Rolla to St. Louis

I crossed over to the dark side today.  Given the opportunity to ride a bike after 4 days of driving THE RIDE was an easy choice.  Felt a little guilty, but who would pass up the opportunity to ride with these guys for such a great cause. 

The view from a bicycle seat always brings a new perspective of the world around me.  The bugs were much louder, the speed felt faster and the cars felt closer.  In fact, a two car traffic accident happened right in front of us in the first mile of the bicycle trip(no injuries), and Matt, the driver of the camera truck, pulled off an evasive manuever that Mario Andretti would be proud of and avoided a secondary collision.  Reinforced my liking for mountain biking (No Cars).

So many great things happened during this week, but riding with these guys was one of the highlights of this trip.  The Joplin visit, in my Mom's old stomping grounds, and the generosity of the Joplin Fire Department after the tornado, ranked right up there also. 

I took footage of the riders going thru the devasatation in Joplin and hesitated putting it up here.  To me it is important to see because the people of Joplin are still going through hell, but for all intents and purposes, we and the media have forgotten about them.  It is your choice, here is the footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMfJQsEfM4g


Driving THE RIDE this week was one of my all time best "working/vacations".  Lots of camaraderie.  My belief in the fire service and the brotherhood was reinforced all week long.  Thanks to all who helped us out thru the states of Oklahoma and Missouri.  Rob Scott takes over on Sunday and I know that the guys are in good hands.  I get to join him in Pittsburgh in a couple of weeks and finish out the trip to NYC!