Man of LaMancha
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- A Century One Day Miles 3980-4080 May 31
- 20 miles to Orrick
- 13 Miles to Richmond
- 10 Miles to Rayville
- 12 Miles to Lawson
- 15 Miles to Watkin’s Mill
- 15 Miles to Kearney
- 15 Miles to Liberty
- Planning a Century
Bike Safety May 28Bike safety and HateBusters at Alexander Doniphan. For years now Carol Rogers has been inviting me to come during the last week of school to teach every child in school about bike safety and HateBusters. Wearing my yellow HateBusters T-shirt, I ride up to the school-house door and roll my bike down the hall to my assigned room. In nine half-hour sessions, every child from first through fifth grade takes a seat on the floor in front of me. And we begin. “My, you look good,” I say. “I’m glad to see you. How many of you have a bike?” Most hands go up. “I’m here to teach you the three most important rules for riding your bikes. The first rule is the most important. ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET “And how you wear it is important,” I say. As I’m talking, I’m putting my helmet on my head and pulling the front of it down over my forehead until it’s just above my eyes. “This is the way to wear it. If you fall, you almost always fall forward. I see some riders who wear their helmet back on their head. Like this.” And I shove my helmet up until it covers the back of my head. “This does no good. And you must be sure your helmet is snapped under your chin. If it comes off, it does no good. “The second rule is RIDE WITH THE TRAFFIC. Your bicycle is a vehicle. You’re the driver. You must obey all the laws a car obeys. Sometimes I see riders who ride on the wrong side of the road. I know why they do it. They want to see the cars coming at them. But that’s illegal and dangerous. If an accident happens, it is your fault. Car drivers don’t know what to do if they see you coming at them in their lane. You’re not supposed to be there. Neither of you know what to do. Bad things are likely to happen. “Rule number three: ALWAYS RIDE SINGLE FILE. The only time cars ride side by side is when they are passing each other. Bikers should do the same. If you ride beside a friend on the road, cars may not be able to get around you. You may get to talking and not pay attention. You need to always be aware of where you are and what you’re doing and where the cars are. “Now, another word about helmets. If you don’t have one and can’t get one, call me. I will get you one. If I see you out riding around our town without a helmet, I will be sad. And if you see me, call out to me, ‘Hey, Ed, you came to my school. See, I’m wearing my helmet.’ And you will make me happy.” We then talk for a few minutes about their bikes and where they ride. Then I say, “See my shirt. It says HateBusters. My students at William Jewell started HateBusters. Just across town we started. We help people who have been hurt because someone hates them. Hate is a bad thing. We want to help people like each other. I’m going to give you a card to take home to your parents. It’s a HateBusters membership card. It tells who we are and what we do and how to get in touch with us.” If all my audiences were as attentive and enthused, I would be transported straight to heaven each time I stand to speak.
The weekend after Memorial Day. Almost perfect. Partly sunny. A high of 73. No rain. A nagging headwind the only problem. A day on our bicycles awaits, 12 rest stops in our 100-mile loop out from Liberty and back, past fields of newly planted corn and through small Missouri towns. Dave and Bob Biscari have set the tent up in front of their bike shop when the first of us arrive just before 6 AM. David Hamerle and Don Alsin help throughout the day. Helen Ford is here to register riders. Sandy Hader and Wanda Harmon assist. Forty-nine riders from near and far—one from New York—have gathered for the 7 o’clock start. Richard Mark is here with several of his United We Ride team members. They are wearing their team jerseys. The HateBusters team is here in our bright yellow T-shirts. All day motorists coming from behind will read on our backs: BUSTIN’ HATE SURE FEELS GREAT. John Anderson is here. Brother John, we call him at our Human Family Reunions every year. A professional storyteller, Brother John is our song leader for our HateBusters theme song. Mark Turner is here. Mark and I ride the MS-150 together every year. Susan Assel from the Johnson County Bicycle Club is here. Susan was the first rider to sign up for this ride. Rick Winslow’s brother has MS. Rick is riding. This ride has been months in the planning. Michael first had the idea. Rich planned the route. Rich Groves, Michael Calabria and I venture out early many Saturday mornings on our bikes, winding up most every time in a small town café for breakfast and to meet folks. When Rich and Michael