Dear family and friends – all those who have supported me in the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes this year and in the past:
Another Death Valley ride is in the books. Four of us from Indiana ventured west for an awesome weekend in the desert, riding our bikes to raise money for a great cause — to find a cure for diabetes and turn Type 1 into Type None. We joined more than 300 other riders and collectively raised almost $1.5M. Read on for a short recap of the weekend...
On Thursday we arrived in Las Vegas and from there took a two-hour bus ride into Death Valley.
After the mandatory safety meeting on Friday morning, we rented a Jeep and ventured to some of the more remote areas of the park. Along the way we saw some cactus, tea kettles, self-moving rocks, a house made of beer bottles, and a few ghosts (maybe they moved the rocks?)
Saturday was ride day and found us ready to go before dawn.
The morning started cool, with the sunrise inspiring awe as it slowly revealed the glorious beauty of the stark desert mountains around us.
The weather was spectacular - hot and dry with high temps in the 90s. We all made the summit at the 51-mile turnaround.
With the heat of the day and a pretty steady headwind, the second half of the ride was much tougher than the first. We each fought our personal battle to cross the finish line in our own time - safe, sound, smiling and under our own power - the goal of every JDRF rider.
Thank you, as always, for sharing in my ride. This was my 8th ride in Death Valley and 12th overall JDRF ride and each is an emotional event. I truly appreciate your generous support of JDRF over all these years. I may have been the one pedaling over the miles, but I carried your thoughts, prayers and support with me on each mile, and I would not have made it without you. Thank you!
Please visit my ride site to see how I did on my fundraising and for links to the stories of my past rides.
