Hi, Everyone!
I am currently working on the documentary video for the 300 ride. If all goes well, it should be released by the end of September 2013. For now, here’s a quick trailer!
P.S. The trailer isn’t the greatest, but the actual documentary itself will be much better!
-Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
Hi, everyone! On Sunday(we were still a little tired) 🙂 everyone in the group gave a testimony about the trip. Everyone said that they were blessed, learned a lot, and would definitely do it again! Check out the pictures of the guys testifying in front of the church!
-Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
Jason Quatro
Jonathan Quatro
Brad Barkowski
Joshua Smith
Caleb Lang
Jesse Glushefski
Reese Parfitt
Nathan Stephens
Jesse Stephens
Joseph Mientkiewicz
Trevor Parfitt
Seth Morrissey
Zach Rowe
Micah Reynolds
Ben Folk
Pastor Jay Folk
The Group
Wow, I can’t believe it’s over! Our last day was another light one, just 15 miles through Albany into the Rensselaer Amtrak Station. No crashes and no flats, thank the Lord! It was like a victory lap, 16 guys finishing the trip of a lifetime, soaking in the beautiful scenery around the Hudson River. What a high! When we rolled to a stop at the Amtrak station, my bike odometer read exactly 460.00 miles!!! (I had put 100 miles on the odometer before the trip) Our entire trip was EXACTLY 360 miles! AWESOME!!! We are all thanking God for a safe, fun trip, and can’t wait to do another one! The strangest thing is that, after biking 360 miles over 8 days, none of us can find a single sore spot on our bodies (no kidding!). God has blessed us so much, and we are so thankful for all the prayers, support, and positive comments that all of you guys(and girls) gave. Though the last day was short, it definitely had its share of…(drum roll, please)… COOL STORIES!!! (you just love these, don’t you) 😉
The Brakes That Were Not There: We were departing from our last stopping point when I noticed that my bike was having trouble braking. As we rolled down a hill, I came to the interesting conclusion that I HAD NO BRAKES! I remained perfectly calm (NOT!) and made a rather ungraceful stop while staying on the bike. I checked my brakes and realized that, while making a minor repair the day before, Ben had unfastened my brakes and had forgotten to put them back on (oops!). I quickly hooked them up and thanked God for keeping me safe. I also made a mental note to keep an eye on Ben… 🙂
The Immovable Man: At Lafayette Park in Albany, I found a man sitting on a park bench, completely unmoving. He was smiling placidly, with his hat in hand and his legs crossed, but I couldn’t help notice his unhealthy color. I tried to strike up a conversation, but he apparently preferred silence. I asked him if it was okay for me to get a picture with him, and when he didn’t answer, I took to mean “yes.” Check out the pictures below and see if you can help me figure out why he wouldn’t move/talk.
The Welcoming of the 300: As we rode into Albany, one of the guys noticed large signs bearing the “300” logo! As it turns out, an Albany church was celebrating its 300th birthday, but it looked like we were receiving a grand welcome to our destination! So cool! Just a little bonus blessing from God…
Singin’ in the City: We got a chance to sing on the front steps of the New York State Museum! It was awesome! Great acoustics, and the few people who listened to us seemed to enjoy it!
Albany, NY, The Great American Ghost Town: When we arrived in Albany, THERE WAS NO ONE THERE!!! It was a ghost town, we barely saw anyone walking the streets. It was like they knew we were coming 😉 We chalked it up to it being graduation weekend, as the few people we saw were in graduation caps and gowns, but it was rather creepy nonetheless…
Jonathan’s Pizza Parlor: We found a pizza parlor called Jonathan’s. How cool is that? It was closed, unfortunately, so we didn’t get to try it out…
A Hero’s Homecoming for the 300: When the long train ride home was over, all 16 of us guys stepped of the train to a HUGE crowd of loving mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and supporters, all cheering and whistling at the top of their lungs! The people that were on board the train were rather impressed by the overwhelming welcome we received! Thanks so much to all who showed up! It felt so good to finish strong and to come home to such love! Shortly after, we all rushed home and crashed in our own beds– FINALLY!
