First off, you two are married! Tell us how you meet? and why you decided to take this seemingly impossible journey on?

We first met while training and competing on the University of Wisconsin Ski Team. We began doing additional morning workouts starting Carolyn’s sophomore year (my senior year). Soon after we began dating, and a year and a half later we were engaged. It was my senior year that you put the idea into our heads with your run across the nation. We both thought it was amazing and would like to do something like it in the future. It wasn’t until about this December that the idea of doing it this year popped up. Both Carolyn and I spend way to much time training and trying to make finances meet and we felt that there was something missing. All the focus was on ourselves. Given that we have minimal leisure time, we wanted to find a way of incorporating all the hours that we have to spend training, with a greater good that reaches beyond ourselves. We also want to inspire others to reach beyond their own goals and aspirations for the betterment of our world. We want to live our faith by setting an example. This is how the idea materialized. From then on we have gone full speed ahead to set up all the pieces necessary for this trip to happen.

For those of us who don’t even know what roller skiing is, lets start of with the basic question. How can you ski across america in the summer? There’s no snow.

In the summer we roller-ski on the roads. Roller-skiing is a method of dry-land training for cross-country skiers. It simulates skiing on snow and can be used on pavement. Roller-skis resemble very short skis and have wheals on each end. Regular cross-country ski poles are also used on the pavement, but the snow tips are replaced by harder, sharper carbide tips to stick into the pavement. The same boots and bindings are used on the roller-skis as on regular cross country skis.

A lot of adventures have the luxury of looking back on history for advise, However, no one has ever skied across America ocean to ocean before. What are some of the unknowns going into the Journey? What are some of the logistic and gear challenges that your facing in the planning process?

It definitely is a little difficult planning on undertaking this adventure since it’s completely new to us. However, you along with other cyclists have provided very useful planning, coordinating, and execution strategies. In combination with this, Carolyn and I brainstorm all the possible requirements for the trip to go smoothly, then we go down the list and get the things done. We are very fortunate to have been getting gear sponsorships. We sent out a bunch of letters to companies a few months back and have gotten responses. The U.S.company V2 Roller skis is providing us with roller-skis, extra wheals, and accessories. New Moon Bike and Ski is also providing us with clothing, bindings, a head cam, and the service of selling our fund raiser shirts in the store. In a couple of weeks people can buy them from their website www.newmoonski.com. Outdoor Creations in Hayward has also provided us with a huge price cut on getting fund raising t-shirts printed. We have several other potential sponsors that have gotten back to us with the possibility of providing printed supplies, a cell phone car booster, mobile wireless, and gear.

Your untraditional route starts in the south east and ends in the north west. How many miles will this route be? how many days are you planing to do the trip in? Is there any reason for choosing this specific route?

The route will be approximately 3,000 miles. If we average 50 miles a day this would be 60 days of roller skiing. We are setting 90 days aside to complete the trip. The additional days will provide us time to fund raise. We chose the route east to west, because we are trying to avoid the western mountain passes while they still have snow. Roller skis don’t work well in snowy conditions. With this route, by the time we hit the mountains there should be less chances of hitting snow.

Any human powered crossing of america is a huge physical and mental challenge. What do you expect the hardest part of the journey to be and how are you hoping to over come those down times?

It’s hard to say, as we have never done this before. However, we are guessing that 3 months of not knowing exactly where we will be staying the next night, and having to coordinate fund-raising, food, skiing will be part of the equation. We will get through the hard times through prayer, and reflecting on how much of an impact the overall fundraiser will have on the starving.

What are you looking forward to most about the journey?

Adventure, and the knowledge that our efforts will be helping the starving and underprivileged.

Your raising money for an organization called Champions for the Poor can you tell us a little about desire to bring awareness to this cause?

Champions for the Poor is simply a part of the Food for the Poor charity. It provides individuals with the tools to create their own fund-raising campaign. Food for the Poor, is the largest international relief and development organization based in the U.S. It is an interdenominational Christian agency working to physically and spiritually renew impoverished people throughout 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean Food for the Poor provides food, medical supplies, clean water, shelter, and disaster relief in the Caribbean and Central America. Food for the Poor feeds over two million people a day. It is also one of the most efficiently run charities in the world with only 3 cents out of every dollar going towards administrative costs.

Your stepping out and putting forth a huge effort for this cause. How can we donate? or help in other ways?

Donations to Food for the Poor can be made directly via our website at: www.skiacrossamerica.com

Checks can be written out directly to Food for the Poor. Write Ski Across America SC 80316 in the memo line and mail them to:

• Food for the Poor
• Attn: Ski Across America SC 80316
• 6401 Lyons Rd.
• Coconut Creek, FL 33073

On our website we also have a list of things people can do to help us fundraise. We also could use a few more fund-raising stop coordinators to help us look up and contact media, churches, and chambers of commerce in the towns we will be going through. If someone has a bunch of spare time and would like to assist us, they can e-mail us at skiacrossamerica@gmail.com.