MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA
It was a comfortable 60 degrees and getting warmer. A great day to ride. No warmers would be necessary today. I dedicated my ride to my friend Elaine B.
I was in Group One with Meg Shipman, Jae Slye, Paul Lemle, and Chris Zahlis. Except for Chris, all were cancer survivors, but Chris knows the pain that cancer can cause, having lost his 10-year-old son, Dominic, to cancer five years ago. Unthinkable pain for a parent.
Arriving in Durham, we parked one mile away so we could give the appearance that we had biked in from somewhere. We did. Dunkin’ Donuts. We rode in from Dunkin’ Donuts. With this organization, it was all about the optics.
We visited the Duke Cancer Center. But this organization was not about giving hope to patients. This ride was loosely “modeled” after the Spokes of Hope ride from Indianapolis to Washington DC/Baltimore in 2012, but was more about relationships.1 With hospitals.
We were given a tour of the facility. We saw a relaxation room. And a store of wigs for chemo patients. Met hospital administrators. Yippee. But finally, at the end, Duke arranged for us to meet some patients, and the organization warned us not to take any pictures due to HIPAA. Of course, the law applies to medical providers releasing patient information, not a bunch of cyclists. We called B.S.
The day at Duke spoiled a day of riding. Not that we didn’t have an enjoyable ride. We did. We just weren’t able to complete our 50 miles, which we were supposed to do.
On a gorgeous day, our other groups rode by the U.S.S. North Carolina and took a ferry across the sound. Those were routes I would have preferred, but I knew, if done right, our real mission was to bring hope to patients. Today I got to do that, if only briefly.
Although disappointed that I could not ride more today, I was honored and humbled to have spent part of my day off the bike visiting patients at the Duke Medical Center. I can ride anytime. This was a special day.
We finally were “wheels down” at 1:10 p.m. Once we finally started riding, we twice discovered the cue sheets weren’t that good. They were a fustercluck. The planning of this organization was a complete failure. Sometimes the cues told us to go left when it should have been right.
When we reached Angler, we turned left (north) to follow the cue. We went 1.5 miles before I implored the group to turn around. Five miles farther south, we came to an intersection. Cue sheet, right. Barry left.
This was my moment, drawing a line in the sand. We were headed mostly south, but a little east or southeast. My group challenged me, but I told them to look at the sun. Key West was east and south. Myrtle Beach was south and east. The cue sheet said to go west. That did not make sense. I pedaled east all alone, determined to ride on my own to Myrtle Beach if I had to. My teammates started into the sun, but eventually they turned around and followed me. I had been soft pedaling, figuring they would know that I was right. We sort of blew up the cue sheets after that.
We came to Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C. It was 4:40 p.m. Although we had only traveled 35 miles, we agreed to pull the plug and hightail it to Myrtle Beach, which was still 2 and a half hours away.
The group activity and dinner were at a firehouse in Myrtle Beach, which we missed because we spent so much time at Duke and following bad cues. Three days in a row late for dinner. Once we arrived at our hotel, last, we went to Outback Steakhouse. And ate well.
And at night in the hotel lobby, as I was doing referee assigning, I was up so late that the night manager opened the restaurant for me to get some breakfast.
Photo Credits: Matt Brown (for all but I claim credit for the bike on top of the van photo)
Each day was to average 200 miles, and each of the four groups should ride 50 of those and be driven 150 miles. Today’s ride was from Raleigh to North Myrtle Beach. By car, that should be around 170 miles.
MILEAGE: 35 miles
SPEED: 14.1 mph
- The ride director told us that one day he had this idea that they should have a ride that, in addition to biking, would visit hospitals. However, this was not his original idea. In 2012, the Spokes of Hope Group did this and invited this organization to ride with them when they were in Baltimore. See “Determined,” by Cindi Hart. ↩︎
Recent Comments