Thank You!

Posted by Edwin Wednesday, August 17, 2011 0 comments

There was just so much that went into planning, organizing, and executing this event that I thought it proper to thank everyone in its own, separate post!


First of all, I'd like to thank all of our family members for being there for us the entire trip! Not physically, of course, but through support. Whether it be by being on call, driving lemonade stand materials, making sure we hadn't accidentally killed ourselves, and working out places to stay for each night! Thank you so much for all of the support the entire way down!

I'd like to also thank our sponsors for making our trip easier and much, much more manageable! To Aina Clothing, (specifically Colin!) for helping us get other sponsors and media responses! Thanks to Kracked Skulls for getting us boards to ride on such short notice, to Paris Trucks and Divine Wheels for the trucks and wheels of the trip that lasted fantastically, and DaddiesBoardshop for fantastic bearings and lube that made it through a tough three days of rain! Also to Vox Footwear for the shoes that inevitably became absolutely thrashed by the end of the trip! Thank you for providing the equipment that made Skate Cape May possible!
I'd like to thank Original Skateboards, which donated their time and effort in making our Newton lemonade stand a success with employees coming out and publicizing and assisting our efforts!

I'd like to thank Alex's Lemonade Stand and their social media representatives, and all of the Rita's contacts and store owners/managers/employess that made our lemonade stands so possible and enjoyable! So thank you to ALSF and Rita's for your fantastic cooperation!

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone following us on our blog, facebook, twitter, and etc., and all of the people we've met along the way! Thank you for all of your contributions, interest, and support for our cause and our event!

It's been another fantastic year, here's a Thank You to everyone for making this year such a pleasure!
- Edwin





Sorry for the late post, but I got back from Cape May quite late last night!

Needless to say, we're both quite tired but quite satisfied with what we've done!

As our longest skate the entire trip (about 48 miles!) we left earlier in the morning from Northfield and made our way down into Cape May, passing quite a few coast towns. Danny was on a longboard today, even though his bike was fixed while we were in Northfield. He's quite a trooper considering his broken foot and all.

The weather seemed fantastic at first, and it seemed like the weather would finally agree with us, a change from the last two days of rain, rain, and rain. We passed through Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Avalon, and Wildwood as we followed roads down the coast. Of course, it seemed like the storm followed us to every town we passed.

First it'd be sunny and nice, and in less than a minute it'd just magically turn into a torrential downpour! Awesome! Rain isn't so bad when you know it'll be a wet day, but the clouds just didn't seem to want to make up their mind, so it'd just go back and forth. It seemed like we brought the storm to each town, as we entered it'd be sunny and then a short while later, rain!

Danny was more bothered by the rain. Not that it was wet, but because it wouldn't stay wet. Personally I kind of wanted some sun. I'd always come so close to drying off and then I'd get wet again...

Of course the rain did make things a bit slippery and we had our fair share of falls -- I fell upon my butt once or twice, but Danny sustained heavier casualties. He scraped up his right knee and rolled his ankle, which just added to the pains he already had from his hip and broken foot.

Many bridges and 48 miles later, we arrived in Cape May to a bunch of purple Skate Cape May shirted family members all eager to take our pictures! Weird seeing so many of the same shirt in one place but that's beside the point.

We kind of collapsed into chairs at our stand, changed out of our wet gear, and proceeded with some major lemonade standing, telling beachgoers of our efforts. A reporter from the Cape May Star and Wave also came out to interview us, great to get some more media coverage! After about two hours of selling lemonade/wristbands/tshirts we decided to part ways and head home. And now we are more or less settled at home now!

Thanks to all for making this year's Skate Cape May successful!
- Edwin

Day 6: Little Egg Harbor to Northfield!

Posted by Edwin Monday, August 15, 2011 0 comments


Just one day left!

We started off today in pretty low spirits since it really did look like another day of rain. I mean well, it's fun and all once but putting on soaking wet shoes in the morning and getting wet after a night of being nice, dry and cozy is just not something everyone wants to do.

Well, it wasn't too great for the first while. We did have to walk half a mile in sand because that's just the road out of the campground, and rode for a while in the wet. Not too bad.

Eventually it cleared up and got a little sunny, not to mind the still many puddles all over the road, but it was nice to see some sun and feel a little bit drier than say, yesterday.
The skate actually passed by very quickly, since in the first two hours we were already more than halfway there!

I had my first spill today! It was on a mile long stretch of road (Lower Branch Road I think?) when Danny slingshotted me one his bike. Combined with being a bit tired, being slingshotted at an awkward angle, and the roads being wet, my board slipped out from under me and I kind of just slid on my buttocks for a little. Aside from a small scratch on my hand, no injuries were sustained. A lot of laughter did ensue.

