a non-profit foundation and that we welcome and support from individuals or organizations who want to help support our efforts in bringing health and fitness initiatives to communities in all fifty states across America. All profits go to the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and the YMCA of America.

9:00 a.m. to Noon CST – It took approximately three hours to push the 29 miles to Perrysville, IN. The route contained many rolling hills. The hills made me think back to the first time I raced my wheelchair. It was at a race in Atlanta, GA and I was not prepared at all. I did not have the proper equipment and was not in the best physical condition for the race. Towards the end, there was a large hill that looked impossible to climb. Even though I was tired and could have easily quit, I made up my mind to conquer that hill and finish the race whatever the cost. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but looking back I see it as a turning point. It was the point where I made up my mind to overcome any obstacle to achieve success. The hills today are nowhere near the size of that hill, but it is a great feeling to look back and realize how far you have come. I hope that by providing individuals with the motivation and the knowledge to fight obesity, they will one day look back and realize how far they have come.

Noon CST – After breaking for a meal, I pushed another 10 miles to Georgetown, IL. It was between Cayuga, IN and Georgetown, IL that we crossed the state line. Along the way Andy Guzik, our Tour photographer, got on the racing bike and pushed ahead to get some really good shots of the winding roads and rolling hills. Be sure to check them out at www.HealthandFitnessTour.com. Around 2:00 p.m., I took another break before I began my last three hours of pushing to the outskirts of Champaign, IL.

3:00 p.m. CST - As I was pushing through the rolling hills, my thoughts also turned to the emotional rollercoaster that our nation is in right now in terms of fighting the war against obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. As I struggled to push up one hill and then coasted down another, I thought of how many have to slowly struggle up and over the obstacle. This is what it is like for people and communities everywhere who are fighting their own battles against obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. My dream is to help them over that hill so they can enjoy the fun of coasting down the other side. Thinking of this gave me a renewed sense of purpose as pushed on through Indiana and into Illinois.

     After Georgetown, IL, I pushed on to Catlin. There we got on Highway 15 and I pushed through Fairmount, Homer, Philo, and Sydney to the outskirts of Champaign, IL. This was about 27 miles and took three hours.

6:30 p.m. CST - We loaded up our vehicle and drove back to the Baymont in Champaign, IL. At the hotel, we made plans for speaking with contacts the next day at the University of Illinois’s Wheelchair Sports Programs and some other contacts within the city. We discussed briefly our itinerary for the next day in Champaign with our campaign central.

     Later we did some general maintenance and picked up some supplies at different stores. We had to do all the regular tasks, chores, and upkeep associated with a Tour of this magnitude, but we met our goal of get to bed before midnight. It is a good thing we did too since we had to get up very early next day.

Pushed 25 miles from Lebanon, IN to Crawfordsville, IN

2004-06-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

6:00 a.m. CST - We got everything packed up to leave for Champaign, IL. Andy aired the tires in the trailer, Jeep, and racer to get ready for the push. Our first media stop was in Lebanon, IN with Matt Hendrix from the Lebanon Reporter. In the interview, I told Matt that I was doing this to inspire and motivate all Americans to get fit. I’m doing it to demonstrate that if I can do it paralyzed from the chest down, then anyone can become healthy and fit regardless of his or her current limitations. I’m also providing clear, concise, easy-to-understand information about health and fitness. To win the war against obesity, I am working with city and community leaders by providing resources free of charge to create lasting health and fitness initiatives for all. The battle will be won in the communities where people live, work, and play. I truly believe lasting success can happen with the commitment of individual communities like Lebanon, IN. I want to encourage all community members to get involved in making their community a healthier place to live. To find out more about our Tour and our efforts, go to www.healthandfitnesstour.com. Our Tour is a non-profit foundation and we welcome any support from individuals or organizations that want to help support our efforts, making grass roots health and fitness initiatives easily available to all Americans.

I mentioned that the sponsors we have right now are in-kind sponsors like Baymont Inns and Suites, Under Armour, The Roho Group, Sunrise Medical, and Imshapingup.com. Imshapingup.com is providing online resources to enable all people in America to go online to get the information that will enable them to create lifelong health and fitness initiatives for themselves and their communities.

