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I went to downtown Columbus early Wednesday morning to see where the Expo setup would be. It was a nice layout, and our booth would be close to the finish line. I looked down the street and it looked like a long straight run in to the finish. Perfect for Cipollini, I thought. But as I said, I really wasn't there to watch the race.

A couple of hours into the morning, everything was going nice and easy. It had slipped my mind that someone was going to meet me here today. Two years ago, when Angie and I were chasing Lance around France at the Tour, I had flagged down an AP reporter to tell him why we were there. I showed him our big LAF sign and told him about my dad's death from cancer and my diagnosis three years later, then my mom's a year after that. The point was we were there to support Lance, the cancer survivor, not Lance the cyclist. His report hit the wire and made it back home in several papers. About a week before the Tour de Georgia started, I got a letter, then a follow-up phone call from a very nice lady from Dothan, AL. She had seen the article two years before and had saved it, in the hope of getting in touch with me one day. I turned around in the booth and there was my new friend, Kozue Armstrong (no relation to Lance). Kozue was so sweet, she made me and Lance some origami. They were a string of cranes, which means long life in Japan. Kozue is Japanese/American. Lance's was a string of six yellow cranes - very cool. We had a great time chatting and as the racers got into Columbus, Kozue ran over to see the finish. She came back with an autograph from Mario Cipollini, right after he had won the stage. I was able to see him cross the finish line from my booth, with his hands raised high in the air. Kozue was so excited! She got several t-shirts from me and made a donation to the LAF.

Soon I was packing up to continue the week's adventure. One of my fellow Peloton Project Mentors, Michael Sturges and his wife Jennifer were handling a LAF Happy Hour for us in Columbus at the Locos Amigos Cantina. I was on my way to Atlanta for another recruiting party, organized by yet another Peloton Project member, Karen Cross. Karen's party at the 5 Season's Brewery had a very nice turnout. We signed up some new Peloton Project members and auctioned a signed Lance poster for a nice LAF donation. One of the highlights of the evening for me was when I first pulled into the parking lot and a bald headed mask man approached me. I could tell he had a big smile on even though I couldn't see it. It was a Peloton Project member from my Region, Chris Hardman. Chris had just completed a stem cell transplant and was under doctors orders to wear the mask while he was out. We had emailed each other earlier the previous week and I knew he was going to show up. The evening was over as quickly as it began and I was back in the burb, headed for Rome.

I found my hotel in Rome and crashed early because tomorrow would be a long day with the morning stage and the late afternoon Time Trial. Best of all, Angie would finally catch up with me. She was coming over with one of my riding buddies from Birmingham, Andrew Marlin.

I got to the Rome Expo area early Thursday morning. It was one of the tighter areas for the Expo, with not much extra space and I wanted to get a quick layout, before everything got packed. I found my buddy, Brock, who was with the Tour, and was the head honcho if you had a question or problem concerning the Expo. Brock is also one of the nicest people we met throughout the Tour. Always friendly, polite and extremely organized. He was also appreciative of our low maintenance booth. We came with everything we needed so we didn't have to bother him.

Angie and Andrew arrived just in time to see the final circuits around Rome and watch Lance take the sprint for the stage win. That was probably the biggest surprise of the Tour. The crowd at the LAF booth got amazingly crowded after Lance won. Business only picked up more after he took the Time Trial win later that afternoon. We continued to tell people about the LAF, LiveStrong.org, the Peloton Project and pass out various cancer information. It was a very productive day, for Lance and the LAF.

After a long day, Angie and I were once again on the move, this time to Dahlonega. We stayed at the Smith House B&B, which was only 1/2 block from the downtown square, where the Expo would be setup. We were setup early and continued our efforts to inform people about the LAF. Brock moved us to a different location because we didn't have power at the original placement of our booth. The move worked well for us because we ended up in a better location.

One of my CCC , Cyclists Combating Cancer, buddies, Todd stopped by for the third day in a row to say hey. He was having a ball riding some of the course before the race.

Overall, another great day. We passed out lots of info, collected several donations and Lance was still in the lead.

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