Monday, July 7, 2003

Memphis, Tennessee

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See John (the person on the left)? John did the cross-country ride last year with Joe. Poor John. So he brought his son Lane to us this year to get the 14 year old broken in correctly. Lane is shown below, at right, next to Glenn Crumpton, who is our other guest rider this week. When it rains, it pours.

Glenn is also a prosthetist from Montgomery, AL, and practices with Keith, our honored Goat Boy from our Colorado Days. We are glad he's here with us and have already been pestering him for slight adjustments. Ok, actually, Joe and Jim have been pleading for new sockets, and so far Glenn has taken our shenanigans in stride.

We are very lucky to have both of these fine folk with us this week. Their presence helped energize the boys today, who put in 50 miles on the bikes each in our ride from Little Rock to West Memphis.

Joe and Trish weren't so lucky. They both got to have flats and/or tires replaced today while we enjoyed a perfect Arkansas summer day, riding and laughing, dreaming of root beer floats, ice cold beer, and Memphis barbecue and the Blues.

One of the hallmarks of the day was a stop in Lonoke at the home of Hal Steelman, the winner of the Ohio Willow Wood Attitude poster contest. Hal is a genuine inspiration. A bilateral BK amputee for the past six years, Hal teaches 5 high school classes each day and coaches football as well as girls track. We were inspired by our time with him, as he is full of "attitude" (sorry, Hal, but it's a web page and kids will certainly read it, grin).

On the way to Hal's, we met another amputee, Troy, who could not make it to our visitation at HealthSouth yesterday. He's been an amputee for two years and you wouldn't believe how fast he can get up and down from the ground with crutches and only one leg.

A nail in the back tire of the van had been causing problems, but was fixed today. Joe was not so lucky and had to replace both tires on his almost new trailer. Hmmm... Could it be from his remarkable determination to pull off U turns, even when the curbs of the streets seem to indicate it cannot be done?

Tomorrow we visit HealthSouth in Memphis. Tonight, we are hittin' Beale Street for some local entertainment and field research into the birthplace of the Blues.

Katie, just sending some love back to the fine people of Colorado Springs from the banks of the big muddy. Be good and let the good times roll!

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