Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 26, 2004

Arapahoe, NE
The day started out great with an excellent breakfast from out hosts at the United Methodists church. We spent a long time talking to Jeannet and Gary about Rocky Mountain National Park where they were park rangers for several years (specifically Estes National Park). They had a lot of good advice for us about camping, avoiding bears, good eating spots, and even places to do laundry! They even gave some of us Junior Park Ranger badges. I luckily received one and wore it on my jersey all day.

We left the church around 8:30 for a ride of cloudy skies and wet roads. We were lucky enough to be joined by Benjamin for the first 5 miles. Benjamin, only at age 13, is a 5 year cancer survivor of Leukemia. He was so excited to ride with us, and hopefully one day will join the Hopkins 4K on a journey across the country. By the first water stop at 20 miles, we were all completely soaked and very cold. We tried to take short rests so our muscles wouldn’t cramp. Unfortunately I got a flat tire, so my group of Lisa, Katie, and Rebecca (team estrogen, meaning “just the girls”) had to stand in the rain while I changed the tire and then wait for Ben to come with a pump from the water break van. We were all so cold waiting for Ben that we reverted to jumping around, doing the chicken dance, and finally huddling around each other in a tight bunch. Yeah team bonding!

We got back on the road, now joined by Vidya and Joe (no longer team estrogen!) and made it 20 more miles to the lunch-stop. Monica was fortunate enough to get us some shelter in a local bar. The people were so great and even gave us face towels to dry ourselves. Lisa, Vidya and I were too cold to stop for long (we couldn’t even feel our toes at this point!) so we grabbed a quick snack and got back on the highway. In order to get our blood flowing we had to bike a little extra fast, so we renamed our team “bike hard get warm!”

After 16 miles in pouring rain, we arrived at the Methodist Church in Arapahoe. Sadly we got lost (in a town we could ride through in about 2 minutes!) so we spend some time riding back and fourth jokingly yelling out “4K, where are you?!” We stopped at a gas station to ask for directions, and realized we had to make one turn to the church. When we got inside the warm walls, we quickly changed out of wet clothes into warm sweatpants and shirts. We spent the next two hours napping and being driven to 5 different houses in the community. How exciting to stay in a real house and sleep in beds! The hosts were so amazing to put us up for the night.

At 6:30 we all came back to the church for an awesome cream canned dinner of corn, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and sausage cooked by Doug and Terry Houser. Terry is seriously a PhD in meat science!! (that’s what made it so good!) Arapahoe was such a great community to share stories and spread our message of hope and awareness. I honestly have to say that Nebraska has been my favorite state to ride through so far, not just for the beautiful open spaces, flat and rolling hilled terrain, but for the incredibly generous and huge-hearted people. Thank you!

- Renee Bacino


We started off this morning with our usual routine—another hot breakfast with a delicious egg casserole (Mom and Dad we’ll be expecting this at home on a regular basis)—and a special treat—homemade muffins and energy bars (“Sunrise Bars”) from Sandra. The moment of silence was especially touching today because, along with a large turn out from the community, we were in the midst of a future 4ker named Benjamin. He’s a 13 year old boy celebrating his fifth year free of leukemia. After the moment of silence, we set off, joined for five miles by Benjamin and his brother David. Dan wore the dress we bought him for his birthday and he looked pretty.

It was chilly and overcast from the get go and the clouds gave way to a pretty steady downpour before the first water stop, at which we huddled in the doorway of a church for warmth. We were all reluctant to get moving again, and many people opted to stop at a heated gas station about a half mile down the road to drink hot chocolate and feel their toes again.

When we left the gas station, Meredith and I couldn’t have imagined the adventure in store for us before lunch. At first our spirits were high and we were being our usually silly selves while biking. We were riding slowly to keep the wind resistance down and found ourselves actually looking forward to the uphills because they helped warm our legs. On the downhills, however, we vocalized our cold discomfort through what we were told by a worried group up ahead sounded like “blood curdling screams.” After being reprimanded for “crying wolf,” we were resolved to bear the brunt of the weather in silence. Despite our discomfort and feeling like wet dogs, we managed to find humor in the situation.

