Interview on Plum

Here's that video of my interview on Plum TV. Ramona mispronounced my name at the beginning but I didn't correct her. Moments before we went live she confirmed the pronunciation and I could have sworn she had it right, but I guess I heard wrong. Oh well, the rest of the interview went pretty well. The discussion of "butt cream" drew some laughs from the crew.

Oh What a Night

Success! Last night was just amazing. The auction went really well and we had a decent turnout. Not as many people as I had hoped for, but certainly no disaster.

First let me tell about the scare I had two days ago that I didn't mention before. At about 8:30pm on Thursday night my "headlining" musician, Michael Psarras called me up and said he couldn't play. If you'll remember, he did the same thing a few days before that, so I really shouldn't have been too surprised, but still... He said he had quit his job, was going to Montana for the weekend and then likely moving to Hawaii. Great. To his credit, he didn't leave me hanging. He had already called up his sometimes musical partner Gregory Eagle and asked him to play in his stead. Eagle is a fantastic guitar player with a lovely voice and his own P.A. system which is far, far superior to the one at Tommy's, so I couldn't get too upset.

Eagle called me up and seemed pretty enthusiastic about playing. He is himself in the process of promoting his own cancer benefit: The 1st Annual True Grit Days -- in honor of John Wayne's 100th birthday. To take place in Ridgway (town 35 miles north of Telluride), it will feature a huge outdoor concert with some big names, appearences by most of the living original cast members of True Grit, and a showing of the film. Sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately it's being held September 8-9, and I'll be on the bike then. If anyone wants more info on this event, call (800)220-4959 or visit www.RidgwayColorado.com

Anyway, back to the here and now. So we started things off with Andrew Wynne, who is the regular host of Open Mic night and who's been incredibly active in helping me put this night together. He only played for about 45 minutes because he had to be up early to play some music on the same morning show that interviewed me last week. We played a couple of Tom Petty songs together at the end of his set to get the crowd revved up a bit.

Yes, I've got a semi-mohawk. Wanna fight about it? I was bored and figured what better what way to motivate myself than to sport a mohawk? What's wrong with that logic?

After Andrew, it was Eagle's turn. He started off playing a song with Becca, who's a mean flautist. She also runs the Fly Me to the Moon Saloon's version of open mic and she writes the music column in the Telluride Watch. She's the one who got me the interview in the Watch and she wrote up a short blurb about the benefit on the day of.

Then Eagle's friend Steven came up and played the fiddle for the rest of the set. They finished up around midnight and then my friend Dan LeRoy got up and played with Brady McKenna. Dan and I have played together a lot. He's played djembe, acoustic bass, and acoustic and electric guitar with me. That's versatility.

Anyway, enough about the music. I'm sure you're all more interested in the auction and the money we raised, right? Well, the Limoncello shots were a hit, although it's possible we gave away as many as we sold. Candice, who's Andrew's girlfriend, volunteered to go out on the street and rally some people. She took a bag of Livestrong bracelets and sold about a dozen, convincing random people to come in and check things out. That was very cool.

The auction items were popular. In fact some of them went for a lot more than I had anticipated. The La Marmotte gift certificate, the two bottles of merlot, and the two-hour massage had the most and highest bids.

The bottom line, after all the auction items and the money from the drinks, we raised $458. That puts my grand total to date at close to $2,000.

Oh yeah, one of the most amazing experiences from last night: About five minutes after I closed the silent auction, a guy walked up to me and asked if there was anything he could do to contribute. I told him the auction was closed and all the items had been won, but he could always donate money directly. He pulled out $100 and pressed it into my hand and said he wanted me to have it. I told him there was a jar up at the bar for cash donations and I started to lead him to it, but he stopped me and said no, he's already given to the LAF, he wanted me to have the money. Said I should use it to buy food or a hotel room during the ride. How amazing is that? I'd never met him before. His name is Justin, he's a local and he just read about what I was doing and thought it was a good thing, so he wanted to help out. I was floored by that. I wanted to cry.

And perhaps the most amazing thing is that that spirit was everywhere last night. Not everyone can afford to show it the way he did, but I know that a lot of people there were feeling exactly what he was feeling. This has already been an experience I'll never forget and I haven't even started riding yet.

