Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you so much for your thoughts,
prayers, encouragement and financial support as we rode in the Bike MS
West Virginia Country Roads on August 25th and 26th. We had a great
time riding, although at times painful. We were fed well and got the
chance to learn more about MS and one of its victims. We have practiced
over 250 miles in Lynchburg in the six weeks prior to this ride. Gary
has practiced considerably less due to a neck injury, but he decided he
was still in on this great cause and some out of town fun! In our six
years of doing Bike MS, you our sponsors have helped us raise over
6,200. The minimal required has been 2,800 so thank you for all your
help and support in helping us not only to meet a goal but to surpass
our goals and to help create a world free of MS and where MS patients
can get help in everything from medications, equipments, home
renovations, research, counseling, therapy and more.
On Friday we left Lynchburg around 6:30pm. Just days before Beth's
friend and former coworker decided to join our riding team, so we had to
wait for him to get off work. We got to Lewisburg around 7pm. Our
first hotel choice and several others were booked do to a college
graduation of new Doctors. Luckily we didn't have much trouble finding a
room at the Better Quality Inn right across the street from the
WV State fair grounds! After checking in, we went in search of supper.
We missed Arby's by a few minutes, which to me was great! I got my
favorite boneless honey bbq wings at Applebees doing the 2 for $20 with
Gary. Gary went with Steak, fries and smashed taters, dad did Tilapia,
rice and broccoli, and I went with my usual Fiesta Lime Chicken. Both
guys had no problem finishing their plates off and then dad helped my
plate get finished off too! It was about midnight when we got to sleep.
On Saturday the alarm went off at 6:00am. We got up and ready and
were out the door at 6:30. We visited the McD's for breakfast. Gary
went with a sausage biscuit and an OJ, I went with what (hopefully) they
can't mess up, Fruit and Maple oatmeal! Dad played it BIG, getting the
2 for $3 Egg McMuffins. We got to the Greenbriar just about 7:00am and got in line to register. I was asked why I was riding and the MS staff took my picture with my reason "In
honor of Mom, Paula and Rhoda battling MS", but really that is just one
of many reasons. We did Bike MS far before we ever knew anyone with MS
and really before the 16 y/o me had any clue what it was, now we have a personal reason to continue doing it!
The bike ride began at 8am. We rode the first 6 miles on the road to
get to the Greenbriar River Trail. Dad spotted a ducky friend. He said
it was his duck's cousin, but unfortunately for us critter liking
adventurers that was the only critter we saw on day 1. We reached the
first rest stop, Anthony and already just over 15 miles into the ride my
lovely knee was feeling it. Gary, who has been in Physical Therapy for
the last two and a half months had a toe cramp, but was doing just fine
on his first long ride of the season. The snacks were great!
M&Ms, PBJ, other candy, crackers and energy bars and my favorite
sliced oranges! While Gary and my body weren't quite behaving, dad had
more serious issues-- a tire was going flat. Luckily team support
pumped his tire back up and gave us an inner tube in case it happened
again. It did. Dad was riding with his "practice team". That means
dad was seeing how fast for how long he could go, riding with a more
organized and faster group. We found dad broken down and two biking
friends helping to change his tire , using that free spare inner tube.
Thank goodness for that! Dad was blaming the tire issues on a label
that said "made in China". He rode quickly to the next rest stop to
ensure his new tire fix would last. He made it just fine to rest stop
2, Renick Park. At Renick Park our favorite volunteer Mrs. Lois had us
the best treats, virgin margaritas, a fruit bar or oranges, bananas,
apples, cherries, strawberries, homemade energy bars, and other
snacks. Mrs. Lois had made over 300 home made energy bars for the
riders!! Just beyond Renick was my mile marker, 27 for 27 year old me!
Then we found our favorite spot, but there was a problem. We fully
intended to ride our swinging rope right into the river, just as we have
done every year... But out tree with the rope attached was in the
water. We improvised with pictures in the tree, on the log, holding
onto the rope and pretending. What a bummer. Hopefully we find a new
awesome hang out next year. We went through Droop Tunnel's pitch black
darkness. We all survived the riding conditions. We finally arrived at
Gary's mile marker 36, for his 36 years old self! At mile 39 we
reached "lunch" around 1:30pm. The picky me enjoyed a bag or Doritos
and a 1/2 can of Pepsi. One of my ride sponsors would be pleased to
know I had a Pepsi, as he does every Sunday at church! Dad and Gary had
a mix of PBJ, Turkey w/ lettuce and PB-Banana sandwiches. The lunch
stop had run out of non-soda drinks, which luckily we had enough drink
to get to the next stop. 8 miles later, we reached the final rest
stop. Guess what they were out of? YES drinks! So the committed staff
had run to the gas station near by and bought a 36 pack of bottled
water and poured them one by one into the container to make powerade!