2:00 pm. CST - I presented a plaque thanking the city of Lebanon, IN for their commitment to health and fitness and for their support of the Kevin Saunders’ Health and Fitness Tour of America. The City Treasurer, Debbie Offering, presented me with a key pin. She designed this pin for people who make a difference in the city of Lebanon. I was the first recipient of the key. It was an honor for me to receive the pin. After the ceremony, a Lebanon police officer led me out of town and I pushed on to Crawfordsville, IN. I averaged just over ten miles an hour; 22.5 miles took me approximately 2 hours.

8:30 p.m. CST – We arrived at the Champaign, IL location of one of our sponsors, Baymont Inns and Suites. We unloaded the gear, checked our email, made some calls, and went to bed at around 10:30 p.m.

Last minute packing

2004-06-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

9:00 a.m. CST - Dora and I straightened up things so we would be ready to leave early Monday morning. Dora picked up the t-shirts we had left yesterday to be silk-screened with our Tour website address and logo.

Day used for resting and catching up

2004-06-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

8:00 a.m. CST - I took a break from pushing to get caught up on sending support letters and scanning images from the road to update the website. Also, I did some maintenance on my wheelchairs and caught up with the bills, and other things that need taken care of whether you’re at home or not. Then I ran some errands such as getting t-shirts printed with the Tour website address and logo.

Spent the day meeting with different media

2004-06-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

6:30 a.m. CST - I departed for WISH-TV-CBS for a 7:40 A.M. live interview with Anchor Pam Elliot, on the "Good Morning Indianapolis" show. Pam Elliot was a great interviewer. She really covered the subject well and we were able to let her know that the Big Push was to raise awareness and to demonstrate that if I could push my wheelchair across America paralyzed from the chest down, then anyone can become healthy and fit whatever their limitations. And that after the Big Push, I would push through key portions of all fifty states. During this time, I would be working with city and community leaders providing resources free of charge to help start new health and fitness initiatives for everyone. We also discussed that our main goal was to provide clear, concise information so that all Americans can get fit. I mentioned that people could find out more at www.HealthandFitnessTour.com. I'm doing this Tour voluntarily because I care about the health and fitness of all Americans. Obesity is an epidemic and I want to be part of the solution. I also mentioned that the Tour is a non-profit foundation and all profits are going to the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and the YMCA of America. I encouraged the viewers that we need all the help we can get to keep carrying our message of this grass roots initiative to communities throughout America, and that we appreciate any support that any individual or organization would like to give to help with our efforts.

8:20 a.m. CST – I returned to the Baymont Hotel, in time to make the call for an 8:45 a.m. interview with WBTU 93.3 FM in Fort Wayne, IN.

3:30 p.m. CST - WWK News Radio 950 AM in Detroit, MI, called to interview me. They called to check to see how the Tour was going, and to see how far I was since I left Detroit. For them to follow up and check on me was wonderful. It showed me that my message is getting through and that people care enough to check up on me. I let them know how great everything was going and how people like them made each day easier for me to do. I mentioned again that they could keep track of everything by visiting www.HealthandFitnessTour.com.

Met with representative from Mayor’s office and then made up the 60 miles between Hagerstown, IN and Indianapolis, IN

2004-06-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

10:00 a.m. CST – This morning I was presented a Proclamation from Mayor Peterson. As a way to thank the mayor’s office for their support and commitment to the Kevin Sanders’ Health and Fitness Tour of America, I presented Mayor Peterson with a plaque. I let everyone know the purpose for this Tour and that I would continue spreading my message during a fifty-state tour. I challenged the city to get in shape before I returned. To help the citizens with this challenge, I offered to provide tools and resources to help with the efforts that are currently ongoing in the Indianapolis area to make everyone healthier.

     It meant a lot to me that so many individuals showed up to show their support for the Tour. Among attendants was Robbie Barkley, Vice President of Advocacy for the American Heart Association. I am proud to be working with an organization like the AHA. It is exciting for me that even the local affiliates support me 100%. The media was also present. Many of the news stations showed their support by showing coverage of the Tour on both the 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. news spots.

     After the presentation from the mayor’s office, two officers escorted me though the city. At the end of the city limits, I back tracked approximately 60 miles into Hagerstown and pushed back towards Indianapolis in two three-hour sessions with a one-hour break between each session. We arrived at the Baymont in Indianapolis after 8:00 p.m.

