Sam's Ride Update

The official Sam's Ride Website, Pictures & Blog 

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 Sam and company zero in on Memphis this weekend. 

By Sunday night they should be up to the suburbs. 

On Monday.. Samantha makes her triumphant arrival into the city by biking to Overton Park. 

They'll meet the media and supporters there and have lunch. 

Then they'll drive (in a car) to St. Jude to present a check to the hospital.

Sam tells us just what St. Jude has meant to her. 

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They are "somewhere out in the boonies" on Thursday night, somewhere east of the Tennessee River, near Linden.  On a personal note, I love those boonies... if you've never visited the area where the Duck River meets the Tennessee, you need to pull off the interstate sometime and look around.

As for Sam's ride, the team reports she's holding up just fine physically, but her mom reports in the blog that the rest are drinking "Tylenol milkshakes."

On Friday, it's 39 miles to Jack's Creek, southeast of Jackson.

Today, Samantha tells us what her goal is for the trip.

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  Sam's team reports that Tuesday's ride was tough because of the rolling climbs they had to make heading into Nashville.

Wednesday got off to a slow start, but for the right reasons.

Samantha made several stops to greet well wishers, accept donations and talk to the media.

They ended the day in a state park west of Nashville.

You can read about it in Samantha's own words at her blog.

There also are new pictures of their time in Nashville.

Thursday.. the ride takes them to Lyndon, just short of the Tennessee river.

The 45 miles takes them past the halfway point of the journey which ends Monday in Memphis.

Our Samantha comment today deals with how the idea of the bike ride took shape.

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Tuesday: No Update from the road (I'm sure there will be one later in the day), but we do have some new photos of the trip. 

Tuesday took Sam's team into Nashville, where they are hoping for more media coverage to help them raise more money. 

Sam's mom reports a major surge in hits on the web page since Monday, so keep it up.

Wednesday's ride covers 41 miles from Nashville to Lyles Tennessee, as they turn toward Memphis & the ultimate goal of the St. Jude Hospital.

For today's post, Samantha tells us how she got into bike riding.

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On Monday,  Sam & company rode from Winchester (where family lives) to Beach Grove.

On Tuesday, they are headed for Murfreesboro.

Saturday they rode from downtown Chattanooga to Jasper, where they got a great reception from local folks.

Then on Sunday it was over Monteagle mountain to Winchester.

So far, she has raised $20,000 for St. Jude.

Now here's the young woman of the hour introducing herself:

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Sam is an 18 year old girl from Flintstone who is getting a lot out of life despite the setbacks she has faced.

She is a rock climber, snow skier and knee boarder.. all without the use of her eyes.

Now she's adding cross country bike riding to the list.

A rare form of cancer stole one eye before she turned one year old.

After battling it her whole childhood, Sam decided to have the other eye removed in her freshmen year of high school.

Now she is riding with her father from Chattanooga to Memphis to raise money for St. Jude.

She says without their hope, she wouldn't be around to ride today.

So we're going to keep you updated on her progress.

Sam began her journey on Saturday at the Children's Discovery Museum.

Here is the story.