heard about my plans to ride 10,000 miles this year and raise $100,000 for MS and $10,000 for HateBusters, they dreamed up Ed’s Elite 100. To jump start what I am calling THE GREATER LIBERTY RIDE FOR MS AND HATEBUSTERS, we would have a ride of 100 miles with 100 riders, each contributing $100.00 to MS. In one day we would raise $10,000. When to have it? We needed months of planning time. We didn’t want to conflict with already scheduled rides in the area. We picked the weekend after Memorial Day—Saturday, May 31. Rich had planned the very successful 1999 bike ride from Liberty to Columbia to celebrate William Jewell’s 150th Anniversary. Michael had worked as marketing director for a national sporting goods company. They attracted equally competent and committed people to help. Dave and Bob Biscari own Biscari Brothers Bicycles, with a store in Liberty and one in Kansas City. Dale Ahle owns a website design company. He designed and maintains our HateBusters website. Helen Ford handled registration for the Jewell ride in 1999. 20 miles to Orrick“Whatever happens is exactly what we needed to happen.” This is our guiding philosophy through the four months we work to make this happen. We’re confident that the tornadoes and violent thunderstorms will have spent themselves and our riding day will be cool and dry. Our glass is half full rather than half empty when 49 riders appear. Promptly at 7 AM, John and I break the tape and lead the pack across the parking lot and over to Brown Street. A left turn and though the light at Highway 291, we make our way over to Mill Street out to H Highway. Then John and most everyone else passes me by. I may be the only one of us who rides today to stop at each of the 12 rest stops. The first one comes 10 miles out and is one of the four along the 100 mile route that has no toilets. East from Liberty we ride along scenic H Highway, past nice homes heavily damaged by the recent tornado. We pass Liberty Hills Country Club to Stillhouse Road, where a right turn at the water tower brings us over gentle hills to Highway 210. Laura Webb and Dianne Bollman give us snacks and water and encouraging words at our first rest stop where Stillhouse Road and Highway 210 intersect. Dave Rich is a Jewell alum, a dentist in Lexington and a regular MS-150 rider. I didn’t see him at the starting line, but just as I have turned off H onto Stillhouse Road, Dave pulls alongside. We exchange news of family and friends enroute to the first rest stop. Dave is a strong rider and does not stop. I don’t see him again all day. Charlie Hughes rides up as I stand talking to Laura and Dianne. Charlie was a student in the first class I ever taught at Jewell back in 1965. We have been friends ever since. And biking buddies for years. Charlie is Director of Social Services at Liberty Hospital and has arranged medical support for our ride. Our route turns left (east) and follows 210 along a flat ribbon of road through the Missouri River Valley. Recently built and with a wide paved shoulder, 210 brings us in 10 miles to Orrick, where later each year the annual Potato Festival is held. As we cross over Fishing River about a mile east of Orrick, the shoulder has been torn into jagged pieces of treacherous asphalt. The fertile fields that lie to either side of the road are easy on the eye, but the farm implements that coax crops from this river bottom land play havoc with new shoulders. Traffic is normally light on a Saturday morning; we leave the shoulder and take to the road. We come now to the two service station rest stops on the left-hand side of the road. Snappy Amoco and Crossroad’s Conoco sit by side. They each have one uni-sex rest room and both have made them available to us. Our rest stop has been set up so riders have easy access to both. As we go into the stores to use their rest rooms and look around, we all say words of praise for their assistance. And they feel good about their offer to help. Helen Ford is here to manage our rest stop. Pam Mansel is a parish nurse from Orrick and is driving the southern area of our ride. When Pam stops at the Orrick rest stop and discovers we need bananas, she buys some. 13 Miles to RichmondThe wounded shoulder continues for a hundred yards or so past our rest stop. Then we turn right onto T, where we enter our 13-mile Brigadoon-Camelot traverse of rolling hills. Off to our right lie vast farms with intricate geometries scratched in the earth by giant machines, awaiting that near time when they will burst forth with crops for the world. Long trains crawl across these fields at too great a distance to be heard. Other trains pass to our right near enough for the engineer to return our wave with the sound of his whistle. Thus we come after eight miles to the intersection of T and H and rest stop number three, our second with no toilets. Laura and Dianne have come in their van from rest stop #1 and set up here. The next five miles into Richmond give us more hills and get us ready for our major rest stop on the courthouse square that the Richmond Chamber of Commerce and Richmond businesses have prepared for us. Some of us spot the small herd of buffalo in a corral off to our right a few miles before we come to Richmond. Near a bronze statue of Colonel Alexander Doniphan on the Ray County Courthouse lawn, we come to the first of our major rest stops. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, cookies, water and sports drink—all provided to us by the City of Richmond, thanks to the enthusiastic support of Jerry McCarter, Director of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce. Jerry takes our picture in front of the Doniphan statue. Any of us would be pleased to have said of us what his friends and admirers inscribed on his statue. “Colonel Alexander William Doniphan was of immense stature, noble appearance, brilliant parts, fearless, of great moral courage, sanguine, faithful, just, poetic in temperament, the champion of the down-trodden, eloquent beyond description and without doubt entitled to be classed among the greatest orators and lawyers that ever lived. On the roster of the great soldiers of the earth must always stand in a halo of glory the name of Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan of Missouri. 1808-1887.” Ray Gill is here to meet us. Ray is Christie White’s father, a longtime resident of Richmond and a former trustee of William Jewell College. Christie is a Jewell alum, and with her husband, Jerry, a member of Second Baptist Church, where over the years she has served as interim music director, as she is currently doing. Christie was the first person who told us about Jerry McCarter and how helpful he would be. Ardis Driskill, another Second Baptist member and former Richmond resident and teacher colleague of Jerry‘s, spoke enthusiastically about him. In the spring of every year on the campus of William Jewell College, students select the male student most likely to succeed and give him the title—Colonel Alexander Doniphan. I taught for 30 years at William Jewell. Alexander Doniphan was instrumental in the founding of William Jewell. So as we gather in Richmond today in sight of Colonel Doniphan’s statue, we bring full circle the intertwined lives of several people over many generations. Sponsors of our stop in Richmond include Jackson’s Hardware, Orschlen Farm and Home, Harold’s Super, Community Bank of Missouri, Bank of America, US Bank, Wolfe Jewelry and Pointers Jewelry. Ambassadors from the Chamber of Commerce who came to greet us included Joan Shank, Joan Lewis, Alice Jones and Gene Haun. 10 Miles to RayvilleOut Business 10 for a couple of miles we come to the main highway, where we make a right and come shortly to C Highway, where we make another right, just beside a convenience store that sits along 10 Highway. Just before I leave 10 Highway, Rob Larocco pulls up beside me in his pickup. Rob came recently as custodian at Second Baptist Church, and when he heard about our ride, he volunteered to help. He is driving SAG today. We yell greetings to one another. Then proceed at very different speeds. We meet several times along the way. C Highway brings us five miles later to the tiny town of Rayville (pop. 204). We watch for a small sign at ground level as we approach the post office on our right. The sign is on our left and announces: Bakery Open. An arrow points to the left. We turn left. A short block brings us to Rayville Baking Company. Only a few months old and operated by the Van Till family, recent emigrants from California, this place and these people need to be known. Cliff, the father, has said we can use their rest room. Jamie and Brian Van Till welcome us. Their mother, Debbie, comes to greet us. Their pastries and homemade sandwiches fuel us far our further journey. Helen’s truck is parked in front as I ride up. She has come with whatever riders might need. John’s bicycle is on the porch when I arrive. This modest little building in this tiny town is home to three businesses. Jeff Klute and Tom McConnell recently built the building to house Vision Data Systems, a computer repair business. When the Van Tills bought a Rayville farm, they wanted to grow vegetables, grains and nuts and further develop the line of specialty foods and pastries they had made and sold in California. The Rayville Baking Company opened in the front part of the Vision Data Systems building. The bakery ovens were not used at night, so Jeff and Tom launched Hallard Station Pizza, a gourmet carry-out pizza place. Jeff and Tom repair computers by day and make pizzas by night. The Van Till family farms 200 acres, raises free-range chickens, operates the bakery and travels to farmer’s markets for miles around to sell their goods.
