Pedal for Peace 2008

You absolutely would not believe what happened in Kansas yesterday on my B-day!!! So as I was trying my hardest not to miss home, not to miss my family chillin seaside in Mystic CT, and most of all trying not to miss Jennifer (my amazing girlfriend and bestest compadre) I found myself a tiny bit down as I sat on a concrete curb at a gas station in Kansas thinking, “is this my 30th? on a curb at a truck stop?” ( I hate to admit that I was a bit down but I was) Although I am fully aware I made the conscious decision to be here on my bike this summer, so feeling bad for myself has never been an option. I was just missing integral people in my life. Patch had been mad quiet all day and was not his fun-loving self - “why did he pick my B-day to act like this?” I thought to myself. We were halfway through our 105 ride-miles for the day and faced an insane headwind for the final 60 miles after lunch. But my B-day gift from the world in my mind was that I was spending my B-day in Kansas cause that is what I desired as my 30th in Kansas would be epically unique from all my other B-days.

The headwind was terrible, but Patch and I worked as a team drafting one another so we could get breaks from the relentless wind and recharge when it was our time to lead. We ended up seeing a lone biker ahead and charged forward to have him get on our train so we could pull him the final 30 miles so he would not have to face the wind by his lonesome. He turned out to be this amazing man, Tom, who has dreamed his whole life of riding X-country and now that he is retired he is doing it. Then we met up with a father/son duo, Jacob and his father, who was doing the same route. So the 5 of us formed a “pain train” and took turns leading while the others followed in line with a well deserved break from the plains wind. The sum is greater then the whole of its parts… proof positive here!

So the 5 of us absolutely crushed it through the head-windy plains and moved our mph from 9.5 before the train to 16.5 with it!! Teamwork! That really brightened my day knowing it wouldn’t be an all-day affair battling the wind as we got to our final day’s destination way sooner…. but the best was yet to come… ready for this?

I get to this grocery store here in the middle of nowheresville Kansas (Scott City to be PC) and ARE YOU READY FOR THE KICKER???… Jennifer walks around the corner and gives me this enormous birthday hug!!!!! It is now like 18 hours later and I am still in utter awe and shock and disbelief! She and Patch had been in cahoots and hooked it up! She booked a flight back in March to Colorado Springs hoping we would be close and rented a car then drove 4 hours to meet me here on July 8th!!! I had no I dea where we’d be on Jily 8th..even 3 days ago! I have no idea how she pulled it off. I was/am speechless and simply kept/keep repeating “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS, I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS, I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!!!! It is countless how many times I have uttered these words… countless. Now I know why Patch was so quiet all day… There are now so many clues that I NEVER picked up on. Jenn didn’t answer her phone when I called her on my B-day cause she was on a plane!!!!

The 3 of us went out to eat and celebrated the B-day with the local Mexicans at their family restaurant complete with ice cream cake from DQ and everything. She is here for 2 nights and then flys to Alaska for summer trip tommorrow- which I did know about.

All the stars are aligned right now… I can’t believe that she is sitting here next to me as I write you.. I can’t believe it!!
I am done trying to put this into words… I’m gonna go spend time with her now. I love everybody.

I have infinite stuff to share with you all… So much amazing news and fantastic experiences from life on the pedals… we hit half way at the end of this week (knock on wood) then we are sailing home….. extra time in GLP yeah?

Your favorite 30-year old cross country rider
Peteskie Wetesky!!!

Only 1 time zone away from you east coasters!!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 5:55 pm and is filed under update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.