so cool to ride as a huge peleton!
arriving @ camp, i'm 6th back on right side
sweet child that thanked us for riding for her...*sniff*
the ride of love was an incredible experience! it is a fundraising ride for camp smile a mile (camp for kids with cancer) here in alabama. it is a 150mile ride for a reason. the woman who started it, stephanie wilkins, says that it NEEDS to be hard. because, in those most difficult moments we are to remember that nothing we are experiencing is anything compared to what these children and families deal with. what a humbling thought!
though it was 150miles, it was a million times easier than the 200miles kay and i rode in april, for many reasons. for example, instead of it mostly being just the 2 of us, there were 62 riders. in a group of 62 you find an incredible range of personalities, stories, jokes and entertainment! the ride is incredibly well supported. we had 2 motorcycle cops with us the whole way. this meant we did not stop at a single stop sign or red light, they warned the oncoming traffic of our presence and stopped the dogs in their tracks. this was so incredible, dogs are a serious risk to bikers, more for causing you to wreck than for biting (though i don't want that either), but they apparently really hate the noise of the sirens. i might just start carrying an air horn! there was also an ambulance (which thankfully no one needed!) and a van of mechanics. ahhhh, to be lance armstrong with assistance always at your finger tips. i will be forever spoiled!
even though it rained for an hour, we were so lucky. at home, it rained almost the whole day, but we rode along the dry edge of it for 11 of the 12 hours. this allowed the campers and their families to be lining the road and cheering for us as we rode into camp. this is a moment that will not be forgotten and caused a lot of grown men to have tears in their eyes....a truly beautiful site!
when the families came to mingle with us, the sweetest little girl came up to kay and i and thanked us for doing the ride for her as did many others. together, the 62 riders raised 108,000 for camp sam. that's tuition for over 500 children to attend camp this summer that otherwise would not have been able to afford it! i hope next year we will get many of our biking friends to join us and recommend you find a ride like it if you don't live near here!
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