Before I tell you about my last few days, I have big news (don’t worry Mom, I didn’t fall in love and get married without telling you!)!  Annie and Robert got the incredible opportunity to be on the Tyra Banks show (it will air later this fall).  As a result, they were able to talk about Rett and Mikyla in a forum that will be seen nationwide by potentially hundreds of thousands of people!  The show focused on fulfilling dreams for parents who are dealing with big challenges; so in addition to bringing awareness to Mikyla-Cure, Annie got to show off her cooking skills while fulfilling her dream of auditioning for her own show on the Food Network (Annie, if you get the job, please keep in mind that I’m going to be looking for work soon and I love to eat…maybe you can hire a “food tester”).  What a great opportunity and reward for both Annie and Robert!!

As I was riding along the Canadian shore of Lake Erie, it occurred to me that what started out as a “cross country trip” can now technically be called a “cross continental journey”…sounds a lot longer, doesn’t it?  Strangely, the fact is that my decision to ride through Canada actually made the total trip shorter!

Although the trip will be slightly shorter (about 200 miles, most of which have probably been offset by distance I’ve ridden while I’ve been lost), the trip to Canada enabled me to add 3 highlights to my already great list of trip memories!

The first great memory is of riding along the shore of Lake Erie for a day and a half. The first hints of fall (my favorite season) are in the air here, the roads were in good shape, almost free of cars and the sky was perfectly blue.  As we wound along the shore, we entered a number of Port towns. The shoreline was beautiful, the people continued to be amazingly friendly and the towns had an almost old world feel, complete with boardwalks and light houses.  I had a difficult time remembering that we weren’t riding along the seashore!

You may have noticed that I said as “we” rode along, which brings me to the next highlight; at lunch on my second day in Canada I met my new friend Dave who was cycling around the lake from Cleveland this week. During lunch, I took out my map and began trying to determine how I was going to make my way to Niagra Falls; at that point Dave spoke up and asked where I was going (up until that point, he thought I was “some local roadie” on a training ride).  With the ice broken by the map, Dave and I started taking and learned that we were both headed to the Falls. Luckily for me, Dave was planning on taking the less direct, more scenic route and he asked me to come along.

Throughout the course of this summer I’ve met a number of fellow tourists, but in virtually every case it was difficult to ride together due to different paces or personalities. Dave proved to be the exception (despite the fact that he admittedly spent the first 25 miles of our ride trying to pop me), our pace was similar and we ended up riding about 100 miles together over the course of two partial days. I’ll bet that I’ll ride with Dave again and I’m sure I can add him to the list of friends I’ve made on my trip this summer. Thanks for the ride Dave!

The 3rd memory and likely the most impressive sight of my trip was Niagra Falls. There really is nothing I can say that will do it justice. The furious power with which the water crashes over the edge is simply stunning. Standing at the edge, being soaked by the spray I could only think of one thing…anyone who would voluntarily go over those falls in a barrel is not right in the head! Possibly the only thing more amazing than the falls themselves is that some of the “barrel riders” have actually survived!

Since leaving Niagra Falls, I’ve ridden about 200 miles along NY Hwy 31 (also known as bike route 5).  The riding has been great, wide shoulders, light traffic and repeated crossings of the Erie Canal (which is no longer a commercial shipping channel and is largely unused during the week).

In addition to the great riding, I’ve learned that some New Yorkers have an interesting sense of humor (or an uncanny nack for stating the obvious…I’m not sure which!).  This became evident about 20 minutes into the state when I had to ask a cop for directions…When I asked him how to get to Hwy 31, he paused for 5 seconds (it seemed like an eternity) and then said “maaaan, you’re on a bike”.  Before I could answer, he went on to say it phonetically “a buy-sick-le”.  After that he just continued to shake his head (I’m not actually sure he was joking) while his partner tried to give me “buy-sick-le safe” directions.

