 Hello, hi, and how are you doing? Welcome to Hibachi Talk. Girl that takes our hair with my co-host, Andrew, the security guy. Hey, everybody. Actually, you should be the host because he's on another show. I'm just the part-timer here. You're trying to get out of the work. You're a full-timer here. I'm the co-host. You're doing everything you can. We have an incredible show today. We have this lovely lady who is just beyond fab. I mean, I hope I don't tear up during this show because you really get me so emotionally attached to what you've done. So we have Patricia Waywood here, and she has a story that's incredible. I'm looking forward to telling it. So please grab a chair, pull up a libation, and join us for a thrilling and exciting episode if you watch the talk. Patricia, like I said at the beginning, I always got to do a little story on, I do think, on cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin and blockchain. And I saw Jay did a show. Jay, who's one of our founders, did a show on blockchain. Okay. Nice try. Okay. That's all I'm going to say, Jay. Jay, keep it up. Keep going forward. You're working at it. You're sort of getting there, but that's okay. But anyway, I just thought, since we're, everybody thinks of blockchain and I think of money and Bitcoin and all those things like that, but I'm going to throw one at you. The blockchain used to verify internet advertising. Sure. Because, you know, do you believe internet advertising? No. When someone puts an ad up? I don't believe anything anymore. Yes, that's true. You can't believe anything. I believe Patricia. That's for sure. Because I did the homework. But, you know, but there's all of that happening. So there is a whole blockchain design called BAT, and they're looking at trying to solve a couple of problems with internet advertising. Monitoring information on the whole to validate that what's being said on the internet is true. So when you get a pop-up ad or when something comes in and it's really real, it's not a hacker, right? Right. You go to the website and it's there. Makes sense. The thing with this is verifying that the actors and partners who are doing it are not being fraudulent. Wow. And they're using the blockchain, the technology underneath that, to do that. Is it fast enough to handle? Because how many websites are getting opened every second? Every second. Like, billions, right? Well, you figure it's going out, if it's mining those websites constantly, not waiting for the ad, but going out and mining and just to verify that what's on there. Now the thing is, someone said, well, what happens if they don't buy in? I look at it like this. If you don't buy in, you're like the Better Business Bureau. If you don't buy in, you're not going to get this authentication. Yeah. It's usually like a check. It's not like a back checker, right, that this is a legitimate ad from a legitimate website and not a hacking. That's awesome. So I'm just trying to get the message across that blockchain is more than just the Bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies. Okay. With that. Let's get to the good stuff. Let's get to the really good stuff. So, Patricia, you're just an amazing young lady and I got to say the story. So you bicycled from California to New York, isn't New York? Actually, it was West Point, New York. West Point, New York by yourself without a convoy, no support, and to do this for the wounded warriors. Yes. So, okay. But before we get it, so I got to do that intro, give us a little background on yourself. So where did you grow up? Like who are you? A superwoman. Well, besides Patricia, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and I was living there for 26 years. And it was getting really, really too comfortable, you know. I'm someone who likes to be challenged and I thought, I know where all the good coffee shops are. I know where the good bars are. So I'm like, I need to do something big and bold, and just get out of town. Wow. Okay. And just get out of town. So honestly, what I did is I passed a suitcase and I had no job in Hawaii, no, I didn't know anyone. Right. I didn't have a place to stay permanently. And I just passed a suitcase and got on a Delta flight to Honolulu and got off and did it work. And here you are. Right. I didn't have a job. So you're, I mean, there's no kidding. You're adventurous. That's adventure. And you did the trip to Hawaii after you had done this trip across the United States. Yes. Now, what did you do? What was the purpose of this bicycle ride? Sure. So starting at the beginning, a very good place to start, I really wanted one thing in life, and that was to join the military. Okay. And I couldn't do that because I only have one hand. And I tried to join every single branch and they all said no. And I even enrolled in law school because I thought if you become a lawyer for the military, you don't have to meet the same standards. Sure. I could jag off. Sure. Yeah. Well, during law school I found out, yes, you do. So I left law school and I was really disappointed. But there's always two ways to handle things. You can either be an immature little kid and say, I want to get in. I want to, you know, you should let me in. Or you can say, you know what? I like to say it's the Marines, not the Make a Wish Foundation. They don't exist to make your wish come true. So they say no, just deal with it. So I thought instead of being a battle buddy for the soldiers on the field, which is what I wanted to do, I could be their battle buddy when they come home and raise money to