Donald Miller and the Ride:Well Team Bike America

We are already halfway through week five but are just now able to access the internet, so the Week Four Update is running a bit late. But it was an eventful week crossing Texas. After a great community ride and concert/event in Dallas, we rode north to Tyler, Texas, and were greeted with members of the local cyclists club who rode us into town. And once we arrive in town, we were given police escorts to the local school where they had set up aerobeds (luxury) in the gym and brought us gift bags filled with goodies and t-shirts and hats. All the local newspapers and television channels showed for interviews and Sara Groves flew in to perform at that evenings benefit concert. More than 3000 people showed at the event, and Sara commented later that it was one of the most meaningful nights in her ten-year career as an artist. It was meaningful for us, too. We’d spent plenty of time in small towns and sometimes felt that very few people actually knew we were out there. But once in Texas, all that changed. And especially once we arrived in Tyler. The community poured into us and into BloodWater in a way we had yet to experience. Once the event was over, the city of Tyler had raised more than 86,000 dollars that will translate into thousands upon thousands of people in Africa having access to clean water next year. Thank you Tyler for loving people you have yet to meet, and for believing that a town can pull together and make a difference. It was a powerful night for the Ride:Well team, and we rode with new enthusiasm for the next several days.

Once through Tyler, we stitched together small towns on our maps as we crossed through east Texas and into Louisiana. We enjoyed the bottom land of Louisiana, the trees  growing out of the water, and the water, everywhere water. Even in northern Louisiana with it’s hills, there is an abundance of water. And with water there is catfish and crawdads and shrimp. And we ate our share. Once we completed Wednesday’s ride, we shuttled into Shreveport for dinner at Shane’s, a local favorite restaurant, then we visited Matt’s dad in the hospital there. Scott, Matt’s dad was very glad to see us and was in good spirits. And the next day we were surprised at a water break to have Matt himself ride up on his bike to rejoin the tour. Apparently, after meeting us, his father kicked him out and told him to get back on his bike. So welcome back, Matthew.

We were not long in Louisiana. Only a hundred miles or so had us in Arkansas. It was remarkable to me how the hills of East Texas gave so quickly to the bottom land of Louisiana and then just as quickly into the rich forests and rolling hills of Arkansas. It was as though our founding fathers divided the land by it’s topography.

We had a long ride on the 4th of July and so celebrated the holiday with a trip to Sonic and then partook in our share of fireworks in the small town of Camden, Arkansas. Locals gather outside the fence at the small airport on the edge of town and watch what must be fifty-percent of the towns budget go up in smoke in flaming flowers and sidewinders. It was a great night.

The next day, on Saturday, we rode further north to Little Rock where a local church put us up for the weekend. Second Baptist church put us up in a small retreat center they had been given on the edge of town. The team quickly made themselves at home, pulling mattresses out of the bunkhouses, spreading them across the lodge floor where we put on a movie and fell asleep to “Cool Runnings.” Another good night.

We are now 2000 miles into our trek. The roads have been a bit more flat, and though we rode more than 100 miles yesterday, most of our days have been shorter in miles. We’ve a long week this week, but I think we are all feeling pretty good. We needed the shorter days and our legs are catching up with us. Our pace has increased from about 14 miles per hour to about 18 miles per hour. I have a feeling if we could just rest our legs for a week, we’d all be riding at about 30 mph. Nevertheless, we are getting quicker and fitter by the day.

For those wanting to know what a day in the life on the Ride:Well Tour is like, I’ll share a brief breakdown. Essentially, nearly every day is exactly the same. We are awoken every morning at around 5:30. It takes a while for all of us to get out of bed, but once we are up, things move quickly. We pack our gear and get it out to the trailer, eat breakfast (usually fairly quiet a we are still waking up) do maintenance on our bikes, changing tires and such, then have a quick team meeting in which one person is toasted (we raise a glass to somebody who deserves recognition) then Mike Barrow reads a brief devotion. We pray, go over our route for the day, then small groups of riders begin to leave for the days journey.

About twenty miles into the route, the van awaits us for a water stop. It takes about that long for breakfast (normally fairly large, lots of fruit, pop tarts, oatmeal and anything else we can eat) to wear off and for our legs to start feeling shaky. We eat a bit, drink as much as we can, always searching for powdered electrolytes or gatorade) then get back on our bikes to try to get another fifteen or twenty. Depending on wind, road conditions and whether or not we are riding in the hills, breaks can be two hours apart of a mere hour apart. Regardless, seeing the van is always a glad experience. We figure we are burning nearly 10,000 calories each day. That’s about five times the normal number of calories. You’d think we’d all be getting skinny, but the truth is if you don’t eat, you can’t ride. The body burns what is in the stomach and if you’ve not eaten, you bonk. And bonking is a terrible experience.

It feels as though you suddenly have the flu. It’s very difficult to ride when you are bonked, so on the ride you are constantly shoving food in your mouth. I’ve lost around twenty pounds on the ride, but I expected to lose more. But I never realized how much you had to eat to keep going. At the same time, though, food is no longer a pleasurable experience. Early on, when we were very tired and the terrain was more difficult, it was hard to eat anything. We had to shove food into our mouths because the last thing you want to do is eat. These days it’s a bit easier, because our bodies are adjusting, but food, for me at least, is no longer thought of as food. It’s thought of as energy. I have figured out what exactly I need to eat depending on headwinds and hills. On a day when we have a tailwind, I’ll eat about half of what I normally would. I will eat fruit, which breaks down more slowly. But if we are dealing with headwinds or hills, I have to eat more sugary foods, granola bars and so forth. And if we are 95 miles in and have 15 more impossible miles, a Snickers bar is about the only thing that can get you in. It’s amazing I’ve lost any weight at all, to be honest.

We tend to get in about five or six, on a good day, and when we arrive we unpack the trailer, shower, and eat dinner. Many times we are given dinner by our hosts, but sometimes we have to cook. After dinner, everybody is ready for bed. If we are getting to bed later than ten, we are running late and know we will pay for it in the morning. So we are normally asleep by 11. Early on we were averaging about 5 hours of sleep, but these days we are getting 6 or more hours.

So that’s life on the Ride:Well tour. We eat, sleep, and ride our bikes. And we’ve been doing it for a month. Everything really revolves around the eight to ten hours a day we spend pedaling. It’s hard to even think about the terrain we are riding through or what is going to take place the next day or the next week. All we know about is the next ten miles. We live on a twenty-four hour schedule, and we spread our message from gas-station attendant to gas-station attendant.

Okay, I lost a ton of pictures, but here’s what I’ve got from Week Four. Thanks again for coming with us on this journey!!