Sunday June 29, 2003

Stillwater, Oklahoma

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Today's ride was dedicated to the Tracer (Florida) organization of Ohio Willow Wood, which produces totally cool systems for scanning and digitizing images of residual limbs (stumps to the rest of us). Here's the crew: Lilia Espinosa Carl Kugler, Greg Pratt, Lucy Pratt, Ken Rowland, Marcelo Sandrini, Gary Spivack, Alfred Sudasassi, Rick Sudasassi, and Philip Van Vliet.

See Bruce's happy smile? That is because he is wearing a new aluminum foil covered riding helmet, which everyone knows is very effective at interrupting mind-control waves generated from Evil Arconian towers we encounter along our route.

"Finally, my ambiguity is well earned instead of being forced," Bruce exclaimed.

Our singular mission today was to leave Wichita and arrive safely at Stillwater, OK. We were fortunate to have early morning thunderstorms move out of our route so that for most of the journey we had high-level clouds and no rain. That was especially good because we were all distracted today, for Cheryl is leaving us tomorrow to begin teaching summer school.

More on that later...

Yo, Eric, thanks for the voicemail, buddy. Guns Up Raiders!!!!

Bruce's bike is so old that it doubles as weight-lifting equipment. Here Bruce concludes his third set of curls before beginning our ride this morning.

See Cheryl getting ready to ride? She will also ride with us tomorrow on our way into Oklahoma City, but she then flies home later in the day.

In advance of her departure, Cheryl's new bike pines pitifully for her master. It was touching to all to see how well Cheryl and her bike have bonded. But that's no surprise, as she has had an impact on all of us.

"Oh, man! I never knew that an armadillo could disassemble into that many pieces..."

Here, Cheryl, Bruce, and Mark conduct their daily chants in order to protect Mark's bike against breakdown during the day's ride.

Jim ponders the emptiness of the Oklahoma prairie. The empty spaces out here really warps the guy's mind. But he was cackling all day about the continuing drop in altitude and rising heat and humidity.

Trish smiles for the camera because the boys were good today and respected the white line, staying for the most part off the heavily traveled part of the roadway. If the boy's hadn't been good, Trish would NOT be smiling like this. She is scary when we have been bad. Not that it stops us, mind you.

If Kansas had wheat, cows, and corn, Oklahoma has oil and refineries, which are only slightly better smelling than feed lots. Of course, feed lots are not known to spontaneously explode either. You take the good with the bad.

The boys and Cheryl pose with Janna Childs at a trading post along our journey today. She was very nice to us when six people exploded into her store begging for the rest room. Thanks, Janna, for the donation.

This is the emptiness that tends to warp Jim's mind. In fact, it is a lot like Joe's mind, now that we think of it -- lots of potential, mostly beautiful, but really, really empty.

What, you looking at us? Jim and Bruce glare in response to Joe's whining about the truck cab being too cold. Man, it was hot on those bikes today.

Our suspicions regarding the eastern migration of Evil Arconians was confirmed today when we sighted the mind-control station at left. Bruce was mostly fine, though some small radiation pierced his protective foil head gear, causing slight whimpering. Or maybe he is already missing Cheryl. Hey, it could happen. They are pretty tight, you know. None of us know why that would be, mind you. But they are indisputably a couple.

Tomorrow we bid formal farewell to Cheryl. But we begin the process of saying goodbye now...

What can you say to someone who in four short weeks has completely become part of you? Her departure is another form of amputation, something the boys are all too familiar with. She embraced our mission, kept us laughing, and protected us from harm. And tomorrow she leaves us. In a little over a month, this phase of our personal journeys will also end, and the parting will be hard. And tomorrow it starts. There is no way to say goodbye to someone who has mattered so profoundly. So, Cheryl, get back to Missouri. Teach your classes. And then come back to spend a bit of time with us later. And to reward your determination, we'll get together to throw you out of an airplane.

All we will ever be able to do, Cheryl, with all you have given us, is to pay it forward, and the world -- and each of us -- is better for the time you shared with us on our journeys. Keep riding, keep the rubber side down, and never forget -- nor doubt -- how tremendously grateful we are for you.

Tomorrow we arrive in Oklahoma City, having dedicated the day's ride to Cheryl.

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