8:30 p.m. CST - I called in for a radio interview with Steve Simpson from WIBC AM in Fort Wayne, IN. The interview was extremely enjoyable. Steve was very interested in and supportive of the Tour. I again encouraged the surrounding communities to become healthier by build lasting health and fitness community initiatives.

Today I pushed 40 miles from Portland, IN to Hagerstown, IN

2004-06-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

8 a.m. CST- Today was great because I was able to meet with many different people. While I was in Portland, I presented Mayor Hozier a plaque from the Kevin Saunders’ Health and Fitness Tour of America. Stephanie Arnold, assistant to Mayor Hozier, was another one of the interesting people I met today. She is on the 2004 Olympic Women’s Archery Team that will be competing in Athens, Greece. We wished her good luck and told her to bring back the Gold. I also spoke with The Portland Commercial Review, Jay County’s daily newspaper. They interviewed me about my history and the mission of the Tour. I explained how I had overcome the tragedy I faced years ago to achieve goals I never thought were possible. And how my current dream is to help Americans fight obesity by supplying them with the motivation and the knowledge they need to be successful in that fight.

I also met the police chief and some of the officers. One officer, Officer Mark, led me through town and then out toward New Castle, IN. I pushed two morning sessions, 20 miles each, with a little less than an hour break between each. I pushed through Farmland, Modoc, and into Hagerstown. Then I had to get in the follow vehicle to get to New Castle in time for my 1:30 p.m. interview.

1:25 p.m. CST – A couple of blocks away from the Courier Times newspaper office, I got out of the follow vehicle and pushed to my interview. They interviewed me and took pictures for about 15 minutes. Because we had an appointment to meet the media at the Baymont in Indianapolis, IN that afternoon, I got back in the van and we quickly drove to Indianapolis.

4:30 p.m. CST – We arrived at the Baymont with time to spare; however, no media showed. When a meeting falls through, it is disappointing for many reasons. The main one is that I get so excited at the chance to reach out and deliver my message to new individuals, it is such a let down if I am unable to do that. Also, I cut my interview short and lost pushing time by hurrying to meet the media. So now, tomorrow, I have to back track to make up the mileage I lost from Hagerstown to Indianapolis.

Today I pushed 47 miles from Yoder, IN to Portland, IN

2004-06-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

6:00 a.m. CST – My day started in Yoder, IN. The weather was in the high 70's and it was partly cloudy. When we crossed Hwy 225, my support team called the Bluffton, IN police and newspaper so we could do an interview and get police support as we drove through. It was especially uplifting because the police officer, Greg Steele, had personally biked from Indianapolis to Washington, DC to benefit the fallen police officers of 9/11. So he could relate to what I was currently undertaking. In fact, Officer Steele helped pace me at speeds between 15 to 20 mph through Bluffton. He led me by the police department and mayor’s office where I met Capt. Tammy Schaffer and Mayor Ted Ellis. I received a police patch from Bluffton PD and a key to the city from Mayor Ted Ellis. Receiving recognition for the Tour’s mission always gets me pumped with adrenaline. Thanks to the adrenaline and the fast draft Officer Steele gave me out of town, I was able to wheel 48 miles today. This gave me an average of over 10 mph. Over four of those hours were spent in my chair, which is a very difficult thing to do. I did notice that after four hours of pushing, my neck and right shoulder started to get sore. I also noticed when I stay in my racer that long pushing, it is necessary to consume plenty of water and Gatorade to replenish my electrolytes and prevent dehydration.

Today is Kevin Saunders Day in Fort Wayne, IN

2004-06-21T03:28:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 10

I pushed approximately 10 miles from downtown to the interstate with police escort after I received a proclamation from the city.
We took care of personal business in the morning. I am in the process of writing two books. I just finished “Conversations in Health” it will be out in August. The other is titled “A Nation at War”: Strategies for winning the war against obesity. I am currently working on the final edits.

2 P.M. We got ready and packed to leave for the park next to the city building where we met with Dianne Hoover, the Director of Parks and Recreation in Fort Wayne, IN who read the Proclamation from Mayor Richard.Media present: Ch CBS 15, ABC 21, and NBC 33. The Journal Gazette newspaper and a radio station were also present. All of the media did an excellent job. We had a police escort to the city limits of Fort Wayne. We then returned to the Baymont Hotel to rest for the next days push. The people were the greatest.

