One week after Red Ribbon Ride 2013.
It was a great ride this year, one of the hardest I have done. On day one we started out at a sultry 80 degrees and humid. Within an hour the heat went up and up and up by 2pm it was a heat index of 101! Day one is the century day for those who choose to partake and we had 20-30 mile an hour head winds much of the day, it was one of the harder days I have had over 7 years of the ride.
Day 2 was not much easier it was hill day and we had the same head winds much if the day. It was about ten degrees cooler as we headed towards Rochester. The pain in my body stared to set in but so did the love and support of the Red Ribbon Ride.
By day three we were all pretty warn out but it was friends and family night. We also had the last big hill, a symbol of beating tough challenges on the ride. Next year there will be a new route so it really was the last big hill on the ride.
hotel. The presenter for friends and family night was Andy, he showed us all the ways AIDS replicates in the human body and all the places we can stop the replication process. We all came away with a sense that we will stop AIDS in the next 10 years.
Day four I woke up to my kids all sleeping. I got up, slathered on sunscreen and had Angie drive me to camp where I had breakfast and got my bike ready for the day. It was nice and cool, I was flying through the last leg of the trip. That was until I encountered a thunder storm of black sky in Farmington. Sweep stopped us in a nest of pine trees and moved us to pit one. Across the street from the pit was the Farmington fire station, the ride director asked the firemen if we could shelter the storm in the fire station and they let us have full use of the facilities. The storm down poured on our bikes for what seemed like hours. Then the storm broke, the sky cleared and we finished the ride.
It was one of the hardest and most fulfilling rides I have ever done. Sometimes it's those of us who have been through hell who emerge with the road map to help others through.
If my friend who has AIDS and was on chemo treatment for hep c can do the ride, I sure can to as well in support.
I have already signed up for another tour with he traveling bubble of love next year. Please consider joining me, it will change your life.
As always keep up the good work, and remember, we are doing this for ourselves and our kids.
-Gabe
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