Category: Freedom Tour

I love our FREEDOM TOUR traditions. In just a couple of years we’ve established a number of meaningful traditions. I’ve become sort of a fierce guardian, which is an odd position for one who’s normally a bit of an iconoclast. More curious, I’m often in the position of explaining to new folks why it’s a […]

Mostly, you can’t. My first teaching evaluations were largely about classroom control. The theory, I suppose, went something like this: get the students under control, then you can teach them. So the questions weren’t about lesson plans, they were about How will you keep your classroom under control? No control, no teaching. Those evaluators would have been appalled by […]

As a cyclist, I enjoy following le Tour de France each year. I don’t always understand all of the intricacies of strategy and tactics, but I appreciate the difficulty of riding more than one hundred miles per day for three weeks over some of the highest, steepest mountains in the world. (I borrowed these thoughts […]

On a cycle trip, SAG stands for “Support And Gear.” I’ve learned, however, that “SAG team” might have other implications since our team is entirely post-40. So in the interest of personal safety, I’ve adopted the French term soigneurs for our support team. On a cycle racing team, soineurs are responsible for the day-to-day needs of the cyclists–food, clothing, […]

In my school classes like art and music were called “specials.” I always thought that was odd since math was the most special class of all. When you start attaching labels, weird things happen. Last week I called myself The Special Needs Guy on our team. A few folks, notably my friend Kristen, called me out. […]

How do you work out riding as a team? Good question. We bring together a bunch of folks with different abilities who don’t know each other and ask them to ride bikes in close proximity for 500 miles. That doesn’t happen by accident. Colorado has lots of wonderful bike tours on which riders can choose […]

Everyone walked away. Five members of our team were on a training ride last week. A car passed, swerved, over-corrected, then rolled multiple times before slamming into a telephone pole. This all happened within fifty yards of our riders. Two guys ran to the car, expecting horrific injuries. Amazingly, both folks were able to climb […]

On our team, that’s me. Others make accommodations so I can participate. I’m grateful, though honestly it’s difficult to be the special needs guy. Easier to offer grace than to receive it or worse, have to ask for it. Each year as the FREEDOM TOUR approaches I wrestle with whether I ought to participate as […]

God continues to expand the circle around the FREEDOM TOUR. When we started this crazy idea two summers ago we believed He would bring the right people into the circle. The process hasn’t always gone according to MY plan, but looking back it’s amazing to trace His faithfulness. He’s consistently brought people and partners who […]

What’s your Idea Worth Spreading? That’s the mantra of the TEDx Front Range Conference. Every talk should be distilled to a single idea worth spreading, and if the speaker’s effective the audience should be able to summarize the idea in a sentence or two. I’ve attended a couple of peer coaching sessions. It’s fascinating to see […]

Being part of the FREEDOM TOUR team is a blessing. Membership offers a variety of benefits, but there’s one thing I can’t be as part of this team. I can’t be a victim. I have this nasty tendency to feel sorry for myself. Given the choice, I lean toward blaming circumstances or other people when […]

I’m excited about my upcoming talk at TEDx Front Range. I’ll encourage the audience to follow big dreams. At one point I’ll show this picture and ask them to consider an important insight: When you help someone climb a hill, you end up at the top. I borrowed these thoughts from the archives to illustrate […]