Great Show @ Happy Hour 4 a Cure

Thanks to everyone who made it out to The Square Room last Thursday evening for the Happy Hour 4 a Cure! Taylor Corum played a great show while folks filed in and out for drinks and dinner prior to Sundown in the City. After Corum played his peace, he and his band cleared the stage for main event, the Dirty Guv'nahs!

The Guv'nahs played two fantastic sets in addition to two encores featuring some of their latest hits off their newest self titled album (available on iTunes!). James, Mitch, Justin, and all of the Guv's are owed many kudos for their awesome show that drew quite the crowd. Well over 200 folks packed the Square Room and danced long into the night after Sundown.

We were also able to net a great pile of cash that will go directly into our fundraising efforts for the Ride to Cure Diabetes. We are proud to announced that with this addition, we are now well over $7,000 in capital funds raised for this event to help us word towards achieving our goal, a cure to diabetes!

Once again, thanks to the Square Room, the Dirty Guv'nahs, Taylor Corum, WBIR - Channel 10, the Knoxville News Sentinel, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell and Berkowitz, PC, Sigma Nu, and Shafer & Huguley Marketing Communications. All of these organizations have played an integral part in making this event possible.

Now we turn our focus back to training. Time to get some miles burned this week, if it will stop raining...

Tonight's Happy Hour 4 a Cure

The Happy Hour 4 a Cure is finally here! Tonight, starting at 5:30pm at the Square Room downtown, some of Knoxville's best music will be performed before and after Sundown in the City. Of particular note, the Dirty Guv'nahs, our main event for tonight, will take the stage at 9:30pm, immediately following Sundown. Once again, $10 gets you a wristband, allowing access in and out of the Square Room all night long and all proceeds benefit our ride team and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!

5:30-7:00pm Taylor Corum and Happy Hour
7:00-9:00pm Sundown in the City with Big Head Todd & The Monsters
9:30pm The Dirty Guv'nahs

A special note of congratulations to the Guv'nahs for being voted #1 band in Knoxville in today's Metro Pulse. Their show at the Square Room tonight will be their first time at the venue, voted as runner-up in the Metro Pulse as the best Concert Venue in town. However, the restaurant at the Square Room, Cafe 4, was voted Best New Restaurant in Knoxville!

Thanks to the Square Room, the Dirty Guv'nahs, Taylor Corum, WBIR - Channel 10, the Knoxville News Sentinel, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell and Berkowitz, PC, Sigma Nu, and Shafer & Huguley Marketing Communications. All of these organizations have played an integral part in making today's event possible.

Happy Hour 4 a Cure - This Week - Thursday

It is here! This Thursday is the event that we have been talking about for several weeks now, the Happy Hour 4 a Cure. The event, scheduled for The Square Room in the Market Square area of Downtown Knoxville, will feature several local musical artists in conjunction with Knoxville's Sundown in the City.

The schedule for the evening is below and $10 will buy you a wristband for admission in and out the Square Room, to and from Sundown, all night long! Enjoy Taylor Corum and our Happy Hour prior to Sundown, head out to the square for Big Head Todd, and then come back in to see Knoxville's #1 local band, The Dirty Guv'nahs!

5:30-7:00pm Taylor Corum (acoustic) and Happy Hour
7:00-9:30pm Sundown in the City with Big Head Todd
9:30pm The Main Event - The Dirty Guv'nahs

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS. Tickets will also be available at the door and all proceeds will benefit our ride team and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!

Best of the Best

Now that Jessica and I have been training for this bike ride for over two months, we are to the point where we are doing long rides that are high risk and high reward. Finishing our 32 mile ride this past Sunday (Easter) felt great but was certainly met with our fair share of interesting occurrences.

Until last week (Sunday, March 5th) we had not yet had any real snafus as it relates to our training. Jessica did fall in Kingston Pike, which could have been real bad, but she was a trooper and got up, dusted her shoulders off, and kept on burning up the pavement. The snafu on 4/5 came when the backpack that I was carrying for our 25 mile ride that day suddenly drenched my back. My fears were confirmed when I stopped, opened up the bag, and found two inches of Gatorade saturating a silver, perfectly functioning Blackberry. This wasn't my first encounter with moisture and cell phones but the crazy thing was that as I stuck my hand into the puddle of lemon-lime electrolytes I realized that although dead, the blackberry was seizing, or vibrating, as it may have been. I took the battery out, dumped the Gatorade out, and kept pedaling...no time to sweat the small stuff!