Another Article

This one from the Daily Planet:

Cycling the country for cancer

Published: Thursday, July 26, 2007 9:34 PM CDT
E-mail this story | Print this page

Matthew Eisenberg raises money for cancer research, Friday, 9 p.m. at Tommy’s

By Matthew Beaudin

He once rode from here to Gunnison and back in a few days. It’s a feat, some 200 plus miles and a good chunk of climbing. Thing is, he has to add a zero to that distance now.

Matthew Eisenberg will ride his bike from here to Larchmont, N.Y., a 2,300 mile trip that should last about a month if he can cover some 80 miles a day.

“I first got the idea a year ago,” he said. “And this past winter really started thinking about it seriously.”

So serious, in fact, that he contacted the Lance Armstrong Foundation and set up a grassroots website. All the money he raised — about $1,500 so far — will be given to the foundation for cancer research.

He chose the foundation for its ties to cycling and to a disease that’s claimed two grandparents.

“It’s a bit of a personal thing,” he said. “It’s something that I think a lot of people have dealt with.”

Eisenberg, 27, has been riding for only two years, and sticks solely to the road bike.

“As I was learning to ride, I spent more and more time in the saddle. I just loved it and took to it. Every mile I rode I wanted to ride more … I sort of went for broke, you know?”

Broke. Yes.

He’s been riding every day since the snow melted and mixing in running and lifting weights. He’s ready to roll. His ride is a carbon bike, though he’ll have to pull a trailer. In all, he expects the bike and trailer — which will haul camping gear and enough pasta for the mafia — to weigh in at 80 pounds.

He will head north from here to Fort Collins, where he will meet and ride with a friend, through Lincoln, Neb. to Iowa and on to Illinois. From there he’ll ride to Cincinnati and it’s north to New York from there, all the way home to mom’s kitchen.

“I’m defiantly looking forward to my mom’s veggie lasagna,” he said.

On Friday, Tommy’s will host a Ride to the Coast benefit night, donating a portion of the proceeds to the LAF. The night will feature local musicians, a silent auction, drink specials, Livestrong bracelets and more. For more information on the event, contact Matt at (970)729-1554, Bridgette at (773)316-0217 or e-mail matteisenberg@gmail.com.

There was also a goofy photo in the print edition, but it didn't make it online. They also failed to provide the link to this blog. Bummer.

Not Long Now...

Phew! I think I'm finally ready for the big night tomorrow. I've gotten all the silent auction items wrapped up and just finished writing up the bid sheets for each one. There aren't nearly as many items as I was aiming for, in fact, at nine so far it's about half of what I was expecting. Still, they're all great items that should be pretty easy to get rid of. I calculated that if everything goes just for its minimum bid price (rouhgly 30-35% of its retail value) then we'll bring in a little less than $200 for the LAF. Of course, I hope that most of the items will go for more than that and I could end up with closer to $300.

I wish I had thought of this months ago so I could have planned it better and maybe pulled in a lot more, but I'll probably still give myself a pat on the back when all is said and done for getting this thing together in a just about a week and a half. If I ever find myself in a position to do something similar I'll have this experience to help me do it better. (Honestly, though, I don't wanna do this again, it's wicked hard! I'm exhausted.)

Here's a list of the auction items and their full retail value:

Two bottles of wine from Telluride Bottle Works, $45
ExOfficio shirt from Telluride Outside, $50
Gift Certificate from Brown Dog Pizza, $30
Gift Certificate from Steaming Bean Coffee Co, $50
Gift Certificate from Tommy's, $50
Gift Certificate from La Marmotte, $75
One Bottle of wine from Telluride Liquors, $15
Full tune-up for a mountain bike from Paragon Sports, $50
Two hour massage and/or healing session from Telluride Natural Medical Center, $160

That last one is interesting. I got a phone call two days ago from a woman named Sunny McCory. She said she read the article about me in the Telluride Watch. She's an "intuitive healer," which is a phrase I hadn't heard before, but she specializes in helping people with cancer and she was really interested in finding a way to help out with my project. How cool is that? I think she was hoping that there would be people at Tommy's tomorrow night who might be able to take advantage of what she has to offer, but I had to tell her that I'm not sure if that'll be the case. It would be fantastic if the local press I've gotten attracts people in town that have or have survived cancer, but I don't know very many in town, so that may not happen. Still, I'm certain a two-hour massage won't go cheaply.