John and I leave together. Up the street, we turn left at the first intersection and then right and right again, bringing us to Highway U. We turn left onto U. Past farms and fields and a few new homes we ride five miles to M. Just before we come to M, we pass on our left the farm home of Edgar Tate. We recognize his place by the big sign erected to encourage our ride. Most every Sunday, Edgar and his daughter, Betty, sit on the back row of Liberty’s Second Baptist Church, where Rich and I greet them. We turn right onto M. A hilly mile brings us to Vibbard (pop. 89). Past Vibbard about two miles we come to the intersection of OO and M. OO comes to M from our left and ends as it reaches M. At this very spot and high on a hill visible to us for half a mile or so as we approach on M, stands a flagpole with an American flag waving in the breeze. Beneath a tree beside the pole, we have a rest stop. Beverly and Gene Benedict gave us permission to stop here at the Benedict Farm. No rest room available. I didn’t have the heart to ask Beverly to let strangers into her house. I’m grateful that those of us who might need to stop can gather in her yard. She comes out to greet us and slips money into my hand as a donation to MS. We continue on M as it merges with C just past the Benedict farm. Under two miles brings us to the intersection with D. We turn left onto D for a flat three miles into Lawson. We spot the Lawson water tower at about 11 o’clock as we near town. We pass the high school on our right and the fire station on our left. We continue on D to Pennsylvania Avenue, where we turn left and come into the main business district. Catrick’s Restaurant is on our left, across from Lawson Bank. We have our lunch in Lawson. Furnished by Catrick’s Restaurant, one of my favorite places. It’s a delightful 50-mile round trip on my bike from my home in Liberty, and I come here many times during the year, often to eat with Marvin Wright, who helped in major ways to make possible my ride across America years ago. Owners, Catherine and Rick Holcomb, have prepared a sack lunch for us. We may eat our lunch inside the restaurant or across and just up the street at the Lawson Farmer’s Market. As John and I ride up, Kevin Gibson and Ron Witzker have just had their lunch and are ready to ride. We stand for a few minutes and talk. Kevin is Music Minister at First Baptist Church of North Kansas City and lives in Gladstone. Ron is a professor of music at William Jewell and lives in Liberty. John and I are joined shortly by Pete Gardner, one of our two motorcycle escorts and our official photographer. Then Mark comes. And Michael Long, our other motorcycle escort. We all relive the morning as we devour the lunch Rick has made for us. 15 Miles to Watkin’s MillFrom Catrick’s we continue up Pennsylvania to Moss, where we turn right. We pass Lawson Elementary School on our left and then cross the railroad tracks. We turn left at the first opportunity. We are now on Salem Road, a delightful and lightly traveled rolling farm road, taking us past eight miles of scenic pasturelands where horses and cows graze. Just before we would come to Excelsior Springs, we turn right onto Italian Way, bringing us up a steep hill and over a railroad track to the American-Italian Pasta Plant on our right. Just past the plant, we come to a traffic light at Highway 69. A left turn here brings us quickly to the next light and a right turn into the Excelsior Springs Hospital parking lot and the completion of our Metric Century. Darren Hennen, City Manager of Excelsior Springs, asked for the hospital to serve as our rest stop, and Sally Nance, Hospital Administrator, made it possible. For the forth time today, Helen is on hand with the assistance riders need. Some of our riders will complete their ride here and will be sagged back to Liberty. Tana Clement, Pastoral Administrator at Second Baptist Church, helped us secure the church van for our use today. Gary Smith is here with the church van and trailer. Gary has taken the safety course required to drive the van and is here to take those riding the Metric Century back to Liberty. Gary agreed without a moment’s hesitation when asked to help. He makes two round trips with victorious riders. A recently built bike trail leaves the hospital to our left. The sign Rich and I put up last night to mark the route is missing today. My heart sinks. If the missing sign causes riders to miss the turn on Tracy, they will be lost. Sixteen miles straight ahead lies Liberty and the bike shop where we started, but they will miss the last four rest stops, Watkins Mill State Park and the inviting town of Kearney. John and I follow the bike trail for about a mile to Tracy Street, where we turn right. We follow Tracy for just under a mile until it brings us to Old Quarry Road. A mile on this roller coaster brings us to Highway 92. We cross 92. And Old Quarry has become RA, leading us up and down for less than a mile to the entrance to Watkins Mill State Park. We enter the park to find our next rest stop, staffed today by Bobbie, my wife, Debbie, my daughter, and Laura, my grand daughter. Then through the park, beautiful on this last day of May. Off to our right winds a four-mile bike path around the lake. Though not part of our 100-mile route today, we want everyone to know it’s here. And it’s nice. Worth a return sometime. We follow the signs out of the park and exit the park on MM. We turn left. To the right the bridge is out and only local traffic is allowed. We follow MM over rolling hills to Old BB. We turn left onto BB. After a couple of miles BB intersects with Jesse James Farm Road.
