A Ride To Remember

Okay I have dyslexic fingers and spelling is not the best. Just read the lines and not the words and it will all come to you if something is spelled wrong.

Sometime earlier this year Megggan sent me an email asking if I would be interested in joining a ride that she new about. She sent me the registration for the kick off banquet at the Palmetto center. I went, listened, and asked questions about the ride and decided that it would be something that I was interested in. I had been participating in another much larger ride for the past several years and was ready to change for reasons that I will not go into. Riding to Austin sounds interesting enough so I joined up.

For me this ride started out not as a way to bring awareness to conquer or cure cancer, but as a more challanging bike ride. I had sent Ron several emails getting information and asking questions about the ride.

The training rides started and I went to as many as I could. Bakery run at 7 a.m. sharp from Furman. Ron what’s your phone nuber so I can call you to let you now if I will be a few minutes late? I had a friend riding with me and he stayed back with me so I would know the way to the bakery. I had told Ron that I die in hills. When we got to the bakery the rest of the group was there and Ron greated me with a hugh smile asking how was it and with a big “You made it”.

Oct 18 was drawing near and I was sweating the fund raising. I was still $1000 short on Thursday before the ride. Friday afternoon several large donations came in so I told Ron at the shop I was officially in!!!!!!!!!

Sunday came and it was still another ride for me. I was feeling bad for Laurens because she was having to fight again and that she could not ride.

The white team is made up of bionic people. Joe has an artificial hip, Judy has 2 new knees, Kathy has lost one of her lungs to cancer, and me, well I have jsut lost part of my mind. So we were all missing something we were born with. We started out on US 76 where the Trail crosses. Kathy ook off like a bullet hollering into the night WE WERE FINALLY OFF AS A TEAM. It didn’t take long for me to realize what a struggle it was for kathy to do this ride with one lung. Can you imaginewhat it would be liek? Soon she was on the bus for a while. The hills just killed her. Judy started giving me background info about Kathy . During that night the ride turned from riding to Austin to figure out how we could keep Kathy on the road as long as we could. I remebered what Joe had said earlier in the year: “It’s not about how many miles or how fast we go. Don’t forget it is about the cause”. We finally made Murphy N.C. for our transistion. Off we go to find a bed and our next point of entery in the ride. Judy and I were still having our own conversations about how to keep Kathy on the bike as long as we could.

Then came the Natchez Trace. I had confettie popers to use at one of our transistion points and had planned to use them Tuesday night. We waited in Collenwood Tenn. for 3 hors tring to rest. The people in this small town were so nice to us. We were dressed and ready to ride and as we pulled out I spotted a vehicle with bikes on top. It was Laurens and Ann. They stopped us and we chatted. We told them e had a surprise for their team. We started down the Trace looking for a change over palce. We discussed the paty poppers. Mike got a phone call from Laurens saying that the team was down and needed some serious boosting. We turned around to find them and the decision was made to not use the poppers because it might cause someone to wreck. So thinking back for a moment to something we saw earlier taht was meant for the white team, I told Mike to drive by them slowly. As we got near them a new moon suddenly came oout from nowhere. We turned around and as we went by it suddenly appeared again. My “Mr. innocent” was blown. No one expects Uncle Milty to be the one. I was more than glad to do participate in something that would help the others out as we were not just the White team to Austin, but the P3C3 team.

We got on the Trace and off we go!!! I took the lead and slowed the pace down for Kathy. We wanted her on the bike as much as psooible. I tild her to stay behind me and I would pull her. when we got to hills I slowed down really slow hoping to help her conserve her oxygen. She stayed on the bike for almost 2 hours. We were so proud of her. encouraging her to keep going as long as she could, get in the bus and rest and to come back out when she was rested. . We stopped about every hour to make sure Joe got fed and watered. It had to be hard on him. He is 70 years old you know. We rode through part of Tenn. all of Alabama, and into Mississippi that night. So off to get some needed sleep and on to somewhere La.

After getting 4 hours of sleep we were off. A short cut urned into a long night for us as we had a flat tire. After gettting it fixed we were off down the trace again. We stopped just short of the Mississippi line ( I would tell you the name of the town but I can’t spell it lolol) for a short nap. Ron had tod us that it would be okay to be a little late due to our flat tire.

The yellow team was waitng on us when we got to our transsition point. It was still just another ride for me and and trying to keep Kathy on the road. After we had dressed Beth called me over to tell me something. She told me how they wre dedicating each mile to someone. Beth who made me laugh now made me start crying by bring into focus what the ride is really about. The ride then turned very emotional for me. Remembering the friends and family, my father, who died from camcer. It was just too much for me. I cried for most of the morning. Thinking why did Steve have to die young from cancer, Myria who didn’t get to spend much time with her new granddaughter, Why does Laurens, who is such and inspiration to me, have to fight it again. Sue, Sandra, and Spence wtih breast cancer, Jack with non hodgkins lymphoma.

Thank you to everyone on the P3C3 team. To the ones that rode their butts off not realizing that Laurens would decide that dhe would ride into Austin,
to Don for being the best photographer an individual team could have, to everyone one on the team that for making me feel like part of the larger team, the good times and the bad times, to Meggan for bring this ride to my attention, and to Ron for having a vision, and the rest of my new family and friemds!!!!!!!!!!!

the best tquote I can think of to leave everyone with with is to remeber: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.