My journey to Beijing and the Paralympics (by Angela)

I haven't written in a while and my friends have begun to worry about me. I could write an entire chapter on my experiance here so far but I am just going to summarize. I set out for Philladelphia quite a while ago and it has not been going so well. Some parts have gotten better and some things are just plain stressfull. For those who do not know, there is more to my life than being a disabled veteran, than ocean rowing, running an adaptive rowing program or even surfing. I have competed on our national adaptive rowing team since 2002 and my US rowing partner since 2002 is Scott Brown. Scott lives and works in Philadelphia. Since we don't recieve a great deal of money, sponsorship or support as disabled athletes I decided to relocate to Philadelphia for training with Scott. This enables Scott to remain employed while we train. We get on the water before he goes to work and then again after his work. It just seemed to make more sense than both of us leaving our home, our family and our work to train. Scott and his wife Sandy are appropriately appreciative of the sacrafices I have made for our national team and for our sport.I searched on Craigs list, called the Disabled Veterans Organizations, the Veterans Hospaital and even affiliate churches to my church in Long Beach to find an accessible room or apartment to rent here in Philly and had no success. After living in my van for almost 2 weeks I finally found a place to live. After spending 67 days in the small boat at sea with no plumbing, living in the van is a piece of cake. The van, by comparrison is a mansion with its many amenities , I could do it easily, but why?Not much help had been offered from anyone out here. At US Rowing Nationals in New Jersy US Rowing offered to let me shower at the boathouse. That was the only kind offer of assistance I had recieved from the rowing powers that be since embarking on my Journey to the Paralympics. My coach? who knows what is going on there? Sometimes, lately, I just want to get in my van and drive home. I have never quit or given less than 100% at anything in my life so that really is not an option! I made a commitment to my rowing partner and I am going to see it through no matter what! That pretty much summs it up for me.I know... usually I am Ms positive but sometimes it really does suck to be me! I don't know why it has to be this difficult? For the first time since my back surgery I can honestly say that I am feeling a bit depressed. I was thousands of miles from land in either direction on a small boat at sea with one man who did not speak my language and did not experiance, not even once, the kind of lonliness and isolation that this place has to offer. I miss my Partner Debbie, I miss my Family, I miss my Church, I miss my Friends, I miss my Home, I miss my ocean rowing boat (other home for most of the last year) I miss my friends and associates at California Paralysed Veterans Association. I have so many things I need to be doing like working on the book and documentary of the ocean crossing, remodeling my house, working on the rowoflife boat, getting back to the California Adaptive Rowing Program and even watching the grass grow. This is going to be a long three months. I am hoping to make it worthwhile by getting us onto the medal stand in Bejing. On another positive note:Thanks go out to Francis Fulton of Liberty Resources Center in Philadelphia who took me in for a couple of days and then helped me find an accessible place to live while I am here to train and to Michelle McCandless for accepting me as a roomate on short notice. These two people have extended hospitality and kindness to a complete stranger without any hesitation. They are my new heroes!Angela MadsenRowoflife.net

Even Madsen needs a Vacation

Surfing and Fishing in Hawaii, for a short break before leaving to Philly to train for the Paralympics. Photo is Angela dancing to the Polynesian music.

RowofLife Boat in Long Beach Pride Parade and more

RowofLife Boat in Long Beach Pride Parade
Photos Added 6/08 with Angela's Dad, Ronald Madsen, on the RowofLife boat in the Long Beach Pride Parade.

05/12/08 Original post date

The RowofLife Boat will be pulled in the Long Beach Pride Parade by the RowofLife Van on Sunday, 05/18/08. The special guests of RowofLife are Angela’s parents, Ronald and Betty Madsen. They are coming to visit on 05/13/08 and we are going to do lots of things with them, including participating in the Pride Parade with the RowofLife Boat. Boy About Town will be interviewing the Madsen’s in addition to many others from his Ocean Street Reporting location. Check out Boy’s Buzz, the hottest E-magazine around, at http://www.fabulousboyabouttown.com/

Also this week, Angela is being honored by the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday night. Thanks to Boy for bringing this all together.

Angela and I are going to Hawaii for a little R&R later in the month. Hopefully the surf will be good. After that Angela will be heading for Philadelphia to train for the Paralympics with her rowing partner, Scott Brown.

We will be updating Angela’s MySpace with some pictures very soon. Continue to check out http://www.rowoflife.net/

CARP is going strong, but we are always looking for differently abled people to row and anyone to Volunteer. Call Vicki and come on out. http://www.carp.net/

Debbie

Back up and Blogging!

Well, I was locked out of my blog for a few weeks. Apparently something happened with my blog that caused it to be flagged as spam. I had not heard anything of the review I requested, but now I can get on, so clearly the review showed that my blog is a bunch of Crap, but not Spam.

Debbie

Anglea and Debbie will be at this Screening and encourage you to come

I will be at the screening and will be available for Q&A. The Rowoflife boat may be on display at this event? should we be able to tow her through the parking structure to the roof, an adventure in itself!
Row Hard No Excuses Luke Wolbach
Run time: 88 min. USA A chronicle of the voyage of the only American entry in a rowing race across the Atlantic Ocean. It is both an exciting sports-adventure story and an intimate portrait of the two-man crew that explores masculinity, midlife and ambition. At 51 and 41, John Zeigler and Tom Mailhot are among the oldest competitors to participate in the 2001 Atlantic Rowing Challenge, a three thousand mile race from the Canary Islands to Barbados. They spend three years to make their dream of winning possible, but once on the water, their boat and their bodies don't respond as they'd imagined.
Movie: Row Hard No Excuses – Feature length Documentary·
Location: Edwards Islands Cinemas – Screen 6·
Time: 5:15 PM Date: Sunday, April 27th ·
Details and buy tickets: http://newportbeach.bside.com/2008/films/rowhardnoexcuses_newportbeach2008
NewportBeachFilmFest.com

RowofLife Boat

Yes, I do suck at Blogging. I try to be good, but...... My new solution is for you to subscribe and then you will know when a new one is up.