Tomorrow, I’m headed to Cooperstown to meet my Dad and visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. I’m excited and, as usual, I can’t wait to get there…Although since I now know that I’m on a buy-sick-le, I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that it is probably going to take me all day to get there from here (its about 100 miles)!

The next time I update I’ll have a report on the HOF and I’ll be beginning the final few days of my ride. I still can’t believe it has gone so quickly!

Take it all in slowly…real fast!

Ride On!

Scott

Before I update on the days since my last blog, I need to go back in time on my trip and mention a very interesting person, Jari Chevalier and a great opportunity that she gave me.  When I was riding through North Dakota, I met Jari at a 50’s-style lunch counter in a small town. While we were eating the two of us talked for about 1/2 hour.  When we finished, Jari mentioned that, in addition to her artwork, she has a project called Living Hero where she interviews interesting or inspiring people and posts those interviews as podcasts on her website. Jari went on to offer to allow me to talk about Mikyla-Cure as a part of her project. As a result, she interviewed me and posted that interview a few weeks later. Jari did a great job of turning our conversation into a well-crafted interview; if you’re interested you can hear the end result at: http://jari.podbean.com/2008/08/01/interview-with-scott-parsons/.  Thanks for your help Jari!

Yesterday, I returned to the Detroit area to resume my ride. My friend Jim and his wife Nancy went out of their way to help me with travel logistics and even let me join them for Nancy’s birthday dinner last night!  As I mentioned in an earlier update, Jim is a cyclist so this morning he joined me, along with our friend Joanie (another GP former coworker) for the ride into downtown Detroit to the Canadian border. Along the way we met another friend and former coworker of mine, Terry, who rode along with us for part of the trip while he pulled his kids, Elliott and Scarlet in a Burley Trailer (Elliott and Scarlet were the smart ones… they wanted their Dad to let them out of the trailer at a park where they could play so Terry wasn’t with us for too long).

It was a great ride to Detroit and it was fun to catch up with some friends from  GP.  When we arrived at the Detroit river something unusual happened… I rode my bike and trailer down some stairs in order to get on the river trail (that wasn’t the unusual thing… it wasn’t nearly as attention grabbing as my trip down the stairs and into the Rose Garden in Portland); and in the process I managed to attract the attention of a couple of photographers… Then, with the help of my new “Publicists”, Joanie and Jim a horde of about 15-20 professional-type photogs (who just happened to be at the waterfront this morning) began taking pictures while Jim and Joanie helped me by promoting Mikyla-Cure while I explained my trip!  I’m sure it was the most pictures I’ve ever had taken at one time!

From there we loaded our bikes into Jim’s car (you can’t bike across the border in Detroit so we dropped the car downtown earlier in the morning) and proceeded to drive UNDER the border (and the Detroit river as well) through a tinnel into Canada. Each time I’ve visited Canada, I’ve been impressed by how friendly the people are and how clean and quiet the cities and towns are and today was no exception. As a culture, Canadians are some of the friendliest people I’ve met!

Jim and Joanie joined me for about 15 more miles of riding “North” (or in the case of Detroit/Windsor, South) of the border before turning around in Tecumseh and heading for home. While we rode together we paralled the Detroit river and Lake St. Clair, both of which are beautiful. Once I was on my own, the scenery changed to rural farming communities, all of which were picture perfect in much the same way as the areas I’ve recently ridden through in IA and WI.  There was one upgrade however… there were absolutely no hills!  Which, after a couple of weeks of not much riding was a welcomed way to ease back into my trip!

I’ll spend about 3 days crossing through Ontario. Although my trip is drawing to a close (hard to believe, but I only have about 9 days of riding left) I have a lot to look forward to. First, I’ll visit Niagra Falls as I re-enter the USA.  Then I’ll meet my Dad in Cooperstown to visit the baseball hall of fame.  Finally, I’ll get to spend some time at the beach north of Boston with some of my best friends, Mich and Robyn.

