The sky was lead-gray and the
crisp chill of the mid-morning air worked its way under my helmet as I wove and
worked my way down the mountainside to reach a noble destination… Okay, so I
live in a hillside community of Southern California and it was overcast and
fifty-five degrees when I left the house to go on a charity ride. The weight of
this new handle is mak’n me stretch.
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| Bev, Bike, and Guide Dog, a collection of nobility (photo courtesy of Tim Robertson) |
I had been looking forward
to this ride for weeks and riding down the hill on a cool day with excellent
weather prospects heightened my anticipation of a new experience. I’ve only
been on one other charity ride, a simple affair where we paid our entry fee,
gathered, and road to a destination for lunch. The “Ride for Guides 2015” was
on another level as I hope to show you here.
I arrived at the meet-point
for our small group of Victory riders a little early to find Shawn Fausto
airing up the tires of his Cross Country. He greeted me while I was topping off
my tank and told me to join Danielle and him in McDonald’s for coffee while we waited
for the others. We watched as they rode in and fueled up; Ken on his white VCC,
Jed and Tim on their Visions, and Bev on her Vegas. Our Victory group was
joined by three new friends who met up with Bev on a weekend ride to Morro Bay
to celebrate International Women Riders’ Day; Lorrie and Kathy on their classy
Harleys and Dottie on a very cool Goldwing Trike.
We jumped up to the Route
66 Classic Grill in Canyon Country to register for the poker run, my first, and
buy raffle tickets for silent auction items and get our pins and bandanas. We
found bikes of every description, make, and model. 511 riders had registered on
over 380 bikes making this the biggest ride event that I’ve been involved with.
Bikes were all over the place scooting here and there and we were encouraged to
head off in small groups so as not to overload the route. A few out-of-the-box
thinkers went the reverse direction which led to us seeing each other going the
other way.
The route took us through
Bouquet Canyon with a midpoint stop at Big Oaks Lodge for live music and guide
dog puppy petting and our second card draw. I had a straight going, a weak hand
to pit against 500 others - oh well. Ken Mann would later win the $50 third-place prize with four Aces and a Nine, beat out by 5 6's. The next stop was Vincent Hill Station for
a third card that only kept me in the hunt for the straight. We lost our new
friends leaving this location and I felt responsible since they were behind me
at that point. I’ll need to improve my skills at keep tabs on the group if I
hope to be a decent sweeper. It turned out okay as we all ended up at the lunch
table together to hear the tribute delivered by an amazing young lady, more on
that in a bit.
Jed led us on an alternate
route to the fourth stop at Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar. We went through
the Angeles National Forest and down into Sunland, only a few hundred yards
from the first house my wife and I had. We had picked up three other riders who
started following us on the alternate route, however they were unable to keep
up with us but with me in the sweep position it shouldn’t have been too
difficult to stay with us. The Goldwing rider was the last to lose us who later
said we were flying, I didn’t feel it was the case but then we ride Victories.
We had a stark reminder
that vigilance was especially critical with so many riders on the road and not
knowing the patterns or capabilities of the others. Shortly before coming out
of Bouquet Canyon we came upon a rider who had gone off the roadway, presumably
across the oncoming lane into the rock and dirt shoulder. The rider was up but
appeared shaken with friends working to get his bike upright, it was a mess
with the handlebars bent down, the headlight smashed leaving the glass on the tarmac,
and what looked to me to be bent forks. I was amazed that he was standing and
the sight sobered us up as we speculated as to how he came to be in the
condition we found him. We need to remember to amp it down a notch with
such a collection of riders out on a notable cause.
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| Pin and Bandanna |
Back at the Route 66
Classic Grill for lunch, the awarding of prizes, and some good music we were
first treated by our host for the festivities delivering a heartfelt thanks to
us. Lorri Bernson stood at the microphone as a reminder that sight impaired
folks are pretty normal. To look at her I would not have said she was blind; no
dark glasses, no red-tipped white cane, and delivering the speech while
scanning the crowd. She gave a profound thanks, telling us that her guide dog
Carter allows her to know that she is safe and to act with confidence in that
fact. The impact of what she told us was visceral to me and made me thankful
that by riding that day I had played a small part in the next person living a
more confident life with their four-legged caretaker.
Lorrie gave us the numbers
for the day as mentioned above and numbers to go along with her own story of
the great changes a guide dog makes in the life of the blind. It takes
approximately $42K to put a guide dog team together, human and dog. There is no
government funding, Guide Dogs of American rely strictly on donations from
companies, organizations, and private individuals, and events like our poker
run. If you are looking for something worthwhile for giving, keep them in mind.
Y’all keep the iron side up and give; giving till it hurts isn’t a
bad thing.
