Dedicated to a level far beyond what most any other individual would be, is one way to describe my wing-man for the past 7 weeks and the next 20 weeks yet to come. Nathan Reitz heard about One Million Acts Of Kindness from dear friend Mimi Burns. He started following my mission on the web and took special interest in my upcoming Kindness Bicycle/Kindness Bus Tour to raise awareness about Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse. Nathan traveled from Colorado to New York City to film a documentary about One Million Acts Of Kindness and my Kindness Bicycle Tour to raise awareness for Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse.

In nearly every Domestic Violence Coalition and Children’s Advocacy Center I visit, I ask the person I talk with at the end of my interview about 1 or 2 stories of hope that they have seen while working with people in need. The look on their faces change immediately as they go from talking about stories and statistics that are a challenge to deal with, to a story or two of hope that their agency has brought to someone’s life.
Just 2 days ago, Bud Scharfetter of the Chillicothe Coalition Against Domestic Violence told me of one of his stories of hope. A woman who had so many things going wrong in her life, drug addiction, domestic violence, alcohol abuse and was at the end of her rope as she was about to lose her children to social services. Bud stepped in to get her life turned around, including her being able to keep her children. Today she is in a better place than she has ever been in her life. This is one of the many of Bud’s success stories. It is a story of hope, of good hope.
Today I rode a much longer ride than planned. I rode 88 miles for these stories of hope. There is hope for everyone’s life, you just have to want it more than not. At the half-way turn around of today’s ride, the path ended so I decided to ride up an empty country road for a couple of miles. When I turned around to head back, I noticed the road sign where I posed my bike in today’s blog. Amazing coincidence!!
My longest ride of my life was the ride today. It was very rainy and wet during most of the ride, what was Bogart doing back in Cleveland? He is one lucky dog!

The mileage on the sign sounds too good to be true, and is. We have a little over 5,800 miles to go on this 6 month Kindness Bicycle Tour. Time and miles are flying by. We are about to begin our 8th week and have logged over 1,600 miles. My point A to point B to point C original plan has been traded in for safety sake. Frankly, I have no clue how bicyclists travel cross-country on Route 50 in areas where the bike lane is barely the white line on the edge of the road for hundreds of miles. Blind curves and blind hills are the norm where cars and trucks travel 55mph just a few inches off your handlebars. I have been riding in and near cities and towns and getting huge visibility and press as I press-on westward. As of today I am over my mileage by nearly 50 miles, with many more to add to that total, as I ride on relatively flat terrain for the next 2,000 miles.
Today I received a great response while riding because of the interview which was played this morning on the Dan and Mike Show from 1490 WBEX Chillicothe.
Most offices were closed today for the long holiday weekend, adding thousands of more cars on the road than usual, giving the Kindness Bus Tour added exposure.