As usual, I’m like a little boy; so excited about what’s coming that I can hardly sleep!  I can’t wait to send you pictures and describe my trip over the next few days!

Back in the Saddle (again)!

Scott

I don’t know if you’ve ever stopped to think about it, but in the web of family, friends, co-workers and acquaintences that surrounds each of us there is one person who believes in you more than any of the others. That isn’t to say that you don’t have a lot of people who offer you outstanding love and support, I’m sure you do, but if you are honest with yourself, you’ll discover that one person is you’re “biggest fan” (BF).

Often your BF will believe in you when no one, not even you, does. Many times your BF believes in you when there is no logical reason to do so. Your BF “knows” you are right, or that you are the biggest/fastest/strongest/smartest even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Sometimes just knowing that your BF believes in you so completely forces you to raise your level of performance beyond what you thought possible in order to avoid dissappointing them. Ocassionally, at the most difficult times, knowing that at least one person loves you and believes in you may be the lone fact that sustains you.

Have you thought about it now? Do you know who your biggest fan is?

I’ve been incredibly fortunate, throughout my life, to have a large group of people who love me, believe in me, hear me and support me (if you know me well enough, you’re probably thinking that doing those things for me would be a full time job for an army… and you might be right). Although I’ve had an abundance of help from a lot of people, I’ve always known that my Grandma was unquestionably my biggest fan.

Some of you know that, from almost the beginning of my trip, my Grandma has been pretty sick. She spent most of the last 2 months in the hospital. Like a lot of people her age, the challenge was not that she had a disease (like cancer) but rather that after 84 years she was simply worn out and her body was failing her. About two weeks ago, doctors decided that there wasn’t anything else they could do for her so they discharged her and sent her home (she was very happy to get to go home). Finally, on Friday she died (I’d be PC and say “passed away” but she wouldn’t like that) in her sleep. As a result, I’m on an airplane to Oklahoma where I’ll spend the week, attend the funeral and help my dad.

Anytime something like this happens it’s sad, but in this case it isn’t tragic… My Grandma had lived a full and complete life and she was prepared to go without regrets and with no miles left in the tank (two facts that I think are the sign of having had the courage to live life the way you want to regardless of how other people feel about it… something I admire and aspire to emulate).

To the very end of her life she remained my biggest fan, tracking my trip (and torturing an entire hospital full of people by telling them every insignificant detail about it and me, her “absolutely perfect” grandson… it’s no wonder they sent her home, they probably couldn’t take anymore bragging!). I was able to talk to her almost every day as I rode cross-country and as she got sicker she began to insist that I keep riding (rather than coming home) saying that my ride was an inspiration to her (the fact is, she knew I was having fun an in typical fashion she put that ahead of her needs). Friday evening when I found out that she was done, I had mixed emotions. On one hand I thought how much I would miss her and the powerful effect she had on me; on the other hand I was relieved because I knew she was satisfied with her life and I was thankful that she didn’t suffer too much.

Saturday morning I woke up and dealt with my feelings the way I deal with almost everything….I rode my bike. As it turns out I had a tailwind (only the second time of the entire trip) and I felt fresh, finally recovered from Leadville; so I started riding in Muskegon and I rode as hard as I could, telling myself I’d ride until I was exhausted. At 100 miles I was surprised that I still felt great. At 126 miles I was happy that I was going to have a new “longest ride of the trip” and “farthest I’ve ever ridden alone”. At 151 miles I was excited that I had a new “longest ride of the year”. At 176 miles I was psyched that I had ridden “my longest ride ever”. Amazingly when I reached my friend Jim’s house in Detroit in the dark at mile 182 I was disappointed that I’d run out of daylight and that Michigan wasn’t wider because I still felt great and I would’ve been happy to have continued riding.

It’s incredible how your mind and emotions can have such a powerful effect on your abilities. It’s even more unreal that someone else’s (your Biggest Fan) beliefs and spirit can have an even greater impact on your life.