We turn right onto Jesse James. We pass the James Farm on our right and Claybrook Historic Home (recently burned) on our left. Where Jesse James bends left, we continue straight ahead, bringing us in little over a mile into Kearney. We pass several intersections before we come to Washington Street, the major business route through downtown Kearney. John and I continue across Washington Street another block to the new shopping mall. This is Old Church Plaza and our rest stop. Mavis Groves is in charge at this rest stop. Charles Small, owner of the shopping center, is here to welcome us. We come out of Old Church Plaza on Highway 33 and turn right (north) We continue on 33 about a mile, under the highway bridge, past the Catholic Church on our right and the Assembly of God Church on our left to the first road where we can turn left. Past newly plowed field on our right and some new houses to either side. Up and down a few moderate hills, we see looming in the near distance what looks like a space ship landing. This huge and low-lying water tower recently appeared here and sits just beside the road. We do not pass it today, as we turn left onto Nation Road, a hundred yards or so before we would have come to it. Nation road is almost flat after the first long assent. We see farmland about to become subdivisions as we come to Highway 92. We cross 92 and continue on Nation Road, passing Turning Leaves Nursery and then Curt Stalling’s farm, both on our right. Nation Road has a few gravel spots as it bends right and crosses a little creek. It changes names and takes a number as it climbs a few hills over to Highview Road, where we turn left and take a shortcut through the neighborhood before coming to Plattsburg Road. Here at the intersection is rest stop #11, where Phyllis and Carl Johnson greet riders and offer refreshment. Several motorists stop to ask what they are doing and wind up giving them money. My son-in-law, Ed Haskell, just this week bought a pickup. When Rich calls to ask him to SAG, he jumps at the chance and is assigned the route from rest stop #10 back to Liberty. He drives back and forth encouraging riders, doing so well that none require any assistance other than his supporting words.
John and I turn left onto Plattsburg Road, passing over a couple of creeks and climbing a hill to Timber Trails on our right. Then a roller coaster couple of miles, past Prairie Home Baptist Church on our left and a natural stone entrance to a country home on our right. Up a modest hill and under a highway bridge and around a bend, we come to the intersection of Plattsburg Road and Highway 69. When the light changes, we cross to the Blue Light Station and our final rest stop. A small natural stone building, Blue Light closed up about a year ago and has fallen into disrepair. The restrooms are locked. Dale and Julie Ahle staff rest stop #12 and offer water and snacks. Then we descend the hill behind Blue Light and turn left at the foot of the hill. Up a gentle hill, we pass pastureland to our right and the Hallmark Distribution Plant visible in the distance. To our left is the Ernest Shepherd Youth Center and then the backside of Heartland Meadows, Liberty’s well designed and flourishing industrial park. As we pass an intersecting road coming in from our left, the road becomes loose gravel for about 20 yards. Then paved. Then gravel again for a hundred yards, coming then to a poorly kept railroad crossing. Near the end of our hundred-mile day, our reflexes are not as quick and our patience is running out. Just over the railroad track we climb a steep hill. A couple of barking dogs live at the top. As the road levels out, we pass a cemetery on our left and we come to B Highway. No shoulder. Light traffic. We turn right onto B. Less than two miles and an exhilarating downhill just before B brings us back to H Highway, which we used hours ago to leave Liberty. Now we turn right onto H and come past a go cart track and a construction company on our right, now both in ruins since the tornado. We pass under a railroad bridge and then come to a road just past the bridge going to the right. We turn right. This is Spring Street, though we won’t know it until we come up the street and around a bend to the left and see the sign. Several houses along this street were blown away in the tornado just 27 days ago. Others suffered severely. Devastation is everywhere. Spring Street intersects Doniphan (Remember that name?) We turn right onto Doniphan and climb a short hill to the first cross street. We turn left here onto Bowles Drive, named for the legendary coach at William Jewell College. We come up the hill onto Jewell’s campus. The backside of the Mabee Center (college gym) is on our left. The recently installed ropes course and climbing tower is to our right. As we top the hill we see Jewell’s football stadium and track. Across from the entrance to the stadium we see a sign pointing up a steep hill and announcing Main Campus. John and I are together as we approach the hill. Then at the top, we wheel to the left just past Pillsbury Music Building and ride up onto the quad, the football field sized open space around which our campus lives. Once around the quad on our bikes. For 30 years I walked this quad. Good memories abound here. A victory lap around the quad brings a fitting