Later as we passed through Little Egg Harbor City, Danny's spokes on his bike decided hey, I don't feel like working anymore. So his bike's back wheel (which had already been deformed for the past 45 miles and wobbled back and forth hitting the frame of the bike) kind of just... stopped working. And that's the story!
He was forced to skate the last 10 miles into Northfield, which he claims to have enjoyed despite the pain and anguish from his very painful and anguish-inducing foot fracture. But, he claims, he's "used to it." Sure, Danny.

We arrived in Northfield and immediately saw a huge, dark, and ominous cloud coming towards us (i.e. a storm's abrewin'!) so we didn't set up our lemonade stand. We still stood around and did solicit donations while we waited for the rain to pass by. While it really kind of didn't, our pseudo-stand seemed moderately successful!

After a quick skate to the hotel, we're kind of just here, waiting for tomorrow to take us, I guess. This year's Skate Cape May really is ending in less than 24 hours now. Thanks to everyone following us this far, and for all of the support! Wish us luck on our longest skate this week to Cape May for tomorrow!

See you tomorrow!
- Edwin


This post is a day late, sorry to those following us! We stayed in Little Egg Harbor Township last night at a campground nearby and there wasn't any wi-fi to do any fancy schmancy laptop blog posting. But right now we're in Northfield so I'll just recall yesterday's events!

We started off in the morning and as luck would have it, it started raining the very minute we were about to leave. Of course. I grabbed a quick breakfast of chips and soda and we left for the day, taking Route 9 for 30 miles all the way down to our next stop in Little Egg Harbor Township!

I guess other than the torrential downpour and flooding in the streets and shoulders, there really wasn't much to say. Honestly, it really was just following one road for 30 miles. It reminded me of last year's Sea Isle City to Cape May, since once again we'd be riding our boards through huge..."puddles" if you could call them that. Actually that'd be a lie, since Danny didn't actually get to enjoy the experience. I was skating while Danny had to ride his bike for the 30 miles because of well, his fractured foot and all.

Just to give you an idea of how deep the water is, the picture above should tell the tale pretty well. It was pretty awesome. After being soaked for hours the water really stops being a nuisance, 'twas kind of surreal in that kind of way.

We arrived at our stand location and frankly, the place was pretty much deserted. We met a couple people and asked for donations and such but it was nothing to get way too excited about. Apparently the location wasn't too popular, and since it was raining business really wasn't expected to pick up. Eventually we decided to call it quits and just skate to the campground since the rain had died down a little, and we wanted to get back before it got all intense again.

We made about $105 at the stand today. Many thanks to the owner who was not there but still donated very generously!

And so we slept in the cabin, which was very.. intimate. It was small and kind of neat to stay in. We pretty much arrived and went to bed very early (9pm, shocking!) to do another skate tomorrow!

Don't forget, you can always check out constant updates and our photos from the days on Facebook, through the link on the side or by going to http://facebook.com/SkateCapeMay!
- Edwin

Day 4: Hightstown to Toms River!

Posted by Edwin Saturday, August 13, 2011 0 comments


Hello all, as a refreshing change of pace I, Danny, will be writing the post.

Today was really.. chill. We accidentally woke up a tad late, enjoyed a nice breakfast and went off. Unfortunately I had to be on a bike because of a potentially broken foot, but that's besides the point.

- Danny

Well I've come to reclaim my position here, Danny decided to make the post but decided against it after a few sentences. Since it's kind of short and didn't really explain much I'll finish it up, no problem!

As Danny said, today was really.. chill, and we did wake up a bit late. Wasn't sure exactly how to break the news to you guys, but last night Danny thought that he re-fractured his sesamoid (which is some kind of fancy toe thing that isn't absolutely necessary but apparently causes a lot of pain). One hospital visit later, suspicions were confirmed. Even though the first doctor who looked at the x-rays thought that Danny had just sprained bone (despite the very obvious and visible fracture).

So, Danny had to take his bike down while I skated the 27 miles today. I'd say he definitely lucked out in this case, since the 27 miles today was much tougher than the 44 yesterday. While yesterday was maybe about 8 hours of skating with stops, it was a mix of pushing on flat, skating down hills, and walking up steep, congested hills. Except today's skate was kind of obnoxious since it was a solid 5 hours of constant pushing. There's something about central jersey where it seems like the roads are always kind of flat but always slightly uphill enough that its always a struggle. Kind of like those dreams where you'd be walking down a corridor but everything keeps getting farther away. Yeah.

We stopped a lot just to avoid the whole heat stroke thing and feelings of throwing up. Which worked out for us.

Our arrival was a little late considering all of our stops, and Danny's bike actually got a flat while we were refueling ourselves at a QuickChek and so, he was forced to skate the last 5 miles, which he describes as, and I quote, "the worst five miles of my life."

The lemonade stand was a bit less than ideal. The place was pretty desolate considering we didn't arrive at peak customer hours and we left too early to start. A lot of the people who were there unfortunately really didn't..interact very much with us, and I'm not too surprised. We were both very tired and not exactly extremely enthusiastic at our stand..