I can’t explain how much I’m going to miss my Gram, I’m not yet able to imagine what life will be like without her here. One thing is for certain, as of yesterday I have a new goal… I’m hoping to have the opportunity to repay her gift and give someone else the unending, illogical, immeasurable support that she gave me during the last 35 years.

Take the risk to live a great life without regrets… this is the only chance you will get.

I’ll be back to finish off my ride starting next Saturday. I’ll look forward to talking to you then!

Scott

In the last two days I’ve gone from Galena IL to Milwaukee. In typical fashion, it has taken me 225 miles of riding to make 197 miles of progress.

Not all of the additional miles are due to my poor ability to discern or follow direction (although I did ride 13 miles in downtown Mikwaukee trying to find the Lake Express Ferry); some of the extra riding was in an effort to find the parts necessary to fix my first major mechanical issue of the trip.

Riding out of Galena was beautiful. On the advice of John Oldenburg, I chose to follow the Stagecoach trail highway (rather than the larger and more direct route of HWY 11).  The trail/highway winds and rolls its way through the impossibly green hills of Northern Illinois and is one continuous photo opportunity. There was basically no traffic and the few cars that did pass by didn’t seem to mind my slow plodding presence at all. I enjoyed the Stagecoach trail so much that I decided to link together some county and section roads to stay in the quiet countryside as long as possible.

Not long after exiting Stagecoach I had a flat tire while crossing some railroad tracks. It was while changing the tire that I noticed the small cracks that have developed in my rear rim (the square edges of the rough concrete roads of Iowa still seem to be exacting a toll on me even a week and a half after I finished riding them!).  The cracks don’t make the rim immediately unrideable, so I finished my ride and called my buddy Travis (at this point I’ll be doing favors for him for the next 10 years in order to get back to even) who used to race for Waterford Cycles (a bike company located in WI) so he could help me try to locate the parts necessary to fix the damaged wheel. Athough the guys at Waterford were very helpful in suggesting a shop that might be able to help, it didn’t lead to solving my problem (I’m running a relatively rare spoke count in my wheels, so it is a difficult problem to solve), but it did lead me to the cool little town of Whitewater and ultimately through the town of Waterford itself (I wouldn’t have seen either place if it weren’t for the wheel issue).  In the end, I ordered what I needed to fix the problem and had it sent to my friend Jim’s house just north of Detroit (about 160 riding miles away from Milwaukee after a ferry ride across the lake).  So, until I reach Jim’s I’ll be weaving around bumps like a drunk cyclist and trying to “think light” in order to nurse the wheel home….

This afternoon I boarded the Lake Express Ferry for the 3 hour trip across Lake Michigan. I’d never been on a ferry until the week before the start of my trip and since then I’ve had 3 ferry rides…I never would’ve imagined that riding your bike across the country could lead to so many boat trips!  On my way to the ferry I got incredibly lost (despite very good, very simple directions).  Being lost allowed me to see a lot of downtown Milwaukee which I thought was pretty cool in a sort of neighborhoody, industrial, revitalized sort of way. Boarding the ferry was interesting; it seems they don’t get a lot of trailer-pulling cyclists… they ended up charging me the regular fare plus two bike fees (strangely, the ferry ride in Seattle was free because I was on a bike); regardless of the cost, I was glad to be able to get on the boat and head for Michigan.  I’ve truly enjoyed riding in Wisconsin; the people here, even in the city, have been some of the most cycling-friendly I’ve encountered on the entire trip.