close the Greater Liberty Bike Ride. The tornado took out the clock tower and the roof off our student union, but repairs are progressing. The quad will soon be its old self. Then off the quad the way we entered, John and I turn left and pass behind Gano Chapel. As we descend the hill, the president’s home sits to our right. As we pass the president’s home, we come to a stop sign. Here we turn left onto Jewell Street. One block brings us to Franklin. We look to the left and see Jewell Hall, built in 1849 as the first building on campus. We turn right onto Franklin, bringing us past Second Baptist Church on our left (my church). Another block and we are on the Liberty square. I have made it a practice for years to ride once around our town square every time I am out and about on my bike. I do it to check out our town. To be assured that all is well with us. I do it also so people will see me. In all kinds of weather at every time of year, I somehow think if they see me they will be comforted. Small town life can offer those little regularities that hardly ever register on our conscious minds but which at some basic level seem to give life that regularity and dependability we all need. So once around the square today John and I ride. Then back by the way we came this morning from Biscari Brothers, we return, ending a signature day in my life made possible by the good folks with whom I share time and place. Though I love to write as much as I love to ride, I could never find the words to fully express my love for these people and this place I see and hear each day. John and I turn right off Brown Street into the parking lot and ride together the final hundred yards back to the tent where we started this morning at 7. It’s near 6 o’clock. We are the last to come in. a festive crowd is gathered. Dave has the hotdogs and hamburgers ready. We have a good time reliving the day and taking pictures. I have ridden near last all the day. Meandering and wandering come naturally to me. So I have not seen most of our riders since they passed me coming out of Liberty this morning. I am grateful beyond words to each and every one of them. I will send each of them a copy of this story. I hope their day was as glorious as mine. We did not do everything as perfectly as I had hoped. Some riders missed lunch because I failed to mark it clearly. I apologize. If those who made this ride happen can muster the energy to try again next year, we will correct that mistake. And other little ones we now see. The weekend after Memorial Day next year may see the SECOND GREATER LIBERTY RIDE FOR MS AND HATEBUSTERS Planning a CenturyThe route for this year’s ride went through several versions. Rich, Mike and I rode portions of the route several times and made many changes. We abandoned the idea of riding Highway D from Highway 13 near Polo over to Lawson after we all gave up on the unending set of rugged hills that exhausted us. This early in the year, these hills would win us no friends and entice no one back for an encore ride. Our plan to ride MM from Lawson to Watkins Mill State Park had to be scuttled when the Highway Department took out the bridge and began its replacement. Of the three of us, I am the only one who rode the entire 100 miles today. Rich drove his dad’s pickup and pulled the trailer from Liberty Manor Baptist Church. Early this morning he finished marking the route. He and I worked yesterday from 2:30 until 9:30 last night and did not finish. All day today he drove the route, picking up riders and their bikes, giving them a rest, and putting them back on the road. Rich would like to have ridden. But he is in charge and not willing to assign his duties to someone else. Michael was late in leaving this morning, held up by administrative matters that other riders require and that only he could handle. Michael is a strong rider. But he rode sweep today, hanging back to encourage others and help them make it further than they thought they could go. Michael came a little late to the Metric Century stop and rode Highway 69 directly back to Liberty. He helped Dave and Bob and Alex, the third Biscari brother, welcome and feed and entertain returning riders for the rest of the day. We live all experiences three times. First in anticipation, second in doing it, and third in memory. This day has now entered stage three, where it will serve us all well for years to come. And two riders not here today will be part of my memory of this day. Graham Houston is a HateBusters supporter and an avid cyclist, raising big bucks by his riding for Habitat for Humanity. He signed up to ride today, but his daughter was running in the state track meet. Ken McFarland rode with me from Orlando to Atlanta the year I rode across the country. I had hoped he could ride with me today. Rich, Michael and I want to thank our wives, Mavis, Eileen and Bobbie. We were gone from home many hours in planning all that took place today. They were good sports. To all those who rode, all those who helped and all those who contributed to our fund raising, we offer our profound thanks. Our lives have been forever intertwined and lifted up. In the words of Tiny Tim from Dicken’s Christmas Carol, “God bless us everyone.” Download 0.51 Mb. Share with your friends:
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