Well, it’s over, but it’s only just beginning! We’re already planning our next ride, and it’s going to be bigger and better than this! I and the rest of the 300 will remember this trip for the rest of our lives! What a great accomplishment, I am so proud of everyone on the trip, we all fought hard and finished well! God bless all of you loyal followers, God bless the 300, and GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
Keep following the blog for info on other 300 events, and stay tuned for 300: The Documentary, coming in August 2012!
God Bless,
-Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
We’re almost on our way to home sweet home! We’re on the train waiting to leave, which could be awhile because we think that Jason broke the electrical circuit 🙂 LOL
By the way, it’s Nathan Stephens’ 18th birthday today! He is a great friend and an awesome person and is quite possibly the nicest guy you could ever meet! God bless you, Nathan, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Posted: June 23, 2012 in Uncategorized
Hi, Everyone!! We are in Albany, NY! Start spreadin’ the neeeeeeewwws (oops, wrong city)! Check out these pics. I’ll post today’s report later.
Boy, what a breeze! We only had to ride 10.3 miles today, and we did it in 40 minutes. However, the short ride was not without excitement, complete with two flat tires and the pastor flying over his handlebars (yikes!). Another unique experience today was riding in a motorized vehicle, something he haven’t done all week. Mr. Miller, the engineer on the Amtrak train that we’ll take home, provided us with a 15 passenger van to drive to a nearby friend’s house and swim. We’re all feeling a bit tired (understatement of the century), and we’re feeling ready for that train ride home 🙂 Very few of us have even touched a razor this week, so we all look a little shaggy (hope you’re not reading this, Mom). 🙂 Tomorrow we plan on doing some evangelism in Albany, and maybe a little sight-seeing. We are currently staying at Heritage Baptist Church in Cohoes. But now that the formalities are over, it’s time to turn to our…(drum roll, please) COOL STORIES!!!
The Last of the Mohawks (almost): Riding a bike is always a dangerous thing for anyone, unless you’re a Mohawk Indian, because then you have experience from riding bareback on horses. But one Indian had a little trouble today. Pastor Folk (:) yes, he claims to be part Mohawk) was riding behind someone who made an abrupt stop and, thinking he was out on a horse, squeezed the FRONT brakes instead of the rear brakes. His bike stopped perfectly, but his body had other plans as it literally flew over the handlebars. He emerged unhurt (that old Indian toughness, you see) and was able to continue riding, but our belief in his ancestry has been severely damaged… 😉
The Ferrari Story: While on the road, we saw a Ferrari parked in a gas station. Not the most intriguing story of the day, but a rare occurrence nonetheless.
Chicken Fights and Chicken Nights: In the pool at Brad Barkowski’s uncle’s house, we had chicken fights. Allow me to explain: One man sits on the shoulders of another and fights an opponent in the same position. The first person to be knocked into the water loses. Several teams had brief dynasties, the most notable being; Nate Stephens and Caleb Lang, Brad Barkowski and Jesse Glushefski, and Pastor Folk and Jonathan Quatro. Overall, no one drowned, so the chicken fights were successful and fun. Strangely enough, we had chicken for dinner tonight… 🙂
After dinner we had a prayer meeting and Bible time, which was very good. We all shared from our hearts, and the Spirit of God was definitely present. We also call Mr. Sierk to wish him a happy birthday, and we purposefully sang the song off-key 🙂 He got a kick out of that! A special shout-out to Mr. Miller for helping us make arrangements to get home he truly is a selfless man and a giver. Well, tomorrow is the last day! Arrivederci!
-Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
P.S. Please pray for me, as I had an asthma attack last night and am still getting my breath.
Posted: June 22, 2012 in Uncategorized
OK, I’m going to cram two days into one post, if I can. Wednesday was a smooth day, perhaps our best yet! Our average speed went up to 14.7 MPH, and there were no flats or crashes! We arrived at our destination FOUR HOURS EARLY, and had plenty of time to relax and enjoy ourselves. Our stop was at First Baptist Church in Little Falls, pastored by Chris Wintermute, an athletic bicyclist and knowledgeable teacher. The prayer meeting that we had was very good, and we were also able to play some foosball, ping-pong, air hockey, and tabletop bowling (stiff competition, believe me)! On Thursday, we traveled our farthest distance of the trip, 73 miles. Unfortunately, Jesse Glushefski had a very bad crash in which he hit a 3-foot-tall wooden post at 17 MPH and flew over the handlebars. Miraculously, he wasn’t seriously hurt, but his bike frame has bent rather badly.