some organizations that support veterans. So you put this idea together to ride across the entire United States of America to raise money for the wounded wars. Yes. That's awesome. Thank you. I don't know anyone. Did you have some veteran friends in Cleveland or some family that had been in the military? What was the inspiration or just your desire to get in? Oh, you mean to join the military? To serve. Well, I'm just so grateful for what they do. I thought, you can't just say thank you for your service because that brings so hollow. So I thought the best way to show how grateful you really are is to join them. So that's why I wanted to join. So what did your parents say when you said, oh, I have an idea. Well, the only thing is with my mom, I didn't tell her because I knew she wouldn't like it. So I posted it on Facebook because I know she's not on Facebook. But then she called me and then said, hey, Aunt Jane saw something on Facebook. Are you really riding across the United States? And I knew the gig was up. The gig was up. So I said, yeah. So then she kind of accepted it. Where were you when you got caught? I hadn't started yet because I was still raising awareness on the ride. How long was the funding effort? How long were you able to? I kept going through a good six months, actually, because then the run up, I tried to spread the word and say, here's what I'm going to do. I'll follow my blog and please support me. So in the end, after I'd say a good six months or so, I ended up raising 10 grand. Wow. $10,000. Did people doubt that you were going to do this? People who knew me didn't, because they knew once I said, no, I'm not going to do something, I'll do it. Yeah, you're pretty tough. Oh, yeah. So no one said, no, she's not going to do it. People knew that would. And did you do a lot of cycling before? Was the cycle just the, what was the, where did the cycling part come from? I was going to say. Oh, yeah. Well, actually, I've been cycling on and off since I was about 17. And I thought, if you're going to raise money and you want people to die into what you're doing, you got to impress them. So I thought, you got to do something that people might not think you can do if you have only one hand. So I thought, oh, cycling. I already have a bicycle. I mean, I'll do that. I already have a bicycle. Yeah, that's how I got into the cycling. That's how I decided to do a cycling trip. But unsupported is a brutal effort. So how the, I mean. So now let's get into that. That's a great question. Yeah, I mean, wow. So you didn't go east to west. You went west to east. And we have a map that we can throw up a picture. Unfortunately, we didn't have high enough graphic to make the background. But if you take a look at this, as you started on the west coast. Right? And you went all the way across to the east coast. And how long did that take? That took six weeks. It took you six weeks. I couldn't drive that in six weeks. Yeah. Well, it was really hard riding. I had to take time off work. And I couldn't take three months off. So I just had to sell for six weeks. Oh, so you had to work? Okay, I got to cram this into six weeks. It says all the vacation I have. It was unpaid, actually. Yeah, it really unpaid. Unpaid, you funded it yourself. Mm-hmm. And you raised $10,000. 30 days. I'm just trying to do the math. Would you average 80 miles a day or something? Yeah. My record is 130. Oh. So 80 to 130 miles a day. Did you get any breaks? Like, did you take a day or two? I would think you sum. Oh, you have to. Yeah. Or else you just collapsed after a while. But you had no backup vehicle. There was no support van behind you. So what happened? You had a flat tire? I fixed it. I'm sure you already knew how to do that before she took off. Yeah. They teach cyclists that right away. It's one of the first things you have to learn how to do. Yeah. Or if I looked really pathetic, some guy will stop and help me and say, oh, I'll do that for you. I say here, fine. I'll just sit here and watch you. Thanks for the break. I know. Sure. Yeah. How many flats did you get? Did you count them? Three. That's not bad. No. Four miles, three flats? Well, if you get really high-quality tires. Sure. Yeah. So here's the thing. I never thought of this, boy. If someone wanted, if one of these companies wanted to get some little bit of gravy out of this, we're going to bring you back on another show. As we say, we're going to, at the other show, we're going to say the name of the tires and the name of the bicycle. Sure. So in the name of the brakes. Sure. And all of that kind of stuff. So that when the next time is around, someone talks about going across the country six weeks, you can rate, well, any monies they want to pay and go back to your next project, they're going to talk about it in the second half of the show. Okay. Because you're relentless. So did you go tube or tubeless? Tubeless. You used tubes? Yes. Yes, Mario. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So what, give us a couple of interesting stories that happened along the way. Oh, okay. The first one I can talk about is in Missouri. So let's kind of start into the ride. So I was getting a little broken down, like my back was hurting, my arm was hurting. I'm leaning on my handlebars like this, like just pedaling kind of on autopilot. And I thought, oh my God, this hurts so much. And all of a sudden I looked at my mirror and I see there's this coyote he's chasing me. Oh. And I thought, hello. So then you forget instantaneously that you're in pain because you got to get away from this thing. Yeah. So then I was going, going, going. All of a sudden I looked down and he's gone. So I thought, oh, thank goodness. So that was one interesting story. And the other one was just me actually meeting veterans along the way. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because I had, I was a rolling billboard. I had the wounded warrior logo on my back. Okay. So people actually see me and put two and two together and figure out that I was doing something for them. But you didn't do anything to promote this. So no one knew you were coming into their town or city, correct? No. And actually some veteran friends from Cleveland thought about doing that. And they thought it's a girl who's riding by herself. They don't want to draw too much attention to that. Right. Okay. That's a good, never thought of it. So a girl by herself. Yeah. Out on the road. Out on the road. And for six weeks with no backup. I'm still going on it. No backup. No van. So would veterans stop just on the road? Like see you riding and pull over and introduce themselves? They would toot their horn. Yeah. But at rest areas or McDonald's they would come up to me. Oh, nice. Or parents of soldiers would come up to me and tell me that they appreciate what I'm doing. Wow. So that made it all worthwhile. See if I were doing this just for the heck of it, I wouldn't have gotten out of California. But since I was doing it through the women's lawyers, that kept me going. Yeah. And I got to give a shout out to the Cleveland newspaper. I can't remember the name. I apologize for that. But they did a great article on you when that was announced that you had completed this ride. I forgot the route. Did you go through Cleveland? Yes. Did you okay? I didn't think you would have kind of, because I saw you deviated north. You kind of went through Cleveland, kind of went around to that. How did you pick your route? How did you pick a starting point? And what was the process out against? Yeah. Well, process of elimination, you think, well, I don't have unlimited time, so I don't want to go through the mountains. So that set me south. And then I thought, well, I don't want to go through the, I wanted to go to Cleveland. So that's why I started in the southwest and then went out toward Cleveland and then over to West Point. Would you hit through like St. Louis? I did St. Louis, yeah. Just through St. Louis, wow. What time of the year did you do this? Because you had to deal with weather too, because you got to figure out when to fit in. I wouldn't mind be driving across Arizona in the middle of the summer. How about Texas last week? Yeah. Oh. That would have been brutal. Yeah. I did it in the spring. There are reasons that you mentioned. You don't want to be in the desert in the summer. Right. Because I did it in the spring. But the trade-off is that when she gets east, you get into snow. Did you get snow? Yes, I did. In Missouri, I was riding in snow. Wow. There's no such thing as snow tires. That's no fun. Well, there are. They have spikes. You probably didn't have spikes with you. No. Did you have a road bike? I had a road bike. Well, the best part was that I didn't bring any cold weather here. I didn't have a coat. So there's the other thing. We're going to take a break in just a minute and then come back about the second after you do anything. You carried everything that you needed for that trip. I did. Oh, yeah. In two supply bags. In two supply bags. In two supply bags. Six weeks across the country. I'm going to keep saying this. Six weeks across the country. No support vehicle. You carried everything you needed in the bag. Yes. Awesome. And so you had to buy your food along the way and all those things in it. Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Just playing each day and day by day. OK. Well, we're going to take a short break now. We're going to get Angus in. He's going to talk about some gadget he found. And we've got Patricia here who's just telling us an incredible story. And you're going to do something even more incredible. And then we'll talk about that in the second half. We'll be back in about a minute. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Hey, Aloha. Welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii Studios and Hibachi Talk. And security guy here. I got a quick thing. I just walked in here from a security briefings going on upstairs. And amazingly, some of the best advice that came right from the director of Hawaii's NSA, update your systems, people. Patch them. We talk about this all the time. One of the simplest things you can do, no cost to it. Make sure you're doing it on a regular basis. All right, Angus. What do you got for us today, buddy? Say hello, Drew. Hey, welcome back, man. You got yourself a Wii Suite. Lassi here, don't you? I know. Patricia's something else. She's a real sweet. You're amazing. Oh, thank you. You're very welcome. Anyway, I got a Wii gadget for you. You know how hard it is to make a meeting? Make a meeting? Or coordinate a meeting? OK. I got to call five people and say whatever. I found a great new app called Doodle. Oh, yeah. And you just invite people to a meeting and they have to pick the date they want to attend, or dates. Yeah. And once the majority comes in, you say, that's the date, send out the invite, and they're ready to go. Yeah, and it's free. And it's free. It's free 99. Angus' favorite price. You're not cheap I am. So that's, I think, check it out. Check out Doodle. That's really, really cool. Oh, yeah. Save your friends some time and