Our total for today's stand was about $60.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit more successful! We'll be in the Rita's of Little Egg Harbor Township at 695 Route 9 S, Little Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

Maybe you'll see us skate as we go down Route 9 the entire way!

Until tomorrow!
- Edwin



Day 3: Chester to Hightstown!

Posted by Edwin Friday, August 12, 2011 0 comments

First off, sorry Hillsborough! We've skipped you this year! Perhaps we'll be able to make it up to you, maybe. We did pass through at least!

As part of the whole making the trip shorter bit we did have to cut out some towns to make the event a little more vigorous and challenging this year. It did also mean a little less planning considering we wouldn't have to organize even more routes between towns.

Our skate was from Chester to Hightstown today! After sleeping on hard wood floors with makeshift piles of clothes as pillows and waking up at 5:30am to my very, very annoying alarm (let's just say we hit snooze every 10 minutes continuously for about two hours), we were a bit sore. And a bit grumpy, even. But all was well as soon as we started skating as it seemed like once we got going our soreness magically melted away.

It was pretty nice!

This was one of the longest skates we've done so far, totaling about 44 miles (after we came to the hotel), and since we knew it'd be long, we left early. Rush hour traffic early. Skating town 206 South was a bit interesting, considering we were mostly walking on the side to avoid getting hit by a car and well, getting killed. Along the way we had a man working at a gas station recognize us and make a donation, as well as another make a donation at a different gas station just a little bit further down. Great to see people who know what we've been doing and help out!

I think the best part of today's skate was the simple fact we didn't have to skate on any dirt roads. No more frustration! Despite being a skate over 40 miles, it generally went without a hitch!

We eventually arrived at the Rita's of Hightstown, had a very pleasant chat with the people working there, and we were visited by a friend we met last year in Cape May and a reporter doing a story for nj.com and a local newspaper! He took some photos and video of us before we returned to the stand to sell our many magnificent products..

From today's stand, we've raised $245!

Since we held our stand up later than we normally do, until about 8, we ended up having to skate in the dark to our hotel. Unfortunately enough for us we ended up having to work our way up Route 33 through the traffic. I wouldn't call the traffic dense but I would definitely say it was fast. Being dark didn't help either. Some jumping of jersey barriers and sprinting was involved, say, across maybe six lanes of traffic (which is a lot longer of a distance than I had imagined!).

Fortunately we made it out alive (mostly) and safe and sound in a hotel room, we're ready to take on tomorrows skate!

We'll be skating to the Rita's in Tom's River tomorrow, at 1687 Route 9, Toms River, NJ. Expect us there at maybe 3 or 4, while we'll probably be staying there until about 7!

Until tomorrow!
- Edwin

Day 2: Newton to Chester!

Posted by Edwin Thursday, August 11, 2011 0 comments



The picture above, in case you were wondering, is Daniel Brookes partaking in a phenomenon known only as "planking." We decided upon some quick shenanigans as we waited for traffic to clear up from rush hour.

The skate today was a bit...distracting from what we normally do. Passing through Hackettstown, Danny over here (well, you can't see him right now because I'm writing this on a computer) decided to take it upon himself to have some of his hairs cut, since he didn't get to prior to the trip itself. Since we were passing through our own town, we pretty much knew where to go, what with being local and whatnot. We ate using some Wendy's gift cards we received as a donation yesterday in Newton (which reminds me, a very nice lady came out to see us and donated gift cards for Wendy's and McDonalds as well as money to keep us fed/hydrated along the way!)

Walking back through our neighborhood, Danny met up with one of his friends and I met up with one of my friends (just kidding, I don't have any) and instead met up with some boards we just received from Kracked Skulls! We sat down and set them up and we'll be riding them for our trip!

Skating down Naughright Road was a bit of a challenge considering its kind of steep and all, and there are quite a few cars kind of coming up and down the mountain, like, really fast. It doesn't help that it being a mountain, we were going like, really fast.

Some of our school friends actually saw us and stopped to say hi, and since we passed our own school Danny visited his teacher (Hey Obes, this is a shout out to you, enjoy your brief moment of fame), and he filled his Camelbak up with some good ol' school water fountain water.

We finally got to Chester Shoprite and we met up with our parents who had set up the lemonade stand before we got there! The Observer Tribune came down to interview us again, and we got to meet up with Colin and he hooked us up with some great Aina clothing and Frends headphones for our trip.

After a couple hours of lemonade standing, we were able to raise upwards of $700! Very much better than last year!

And so, we're sitting here in a Starbucks nearby finishing off this blog post before we head out to eat and return to our very sketchy but awesome vacant store where we'll be staying!

Until the future,
- Edwin (and Danny)

Be sure to check up on the Skate Cape May facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/SkateCapeMay) as we'll be updating with many photos from each day!

Skate Cape May is a 200+ mile skateboarding journey from the top of New Jersey (High Point) to the bottom (Cape May) with the intent to raise funds for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. Last year, we received an award as a Top 100 Fundraiser for 2010 for ALSF!

Click Here for more detailed information!