(See pictures below)
Reese Parfitt also crashed, but neither he nor his bike were damaged, thank the Lord. Zach Rowe had a rough day, complete with two flat tires. Ben Folk was resourceful and used what he had on hand to fix the tires.
(See pictures below)
Caleb Lang hauled our trailer like a champ, in spite of a flat on his bike, as well. The group has become more unified throughout the trip, and God is really blessing us! And now, what you’ve all been waiting for…(drum roll, please) MORE COOL STORIES!!!
The Arrest of the Pastor Story: We all stopped at a really cool lock on the canal and saw a bridge/catwalk that went out over the water and gave a view inside the lock. We weren’t sure it was legal (or safe, but guys never think about that), but Pastor Folk climbed out onto it and most of us followed. We were enjoying the fabulous view when a man who controlled the lock yelled at us to get out of there! We thought we were going to get arrested! Adventure is never far away from us…
The Omen of the Cats Story: While biking along the trail, several of us were startled by a loud, un-human noise in the trees. Brad thought they were monkeys (logical conclusion, of course), but as it turns out they were cats having a fight. One of them was black, and to our horror, it crossed our path!! No wonder we had so many maintenance problems!!! (Just kidding!)
The Curious Case of the Talkative Tour Guide: We had stopped at a Revolutionary War monument and entered the welcome center to use the restroom, when a tour guide decided to give us the long version of the history story surrounding the monument. We had no idea how much history surrounded the canal until the tour guide demonstrated the great depths of golden knowledge with a lengthy speech. It wasn’t until much later that we finally hit the trail again…
Fun Fact: The church that we stayed at on Wednesday night was originally pastored by Reverend Francis Bellamy, the author of…the Pledge of Allegiance. No kidding! I thought that was so interesting…
The Eviction of the 300: One of the places we were supposed to stop and sleep at one night suddenly became unavailable. We found out later that the town condemned the building (oops!) and that we were stuck without a place to sleep, but God worked it all out, and somehow we ended up at Charlie Barkowski’s father’s house! I’m so glad we didn’t spend a hard day biking only to arrive at our stop and realize that it wasn’t there… God is so good!
Is Pastor Folk An Indian? Popular lore has it that Pastor Folk is a descendant of the Mohawk Indians, and today we receive some more proof. When biking through the Mohawk River Valley, he broke forth into an authentic Indian chant. Is he really an Indian? Maybe someday, we’ll find out for sure…
So many great things happening, wish I could share them all with you! My dad’s open-heart surgery was successful and he is doing well. Keep believing in miracles!
Please keep following and giving your input, we need you guys!
God bless,
-Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
Hi everyone! Today we made the best time we’ve made all week! We averaged 13.5 miles per hour, which is great, considering all the brutal hills we had to climb. 🙂 We are staying at the Bush’s house in Oneida tonight, they’ve been great to us! This morning it was raining cats and dogs (what?!), but it let up before we started riding, so that was a blessing. We had a couple flats, Micah Reynolds flipped the bike trailer, we broke the speed limit, and we parked in a fire lane, but we’re all safe and sound (so no worries, parents). Some more stories from the trip:
The Death of Zach Rowe Story: For the past day, Seth Morrissey’s seat post on his bike has been cracking, so we stopped in a town to try to get a new one from a bike store. Ben and Seth rode to the bike store while the rest of us stopped at a grocery store. We were chilling at the store when all these fire alarms start going off and these fire engines and an ambulance pull into the parking lot. Ben saw the fire engines from the bike store and thought that one of us guys had been hit by a car and killed or worse (for some reason, Zach Rowe’s name leapt to his mind…). He comes flying into the parking lot to find all our bikes parked in the fire lane (oops) and yells, “What happened? I leave for one second and Zach gets killed!!!” Pretty crazy…
The Dead Duck Head Story: I didn’t see this, but a couple of the guys saw a severed duck head along the side of the road. Whatever… They said it was looking back at them. Perhaps this trip is too much of a mental strain on them. 🙂
The Rebirth of Hercules Story: Micah Reynolds hauled our 50 pound bike trailer over some brutal hills today without breaking a sweat (almost), so we now call him Hercules. He did awesome!
