Rick & MaryEllen's Wheelly Great Adventure


	Meet the riders This summer, Rick and MaryEllen Thibodeau are celebrating 35 years of marriage (to each other) and five cancer free years for MaryEllen. We’re doing this by taking three months out of our daily routine to ride our new Independent Fabrication touring bikes from the Pacific Ocean in Oregon to the Atlantic Ocean in Rhode Island. We’ve been dreaming about doing this for years and decided that, since we’re not getting any younger (who is?), we better get on with it. Rick and MaryEllen have been residents of West Hartford, CT since 1978. Rick, a West Point (’70) and University of Connecticut School of Law (’78) graduate, is the Director of Personal Financial Services at Filomeno & Company. MaryEllen, a St. Bonaventure (’75) and University of Connecticut School of Law (’85) graduate is corporate counsel at ING. We’re the parents of Matt and Jessica and in-laws of Jody. You’ve probably figured out by now that we’re not spring chickens – MaryEllen will turn 56 the week before the start of the trip and Rick will celebrate his 59 th birthday during the first week on the road. (We are telling you this hoping it will make you feel sorry for us and motivate you to support our cause – see “Make a Donation”). Although we’ve been riding recreationally for 20 years, this is by far the biggest bicycle adventure of our lives. We’ll ride our bikes 50-70 miles a day loaded down with all the basic necessities: a tent, sleeping bags, cooking gear, pain relievers, clothes and tools and some not-so-basic extras: like a light weight laptop, digital camera and cell phones. We’ll be following a route mostly charted by Adventure Cycling (see “Learn More about the Route”), camping and cooking whenever Ranger Rick (as in US Army Ranger) can talk MaryEllen into it. We’ll be staying in motels and eating local specialties prepared by others whenever MaryEllen can talk Ranger Rick into it. And we’ll be taking occasional layover days to sleep late, do laundry and enjoy an interesting location. We have many reasons for riding, but after MaryEllen underwent successful treatment for cancer in 2001, we decided a celebration of love (it’s still there after 35 years – but will it still be there after a 10-week cross-country trip?) and life is in order. Our experience will have a lasting effect if, with your help, we raise $25,000 to benefit the American Cancer Society (see “Make a Donation”). We would greatly appreciate it if you would forward this request to anyone who would have an interest in our ride and in helping us reach our goal. We hope you are able to experience some of the thrill we’re anticipating by following our Trip Log. You can send us an e-mail – we’d love to hear words of encouragement (see “Contact the Riders”).

Meet the riders

This summer, Rick and MaryEllen Thibodeau are celebrating 35 years of marriage (to each other) and five cancer free years for MaryEllen. We’re doing this by taking three months out of our daily routine to ride our new Independent Fabrication touring bikes from the Pacific Ocean in Oregon to the Atlantic Ocean in Rhode Island. We’ve been dreaming about doing this for years and decided that, since we’re not getting any younger (who is?), we better get on with it.

Rick and MaryEllen have been residents of West Hartford, CT since 1978. Rick, a West Point (’70) and University of Connecticut School of Law (’78) graduate, is the Director of Personal Financial Services at Filomeno & Company. MaryEllen, a St. Bonaventure (’75) and University of Connecticut School of Law (’85) graduate is corporate counsel at ING. We’re the parents of Matt and Jessica and in-laws of Jody.

You’ve probably figured out by now that we’re not spring chickens – MaryEllen will turn 56 the week before the start of the trip and Rick will celebrate his 59 th birthday during the first week on the road. (We are telling you this hoping it will make you feel sorry for us and motivate you to support our cause – see “Make a Donation”).

Although we’ve been riding recreationally for 20 years, this is by far the biggest bicycle adventure of our lives. We’ll ride our bikes 50-70 miles a day loaded down with all the basic necessities: a tent, sleeping bags, cooking gear, pain relievers, clothes and tools and some not-so-basic extras: like a light weight laptop, digital camera and cell phones. We’ll be following a route mostly charted by Adventure Cycling (see “Learn More about the Route”), camping and cooking whenever Ranger Rick (as in US Army Ranger) can talk MaryEllen into it. We’ll be staying in motels and eating local specialties prepared by others whenever MaryEllen can talk Ranger Rick into it. And we’ll be taking occasional layover days to sleep late, do laundry and enjoy an interesting location.

We have many reasons for riding, but after MaryEllen underwent successful treatment for cancer in 2001, we decided a celebration of love (it’s still there after 35 years – but will it still be there after a 10-week cross-country trip?) and life is in order. Our experience will have a lasting effect if, with your help, we raise $25,000 to benefit the American Cancer Society (see “Make a Donation”). We would greatly appreciate it if you would forward this request to anyone who would have an interest in our ride and in helping us reach our goal.

We hope you are able to experience some of the thrill we’re anticipating by following our Trip Log. You can send us an e-mail – we’d love to hear words of encouragement (see “Contact the Riders”).