Ride for Guides - 2015

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.

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.

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.