LSCOL Day 7 - Salado to Austin
Trip Start
Oct 02, 2009
1
9
12
Trip End
Oct 11, 2009
Austin, Texas
Friday, October 9, 2009
As fore casted, it was raining when we got up this morning. We were supposed to be ready to ride our bikes out at 8:00 AM. Due the rain, we waited until about 9:15 AM to leave. It really didn't make any difference it was still raining at 9:15 AM but what's another day of riding in the rain. Hopefully today is the last time I will have to stuff wadded up newspaper in my riding shoes for a while anyway.
In an effort to keep warm and at least half way dry I suited up with a long sleeve shirt under my bike jersey, arm warmers, leg warmers, a headband, full finger gloves and of course a shower cap on my head - which believe it or not helped keep my head dry (sort of).
There was a real cowboy staying at our hotel. This morning he came down dressed in his cowboy gear including a great rain coat with a split up the back that looked like it would be great on a horse or a bicycle. We actually saw some real cowboys herding some cattle in the rain later in the morning. I wasn't sure who was the craziest, the cowboy's or us.
We had two day riders join us this morning, Dorothy Starr and Travis Kaspar, I'm not sure what they were thinking, but apparently they really didn't want to work today.
Actually since the temperature dropped (it was about 53 degrees) we had one more thing to complain about today, it was too wet, too cold and too windy. We did manage to ride 21 miles to a church, a few miles from Walburg, Texas, where we stopped and loaded the bikes for the umpteenth time. By the end of the day we had ridden 25 miles at an average about only about 13.5 mph.
After loading the bikes in the rain, they drove us to Walburg, Texas. It's hard to believe but I actually think that Walburg, Texas is even smaller than where I live in Wallburg, North Carolina. .
One of our day riders, Dorothy Starr, knew the proprietor of the local Walburg Restaurant who welcomed us with a nice dry place to have lunch.
The Walburg Restaurant had mostly German cuisine, tons of beer steins, beer signs and just about anything and everything beer, even a beer garden. Lunch was great - almost everyone had coffee, lots and lots of coffee, warm bread and butter and hot soup. It was such a treat to not be eating lunch out of the trunk of the pace car. Almost everyone fit around a round Texas size table for some Texas size portions. Bob and most of the support staff doubled as waiters and waitresses.
After our delicious lunch, it wasn't raining but it was cold and windy and we wouldn't have enough time to ride our bikes all the way to our event in Austin. They drove us to the Jack and Adam's Bike Shop in Austin where James Balentine works. James was our bike mechanic on Saturday and Sunday and has been the bike mechanic on all 12 LSCOL rides. We unloaded the bikes at the bike shop. Of course we all had to look around in the bike shop and many of us needed something. I needed a pair of Texas socks that I plan to wear tomorrow for the final event.
We got pinned while we were at the bike shop. Pinning is when we all help each other pin the card with the name of the honoree they are riding for that day on the back of their shirt. If the honoree is at the event the (sometimes soggy, sometimes sweaty) card is usually given to the honoree.
We rode our bikes a few miles from the bike shop to the Barton Creek Mall in Austin. Outside the mall entrance there was a group of people, mostly our honorees and their families, were applauding as we road in - that's always cool. We met and mingled with the honorees and then headed inside the mall. Local sponsors today had information available on donation of organs and tissue, and individuals could get information on or join Be The Match (the bone marrow registry).
Today the Local Sponsors included;
South Texas Blood & Tissue Center
The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas
TOSA - Texas Organ Sharing Alliance
Of course they had snack sandwiches, bottled water and Gatorade for us. After all it had been a couple hours since we had eaten lunch and we had ridden a few miles from the bike shop to the mall.
The diet starts Monday.
After the event I saw several people filling out applications to join the bone marrow registry. Hopefully our stories helped to increase the number of people who joined the bone marrow registry today.
Our honorees today included:
Brian Brasseaux an organ and tissue donor
Barb Woolley a lung transplant recipient who looked GREAT!
Heather Garza an organ and tissue donor
Ryan Ono a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donor
Joy Dister-Whipple a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donor - my honoree today
Ty Gipson a blood recipient and a kidney recipient who was celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary today. He received the kidney transplant ten years ago.
Colette Brown an ICU Nurse Manager and donation advocate
William Brandon Demery Vaughn a tissue donor
Wally Tallent a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Recipient
It can be very emotional when a parent (or family member) of an organ and/or tissue donor gets up and speaks about their loved one.
Of course we had to take team pictures in the mall. They found a neat Texas flag on the mall wall which made a great background. It is sometimes challenging to smile and smile and smile for about a dozen cameras taking two or three shots each - flash, flash, flash.
After some more mingling we headed to the van to load up again. Fortunately, Paul, Bill and Debra had loaded up the bikes already - they are the greatest. Chris, Holly and Debbie are the greatest too! They have all taken such GREAT care of us and we couldn't have done it without them.
We rode around the parking lot a couple times looking for the pace car. They wanted to take a picture of the team with the Austin skyline in the background. Once again we all got out of the van lined up for pictures with half a dozen cameras this time. Then we all got back in the van again - it takes a while to do that. Hopefully we haven't totally trashed the van that was so graciously loaned to the LSCOL tour by a church. Nothing like loading twelve wet riders in a van - they did buy towels and showers curtains to place over the seats to at least try to protect them.
We got to the hotel at about 6:00 PM. We had to unload the bikes and luggage. Tonight supper was in the hotel breakfast area at 7:30 PM - pizza (lots of pizza).
We had our final Team Meeting in Debbie and Holly's room. They had some fun surprise gifts for everyone. Then we each had an opportunity to comment on things they liked, didn't like or whatever about the ride. Next was the tee shirt signing. Everyone was given a tee shirt that was placed on their shoulders and everyone wrote a note and signed everyone's shirt.
The team has been wonderful; the support team has been fantastic. The entire trip, even with the rain, the hills, the wind, the heat, the cold, has been so great. Not only telling Andy's story but hearing the stories of others, re-energizes my passion to continue to RAISE AWARENESS of the need for ALL types of donations. I know that Andy would want me to do this and I know that God has opened the doors for me. I hope that it is in God's plan for me to continue to raise awareness, sponsor blood drives and bone marrow drives, donate blood and platelets.
I know that tomorrow it will be sad to say good bye to everyone but I have made some new friends in Texas and maybe I can work on my Texas talk and come back again some time.