We needed a refill so this was perfect! With just over 10 miles to go
on day one and my knee thoroughly throbbing I decided to go fast to be
done. We ended up passing several other bikers and reached the
Merlinton Fire Station at 3:30pm! At the finish line, we got awarded
the privilege of carrying our bikes up 3 floors of stairs! Yeah! Mrs.
Lois was at the finish line as well and we were bummed to hear other
bikers had spotted a copper head, and rattle snake as well as other
bikers had to wait and stay still for a bear to get off the trail.
Where are these cool critters when me and my camera rode bye. Oh well,
maybe next year!
Finally at 4:45 the bus took us up to Snow Shoe Mountain. After a 25
minute ride, we checked into the Inn at Snow. Gary ran for the shower
while Dad and I ran for the hot tub. We didn't have long as the bus
would be back in 30 minutes to give us a ride to supper. Those 20
minutes in the hot tub were wonderful on our over-used muscles! We all
rode the bus to "The Top of the World", the very top of Snow Shoe
mountain for dinner and a presentation. The food was so-so. We've had
better previous years, but the hungry can only be just so picky so we
ate vegetarian lasagna, a unique twist on chicken Alfredo type dish,
salad, and Tiramisu for dessert. In the presentation we heard from some
of Bike MS's main sponsors like Mylan Pharmaceutical and Flanagan,
Fowler and Pratt Law Services and why they are corporate sponsors. This
year one of the lawyers father in law died after a long time battle
against MS. We also met Jessica who is 22 and a student at VCU studying
to be a pharmacist. She was diagnosed with MS at 17. She typically
has 2 major flare ups a year, causing her to loose all ability to walk
at all, loosing muscle tone all over but complete loss from the waist
down. After the dinner presentation we went back to our hotel. You
betchya, back to the hot tub time!! I even managed to convince Gary to
join Dad and me in the pool. This was his first time in a pool in over 5
years! Bedtime came a little before 11pm and wake up was 6am. We had a
breakfast buffet complete with eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, french
toast, biscuits, gavy, taters, fruit, breads and orange juice and
coffee. Everyone had seconds to fuel up for our day of riding ahead.
Almost immediately after getting on the bus for our ride back to
Merlinton it began to rain. Gary caught a brief cat nap and then it was
time to ride. For the first two hours it rained on us. I was freezing
and soaking wet. My left knee was aching and Gary's right knee was
hurting. Even dad could feel some pain in his thigh... he must finally
be aging... to like his 30s. We made it to the lunch stop, even
"visited" the jail and got "attacked" and then we all separated based on
preferred speeds to get done and pain levels. Yes, I was
the slowest for the first several miles but then I passed both Dad and
Gary even though my knee was killing me. I just wanted to hurry and get
to the next rest stop. I rested at the stop for 30 minutes, most of it
swinging on the swings and refueling with oranges! Gary and I decided
we were only going to ride until the next rest stop because our knees.
We got to the Anthony rest stop and I decided I was just going to
finish. There was only one stop left and 12 miles. I would ride
through the pain. MS patients can't just quit and I wasn't going to
either. Gary agreed and we rode on. The last three miles felt like
forever, but we finally did reach the final stop and finished! Even
with our bad knees, we finished over an hour quicker on day 2 than on
day 1. The usual ride to the Greenbriar wasn't there as it seemed most
the bike riders parked their vehicles there where as it was another 6
miles up hill. So dad decided to ask a random man with an old camping
van if he would give dad a ride to Greenbriar then dad would drive back
with the van to pack up our bikes and give us a ride. However the man,
Bruce arranged everything so all three of us and all three of our bikes
fit. Poor Gary was so hesitant and uneasy about accepting a ride from
strangers. It was amusing as dad chatted with him, they worked in
similar field and new each others former coworkers from nearly 30 years
previous. When we got back, we had boxed lunches; turkey
sandwich, dried apricots, blueberries, apple, energy bar, yogurt, mixed
nuts and fancy Greenbriar bottled water-- that still
tasted just like normal everyday water. It wasn't quite my style so on
the way out of town we stopped by Wendy's to get me a baked potato.
After a long 3 hour drive home, we had officially survived Bike MS
2012!
