There are some images from the rides that I’d like to share.

My first ride, from Boston to NYC had a “ride out” at 6 a.m., we had to be there at 5 a.m., so I checked out of my hotel at 4:30 a.m. You could look down every street a see a rider in the darkness, with his duffle and his bike, heading to the starting line. I see that moment whenever I hear “Peace Train:” “Out on the edge of darkness, there lies a peace train..” Coffee is a diuretic, so they didn’t serve it at the start. There was a Starbucks two miles out on the route. The site of 80 bicycles outside the store is memorable. Two final images- riding into Madison Square Garden, and the victory lap down 8th Ave.

The Charity Trek Rides are full of great visuals. I have a mental picture of a general store in New Hampshire with lots of cyclists sitting on the porch eating ice cream. It tasted great after 100 mile riding. The next day’s picture was funnier. The general store 8 miles from camp sold beer. Mmmm, beer. So we all sit on the porch with a cool one. The store owner throws us out telling us that he’s allowed to sell, but not serve. So we defiantly sit on the curb across the street. The Constable drives up. He waves, laughs, and drives away.

RAGBRAI is the (Des Moines) Register’s Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Can you picture me sitting on a curb with an Iowan discussing commodity crops? He just couldn’t get his arms around the fact that NJ has no commodities. There are 15,000 riders in RAGBRAI. Imagine and older Amish man, coveralls, beard, big hat, sitting on a rocker on his from porch and watching us all go by. (They say that there are two parades at RAGBRAI; the riders watching the locals go by and the locals watching the riders go by.

I’ve ridden with WORLD TEAM SPORTS many times. The first ride was on the one year anniversary of 9/11. It started at “the pit” and finished at the Pentagon’s blast site. Imagine, outside our (me and my long time friend and sagina, Rosanne) window, right outside our window, was the memorial twin beams of light going up to the heavens. A Danish photographer asked if she could come in to take her picture from our window. A picture of those twin beams hangs in my kitchen. The next year Rosanne and I did the ride on a tandem. Can you picture an 80-something Polish war vet who was a double amputee pulling in behind us and asking if he could draft for a while? I’ve gotten pretty far down in this post without mentioning the heroes of WTS. They are combat personnel who’ve returned from their tours minus limb(s). These folks are real athletes. Most use handcycles and have chiseled upper bodies that would put David to shame. One guy flipped over going down the entrance ramp to a highway. I was freaked. He was stoic. “You grab under my armpits. You grab my stumps. Put me on the bike.” And off he went. It’s pretty humbling to be on a WORLD TEAM SPORTS ride.