The Google Express is pushing ahead. It will not be as exciting or adventurous without Tim, however Fred will represent us well. Tim made it clear that he is passionate about this and wanted Fred to continue on.  I am sure Fred will update later, but he is on the go right now. Thank you for everyone's support. Tim, we are all thinking about you and your family! 

I write this blog post with a sad heart for my friend and Google Express co-pilot, Tim Couillard, and his family. Tim received some terrible news yesterday afternoon after an otherwise excellent journey thus far. As we were driving on our journey, about 6 hours east of Las Vegas, Tim received a call that his mother had unexpectedly passed away. His presence was required immediately to be with his family in Minneapolis, MN., so we stopped and quickly recalculated our options and found Tim a flight to Minneapolis this morning out of Denver. We reversed course and headed back to Denver yesterday afternoon and Tim is waiting to board his flight as I type this blog post.

Tim's mother was very excited for him to make this trip.  Tim is of course shocked by his mother's sudden passing, as well as very dissapointed in not being able to continue on our journey.  Please keep Tim and his family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time for him.

I am currently in Denver, CO working with our team in Peoria on next steps for the journey.  Time and budget will not allow me to finish the trip alone, however we may fly another team member here to accompany me on the remainder of our journey if time and budget do allow.  We will know more today and I will update on our progress. 

It's been a long but fun day for the Google Express team.  We rolled into Topeka, KS in our Bob Lindsay Honda Crosstour, settled into our lodging and then spent some time checking out Topeka.  We were contacted by the "Think Big Topeka" fiber project team and arranged a dinner meeting. We were greated by a crew of 10 Topekanites.   We had a wonderful time and have 10 new friends in this great city.

We're beat and hitting the hay for a long drive tomorrow.  Day 2 coming up....

Day 1....

450 miles down and over 2000 to go!

Had a nice send-off this morning at Peoria City Hall and made it safely to Topeka, KS.

Getting ready to interview a bunch of Topekans on what they know about Peoria and showing them how passionate we are about getting the Google Fiber network. Also, have a meeting and dinner with a few Topeka Google Fiber supporters.

Part 2 and Day 1 coming up....