So some of the nerves are subsiding now that I've gotten all the preparations and all the press out of the way (I did a brief radio announcement on KOTO that'll be broadcast during the news today and tomorrow morning; and I had an interview and an on-the-bike photo shoot with the Daily Planet for an article to run tomorrow; it was a busy day). With all of this running around and all the rain we've gotten I've had very little time on the bike this past week. So now I'm a bit more anxious about the first few legs of the ride than I was before I got bogged down in all the fund raising, but oh well, it'll be fine. I can't wait to get riding. In fact, I may actually leave a day or two early just to satisfy the little demon in my gut that won't let me sit still. We'll see.

Finn's Radio Interview

I'm not the only one getting media coverage. Here's Finn's interview with Wyoming Public Radio, heard throughout the state.

Telluride Watch Interview

Check it out, my interview with the Telluride Watch:
http://www.telluridewatch.com/articles/2007/07/23/sports/doc46a52de1cccab715618221.txt

Local Cyclist Embarks on Journey to Fight Cancer

By Martinique Davis
Monday, July 23, 2007 4:46 PM MDT


TELLURIDE, July 23, 4:38 p.m. – Local cyclist Matt Eisenberg will start pedaling his road bike on Aug. 1, and won’t really stop for the next month to month-and-a-half.

Eisenberg is embarking on a nearly 2,300-mile, cross-country road trip – on his bicycle. And while he’ll get off his bike to sleep and eat, Eisenberg will spend the large majority of the next 30 to 40 days in the bike saddle, making his way from Telluride to New York. The trip is not, as Eisenberg says, “just a pleasure cruise.” He is tackling the extensive, long distance bicycle journey to raise money in support of cancer research for Livestrong, the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

“I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been touched by cancer at some time in their life,” he says of his decision to do the cross-country ride in support of cancer research. “This is a cause people can relate to, and really rally behind.”

The LAF was established in 1997, after professional road cyclist Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with, and subsequently survived, advanced testicular cancer. In one of the greatest comeback stories of all time, Armstrong went on to win cycling’s most grueling races, the Tour de France, less than three years after he was diagnosed with cancer. He went on to win the event six more times.

Since its inception, the LAF has raised $181 million to support cancer survivorship programs and initiatives to make cancer a national priority. Eisenberg’s challenge, to ride from Telluride to New York, while raising money for LAF, falls under the organization’s Grassroots Fundraising Initiative. The program invites people from around the country to create their own unique fundraisers to support LAF’s programs.

Eisenberg, and his Ride to the Coast fundraiser, has a page on the LAF website where people can pledge their support. He is also bringing the cause closer to home, organizing a Ride to the Coast Night at Tommy's bar in Telluride this Friday night.

“It’s all about trying to get the Telluride community more involved,” Eisenberg says of this Friday’s Ride to the Coast Night, which will include live local music, drink specials, Livestrong bracelets, and a silent auction to help raise funds for LAF.

After Eisenberg launched his website in late May, he quickly raised more than $1,400, all of which will go directly to LAF. His ultimate goal is to reach $5,000, and he’s hoping that this weekend’s silent auction will put him in spitting distance of that target.

“This is the type of community that could really get behind a cause like this,” he says.

The concept of raising money for national cancer research and survivorship programs through a grassroots fundraiser such as Ride to the Coast was not Eisenberg’s initial objective. He simply felt the urge to ride his bike across the country.

“There is something about being on a bike – it’s just a wonderful experience, traveling to other places and seeing things from an entirely different perspective,” he says. “You can see and feel things that you just can’t from a car or a motorcycle. It’s a beautiful experience to be out on the road… I can’t imagine a more rewarding experience than riding up to my parent’s house in New York and saying ‘Hey, I made it.’”

Eisenberg started cycling only two years ago, and was quickly hooked. Even while skiing this winter, the though of being out on the road on his bike wouldn’t leave his mind. Somewhere in all that daydreaming about cycling Eisenberg came up with the idea of riding his bike from here to New York. When he started sharing his plans, a friend suggested he do the ride in support of a charitable cause. It didn’t take long for Eisenberg to choose the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

In preparation for the ride, Eisenberg has been training nearly every day this spring and summer. The ride will be completely self-supported; Eisenberg will be pulling a trailer with camping gear and supplies, following an easterly route that roughly follows I-80 (he won’t be riding on the interstate, but on secondary roads.)

From Telluride, he will ride northwards to Fort Collins, where he will meet a friend who will join him for the remainder of the ride East. They will ride across Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, dropping north briefly to stay with friends in Cincinnati before heading back north into Pennsylvania and finally New York. He anticipates the ride will take between 30-40 days, depending on weather conditions and barring any mechanical problems. That equates to more than 50 miles each day, with a rest day every ten or so days.