Right now, the ferry is landing in Muskegon, MI where I’ll spend the night before departing tomorrow morning for the two day ride to the Detroit area. I’m looking forward to the next two days of riding; it will be the first time in 2500 miles that I have been on a bike-specific route and, better yet, it is a route that my friend Jim has ridden so I’ll have pretty good information about the trip. It’s difficult to explain how much time and effort it takes to “discover” everything you need every day. Prior to starting the trip, I never realized how much I took for granted the fact that in my regular life I know where to find the coffee every morning!  Not that having to re-learn everything each day isn’t an exciting challenge (it is) but it is also the most time consuming part of the trip, so riding the next couple of days will be like being on another vacation!

I’m excited about the ride across Michigan, it will take me through still more territory that I’ve never seen before. I’m continuosly surprised by how much of the country I’ve missed even with all of the traveling I’ve done in the past for work.

Ride on!

Scott

It has been ten days since my last update and I haven’t made a single mile of progress toward my cross country goal but I have traveled and ridden quite a few miles just the same.  The last week and a half has been a great “vacation within my vacation”.  After I arrived at the Oldenburg’s in Galena, IL (Tami, John, Rachael, Adrienne, and April are Robert Smith’s cousins), I flew to Denver.

It was great to be back in Colorado and I spent the first day in Boulder visiting my friends Gail and Jeff.  Jeff and I worked together at GP for the entire time I was with the company.  Gail worked trying to fatten me up while I was there by feeding me enough for three people (this has been a theme in the last 10 days!) and it was fun to catch up with them.  From there, I headed to Winter Park to watch my friend Nick (he’s a professional mountain biker) compete in the Crankworks Colorado Dual Slalom.  Nick did an outstanding job and finished 5th; the only people who beat him were current and/or former world and/or national champions.  I don’t know who was more excited about the result, me or Nick, but I can guarantee you that I was the proudest person on the mountain….  That may seem strange since I had nothing to do with Nick’s performance, but he’s a little younger than me and I’ve known him for quite a while and it has been a true pleasure to watch him progress from just loving to ride his bike to being one of the best riders in the country.  After the event we headed back down to Nick’s house in Boulder but not before we made a stop at Beau Jo’s, home of the world’s greatest pizza (we stopped at the original in Idaho Springs… the other locations are good, but this one is still the best).  For the early part of last week, I stayed in Boulder basically being lazy and hoping to allow my legs to recover enough to allow me to turn in a good performance at Leadville.

It was quite an adjustment to go from pulling my trailer 100 miles a day and figuring out all of the logistics associated with each day of my trip to essentially having nothing to do, so I ran some errands, caught up on some communication and watched several movies.  That lasted all of two days when I borrowed a bike from Randall Scott Cycles and went for a ride… it was either that or start repainting Nick’s house to keep from going stir crazy (Nick said he didn’t trust me inside with paint when he was gone to work!).  Later in the week, Thursday was an exciting day for me, my friend Kevin who also raced Leadville, drove his RV out from California and I met him in Leadville.  At home in our regular lives, Kevin and I ride bikes together several times a week.  At some point last year, I managed to convince Kevin that it would be a great idea if we signed up and raced Leadville, for reasons I’ll never know, he agreed and so I was glad to see that he actually arrived in Leadville and hadn’t gotten smart and changed his mind!  Not only did Kevin come to Leadville but he also brought my brand new Dean singlespeed bike (there isn’t enough room in this blog to describe the 8 month ordeal that was capped off by Kevin’s delivery, but it took a half dozen people and a lot of determination to make it happen).  There is a phenomenon called “new bike psych” (think: feeling like a kid on Christmas morning) that occurs when you get a new bike and in this case it was more extreme than usual due to the fact that this bike was custom built to my specifications and that I would be racing it for the first time in two days in Leadville.

After I met Kevin we headed out to Pine and one of my favorite parts of the Colorado Trail (a 500 mile long singletrack that stretches through the mountains from Denver to Durango).  Kevin will tell you that I knew where we were going but that I had absolutely no idea how far away it was or how long it would take to get there (that could be true, or it could simply be that I was afraid that if I told Kevin we were going to be in the car for 3 hours on top of the 14 he’d already driven that he wouldn’t have come along with me for the ride… you be the judge on that one…).  In any case the section of trail that we rode is fairly remote, is incredibly beautiful and fun, and as I had suspected for years is perfect for singlespeeding, so we had a great ride to loosen up our legs for Leadville (on our way home, I made Kevin eat at Beau Jo’s… gotta stock up since I won’t be back to CO for a while!).

