Veronica
06-19-2007, 01:09 PM
Sunday Thom and I drove up to Markleeville. For us it was a test camp out, work out the bugs, figure out what else we need to buy... and do a little riding.
As we were driving up Highway 88, about 6,000 feet above sea level, we came upon three English gentlemen. They are doing a charity ride across the country to earn money for breast cancer research. You might think well, what's the big deal, lots of people do things like that. These guys were 64, 65 and 71 years old! I hope I'm still riding when I'm their age and willing to go on a two month cross country trek!
I think this was their fourth day of riding. It was hot and they had already climbed about 4,000 feet and had 2,000 more to go. They were struggling with their fully loaded bikes. Our car was loaded with our bikes and camping equipment, no room for passengers. But we took their panniers to the campground for them. I'm sure they expected we'd just drop them there, but that's not us. :p
I rode back up highway 88 from their campground to meet them, while Thom went ahead to our campground to set up our camp. When I got to them, they were out of food so I gave them my jelly beans and a Hammer Gel - very well received. Thom became our SAG driver and came back with more gels, Cliff Bloks and water. I rode with them the rest of the way.
Dave was kind of the leader of the group. He somehow talked his friends, Roger and Brian into this crazy thing. :p He lost his wife to cancer. He told us a story about her during dinner. She had been reading Lance's book, got twenty pages from the end and never finished it. It just about made me cry.
Dave had been given two angels for luck. He named one of them Veronica. They promised to send us cards from every state. I really hope they do. It will be nice to know how they are doing. They are following an Adventure Cycling route and will end in Yorktown. So if you happen to see three older English gentlemen riding fully loaded bikes... it could be them.
I'm so glad we happened along their route and could help them out. They would have had a really long day and might not have made it to their campground. We got in around 7 PM and they would have had noodles for dinner - not pizza and beer!
V.
As we were driving up Highway 88, about 6,000 feet above sea level, we came upon three English gentlemen. They are doing a charity ride across the country to earn money for breast cancer research. You might think well, what's the big deal, lots of people do things like that. These guys were 64, 65 and 71 years old! I hope I'm still riding when I'm their age and willing to go on a two month cross country trek!
I think this was their fourth day of riding. It was hot and they had already climbed about 4,000 feet and had 2,000 more to go. They were struggling with their fully loaded bikes. Our car was loaded with our bikes and camping equipment, no room for passengers. But we took their panniers to the campground for them. I'm sure they expected we'd just drop them there, but that's not us. :p
I rode back up highway 88 from their campground to meet them, while Thom went ahead to our campground to set up our camp. When I got to them, they were out of food so I gave them my jelly beans and a Hammer Gel - very well received. Thom became our SAG driver and came back with more gels, Cliff Bloks and water. I rode with them the rest of the way.
Dave was kind of the leader of the group. He somehow talked his friends, Roger and Brian into this crazy thing. :p He lost his wife to cancer. He told us a story about her during dinner. She had been reading Lance's book, got twenty pages from the end and never finished it. It just about made me cry.
Dave had been given two angels for luck. He named one of them Veronica. They promised to send us cards from every state. I really hope they do. It will be nice to know how they are doing. They are following an Adventure Cycling route and will end in Yorktown. So if you happen to see three older English gentlemen riding fully loaded bikes... it could be them.
I'm so glad we happened along their route and could help them out. They would have had a really long day and might not have made it to their campground. We got in around 7 PM and they would have had noodles for dinner - not pizza and beer!
V.