Sky's the Limit!

Monday April 9, 2012

This past Thursday I received momentous news! My daughter, Jessica is going to fly from San Francisco to Buffalo on May 15 to ride with me the week into Schenectady, NY. We will celebrate our 70th and 40th birthdays together--hers a month early--and she will fly home from the Albany airport. What larks we'll have!

Jess and I are both travel and adventure junkies and have enjoyed many travels together: hiking Norway's Jotunheimen Mountains, biking on Sweden's Gotland Island, going on a Norwegian class trip to the U.K., camping on Vancouver Island's Pacific Rim, bicycling the U.S. west coast, bicycling Alaska, canoeing Utah's Green River . . . Our last "Mutha/Dauta," as we call our trips together, was in 2010 when we kayaked Nicaragua's remote Padre Ramos Estero for five days and then vacationed on a caldera lake (Laguna de Apoyo) above Granada and at Boca de Sabalos Lodge on the Rio San Juan, the river that provides the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Presently Jessica is in Utah enjoying the snow that finally arrived just as winter was departing. Left is a photo she sent the day before she emailed that she'd be joining the Heartland to Harbor for Hospice ride in May. She is the one whoohooing in the white pants and goggles. About the photo, she wrote: "A shot of us killing the backcountry last week we'd just skinned up for almost three hours to get up to the top of the chute behind us--up nearly 4400 vertical feet! Now we boot back up a couple hundred feet and it's downhill for half an hour to the car! XO Jessica"

Thank you Ann Hayes and your Okmulgee family for your donation to the Judith Karman Hospice through my Heartland to Harbor for Hospice ride! One of my husband Jeff's students in the mid-80s, you and your parents have become true family friends over the years. Thank you also to David Stoddart and to Roxanne & Mike Baldwin. Roxy is the receptionist at Clinton Hetrick's dental office, and her husband Mike is an avid racing cyclist. A big thank-you to Jules & Trish Emig, too, for your kind donations. Jules is the OSU English Deptartment Undergraduate Advisor and one of my husband Jeff's co-workers. Their attached note read: "Best wishes, Susan."

A big thank you also to husband Jeff for his Memory Miles donation. More about that on May 11th, the day I ride in Pennsylvania. Judy Allen, who lives in Northampton, MA, and is a bereavement coordinator for Hospice of Franklin County in Greenfield, MA, also donated Memory Miles, so you will be hearing from her on the May 24th Northampton blog. Thank you Huz and Judy!

Northampton has become a "hotspot" on this ride. The Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce wants to set up a speaking engagement. Judy offered me her condo for the night, but I had to turn it down as I already had two other offers from Warm Showers hosts. In Northhampton, I will get in touch with Sherrill Harbison, a U. Mass. professor of Scandinavian Studies whom I met in Norway in 1987-88 when our family spent a year there on Jeff's first Fulbright. And, to top it off, Jody Rosengarten and Ann Tompkins--two interesting and fun women whom I met on the March Loon Earthwatch Expedition--have both vowed to meet me in Northampton on the 24th. Woohoo! Full tilt boogie as my sister would say.

Joyce Meyer, of Oasis Garden & Gift Shop donated a Subway gift card and a meal in Pawhuska! Before she opened her shop, Joyce and I knew each other through the Payne County Audubon Society. After she opened her shop, Joyce was the source of some of my koi, and she has become friends with my daughter, Lucy, who has a large green thumb. Thank you Joyce. Your gift to fuel the engine is much appreciated.

Please keep your donations and sponsorships coming. Be sure to look over the Memory Miles page (click open upper right) and see if a date or a city or a state holds some significance for you or a departed loved one. Then donate at least $1 for each mile I will ride that day. I will mention in the blog those in whose memory or on whose birthday or anniversary, etc., I am riding. The sky's the limit!

In only seven days I push off on the first day of my ride--68 miles northeast to Pawhuska, OK, a city of about 4,000 and the capitol of the Osage Nation. This will be my only day in Oklahoma. Pawhuska is only 26 miles from the Kansas border. I will then ride three days in Kansas before pedaling nearly a week in Missouri.

I am ready for the ride to begin; weary of pedaling nowhere training miles. The weather forecast doesn't look favorable, however. Thunderstorms are predicted for this entire pre-ride week. Because the ride starts on Monday morning when most will be working, I have planned to meet interested cyclists on Sunday, April 15th at 1 p.m. at the Judith Karman Hospice Offices (not the resale store) for a little ride about town as a send off. Valerie Bloodgood, my JKH, liaison and ride coordinator, has planned post-ride refreshments also. The weather forecast could mean an ill-attended or cancelled Send Off Ride. Check the blog or with Valerie (880-4434) to see what's up.

On the first day of the ride, Monday, April 16th, there is a 60% chance of showers. At least no thunderstorms are predicted for my first day out. If it is raining, I will ask Kathy Legako, who has volunteered to SAG me to Pawhuska, to carry my trailer. I will ride unencumbered and test my O2 rain gear to see if it keeps me dry . . . and cool.

Reminder: There's a place for comments at the bottom of each post. All followers can read these comments (before I delete them) but the message is also sent to my email associated with the blog. I can reply to it in private; my response will not appear on the blog. No email addresses will appear on the blog, also. Thus, the comments section is a good place to communicate with me, to book a speaking engagement, to tell me what you want me to say on the blog about someone you've bought Memory Miles for, to tell me that you want to ride a leg with me, etc.

Tune in often.  

Susan