Monte And The Salvation Army

I wanted to let you know I finally got a nice long run on Saturday. We haven’t been able to do that much on this tour because of the traffic, so this was really fun. Rich found this really cool bike trail outside of Gainesville, and I got to just run and run.

I also wanted to tell you about a cool experience we had a few days ago. We got invited to this place called a Salvation Army. I’m not sure what that means, but a lot of the guys there seemed real sad. I heard Rich say they were homeless.

In places like that the people always pay a lot of attention to me. It’s like they just need to touch me and scratch my ears. I like it, of course, but it feels different than other places. I don’t know how to describe it, but I’m just a dog.

Anyway, there was this one guy named Pete who just couldn’t leave me alone. At first he just petted me, but then he was down on his knees almost hugging me. He followed us outside and the same thing happened. Then he started crying.

I heard him telling Becky about his own dog and how he died a week before we came. So he lost his home, and then his best friend died. He was really sad, and I didn’t know what to do. So I just let him rub my belly and cry. Somehow it seemed to help.

Rich said he got a letter from the guy who ran the Salvation Army place, and he said I made Pete happy. He told the guy he thanked God for me. I don’t really know what that means, but I think it’s good. What’s amazing is I didn’t really do anything. I just showed up.

It seems like there are lots of sad, lonely people out there. I think we all could make some of them a little happier just by showing up.

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This is Rich, and I almost feel guilty telling you about Saturday’s ride. Since many of you are following from somewhat cooler places, it might seem like I’m rubbing it in. Oh well.

The mid-80’s temps might have been a bit warm if not for the nice breeze and scattered clouds. Becky called an audible and found a gorgeous country lane around a construction project. After lunch, a secluded trail took us into Gainesville.

It would be tough to ask for a better day of cycling a little more than 50 miles.

So week 4 of our Florida tour ends at 810 miles. Monday we’ll head for Tallahassee.

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