He says that the idea seems daunting now, but come Aug. 1, he’ll be more than ready for the challenge. And he does have another reason to get riding; he has to be in New York no later than Oct. 5, the date of his best friend’s wedding.

Eisenberg says that he has already solicited a number of great items for this Friday night’s silent auction; to donate an item for the silent auction, contact Matt at 970/729-1554 or Bridgette at 773/316-0217 or email matteisenberg@gmail.com.

The Ride to the Coast Night at Tommy's will begin at 9 p.m. on Friday. If you can’t make it to the Friday fundraiser, you can always donate online; visit

http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots/ridingforareason2007. For more information on Eisenberg’s ride, or to see a map of his route, visit his website www.ridetothecoast.blogspot.com.

The Route, More or Less

People have been having difficulty trying to view the route on Google Maps, I think because when I click on the link it takes me to my saved maps and when you click on it it takes you to your saved maps. There's probably a way to get around that, but for now here's a rough image of the route, which was just hand drawn in Google Earth, so it's not as exact because it doesn't follow roads. Now that I look at it, it's actually very inaccurate, but at least you can get a basic sense of where we'll be.

TV Interview

I just had my first ever live television interview. I sat down with Ramona from Telluride's Plum TV affiliate for about six minutes during the Morning, Noon and Night show which is the weekend morning show that Kiley used to host. I was a bit nervous as I waited to go on, but the interview was surprisingly fun. I will attempt to get a copy and find out if they'll let me post it here.

Bob Dylan played in Town Park last night. I had a great time, although the music was actually secondary. His singing was mostly unintelligible, as he just mumbled through most of the songs. Still, his band was great and they performed a very cool version of Masters of War, a song he wrote about 16 years before I was born.

This is a painting that Lisa did for me almost a year ago when I first told her I was planning this ride. It's hanging on my wall facing my bed, so it's one of the first things I see when I get up in the morning. A potent motivator, wouldn't you say?

The quote is from a Damien Rice song.

Silent Auction Coming Together

So I spent a few hours yesterday going around soliciting businesses for silent auction bid items. An interesting experience. It's a little difficult walking into a shop or restaurant and asking for charity. I was having trouble working out a concise spiel that would grab an owner's attention, but despite my bumblings I managed to get a really positive response, overall.

Almost every place I went in seemed enthusiastic and promising, and one place (La Marmotte, a fantastic French restaurant) wrote out a gift certificate right then and there, which was wonderful. Some other places were a bit more noncommittal and there were several that didn't have someone available to talk to me, so I just left a short summary with my card. There were two places that rejected me flat out and wouldn't even take my little piece of paper, which was a bit shocking, but still, I understand. I'm sure they're always being asked to give things away for nothing, especially after the whole Valley Floor thing (massive eminent domain fund raising project completed this past spring).

There are still more places to try and I'm hopeful that I can get approximately 20-25 items for the auction and try to raise at least $500, plus what Tommy's brings in on drinks. It turns out that the Turkey Creek Ramblers are playing a show in Montrose that day, but that's fine because I've got a commitment from Michael Psarras to play. He's a great singer/guitar player that plays open mic sometimes and plays a regular gig at Las Montanas. It should be a great night, I can hardly wait.

Here's a shot from the top of the hike up the pass in Jackson.

More on Ride to the Coast Night

The Tommy's fund raiser night is coming along nicely. Everyone around here has been so eager to help me out, it's a bit overwhelming. I've had numerous offers from people wanting to share their contacts and put me in touch with people that could help. My friend Andrew who is the regular host at open mic has offered to help me with a press-release and to put me in contact with people at the paper and the radio station. He's also come up with the best idea yet for that night: Silent Auction. Eh? Eh??

I've written up a little solicitation letter that I'm going to take door-to-door to local businesses in an effort to get some auction items. I've seen this work to great success many times before, I really hope I can generate some solid participation...Keep your fingers crossed!

Also, I'm waiting to hear back from The Turkey Creek Ramblers, a home-grown bluegrass band that has taken off recently. They're a ton of fun and likely to get people through the door if I can get them to play a set that night. There are a number of other musicians that would be great to have play too, but TCR would best fit the mood I want to create.