The following day we went through the pre-race check in and then spent the day anxiously waiting for Saturday/race day.  Fortunately, the Olympics were on and we were entertained by the inspiration which comes with watching some of the world’s best athletes achieve life long dreams on sport’s largest stage.  It’s truly impressive to learn the stories of the athletes and to watch them push themselves beyond their limits.  Only slightly less impressive is the amount of food that Kevin’s wife Suzie had sent with him, so I practically ate myself into a coma while we watched the games and waited.  Later in the afternoon, one of my best friends, Travis, arrived from Albuquerque (Travis and Nick supported Kevin and I during the race on Saturday).  I’m relatively sure that Travis just came in hopes of getting to watch me hurt myself (he’s been involved in one way or another in most of the stupid things I’ve done), but Kevin and I appreciated the help regardless of his motives!

Finally race day arrived and at 6:30 in the morning 1000 crazy mountain bikers (including Lance Armstrong and Mountain Bike hall-of-Famer Dave Weins) headed off on a 100 mile journey.  Leadville is an out-and-back course that begins at an elevation of 10,200′ and undulates between 9,500′ and 13,000′ for a total of 11,700 vertical feet of climbing over 104 miles.  The ride is relatively difficult due to the climbing and to the elevation, so of the 1000 people who start the race only about 700 people finish (Dave Wiens beat Armstrong by 2 minutes to win for the 6th consecutive year).  Kevin and I were both fortunate enough to finish and although I know both of us would have liked to have gone slightly better, we each did reasonably well. More importantly we each had a great time (at least I think we did…Kevin did inform me after the race that I was never allowed in their house again and he also gave his wife and daughters instructions to remind him never to listen to me again… I don’t think that was associated with his feelings about the race, I think he may have been slightly delusional when he said it… but only time will tell for sure).  I loved my new bike, at some point I said “this is the best bike I’ve ever ridden”, but Travis and Nick were quick to point out that I’ve owned somewhere around 30 bikes and I’ve said that about virtually all of them…. Nevertheless, I’m sure that this one really is “the best bike I’ve ever ridden”!

Following the race, I started my trip back to Illinois to resume my cross country adventure.  Along the way I stopped and stayed with Nick’s parents who took me to dinner and then I visited my cousins Mark and Lori who took me to lunch and ultimately I arrived back at the Oldenburgs who have done nothing but feed me for a day and a half (I think there may a conspiracy to make me fat!).

The time off from riding across the country and the fact that I didn’t race quite as well as I had hoped allowed me to reflect upon my trip so far and to remember the fact that anything worth having takes hard work and perseverance.  As a result, I’ll definitely be going back to Leadville next year and more seriously, I’ll continue to push to raise money and awareness for Mikyla-cure, believing that the money we are raising will fund research that will cure Rett Syndrome and allow Mikyla and thousands of other little girls to pursue their dreams just as Kevin and I did last weekend in Leadville.  Tomorrow I will leave the beautiful town of Galena and head toward Milwuakee and the Great Lakes which will begin the final third of my trip to Boston.  If things continue to go as they have throughout the summer, I should arrive in Boston on approximately the first of September.  I am very excited to get started tomorrow, but before I do, I need to say thank you to everyone who has been so incredibly nice to me during my “vacation within a vacation”.  It was great to see all of you and I had an outstanding time.  I’m looking forward to the time when you visit me and I can reciprocate your hospitality (of course, you will have to wait until I have a home to welcome you into!).

You really can’t put a value on friendship, it makes all of the difference!

Scott