Happy Father’s Day!!!

2004-06-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

8 a.m. CST - Dora and I went to the Black Hawk Christian Church. We listened to Pastor Kelly Byrd who spoke on the subject of Father’s Day and about how women need to be strong for their husbands. It is the women who help provide the strength for fathers. It was a good message with all of the demands (physically, mentally, and emotionally) that are on my wife, Dora. The message reminded me to always be thankful for her love and support and to never take it for granted.

Used the day to rest and prepare for the next part of the Tour

2004-06-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

9 a.m. CST - After the physical and emotional exertion of yesterday, all of us needed to rest. During this time, we organized the trailer by rearranging and labeling everything. I found out that bags worked better than boxes for organization. They helped keep things from falling over. While Andy visited with a friend, Dora and I went to buy some office supplies and looked into getting a camera. We also purchased a wireless modem for our laptop, walkie-talkies for the chair and vehicle to communicate, a weather radio, and a pair of binoculars so we could see street signs from a great distance. These errands took most of the entire day.

Pushed 66 miles from Perrysburg, OH to Fort Wayne, IN

2004-06-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 66

Pushed 25 miles from Toledo/Perrysburg through Napoleon, OH, to Defiance, OH took almost 4 hours, where we met with the Defiance Crescent Newspaper at around 1P.M. and spoke with Jenny briefly who took our picture.
I pushed another 37 miles through Mark Center, IN and Harlan, IN to Ft. Wayne. It was necessary for me keep my average over12 mph to make the scheduled meeting with the police at Fort Wayne. At highway 37 and I- 465 we arrived at Wayne’s gas station and food mart where we met a police escort. I pushed another 4 miles with a police that took us on to the intersection of State St. and Maysville as St. Peters Lutheran Church to meet the media. We arrived to meet the media between 4 and 4:30 P.M. The people of Ft. Wayne were cheering me on. They pulled over and stopped for the police. It was a respectful and hospitable town to visitors.

Media Present: Jennifer Cross with Ch 15 CBS, and Ch 11 NBC. Chad with Ch 21 ABC.

We immediately drove to our sponsor Baymont on Washington Drive in Ft. Wayne in time to see the evening news. Jennifer from CBS did a great job even though I almost ran her over during the interview. HA! NBC and ABC also did excellent work. ABC’s segment did not air until later in the evening.

Met with local government officials

2004-06-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

10 a.m. CST - Today we were honored to meet city council members at Toledo City Hall; Councilman, Michael Ashford presented me with an official glass on behalf of Mayor Jack Ford. I was also presented with a Proclamation from City Council representative Peter Gerken. Once again, the great folks from the media were on hand: Channel 11 WTLO (CBS), Channel 24 WNWO (NBC) and the FOX affiliate. The Toledo Blade was also at the event.

Pushed a total of 51 miles from the outskirts of Detroit to Toledo, OH

2004-06-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 51

I started with pushing from South Rockford, Mi to Monroe, MI 22.5 miles.
WNIC Radio interview, then we immediately left for a newspaper interview. We met Clint Lowery, and photographer Jon at the Heritage newspaper for an interview in Southgate Michigan. We told the paper our purpose to help America shape up one community at a time. We then continued on toward south Rockwood, Michigan. I pushed through Monroe, Michigan without a police escort. It started to rain near Monroe. Half way through Monroe we met a reporter and a photographer from the Monroe Evening News. Valerie Tobias was the reporter. Monroe Michigan is Custer's home town and we passed his monument as we pushed through. It started pouring rain after we passed Custer's monument.
I pushed 29 miles from Monroe, MI through Erie, MI to Toledo. The rain subsided after we left Monroe and it turned into a bright beautiful sun shiny day. We took a break after Monroe and then pushed on to Toledo. I pushed on down highway 125 into Erie and then we took Summit into Toledo. We went to meet the media at Lagrange and Summit, but the media were not there, so I pushed on and the media caught up with us in a parking lot.