annoyance and save emails. Oh, yeah. It's awesome. Terrific. Very good, Patricia. I really appreciate everything you're doing. You're an awesome Lassi. Anyway, we're heading out of here right now. And like we say at the end of every one of my segments, let your wing gang free. Where are you be? Hello? Ha! Yeah. Angus bringing you Doodle today. Doodle's a good tool if you haven't used it. Check it out. All right, we're back with Patricia and Gordo. All right. So let's get into this. In the first half, we talked about six weeks across the United States. You know, 80 days around the world and the balloon is six weeks riding a bicycle. Again, I'll say it again. No escort, no backup vehicle. Carried everything you needed by yourself and you did it across the country. Amazing. So now you've moved to Hawaii. You pick up your bags out of Cleveland and come to Hawaii with no job. But you have your work now. Did you buy a one-way ticket? I did. So strong. I love that. Thank you. She bought a one-way ticket. You've been here a little over a year. And you work for a great employer. And you're in the finance business. We're not going to get into detail. But you're one smart lady. That's for sure. But now you're not giving up. You've got another idea. So what's your new project? Sure. Well, there's another reason I moved to Hawaii when I did. In January 2016, when I was still in Cleveland, I heard about the accident with the 12 Marines who got killed offshore here in January 2016. And it just struck me. So I thought, you know what? I'm going to go, when I get to Hawaii, when I get to Hawaii, you can get settled. I want to do something for them and their families. So this coming January, I'm going to ride my bicycle 12 times around the island once for each of the 12 Marines. Every day. One day. So 12 days in a row. And each lap is going to be for one of the Marines. And that's not all. I'm also going to raise money for service dogs for veterans that have PTSD. And I want to raise money for 12 dogs, one for each Marine. And then we're going to name each dog after one of the Marines. How's that? That's awesome. I love it. I think you might have some escorts on this truck. If they see this show, there's so many cyclists here. Yeah, there's so many cyclists. But how is this? So I got to restate this. So you're going to go once a day for 12 straight days. You're going to round the island. And for each one of the officers or each one of the military that were in that crash where the 12 had passed away. So you're going to do that. And then you're going to use money to help educate service dogs. And each service dog is going to be named after each one of those individuals. What a legacy. That's a great gift. Yeah, so thank you. And then each of those dogs will get paired with a veteran who's struggling really hard with PTSD. So yeah, so if you get a veteran of PTSD, you pair the dog up with the veteran. You can't get any better than this, can you? What a program. And is this also something that you thought up for yourself? You thought it up to give back? Yeah. What an idea. So how are you going to find... This job is going to... This job, this... I don't get paid for this. I mean, this show is going to certainly help, I hope. So now you're going to have to start fundraising, right? And get the word out. Yeah. Now hopefully we can use Sibachi Talk and think that to get the word out. But how are you going to get the word out? I mean, you don't go around town. You're not one of these people that's around town and knows everybody in town and can talk about what you're doing. You're new here. Right. Well, I'm getting better. And the officers are standing. And I also did something I've never done before. I built a website. Awesome. And a website. So it might look a little crude right now, but I'm learning. So if I can promote the website, may I say it? Yeah, of course, yes. Yes. So it's rideforoursoldiers.com. Rideforoursoldiers.com. Very easily. I saw it. You built it this weekend. Yeah. Takes a while. She built it this weekend. That's awesome. And then sent me the link. And I went in and started looking. You're well on your way. Well on your way. I think if we visit some of the local bike shops and stuff. So I think we get a poster up in there. Well, we have to get to the donation side. We have the fund for posters and things like that. So I'm going to go on the record right now that GJB and associates are going to donate $500 to help promote this. And I still match that. So you're going to get $1,000. Thanks. That'll get you started. Fantastic. And that's going to get the word out. Yeah. For this event. Yes. I'm tearing up. Good. It's amazing. Yeah. It's kind of cool. So we're going to help you to promote it. Promotions. We're good at that. Everybody does what Gordo tells them to do. It's amazing. Yeah. You only wish. Only wish. Well, except for those one mayor. So you decided to do this. We got one day a week. You're going to drive. But did you think I'm just going to do this like I did across the country? I'm not going to have a sponsor. I'm not going to have a backup vehicle. You just want to do it like independent. If I get a flat tire. I'll fix it. You'll take your own food with you. Yes. So is that part of the goal? You want to make sure it's that independent? Yes. Oh, yes. I knew that. But the best part is a lot of the families of the Marines who were killed know about this. Okay. So they're going to be following it along the way. And it really means a lot to them to know that we're doing this. Yeah. I think a lot of the local cyclists when they hear about it, they'll provide some escort for her along the way. You'll just get some followers. Definitely be encouragement. Sure. You can guarantee it'll be encouragement. Especially after, I can't even imagine doing that, because it's over 100 miles or so. Per day. Then day two, you get up and do it again. I mean, oh my God. Yeah. Forget the legs. I'll put your butt. Enough. Not going to say that. It gets hard eventually, as she knows. It's going to be tough. But you know, I can't imagine. It's a lot of distance. You talked about riding 1,000 miles. That's a lot. Yeah. 1,000 miles. 