Final Post: Post-ride Thank-You Breakfast

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Tuesday after I returned home, the Judith Karman Hospice invited me and husband, Jeff, to a Welcome Back & Thank You Breakfast. This helped me close this chapter of my adventures and meet many of the nurses and volunteers who will benefit from the money I raised (see below).
 

The breakfast buffet filled with delicious breakfast dishes

Judith Karman Nurses pose with one of the "Congratulations" balloons that made the breakfast table festive

Valerie Bloodgood and me. Valerie was my "right hand (wo)man, arranging for talks, press releases, some overnights, and keeping in touch throughout the ride.

This--my final post--will close the Heartland to Harbor for Hospice blog. Thank you for riding along with me, if only vicariously. It was a fabulous experience in which I learned how kind, generous, and giving you followers and all of the people I met on my journey can be. Now I plan on printing off the blog and making my usual little spiral-bound account. I've done this for all of my adventures over the past 12 years, and my shelf is beginning to sag under the weight of  my "account books."

The journey is at an end but for several weeks I felt at odds and ends. I had a hard time getting used to:

• Walking without pushing the bike and trailer
• Going to bed after 9 p.m.
• Sleeping in the same bed each night
• Sleeping past 5:30 or 6 a.m.
• Eating a leisurely breakfast
• Looking at the same scenery out the window each day
• Wearing underwear (none with bike shorts)
• Wearing different (and loose) clothes each day
• Wearing sandals instead of bike shoes
• Not washing my clothes each night
• Not wearing a helmet or bicycle gloves
• Carrying a purse instead of my handlebar bag
• Writing this post on a full-sized computer

What did I say about it's not over until it's over? Learned that the ride garnered two donations in July . . . one from Ann Bernhardt Williams and another in memory of William F. & Marie Bernhnardt, bringing the ride's-end total to $15,229! I worked as an official for Ann's daughter, Cathy, who raced her bicycle across Oklahoma from west to east and now holds the UMCA (Ultra-Marathon Cycling Association) record for the state. Thank you Ann!

Good-bye all.

Susan