Well here's the full story. In the summer of 2007, seven high school students and two leaders will set out bike bike across the United States beginning on June 10th in Aberdeen Maryland, and finishing 3700 miles later in Annacortes Washington.

We will travel along the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route for the majority of our journey. Corn and wheat will line our roads as we pass through the Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Sunflowers and rolling fields of grass will capture the landscape of North Dakota, giving way to the desert of Montana. Hundreds of miles of flat dry open land, baked by a 100 degree sun. We will find relief from the heat in the lofty summits of the Cascades, but the cost of that relief will be thousands of feet of climbing. Nine hours of cranking a loaded touring bike up a 5000 foot snow covered pass is worth it...we think...we'll get back to you on that one.

This is these cyclists first time away from home. But then again a cross country cycling trip would be most people's first time really away. Everything you need to survive for 10 weeks is stuffed into a little bag that's clipped to your bike. Mom's cringe when they find out there son's will have one change of clothes for 70 days away from home....yes, that's only one change of underwear. They will learn to live the life of the open road. Getting supplies in the local market, keeping the water supply up for the 575 mile run across the desert, getting up at 5 am to avoid devastating winds, watching the skies to predict lightning storms. And there's of course the times where you arrive at a secluded mountain lake at 2 in the afternoon and nothing to do for the rest of the day but test out the rope swing, or play some frisbee on the deserted beach.

Which brings us to our cause.... in 2002 Gill Hare moved from the UK to the United States and shortly thereafter was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was treated at the Lineberger Cancer Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, and made a full recovery. Now five years later her son David Hare and a big crew of his friends will be riding across America to raise awareness and money for the Lineberger Cancer Center. "Raising money for a place that took such great care of mom feels really cool" David says. To find out how you can help support our cause, email our fundraising coordinator Gill Hare, or find out how to Donate Right Now