Grand Tour 1999
What I Did This Summer
Hi! I'm Amy's dad. My name isn't really important because after you meet the two of us you would probably remember Amy ... and that she had a dad. You first notice Amy because she is so striking. But when you meet her you also discover she is a really quality human being. Amy just turned 18 a couple of weeks before the 1999 Grand Tour. To say she is only an occasional rider would be technically true but would miss the point that she is also a talented rider in an 18-year-old body. For the most part, Amy only rides so that we can spend some extended quality time together. Primarily that means riding and being together for the six or seven days of the Grand Tour. Amy rode her first Grand Tour last year when we rode through the challenging hills of the Ozarks passing from northeastern Oklahoma through southern Missouri, circling through Branson to Eureka Springs in Arkansas and back to our starting point in Oklahoma. She rode well, gained confidence and really enjoyed the trip. Even though she was by far the youngest member on that trip, a slight drawback but rewarded with great notoriety, she made friends.
Because of our very good experience together, Amy agreed to join me on this year's Grand Tour through the northern New Mexico mountains. We began at altitude in Red River climbing over our first and highest pass of the tour. It was the high point of the trip but everything still went uphill from there, in a good way - if you know what I mean. The riding was wonderful and the scenery awesome. In addition, I want to underscore that each of the more than 50 participants were truly delightful people.
Our experience of the next to last day where we were riding from Sante Fe to Taos, illustrates this point. It was Friday. We were to ride our next to longest day including two "memorable" climbs. It was also the day that I was (unscheduled and unintentionally) deemed the "King of Flats" and I AM the king. "Flat" here means not the territory of zero elevation, because there isn't any in northern New Mexico. It is either UP or DOWN. Instead, "flat" as it is used in my new moniker designates the black round rubber things that make the bicycle go but in a less than inflated condition.
Besides recognizing the kindness and longsuffering (underscore long and suffering) of Charlie Potts and Alan Busche (probably the kindest men I ever met) who took time to help me with the second two of my (9) flats of the day and the generosity of Maurice Sturgeon who stopped and literally gave me the tube off his front tire (the bicyclist version of "giving me the shirt off his own back"). I also want to tell you of my own ease in encouraging Amy to ride on without me while I endeavored to become worthy of my future title. I was at ease because I trusted both Amy's riding ability and her capacity to be out in the world. But as important, I also trusted in the kindness of everyone else in the group to care for her, should she need it. For those of you who have been someone's child or a parent, stop a moment and savor the weight and meaning of this last statement. Note: Anyone who didn't take a moment just now, please return to the above criterion, re-evaluate and try again.
Riding mostly alone, Amy filtered in and out of various riders when she began riding with Gary and Gary. That was GGary Cannon and GGary Blehm who rrrode mmmost of the ttripp ttoggetther. At the base of the last "memorable" climb of the day while she was riding with the two Ggarys (who actually became three GGGarys riding into Taos; enter the other Gary ... Hertzler), Amy's rack and pack broke off her bike. Gary Blehm took on the added weight and carried it for her all the way up the hill and on to our destination in Taos. For those of you who have pedaled an adult male body or any body for that matter up a few more than 18,000 cumulative feet in several successive days, you will understand the heroic quality of Gary's beneficent gesture. Now, please take another moment and savor the kindness of this act. Generalize these experiences over all of the participants of this Grand Tour and I will have been successful in illustrating my point that each of the participants, riders, drivers and dog, on this trip were delightful people (and dog).
Including the aforementioned and the aftermentioned and to those I forget to mention, my thanks go to each of them: good neighbors Mike Bourland and Jane Gray; Jane's irrepressible hungry husband Charles; Allison Blanchard a.k.a. the energizer bunny and her husband Wayne Alford, the sleeping giant; Duke-now-King of hills Kern; the fervidly ever effluviant (he was bubbly) Jack Johnson, Terry (fountain of youth) Spradley and all the other inspirational Geezers of Lawton; the courageous Karen Kellow and her unfailing mentor, the lovely and desirable Kristin Kennedy; the tandem couples, Bill Wiley, the rider I most desire to be like and his wife Sue who was probably Alexander the Great in a previous life, Reed McNeely, saving only the good parts of Rush L. and his wife Julia whom (forgive me Lord, but Jimmy Carter did it too) I secretly covet, Jim (neatness is a virtue) and Fonda Brown, Bill and (oh so fine) Becky Tatum, Ralph and Cyndy (can kick butt) Taylor (riding singles in tandem), all displaying the admirable quality of partnership in marriage on two-seaters; "you can't wear me down", Cindy Overstake; "moss doesn't grow on a rolling stone", Ron Hitchcock; Glenn Chamberlin and Jennifer Freshour who will forever be linked in OBS history, confusing Bandolier with "bandage on my rear"; the unsinkable Laurie "I demand to see (but secretly want to be) the Governor" Williams; Don, Elsie, and Prissie Willis, our always cheerful, always present, sag, and beer truck drivers with the "no dogs allowed but this isn't that kind of dog" dog, T-town Katie Saunders whom I also Jimmy Cartered; Fenton Ramey and Russsell Smith both of whom are "a few good men"; Jeannie Blehm and Suzanne Cannon, my favorite sag drivers and lunch partners; Dwayne Lee the respectable keeper of statistics, and Red Callaway who WAS there with us even though we missed his presence.
Special thanks go to Charlie and Nancy (don't get on my bad side) Bulldog Potts for the excellence of planning and negotiating this trip, to New Mexico for being so beautiful and challenging, and to Amy for being herself. It was a great trip.
Oklahoma Bicycle Society:
Grand Tour 1999
created by John Wente
last modified:
February 19, 2007
URL: http://www.OklahomaBicycleSociety.com