The Blessing of the Welder Story: As I said earlier, Seth’s seat post was breaking, so God led us to stop in a parking lot to check our maps, and the owner of the lot just happened to be a welder who was able to fix Seth’s seat right then and there! Such a blessing!
The Rapid Aging of Pastor Folk: It is known that Pastor Folk is in his 50s, but as a motivational tactic Ben likes to yell “C’mon, guys, if a 60-year-old man can do it, you can too!” Odd how fast Pastor Folk has aged in a few days… 🙂
We still have yet to solve the Mystery of the 300 Signs. Anyone with clues can contact us via comments on the blog. Check out the pictures of us trying on our crazy rain ponchos!
Keep praying for us and for my dad!
God bless,
Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
Posted: June 19, 2012 in Uncategorized
Wow, what a day! 60 miles total, with 40 miles of steep hills! Brad Barkowski carried our 50 pound bike trailer the whole way, and did an awesome job! No accidents today, praise God! There are a couple of cool stories from today that I’ve got to share…
The Cow Story: OK, so we’re biking past a farm when these two cows in a pasture alongside the road decide they want to race us. They’re tearing through the pasture when suddenly both of them slam into the electric fence! One sort of bounced off (if cows can bounce) and the other broke right through the fence! Hilarious! Had a good laugh after seeing that!
The Bald Eagle Story: I had just called my family and found out that my dad has to have open-heart surgery and a double bypass while I’m gone biking. I hang up and I’m scared, worried, and wondering if everything is going to be okay. Pastor Folk prays for my dad, and when he’s finished, an American Bald Eagle flies low over our heads! No kidding! It was like a sign from God to keep trusting in Him. Awesome! Keep praying for Rick Quatro, my dad, as he has surgery on Wednesday.
Bob Stopper Story: A guy named Bob Stopper stopped us in a McDonalds parking lot and informed us that Newark used to be the “peppermint capital of America”! Interesting, huh? He also said that peppermint oil used to be illegal to buy…
The Mystery of the 300 Signs Story: Along the trail, we have seen several signs that have encouraging messages for the 300 group written on them such as, “Go 300!”, “300 has it!” , and “Looking Good!” Who posted these messages? We have received several suspicious phone calls from Pastor Folk’s wife, and we suspect her of writing them, even though it doesn’t look like her handwriting… Can we solve the mystery? Keep following to find out! 🙂
Before I sign out, I want to give a shout out to the Hanley family, who showed us what Christianity is all about when they opened their home to us, cooked us fabulous meals, and let us all shower, sleep, and do our laundry at their expense. They are truly awesome friends who made us feel at home. We didn’t want to leave! God bless you all, Hanley Family!!!
Keep praying and following!
God bless,
-Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
Well, Day 2 went much smoother than Day 1, with no flats or spills, thank God! Everyone is learning the importance of sticking together and not trying to show off individual achievements. During World War 2, Allied bombers were getting shot down right and left because the fighter escorts protecting them were trying to raise their personal stats by going off on their own and getting into aerial skirmishes, leaving their bombers unprotected. The Allies had to teach their fighter pilots that success is measured by how many bombers get home safe, not how many personal kills they made. If they stuck together with the group, they could apprehend the enemy sooner and destroy them without leaving their bombers unprotected. Once the pilots got in that mindset, more missions were successful, more bombers got home safe, and the Allies established air supremacy. We are trying to use this mindset to our benefit on this trip and in our lives. It doesn’t matter who came in first or who seems bigger in the “public eye,” what matters is sticking together and accomplishing a common goal. Unity is key, and today on the trail everyone was much more unified than on the previous day, resulting in fewer mishaps. We’re learning new things every day! Keep praying!
-Jonathan Quatro, Blog Editor and Team Navigator
P.S. OK, so we found a really funny lame joke on a Popsicle stick, gotta share it.
Q: When is a door not really a door? A: When it is ajar. Get it? If not, don’t worry about it! :p
Posted: June 17, 2012 in Uncategorized
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