Bike MS 2012

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!