Author: Matt

I have had quite the interesting month. I turned 43 the last day of June and got sick a few days later. It turned out that CMV reared it’s ugly head again. On top of that, I was gearing up to go to camp. I had 10 days to become CMV negative if I wanted to go to camp. I can’t be around 115 kids with transplants with CMV. Their immune systems might be worse than mine. I will not even consider being in the same room as a transplant kid if I am CMV positive. I was feeling pretty down those 10 days. If I missed camp, that would be 3 out of the past 4 years I’d miss camp. That’s after 26 consecutive years, first as a camper, then as a volunteer.

My Valcyte worked! I found out two days before camp that I would be going. It was one of the best weeks at camp I can remember. I was a unit head, which means I was in charge of the volunteers and kids in all of the boys cabins. I got to hangout with a bunch of different cabins and even did the zip line with one group. FYI, I HATE heights.

After an amazing week at camp, I went home to rest and my eyes started to bother me. I went to the doctor and was told there was a possibility I could have CMV retinitis. If I was CMV positive in my eyes, I’d be on a month long IV infusion. That would mean PICC line and no trip for the rest of this year so I can figure out what to do. The worry crept in again. I had five days until my eye doctor appointment.

I saw my eye doctor yesterday. No CMV! I have dry eye that comes with old age. AWESOME! I’ll take it. Just need eye drops for a week and then use tears. No CMV also means, I can confirm I’m back on for Scooting4Donors.

I will be leaving Nashville on September 1 and scoot through Memphis, Little Rock, Dallas, Lubbock, Denver and many towns in between. I should be in Denver on October 23. I am going to see what happens from there, both money wise and health wise. Hopefully I’ll continue west, but after the first part of this trip, I’ll go section to section.

I can’t wait to be back on the road again. I just wanted to show you the ups and downs of a transplant recipient. Scooting across the country is tough in itself, but throw in my illness, and you never know what will happen.

I’ll be back blogging sooner than later…

I am still working on sponsorships and funding for the remainder of the trip. Please donate and share this page. Help me help the 114,000 patients waiting for life saving organs! Don’t forget to register to be a donor, yourself, too.

THANK YOU!

I was very upset when I had to turn around in Nashville. I knew I was coming home after Stage Two was complete, but I was only a quarter through and I was really looking forward to finishing in Dallas.

I knew I didn’t have enough money when I left the Atlanta area, but I was hopeful that the donations would come in when I got to new places. I need to plan better. I know $50,000 is a lot of money to ask for, but people need to learn more about organ donation. If 95% of the country is for organ donation, how are only 58% actually registered? My only guess is education and awareness. That is what I’m trying to do.

I want to help the 140,000 people waiting for life saving organs. I know what the wait is like. I have friends who are waiting. I’ve lost friends who were waiting because they ran out of time.

I am not quitting for them! I know the money will come. The sponsorships will come. The awareness will follow!

Unfortunately, because of my hiatus, I have had to reroute the second half of my trip. I was really looking forward to going to big sky country. I will now be heading directly west from the southeast to the southwest. From mountains and prairies to mountains and deserts.

This trip will happen and I will add many more to the 13 people who registered to be organ donors from my site. I’m trying my best to help the long list of transplant candidates. I will not quit.

Until then…

Unfortunately, I will have to end Stage Two in Nashville. I still plan on finishing this trip, but I will have to be later this year.

I left Alpharetta hoping that if I got back on the road and got more publicity, more donations would come in. I knew when I left I didn’t have enough funds to get me to Dallas. They got me to Nashville. I was able to get another week on the road and I even registered two more donors.

I will be back on the road after camp. As I did after Stage One, I will pick up where I left off. Stages Two through Five will be done in one continuous route. Nashville to San Francisco.

I will not leave Nashville until I have all the sponsorships and funds I need to complete the trip. I know it will come. I just need patience. This wait will be nothing like the 114,000 patients waiting for organs. I will register a lot more people this year!

Scooting4Donors is not over yet. I will be back in July!

Until then…

• Stops: 7
• Rest Day: 0
• Rain: 2 days
• Police Escorts: 6 (4 in one day)
• Reroutes: 2
• Dog Chases: 1
• Mishaps: 1
• News Coverage: 2
• Miles: 272
• Donors Registered: 2
• Main Accomplishment: 2 new tires thanks to new friend!

Yesterday was a rough day. My tire blew and we couldn’t fix it ourselves. I decided we needed to take the scooter to a bike shop in Murfreesboro and see if they could help us. I wasn’t very confident heading there. A bike place in Roswell wouldn’t look at my Trike before I left because it’s not something they work on. I still had to try and get the wheel fixed.

Then we went to Spoke Easy in Murfreesboro. Jeremy, the owner, gave me all the confidence in people I’ll need for the remainder of the trip. Not only did Jeremy fix the blown tire, he fixed the other back tire, too. He also made sure the brakes were good and everything else was in tip top shape. After working a good two hours, he wouldn’t take my money. Thank you for being such a great person, Jeremy.