Pretty soon the discomfort turned into delirium as the 5 miles left to lunch seemed like 25 and around each bend in the road was another bend, and the landscape was desolate, with no potential shelter in sight. We tried to distract ourselves by singing our own rendition of “This is the Ride that Never Ends” (ala Lambchop’s “This is the Song that Never Ends”). At this point we contrasted how unbearable our situation seemed to what cancer patients must endure on a daily basis…

We soon realized that the splash of road water sprayed up by our back tires was, albeit dirty, warmer than the cold rain, and took turns riding behind each other for this somewhat pitiful relief. Meredith was in front of me and pulled ahead to read the oncoming street signs. Much to my relief, she started screaming in desperate jubilation, “BUSINESS DISTRICT!!! IT SAYS BUSINESS DISTRICT!” and we knew we were close to lunch. We were greeted by the others in a local restaurant and huddled together over hot chocolate and heated subs while we dried our outer layers in the laundromat next door.

After lunch, I put Subway bags on my feet to keep dry. But the rain had let up a bit and Meredith and I finished the trip with ease (relatively speaking). We were greeted by an enthusiastic group of locals at the Methodist church in Arapahoe. Everyone was divided up into groups of 5 and graciously put up in BEDS at people’s homes. The night had finally arrived for the much-talked-up cream can dinner, which was a scrumptious conglomeration of cabbage, corn, carrots, potatoes, and homemade Nebraskan-reared sausage. YUMMMM…

After reflecting on “Jeanette and Meredith’s DAY OF CHALLENGE,” we realized that we can do whatever we put our minds to, and that our one day of suffering was really insignificant compared to the battle against cancer. We’ll make sure to remember this and use this lesson for strength during the harder days to come.

- Jeanette and Meredith


All I can say is Cream Can Supper. Dewey has been telling us for weeks now how the vegetarians would be utterly disgusted by the meal we would receive in Arapahoe. None of us, though, had any idea of what was involved. I kept picturing some version of creamed corn with all sorts of meat products mixed in. Turns out that it was nothing like that at all, and I’ll get to it in a second, but first let me tell you about the ride.

We woke up to a chilly and overcast morning, but fortunately, a delicious warm breakfast awaited us. Besides various breakfast casseroles, there were fresh fruits, baked goods, and of course some of last night’s corn pudding.

Our moment of silence this morning was particularly touching because it was more of a continuation of the moment we held last night after dinner. We remembered many of the community members and several others, in particular, Benjamin and his family. As always, Dan was dressed for the occasion, looking like an awkward 13-year old girl on the way to her first boy-girl dance. The bluish-purple thrift store dress really brought out his eyes and the shoulder pads framed his features well.

Rob managed to ruin the day by saying, “As long as the rain holds off, the ride won’t be too bad.” He jinxed us, bringing the rain around mile 5. The 20 miles to the water break dragged on, seeming more like 40. The cold made it difficult to get my legs warmed up, and the bitter cold rain left the rest of my muscles aching. We finally made it to the break for a little relief from the rain, but in the back of my mind I was wondering how I would ever be able to get back on the bike. I think several others were thinking the same.

My grouped helped get each other motivated to go for the next 20, and we left the water stop thinking the rain had let up. It only took a mile or so before we were all loose and ready to kick some butt before lunch. The rain continued and got heavier at a couple points. Nonetheless, we kept our spirits up and continued to push ourselves to lunch.

Once at lunch, we looked back on the morning and realized that it wasn’t really all that bad. In fact, we felt so good that we couldn’t wait to ride the last 16 miles into Arapahoe. We chugged some hot chocolate and waited only long enough to regain feeling in our toes before leaving. We were determined to finish the day strong and also to get out of the rain as quickly as possible. We left the water stop and got to Arapahoe in no time.

The van was already there, so we unloaded it and then changed into dry clothes. It took some time to thaw out, but we eventually did. In the mean time, we were fortunate enough to hang out with some members of the chamber who had organized the evening. They were all awesome people and totally made us feel at home.

So now for dinner. It’s called a Cream Can Dinner because its cooked in large metal cans that were used in the 1930’s to deliver milk to town. Apparently they’re really hard to find now and can sell for over $100 at garage sales. So once you obtain your cream can and set it over a propane flame, you can start to cook. Throw in some whole potatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, onions, carrots, beer, water, top it off with some freshly made Nebraska sausage, and let it steam. Once it’s all cooked, dump the whole thing into a huge cooler and enjoy. We truly got a taste of the local flavor and I think everyone had an amazing time in Arapahoe.

- Brian Tursi