I wanted to let everyone know that we did make it home from Florida with the boat. We stopped in Naples, FL and saw Angela's Brother and Sister in Law, Jack and Hillary. Then to Tampa, FL to see my best friend, Carmen and her husband, Kevin. We went to Inverness to have work done on the boat by Angela's Dad and Mom, Ron and Betty. We were excited that Angela's Daughter, son in law, and granddaughters, Jenn, Ronnie, Amanda, Angel, and Chyenne, were able and come help with the boat as well. The grandkids cleaned the boat and her Dad patched holes that happened during shipping.

We stopped Alabama and saw Angela's Aunt Betty, Uncle Jeff and Brother, Ronnie. There was an event at the Chesapeake Boathouse in Oklahoma City, but the weather was so bad we could not put the boat in the water. We met Angela's friend, Christy, for Breakfast in Albuquerque, NM. Then we headed home.

The RowofLife boat is currently docked at the Dunster Reserve in Long Beach. Dunster is next to the Pete Archer Rowing Center (5750 Boathouse Ln, Long Beach, CA) where Angela teaches the California Adaptive Rowing Program. The boat will be at Dunster until the early morning hours of April 20th, when we will be taking it to the Huntington Beach Surf Museum for Surfing Sunday. It is going to the Newport Film Festival on the 27th of April.

Angela has made several appearances at community meetings to give her presentation. She will be available to make appearances until the end of May. After that she will be in Philly to train with her Paralympics’ rowing partner, Scott Brown. She leaves for the Paralympics on Sept 1st.

I wanted to see Angela on Ellen, Oprah, etc. but my efforts have not really gotten a response. I want to get everyone to write all the shows and see if we can get noticed with volumes of mail, instead on my one request. So anyone that wants to help me out, send letters. Ellen even had one of the English rowers from the race on her show, but has not our Local girl on. Thanks for your help in advance.

Debbie

Florida Drama

Angela and I are in Florida. The RowofLife Boat was shipped from Antigua to Miami and arrived on 3/7/08. Silly us.....we thought that we could buy a trailer, drive to the port and pick up our boat. We did find a beautiful new trailer (just over cost) at All American Trailer, 512 SE 32nd Ct, Fort Lauderdale, FL. They were very nice and got us on our way to the Port of Miami. Well, it was all down hill from there. They wouldn't let us in to the port, and say we need to talk to a broker.

We called CGM who shipped the boat and they gave us the name of several brokers. Apparently when you ship something you have to get a broker to handle the US Customs piece. We found Alicia at Custom Brokers in Miami, FL. We thought that we would be able to pick up the trailer the Tuesday. Well Customs had some difficulty with our boat as they had not seen an ocean rowing boat before. Most boats are duty free, but because RowofLife does not have a sail or motor, it was classified like a canoe would be, and we paid duty on a $6000 canoe. Officers Cabrillo and Ramirez at the US Customs office were very helpful and our boat was finally freed.

In the mean time we were driving around Miami with our empty trailer. On Tuesday night, our brand new $3000 dollar trailer was stolen off our van. It was a very sad day for RowofLife. The Miami Police came out and took a report. But it was a devestating financial loss. Shipping was very expensive as well as the cost of driving to pick up the boat. But, everything happens for a reason, sometimes it is just hard to figure out what lesson we were supposed to learn from this all.

We talked to All American Trailer and they started looking all over the Ft Lauderdale/Miami area for a trailer for us. They also offered to loan us a trailer to get the boat until we could find a trailer. Later, when they could not find us a trailer they offered to make us one, if we would pay for some of the materials, they would donate labor and some of the other parts. So as of this morning, Joe and his guys are busy at work making a custom fit trailer for RowofLife. Thanks to Willie, Joe, Cindy and all the other helpful folks at All American Trailer. All American Trailer Mfg., 512 SE 32nd Ct., Ft Lauderdale, FL. 954-468-5544. http://www.allamericantrailermfg.com/

The trucking company, DM Trucking, on 77th and 24th in Miami, picked up the boat and delivered it to their yard on Thursday night. After much distress and plotting, they were able to get the boat out of the cargo container, on to a flat bed tow truck and then onto the loaner trailer ( All American loaned us a trailer to pick up the boat). Earlier that day WSVN Fox Channel 7 (http://www1.wsvn.com/) from Miami, came out and did a story on Angela and the loss of the trailer, in hopes having a our trailer found. The outpouring of support has been amazing. Many people called and have been supportive. Including a couple of bloggers from http://www.blackfive.net/ who hooked us up with some other organizations. Scott from Shadow Marine called, saying he had seen the story on the news and offered to pay for the part of the trailer that had not been donated from All American Trailer. Shadow Marine is located at 1535 SE 17th St, Suite B201, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 954-779-7099. http://www.shadowmarine.com/

More on that to come later, but now I have to get ready to go down and pick up RowofLife from All American Trailer. Debbie