Category: Notes From The Road

Okay, I’m confused. Yesterday morning we went to the hotel parking lot to help Rich get started on his ride. We met this interesting guy named Will and his dog Sunny. Will told us he’s homeless. I’m not sure what that means, but I did notice Will’s bike had a lot of stuff on it. […]

I enjoy speaking to groups. I’ve addressed a lot of different kinds of audiences, and I can honestly say there’s not one I don’t enjoy. Occasionally, though, someone asks a question that just stops me cold. Monday we met with Sunrise ARC, an amazing organization that serves about 100 developmentally disabled adults north of Orlando. I […]

Being away from home on this sort of trek lets you observe stuff you miss in your familiar everyday environment. One thing I’ve noticed is how much people smile. Friday I was cranking toward Orlando through a small collection of homes and businesses. A guy walked toward me looking sorta forlorn and disheveled, but as […]

Some of you may not know that Rich’s Ride has an official theme song. Even better, our friend Kristin Orphan and her incredible band allowed us to use their recording of  Martina McBride’s “Anyway” (from their CD) to promote our new book. I’m posting it today because I needed to be reminded: You can chase a dream that seems […]

Sometimes I amaze me. No matter how many blessings surround me, I can always find something to complain about. Am I the only person with this gift? This ride is incredible—great weather, wonderful people, an all-around amazing opportunity. I should be counting blessings at every turn. And mostly, I am. But there’s this one little […]

In tour cyclng there are two kinds of riding; cruising and grinding. Cruising is like being on auto pilot. You get a great stretch of road, find just the right gear, and discover the perfect cadence. Miles and time melt away and you forget you’re even riding. Grinding is the exact opposite. There’s no rhythm, and […]

I spent the entire day Tuesday riding along the Atlantic coast. I don’t think I was ever more than a few hundred yards from the beach—and I never saw it. I believe it was right there, behind the high-rise condos and the sea wall. I just couldn’t see it. There were signs. Road signs pointed toward […]

I’m not a museum guy, but I felt honored to visit the National Civil Rights Museum on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Being in that place on that day was truly a humbling experience. Dr. King came to Memphis in peace to try to help settle a long, contentious sanitation workers’ strike. Yesterday, people walked […]

It’s thorn season in Colorado. It’s a time when these nasty little thorny thingys (that’s technical cyclist terminology) become especially dry and brittle. Thorn season is characterized by an increase in the number of upside-down bicycles beside roads and trails. There’s one thing cycling and life have in common: flat tires happen to everybody. Sometimes […]

One small disappointment from last week’s ride was missing theopportunity to use our helmet camera to share some on-the-road footage. Our team mate Tom Roepke shot this video of our ride into DC. It’s a little long, but it provides a sense of the excitement of the final day. Can’t see the video? Click here. Please […]

For a writer, one huge benefit of an experience like the IJM Freedom Tour is the opportunity to reflect. The experience itself is amazing, but the looking back is where the real learning happens. As we head home after spending the weekend with our friend Jon Swanson, I’m trying to distill my thoughts. In the […]

This past week has been one of the most intense weeks I’ve experienced. We’ve literally had NO time to catch our breath, and certainly no time to reflect and write. There’s a lot I want to share. For now, it’s another late night, and an early wake-up call awaits. But I want to share some […]