What Tail Winds Do to Rider's Egos…

Ride Against Hunger
Renfrew to Kemptville, Ontario

What Tail Winds Do to Rider's Egos…

Tonight we are in a campground about five miles outside of Kemptville, Ontario. I’m calling it a campground, but it seems more like a town. There are lots of “permanent campers” who live here, with children, etc. Not long after we arrived the kids came around with their bikes to see if we had any oil for their chains. (We did.) So we are not seeing a lot of other motor homes; rather, long time residents who treat us a little like “strangers in town.”

I wanted to comment briefly on our ride today. At first it was a lot of hills, up and down short but steep inclines. But then we turned just the direction that the wind was blowing and it just kept growing in velocity. At one point I looked down at my odometer, was not pedaling very hard, but was going almost 27 miles per hour.
We finished 87 miles before 2 p.m. and had gone 70 by lunchtime. That’s just plain fast for two old guys.

And you know what happens? We start feeling like we have legs of steel. I’ll speak for myself here, but I start feeling like I have something to do with how fast I’m going. There was even (frivolous) talk of who would take Lance’s spot on the Radio Shack Team, and Joe said that the new sponsor would have to be Metamucil or Geratol (for those of you old enough to remember that product). I said the peloton would have to stop every ten miles for me to relieve myself. But the point is, we start feeling really good about ourselves and how we are doing, etc.

We then turned and had a cross wind for the last 20 miles or so, and all the sudden the big talkers went quiet. I started feeling the fatigue creep in to my legs and I had to gear way down to hold the bike in place against the heavy “breeze”. What became obvious to us as we rode is that the wind was what gave us such an easy day…not our “legs of steel.”

And so it is with many of us in life. We are born with the wind to our backs…with parents who care and plan for our education and/or training for careers. They attend our ball games and give us “roots and wings”, as they say. And we don’t even realize that we have it “easy”.

That is clearly not the case for so many in our society/world. Millions of people are born into poverty and deprivation, do not have parents at all, or do not have families that provide a vision and support to achieve the goals attached to that vision. They do not develop the “I’ve got legs of steel” mindset. In fact they may decide that they are weak and that something is wrong with them.

So these wonderful people some of whom come to our doors week after week and month after month to get a small basket of food need much more than a little food. They need a vision. They need lots of support and love. They need opportunity to grow and learn. They need jobs, medical care, and good, nutritious food. They need hope that things can be different for them.

You and I can help our neighbors achieve these goals by making a contribution to Catholic Charities or the South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership. Please do it!!!

Five more days left to ride. Tomorrow is another 80-mile day…and if it is ok with you, we will pray for the winds to be at our backs for a