Editor's note: Adam and Christy have arrived in San Diego and are ready to start their trip. Check our the interview with San Diego Living!

On their Track My Tour page, they reported that Monday went well and that Monday night included a Thai dinner and the offer of a place to camp from a fellow cyclist. "The first night will be one to remember," they wrote on the site. "We got an owl right outside our tent."

If all goes as planned, they'll be back in Madison sometime around early May, when we'll give them a big Patch welcome back! After that, they're scheduled to head off on the second leg of their trip. More details on their tentative route are on this page.

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She was from North Madison and he was from the south end of town, and you know how that goes sometimes. They knew each other while attending Daniel Hand High School, but not that well. And then, many years later, Adam Coppola was working at Polson Middle School and he saw Christy Paradis walking across the parking lot on her way into the school to substitute teach. And that was it. He wanted to ask her out.

"He had to call a few times," Christy admits, sitting next to Adam in Madison's Starbucks recently, sipping a hot chocolate.

"I had to call about thirty times," Adam says.

"I had other things going on!" she says, laughing.

They dated, and then moved on to back-country camping and climbing Half Dome at Yosemite in California. Every summer it would be another adventure, sometimes in places as far away as Thailand and Uganda. When it came time for him to ask her to marry him, he only had to ask once. And when it came to planning their biggest adventure yet, the Give A Bike: 50 State Tour, he didn't really have to ask at all. They came up with the idea together.

Their passion for their cause fueled by first-hand experience

Adam and Christy Coppola plan to leave at the beginning of January to help raise awareness about and money for organizations that provide bikes to underprivileged children and rehabilitating United States veterans. Their passion for the cause is evident and is fueled by their first-hand experience.

"In Uganda, having a bike means better access to education and health care," Christy said. "It means you are able to get a better job. A bike there is like us having a car here." Adam said it was not uncommon to see people carrying 200 to 250 pounds of supplies on the back of a bike. "With a bike, they can cover three times the distance, and carry five times the amount of supplies," he said.

When it comes to rehabilitating United States veterans, the reality is that the specialized bikes needed can cost $3,500 or more, and that's with a discount.

So their plan is to funnel donations to World Bicycle Relief to help give bikes to underprivileged youth around the world, and to funnel donations towards the purchase of tandem and modified bikes for U.S. veterans, working with Achilles International. The Coppolas also plan to work with the organization Bikes Not Bombs.

Before they've even left on the trip, they've already started with their fund-raising for bike-related organizations.  In late November, more than 40 people showed up for a "Christmas in Uganda" fundraiser at Ballou's in Guilford. The event—sponsored by Peace Corp leader Dave Paradis, Christy's brother and a Madison native, with the help of Adam and Christy—raised about $800 that will go towards the purchase of community bikes at the Hope Destitute Children's Center in Lukaya, Masaka, Uganda. The money will buy three to five bikes for the approximately 50 kids at the orphanage, who will then share the bikes. Any money left over after the purchase of the bikes will go towards small Christmas gifts for the children.

To give this kind of support, they need support

 And so for the next year, the Coppolas plan to bike around the country, raising awareness and raising funds.  They plan to start in San Diego in January and bike through the 48 contiguous states. Then they will hop a ferry to Juneau, AK, and from there take a flight to Hawaii. The route it still being mapped out, but likely will go through Arizona from California, then head through Florida. "After we hit Florida, we'll head up the East Coast, planning on our half-way pit stop, and the 25th state, in Madison in early May where we will have a used bike collection," Christy said.

While traveling, they will be posting to their blog, their Facebook page, and Twitter feed. Christy is an accomplished writer, Adam is an experienced and talented photographer and videographer, and they have already have more than 1,100 followers on Facebook, which means their reports will be widely disseminated. That should help them to accomplish their goal of raising awareness and money for the bike organizations.

"We want to do something that is bigger than both of us," Christy explains. "But something that fit both of us. We'll be outdoors. And traveling."

"And giving back," they both say together. He adds, "we just kept saying there was something more we wanted to do before we settled down."

And this is it.

Madison-ct.patch.com is proud to be the Connecticut sponsor for Give A Bike: 50 State Tour. Our $250 donation will go towards the trip budget, which includes food, camp, supplies and other support for the trip itself. If you are interested in sponsoring Adam and Christy's trip, you can go to their website. You can sponsor a day, a state, a region, or be a lead sponsor. If you'd like to provide a donation to the charities they are supporting, World Bicycle Relief and Achilles International, you can do that on this page.  And, you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and on their site as their adventure unfolds. We'll be reporting on it here at Madison-ct.patch.com as well. We wish them all the best!