After scooting an uneventful 30 mile scoot from Murfreesboro, we stopped in our hotel. We were given a room for two nights at the Spring Hill Suites in Brentwood by two great friends. Thank you for the amazing room, Richard and Carey!

Tomorrow I’ll be scooting through downtown Nashville and possibly be interviewed by the news.

Until then…

Wow! What an interesting two days. Rain, police escorts, blown tires, oh my!

After an amazing day in Chattanooga, I was brought back down to earth. On the plus, I had a police escort the entire scoot from Chattanooga to McMinnville. I can’t thank Chattanooga PD (especially Justin Kilgore) for helping my entire time in (and above) Chattanooga. I also have to thank the Hamilton County, Sequatchie County, Warren County Sheriff’s Departments and the Signal Point PD and McMinnville PD. They all followed me a combined 69 miles! But the rain! I was soaking wet the entire day!

I am loving the local restaurants though! While the rain subsided in Dunlap we had a great breakfast at the Dunlap Restaurant. That afternoon we had an early dinner in McMinnville at La Cazona Mexican Restaurant. The tacos and salsa were better than most places I’ve been in Atlanta. This afternoon, in Woodbury, we had a great lunch at DJ’s Pizza and Steakhouse. The name of the restaurant was calling to me! We didn’t have pizza or steak. The 3 cheese raviolis were perfect.

McMinnville was only 22 miles from DJ’s. Fortunately the rain held off a bit, because things got interesting just 5 miles down the road:

My first flat! I’d say 1,700 miles (including camp) on scooter tires before an issue is pretty impressive! Fortunately, Trikaroo gave me 3 extra tires and tubes. More rain was heading towards use, so we had to bring the scooter back to the hotel. (Yes, I didn’t scoot 18 miles). That meant unloading the car, putting in the scooter and playing Tetris with the luggage and scooter. It barely fit! Good thing we brought the scooter back, ends up we can’t loosen the bolt. We can’t take off the tire!

Nashville is only 28 miles from Murfreesboro, so we will be bringing my Trike to a local bike shop to help us out. Hopefully, we will be checked in the hotel in Nashville by 3pm. We sure are ready for a three night stop in Nashville (one day is for IVIG).

Until then…

PS – If anyone has access to a van, truck or even bus it would be REALLY helpful for the rest of the trip!!!

Long 69 mile scoot. Two-thirds in the rain. I’m tired. Tomorrow will be a double post.

Good night…

Amazing day in Chattanooga. I was only 6 miles away from my stop after my long scoot yesterday. My great friend from Berry, Toby Hewitt, set some stuff up for me and made this one of the best days of my journey so far.

First as soon as I crossed the state line, Sgt. Kilgore and Ofc. Frisbee were waiting for me to escort me to the Chattanooga Choo Choo. There, Kasey Freeman from Channel 3 News was waiting to do an interview for a story. After getting a discounted rate at the Choo Choo (thank you so much), on to the next thing.

Then Pierce and I met Toby for lunch at Slicks Burgers where I had a nice, juicy burger. After lunch we went to Songbirds Guitar Museum and looked at millions of dollars worth of guitars where I strummed a guitar that Jimi Hendrix played. Hunter was a great host and showed us around. I wanted to see a 90s cover band, but had to stay in late.

After Songbirds we went up to Channel 3 News to meet Cassie, a fellow Berry grad. We watched a bit of the news taping and took a Berry alum photo.

Finally, Pierce and I went to Nightfall which is a concert series in downtown Chattanooga and moseyed around. It started raining, so it turned into an early night.

Thank you so much to Toby for everything he did to help me out today (and tomorrow)! He made this stop one of the best!

Tomorrow is an early morning, because the rain will be getting bad the later in the day we get. I’ll be scooting at 8am.

Until tomorrow…

Long, busy scoot today! Only day three and I’ve already gone off my schedule. Today was originally going to be Rome to Dalton. Then it was Rome to Lafayette. Finally it ended up being Rome to Fort Oglethorpe.

After a fun night at the Costolnick’s, Pierce and I left around 9am and made three stops. I visited Kristen and her kids on the outskirts of Rome. Then I stopped through Summerville to see Kenya from camp. There may be a new kidney in her future!

After scooting through Lafayette and getting pulled over the second day in a row, I went an extra 20 miles to Fort Oglethorpe and away from the sheriff’s department and the rain. Those bonus miles put me through Chickamauga National Park. I couldn’t imagine what happened on those fields.

I was worried about rain all day. It only sprinkled for 10 minutes near where I finished. Sixty-two miles and (slight) rain for 3 of them. Hopefully it stays like that all week (it’s supposed to pour).

Ending the day at a restaurant called Mike’s Pizza and Burgers was just the topping on the great day.

Tomorrow is Chattanooga where I get to see another old friend, do a news interview, scoot across the longest pedestrian bridge in the world and more.

Until then…