This Sunday, however, we encountered "Lover's Lane," the Little River Railroad Museum, and even a snake being attacked by vultures on our scenic tour of Townsend, TN. We were also able to enjoy two swinging bridges and also encountered nice tourists from south Alabama. Ahh, the great American vacationers of the Great Smokey Mountains!

Our rides are getting longer just in time for the warmer temperatures of spring in the south. However, Jessica and I both are continuing to build up our endurance, find our cadence with our bikes, and learn what it means to stay hydrated and full of plenty of carbs during each and every outing. We're learning more about the sport of cycling everyday.

One Final Note: We are proud to announce that we have already sold 57 tickets to our Happy Hour 4 a Cure event. Today we secured Taylor Corum as our acoustic performer to start the evening and the Dirty Guv'nahs are looking forward to their first show in Knoxville since their big CD release party at the Bijou downtown last week. Buy your tickets today!

Happy Hour 4 a Cure - Special Guest Announced

We are proud to announce that The Dirty Guv'nahs, fresh off their CD release show last night at the Bijou will join us on Thursday, April 30th as the headliner for our Happy Hour 4 a Cure!

The Guv'nahs were voted the #1 band in Knoxville by the Metro Pulse last year. In addition, they are preparing for one of their biggest shows ever at Bonaroo this summer. We look forward to hosting the Guv'nahs at the Square Room on April 30th and we hope to see a big turnout for a fun night, all for a great cause. Proceeds from the evening will benefit our ride team.

The evening will start at 5:30pm and go late into the night with a variety 0f musical acts in conjunction with Knoxville's Sundown in the City. Tickets are only $10 and that will buy you a wristband, allowing access in and out of the Square Room, to and from the Sundown mainstage, all night. The lineup for the whole evening is below. Buy a ticket, tell a friend, and join us on April 30th to raise money to find a cure for diabetes its complications!

• 5:30-7:00pm - Acoustic Performance by Taylor Corum and Happy Hour
• 7:00-9:30pm - Sundown in the City - Big Head Todd & The Monsters w/ Joan Jones
• 9:30pm - Until - The Dirty Guv'nahs

Happy Hour 4 A Cure - Tickets on Sale

The Happy Hour 4 A Cure is finalized and tickets are on sale now. Get your tickets by clicking here!

We are excited to be partnering with The Square Room in downtown Knoxville's Market Square to make this event a reality. The date has been changed to Thursday, April 30th for a number of reasons. Mostly, however, we hope to be able to attract a large number of walk ups attendees that night before, during, and after Knoxville's Sundown in the City event. Sundown happens every Thursday in Knoxville from April-June directly on Market Square, only feet from The Square Room!

The evening will start with an acoustic act from 5:30pm-7:00pm followed by the Sundown concert that week by Big Head Todd & The Monsters with Joan Jones. Sundown's concert will be followed by our headliner that night at 9:30pm. Our main stage act will be announced on Saturday, April 11th but I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $10 at the door. Wristbands will be given to all attendees allowing you to come and go from the Square Room to Sundown throughout the evening. Great food and drinks will be available from Cafe 4. Sign up today, tell a friend, and support diabetes research and our Ride to Cure Diabetes team at the Happy Hour 4 A Cure on Thursday, April 30th!

Happy Hour 4 a Cure

Last week we mentioned that a big announcement would be coming up soon. Well, it's here...

April 27th, The Square Room, downtown Knoxville, mark it on your calendars! That evening, from 5:30-8:30pm we will be hosting the Happy Hour 4 a Cure in partnership with The Square Room and a special musical guest.

The purpose of this event is help fulfill one of our goal's in participating in the Ride to Cure Diabetes. We want our friends, family, and the entire community to be more aware of the need for diabetes research. Throughout the evening and in between musical sets we will be interjecting short facts and stories about diabetes, the ride, and our team.

Tickets will be available for purchase online very soon and at that time we will be posting an announcement on this site as well. Tickets will be $10 in advance and $12 at the door. What's more, parking is free in downtown parking garages in the evening! Proceeds will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation through The Shafer Ten Year Team.

Please begin to tell your friends, coworkers, neighbors, cousins, bosses, mechanics, whoever! We want to see a great turnout on Monday, April 27th having a good time and supporting a great cause. We can do this! We can cure diabetes, one mile at a time.

Quick Training Update: This afternoon, we completed our longest ride so far, 16.25 miles. It was a 90 minute ride on Knoxville's Greenway; a beautiful afternoon to be in saddle!