18th
2009-06-15 Swift Current to Regina
This morning’s alarm sounded the time to step outside into the fresh air of a truck stop parking lot. The owner and staff opened especially for us. They served a very healthy breakfast, including monster bowls of rib-sticking oatmeal, yogourt, bagels, muffins, fruit, and we even snuck in a cup of coffee. I didn’t need the coffee, but I loved it like I needed it. Today, our bodies started to integrate the strength building work in the Rockies. The gentle slopes enabled us to pace our team more evenly, finding uphill and downhill speeds that worked for all. We visited Moose Jaw, arriving just in time to watch a flyover of two Canadian Forces Snowbirds [if it was another type of aircraft, forgive me], arranged just for us. For me, it was hard to imagine a flyover for us. A reporter from one of the newspapers in Moose Jaw interviewed Jason Morningstar and I. We each answered the question on why we got involved in the ride. What made us decide to do it. Jason shared the experiences with his little boy, Jesse, who had an inoperable tumor in his brain stem. I told my story of being blessed with healthy kids and deciding to ride acorss Canada after hearing about it from someone else while on a bike tour in 2008. For me, with healthy kids and a healthy, strong body, it just seemed like the thing to do. After something like 180 km, to meet our schedule commitment, we shuttled forward to just outside Regina. Some folks gathered for a 10 km ride along ride into Regina. In the parking lot, a woman kindly emptied her purse of change, donating $9 to this important mission. We rode by the RCMP Training Centre and a few other notable locations before arriving at the Sears Western Distribution Centre. What a reception! There must have been 200 people patiently waiting for our arrival, cheering us as we entered the parking lot. It felt a little awkward, waving like a celebrity as people cheered for us. People came up to us and thanked us for what we were doing. We shyly thanked them for the same thing. To every rider, the real heroes are the kids and their families who a dealt the difficult card of cancer. Thanks belong to the health care professionals who do an amazing job of caring for our kids who need their help. As Jenn Davies, the volunteer responsible for organizing the community events across Canada, put it, “all we [riders] have to do is ride bikes.” She was right. We do what we love doing, hoping that it will inspire people like you to click the donate button or ride along or help out. Then we heard the experiences of two “ambassador” families. I guess I will have to get used to my most common response to hearing these stories: tears.
