Face of America 2008

It sounds like a cliché, but it really is a privilege to ride with disabled vets, active duty, and retired military. There is a sense of community and responsibility for each other that is hard to describe. It’s so impressive to see warriors without arms or legs gut it out going up a hill. And to see everyone’s positive attitude, although it was strange when they kept calling me “Sir.” (as in “Good morning, sleep well last night?” Yes, *Sir* I slept very well and hope you did too, Sir.”) I made some small contributions by fixing a soldiers bike that was stuck in the hardest gear. He was ready to quit, but some oil on the chains, derailleur, and cable was all it took to get his “donated” rust bucket back on the road. At the end of the ride, I broke down a bike for shipping and boxed it up; have done that more than a few times. The ride had some organizational problems. The worst of these was to have us ride in “units” that traveled at the speed of the slowest riders. This was excruciatingly slow and caused some accidents for people who couldn’t keep their bikes upright going 2.3 mph up hills. This brings us to Farrood, the cyclist in the picture. It just hurt him too badly to go that slow, so he broke formation and took off. We followed him and got yelled at, “You’re leaving men behind!” “No, sir (see, I learned the magic word) we’re protecting this soldier who’s going ahead.” So we formed the unit pictured above. One man rode ahead of Farrood to watch for traffic and road hazards. One man road with Farrood and gave him a boost up the hills. Deb and I took up the rear, so that cars could see us first and Deb could alert the rest, “Car back!” The two kids came from out of nowhere and were like the crew in ET. It was, at times, hard to keep up with Farrood. Farrood is a rare man. He works for Special Forces, was just promoted to Major, and is still active military. Farrood is Iraqi and has seen three uncles and eleven cousins killed because of his work with the U.S. He applied for asylum in the U.S. two years ago and still hasn’t heard…

I’m swamped and getting a little stressed out. Before leaving in 22 days, I have to get everything at work squared away during the busiest time of the academic year. Then there are all the items that go into “running a house” while I’m away. Bills still need to be paid, mail dealt with, the cat cared for, etc. Matt can help with only some of these things. There is also prep for the trip itself, more training, ordering extra tubes and tires, taking care of getting my bike shipped to the West Coasts, making some enhancements to the blog, etc. So I may fall behind in keeping this current. I know, I shouldn’t whine…..