Biking with Bailey

Bailey (with her ashes in my ring) and I will be traveling the farthest 4 corners of the United States on a bicycle in 99 days. The trip is based on the time we had with our daughter Bailey before we had to make a difficult decision and say goodbye to her in 2022. The dates of our journey will begin June 9, 2025 in Baileyville, Maine (her birthday in '22) and end September 16, 2025 (the day of her passing in '22) in Baileyville, Maine.

Bailey wasn't expected to make it past the first 24 hours but she continued to amaze everyone by slowly making progress each day. Along with having all of the complications that go along with Down syndrome, she went through chemo the first week and her white blood cells started to improve, the Edema started to subside, and she eventually went from being intubated to a nose cannula. The deciding factor was when they did a scope of her trachea and saw that she had bronchomalacia (a collapsing of the tube that went to her lung). It was in a place where they could not stint it or replace part of it because there would always be an infection or lung problems.

In the summer of 2023 Bailey and I took a bicycle trip across the country and we started in Baileyville, Maine. I noticed that it was the farthest east you can get before going into Canada and that is how the idea of this trip came to be. It is about 120 miles a day in order to complete it. I wanted to do something that represented how hard she fought and how hard that time in our life was.

When the trip is complete I would like to set up a foundation that donates to Down syndrome or any of the multiple things that Bailey had. I would also like this to become an annual trip to where people can join segments to help raise money. This trip is fully self supporting financially so any size gesture will help us get through the 99 days of travel. Thank you and see you back in Baileyville on September 16!