BACK STORY

For years I had been salivating at the chance to pull off a sea to shining sea bicycle tour.  I had come close in 2010 with a solo and unsupported 2,000 mile tour from Missoula to San Angelo, Texas,  But the big tour would span oceans.  What a way to celebrate my boomer generation age--by pedaling from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  I began in earnest the search to find another half-crazed cyclo-enthusiast to travel with.  Lots of hmmmmmms, I'llthinkaboutit,  and letmegetbacktoyou reactions to my invitation.  Then one day a different response came:  Hey, Rick you wanna cancel all your summer plans, jump on a bike, and pedal from the Pacific to the Atlantic with me?   Silence.  Then an unqualified, let's do it!  

So began Tom and Rick's big adventure.  That adventure has included crossing the Columbia, Missouri, Mississippi, and St. Croix rivers, going around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, through two Canadian provinces and twelve US states, gracefully answering the questions of a thousand on-lookers (doesn't that sit-down bike hurt your back . . . HOW many miles have you gone? . . . isn't it hard going up hills? . . . you're crazy), sleeping on pews, in choir lofts, around altars, and in church youth rooms, dodging roadkill without becoming roadkill, stopping at a hundred McDonald's, Tim Hortons, or cockroach diners, and generally, taking in some of the most breathtaking sights immaginable.

Through all of this Rick has been a true blue friend, pedaling colleague, subtle  humorist, ribald humorist, and salty humorist.  His lyrical poetry (on par with, I'm a poet and don't know it)  and warm southern charm has made this trip enjoyable beyond expectations.  Rick has spoken hope into desperate lives, prayed for others, and listened with the ears of a parent.

The tour is done.  We go our own ways and each of us try to segue back into the old normal, yet with the deep soulful truth that we have been stretched and changed, we have beheld and heard and we will never be completely the same again.

So thanks, Rick, friend, for a great team effort.