Today I started the Big Push at the Detroit, MI boarder near the Ambassador Bridge

2004-06-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

Total miles pushed: 27

Dora and I rode with Bob Layne to ABC news in Detroit. We arrived at 6am for the morning show. After the morning show with ABC news we went to FOX for the 7:30 am interview with FOX TV. It went great and we continued on to Mexicantown/Detroit at the base of the ambassador bridge. I could see the ambassador bridge from the Fiesta Gardens in Mexicantown/Detroit, MI. Canada is on the other side of the bridge. I received a proclamation from Mayor Kilpatrick which was presented by Maria Elena Rodriguez. I also received a letter of support from City Councilman President, Pro Tem, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. 11:30 A.M. Had police support and pushed through Detroit, MI for approximately two hours until I hit the outskirts of the city.
I pushed approximately 27 miles the P.D. in all the suburbs of Detroit provided great support. I stopped in a park. I spent that evening at the Baymont in Southgate, MI, our hotel sponsor for the tour.

Worked to get artwork on the Jeep and trailer as well as prepare for the start of the Tour

2004-06-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

7:00 a.m. EST - We went straight to Fast Signs in Dearborn, MI to have the artwork showing the sponsors and the American flag put on our Jeep and trailer. We had challenges with the artwork in getting everything printed. It started raining which slowed the process down for a couple of hours. Andy dropped Dora and Kevin off at the hotel to meet Bob Layne, CEO of The Visibility Company, who was flying in.

4:30 p.m. EST - Andy went back to Fast Signs. The rain had stopped and the graphics were finished on the Jeep, though work still needed to be done on the trailer.

7:00 p.m. EST – Bob Layne arrived. We discussed strategy for media for the next day and then went to bed.

Continuing trip toward Detroit, MI

2004-06-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

Driving all night long, I drove until 6:00 a.m. right outside of Little Rock, Arkansas where Andy took over the driving. Andy drove until right outside of Champaign, IL, where I once again took over the driving. I drove all the way to Detroit and on into Southgate, MI where we stopped at one of our Tour sponsors, Baymont Inns and Suites, around 1:00 a.m. EST on June 14. The whole trip we had to drive slowly because of our trailer and the fact that we only had hazard lights. We did not make great mileage. It took us approximately 31 hours total to complete the drive.

Final preparations were made for the trip and we drove non-stop from Houston, TX to Detroit, MI.

2004-06-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

8:00 a.m. CST - Andy, Dora, and our neighbor, Chris, started packing our clothing, office supplies, computer, printer, wheelchairs, racing wheelchairs, tires, tools, hand cycles, and helmets; all the things you need to be away from home for three months. We also had to pack all the things you need to run a full-scale office away from home. Some of the stuff I would have to carry with me when I pushed my racing wheelchair or hand cycle; the support team, Dora and Andy, would carry the rest in the Jeep.

1:00 p.m. CST - A friend of ours came by to drop off his racing bike for Andy to use for the summer while we are on the Tour.

6:00 p.m. CST - We departed Houston, TX for Detroit, MI. On the way out of town, we realized that the trailer’s running lights still weren’t working. So we decided to stop in Kingwood, TX, where we purchased the trailer, to see if they could fix the problem. After looking the situation over and buying reflectors for the trailer, we determined that the problem was in the wiring harness that had been put in the Jeep. Because of the time constraint, I again decided to drive through the night using only my hazard lights.

Met with representative from Mayor’s office and then made up the 60 miles between Hagerstown, IN and Indianapolis, IN

2004-06-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

June 7 to June 11, 2004

2004-06-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

Overview - Preparation and packing for trip to the Tour starting point in Detroit.

On Monday, June 7, I picked up Andrew Guzik -who would assist me throughout the summer- from Houston Hobby Airport and we immediately began preparations for the Tour.

Printing support letters, promotional brochures, and other materials for the Tour was one of our first steps. I also purchased a trailer for the Tour; however, there was an electrical problem and the lights would not work. Because of the time constraint (we had to be in Detroit, MI in a few days), we decided to leave the store without running lights. We had to drive through the night using just the emergency flashing lights.

Getting artwork for the Tour vehicles was another project we had. We received and approved the graphics for the trailer from The Visibility Company. Unfortunately, we could not find a sign shop in Houston, TX that could complete the job with such short notice. So we sent the graphics to Fast Signs in Dearborn, MI, a suburb of Detroit, and made an appointment for Monday morning to have the graphics placed on the vehicles.

March 1, 2004 to June 6, 2004

2004-06-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Overview - Three months worth of intense preparation for the Tour: physically, mentally, and nutritionally, for "The Big Push."