Stacy from Tommy's suggested pairing Ride to the Coast Night with a shot-themed night they were planning anyway. She had a clever name for it, but I forget what it was. It would involve paying one price for a selection of five shots of their own invention, I think. And as she pointed out, alcohol tends to loosen purse strings. Teehee!

Finally, there will be a table selling those yellow Livestrong bracelets. I have a box of 100. I hope they sell, because I had to purchase them from the LAF, they wouldn't give them to me as an advance on the donation. What I don't sell that night I'll take with me on the road and try to sell them to people I meet on the way. They're only $1, so I figure for those people who say they can't afford to make a donation I can present them with that option. Most people can afford $1, right? Especially since they're getting something in return?

Okay, how 'bout some more winter photos? These were taken when I lived in Jackson Hole.

Thanks Tommy's!

As some of you know, I've been playing music at a local pub called Tommy's since the winter when it was bought by three wonderful women from Chicago. They put on an Open Mic night every Wednesday and I've been to almost every one. I've also played there by request a couple of times, most recently to celebrate the birthday of one of the lovely ladies, Rose. Needless to say, I've gotten to know them and they've gotten to know me, and a little while ago I asked them if they could host a benefit night to help me raise some more money and get more of the local crowd involved in the ride and they said yes, enthusiastically. Yippee!

So on Friday, July 27th, it's gonna be Ride to the Coast night at Tommy's! There will be live music and Tommy's will donate a portion of the proceeds. We're gonna put fliers up around town, contact the paper and the radio station, we'll set up a booth to sell Livestrong bracelets, and there'll be computer terminals set to the blog and to the LAF website. Sounds good, right? I'm jazzed about the whole thing.

Anyone have suggestions about what else we can do? I'm all ears. I was thinking we could create a cycling-themed cocktail. No sure what would go in it though...hehehe.

Thanks Bridgette, Stacy, and Rose! You're wonderful!

So I was riding through town a little while ago and some guy on a motorcycle pulls up along side me and says, "Hey, you know you've got a scorpion on your butt?" How does one respond to a comment like that?

New and Improved!

I just finished marking the map with possible daily destinations and distances. Much of this is likely to change, of course. For instance, according to this most of our days will end up being around 80-85 miles. I'm not sure if that's entirely realistic. I think a lot of those will have to come down to between 60 and 70 miles.

Also, this schedule has us completing the ride in just 32 days, which is clearly ridiculously shorter than I anticipated. I think I need to go ahead and adjust those distances. Ordinarily I would do that before posting, but I just spent several hours doing this and really need to get away from the computer for a while. My method for determining these rest stops was really too ludicrous to mention, but at least I've got a good place from which to start editing the route later.

And no, I didn't use the GPS to map the route. I tried, but the PC software it came with seems so much clunkier than Google, and doing the entire route on the handheld unit is too much work. My plan is to use the GPS as a backup, because, as Finn noted, Google maps can be a bit unreliable. The GPS will also prove particularly useful when trying to find specific things in cities and towns, such as a post office, restaurant, or movie theater.

Here's another shot from the Yellowstone ride. This is just past the entrance to Grand Teton National Park, with the Grand behind me.

Route Update

Here's the latest route.

Changes include a stop in Fort Collins, CO where Finn and I will meet up (the timing for this part could be tricky -- he's 500 miles from Fort Collins and I'm 400 miles away), and a stop in Nazareth, PA where Finn's mother and step-father live.

I expect more official and unofficial changes, but it's starting to take shape. Okay, now I've gotta go ride.

Here's the Route

Okay, here's the preliminary route. I haven't conferred with Finn about it yet, so there will probably be some changes. Also, I didn't put much effort into precision, so at some places we may not be on the exact roads shown here, particularly as we get closer to New York and traffic and road quality get worse. I took a few detours, notably to go south through Urbana/Champaign (to see John and Natalie) and then further south to Cincinnati (to see Liz). I need to find out if there are places Finn wants to go through as well, but this should give you a general idea. If anyone lives close by this route and wants to say hi, just let me know.

View the map here.

Ignore those yellow "pause" markers, that's just how google maps lets you manipulate the route.

Google says it's 2,349 miles. If we average 50 miles per day, that's 47 days of riding. I'd say we can probably do quite a bit more than 50 per day, but I don't want to count on it. Factor in a rest day approximately every 10 days to bring the total up to about 52 days, give or take.

I've got one month left. This is starting to seem pretty real.