1,200 miles. Yeah. And in January, right? Do you have the dates already? I do. So it's going to be January 1st to the 14th. And it ends on the 14th, because that will be the second anniversary of the accident. Okay. Well, you just answered one of my other questions. I was thinking, that accent was a couple of years ago. So second anniversary of the accident, you start up on the first New Year's Day. Well, I guess you ain't partying on New Year's Eve. Yeah, I know. No. You don't want to start off dehydrated. It's a bad day on a bike. I don't think that would be a good idea. No, I go that early. Although, I think the fireworks are going to keep me up anyway. Yeah. Sometimes I want to stay up and have some fun. Well, in January it can be tough, you know, because it's windy out here. It can be wet. So it can be not as easy of riding. So I'm sure you face some tough weather. Like you said, you're in the snow on your trip across the mainland. Well, yeah. In January is when Hawaii repairs other roads. So you're going to go through a lot of construction. Yeah, you'll have to go through. That'll slow me down a little bit. I'm not worried. So what road are you going to take? Not necessarily a road, but what direction are you going to go? Are you going to go? I'm going to go counterclockwise. Yeah. Counterclockwise. So where are you going to start? In town? My house. In near Kahala Mall. Okay, we need to find. Okay, we got to work. You're making yourself such a simple thing. I'm starting in my house. Yeah. Well, that makes sense, because that's where you're going to get out of bed. That's where your bicycle is. Right, so you start at your house, and then you're going to spend the day going around the island for the next 12 days. I tell you, we've got to do. What do you think, a dawn start? What time do you like to start? Whenever you wake up? Oh, earlier is the better. There's one thing I learned on the cross-country ride, start as early as possible, because you'll never know what you're going to hit, and you might need extra time. So start early, so like six. Do you ride in the darkest wood? Do you try to get it all done in the day lighter? Yeah. Because here you get about 12 hours of light. Yeah. So it's kind of tough, depending on what happens out there. Yeah, I would like to get it done before the darkness falls. So you figure if you start early in the morning, you'll finish before you get done. You can get on the road 536 and get done 536. So you're going to go from your home all the way around the island back to your home? Yeah. Awesome. This is so simple. Simple. Simple to say. Not easy to do. It's easy to do. We can make a circle with our fingers. We can do this, right? I'm already tired of just doing this. Yeah. I really respect the work for the Wounded Wars. They're very active out here. You see them in races. I'm pure. I get into some of the running races and cycling races and some of the triathlon. So I think when they hear what you're doing, you're going to get some followers. And definitely some contributions, I think, to help with your cause. I don't think there'll be a problem. I'd like to say that the organization that raises these dogs and trains them and pairs them with the vets, canines for warriors, actually. Canines for warriors. Okay. I was just going to ask you. So canines for warriors is the organization. What's the goal? What's your dollar goal? Yeah, your dollar goal. Early hang on your socks. Each dog costs 15 grand. 15? So multiply that by 12. Oh, multiply that. So 15 times 12. We got some work to do. So we got some work to do. That's 180. Yeah. Okay. We're going to do it. We're going to do the math 15 times 12. So each dog is $15,000. We can do this. And we're going to help you do this. Thank you. Yubachi Talk is going to help you do this. Thank you. Because you can't get any more worthy than this. Believe it or not, Patricia, we have burned through an entire show. Oh, wow. You've just, you know, you've done anything. So give us your website again so we can get that published. Sure. It's rideforoursoldiers.com. Rideforoursoldiers.com. So and you better, this is awesome. Number 132 in the series. I think it's one of the best shows we've ever done. Yeah, I think it's the first fundraiser show we've done. The first fundraiser. This is just awesome. Thank you. This is your cup. Thank you. And hopefully we're going to fill that up with at least $150,000 or more at $15,000 a dog. And we're going to help you to promote this and get the word out on this. Thank you. We'll get you to 34 because these dogs really saved the veterans lives a lot of the time. I love it. It's awesome. You're a special kind of lady. Thank you. Please watch this show. This is amazing. I want to thank everybody for watching Hibaki Talk. I want to thank you for what you've done for our veterans and how much you appreciate what's going on. And like we say at the end of every show, one, two, three, how are you doing?