I trained at HealthSpan with owner, Robert Davenport. My training consisted of weight-training four days a week. My weight-training schedule was two days on and one day off for approximately two hours a day. I wanted to gain as much muscle mass as possible since all of the miles on the road would lean me up and be a tremendous strain on my body, this extra muscle mass would also serve as protection for my body. Making sure I put my miles in on the road was another part of my training. I logged approximately twenty to thirty miles per day from two to three hours a day. While doing my weight training and roadwork for the Tour I used nutritional guidelines I had received from consulting with nutritionist, Keith Kline prior to the Tour. Prior to departure I also consulted with a registered dietician and nutritionist who deals with nutrition for Iron Man triathlon athletes regarding intake for the Tour. She prepared a nutritional guideline for me to use as I pushed an average of fifty miles a day. All this preparation gave me the necessary physical, mental and nutritional base to undertake such a monumental task.

Kevin's Log - "The Big Push"

2004-03-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

When I decided to take on the monumental challenge of doing the Health and Fitness Tour of America, my goal was to raise awareness and to make a positive difference in helping all people become healthy and fit by inspiring them and sharing clear, concise, easy to understand information about health and fitness. I realized that in order to win the war against obesity, it would have to be done one community at a time. I formed the Kevin Saunders’ Health and Fitness Foundation, a non-profit foundation, to work with city and community leaders to provide resources and tools and help create lasting health and fitness initiatives in communities across America. I felt the three organizations that best exemplified health and fitness and were helping to win the war against obesity and unhealthy lifestyles were the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the YMCA of the USA.

I joined forces with Bob Layne, CEO of The Visibility Company to assist me in my efforts in putting together a national campaign to help America get fit. We realized we were going to have to visit key portions of all 50 states over the next year and a half if we were going to make an impact. One thing Bob and I both realized was that in order to get national attention for our efforts, it would take a major Push. This major push came in the form of what we called "The Big Push." The Big Push is just that. I am pushing my wheelchair from the Canadian border just outside Detroit to the Mexican border just outside Laredo, Texas, which is approximately 2,000 miles. Then I will start the next phase of the Tour by pushing through key portions of all 50 states. Part of the 50-state Tour will include holding health and fitness summits with the city and community leaders to provide resources to help start health and fitness initiatives for all citizens. Bob and I both felt that building lifelong health and fitness habits must begin in the communities where people live, work and play. That is where we will win the battle against the obesity and unhealthy living epidemic.
I certainly knew this wasn’t going to be easy; being paralyzed from the chest down makes it particularly challenging. I have to keep my medical supplies and prescriptions ordered ahead, drain my bladder with a catheter every few hours, do a weight press every fifteen minutes (this is where I lift my body weight up with my arms and hold it for 1-2 minutes allowing blood to circulate back into my gluteus maximus in order to prevent pressure sores) in my regular chair and every hour when I’m pushing my racer (racing wheelchair). These are just some of the routines I endure that I never even considered before my accident. Even balancing in my wheelchair is difficult. To try to give those of you who are able to walk some perspective, try sitting on a basketball with your legs straight out in front of you, your heels resting on a carton of eggs. Then try to do some activities using your arms without falling off the basketball or breaking some eggs. That’s sort of, what it is like for me as I go through my everyday routines. But we all have challenges. The key is to not let those challenges keep you from living an active, healthy life. I know now that when I could walk, run, and play college sports that life was a thousand times easier; but I refuse to let my disability become an excuse. I refuse allow myself to become inactive. And I know that if I can continue staying active, everyone can.

For the most part, I’m like everyone else. I have a college-aged son to keep track of, an elderly mother, my wife, Dora is the closest person to her elderly aunt. We have two homes to keep up with. I’m also working on two books: "Conversations in Health" a collaborative effort with other health experts, and my own book: A Nation at War: Winning the War on Obesity" a book which deals with providing clear, easy to understand guidelines on exercise, nutrition, rest, eating out, and shopping for people of all ages.

Now, in addition to all of this, I am pushing approximately fifty miles a day in my racing wheelchair or hand cycle and meeting with groups to discuss community-based health and fitness initiatives. This log is designed to allow readers to keep up with my progress and gain some insight into why I believe the Health and Fitness Tour of America is so important. I welcome your comments.