DEATH VALLEY DAZE, PART 3 (?)

I know, I know..........I gotta be done at some point....I realize that. It's just hard to let go, y'know? There's such a weird mixture of relief, sadness and satisfaction that I carry around w/ me on the Sunday after a Ride - it's kinda like the circus is leaving town and our team won the Big Game and I didn't screw up.

All day on the plane yesterday I was thinking about Saturday......and mostly I was thinkinig about our Team and how everyone was SO THERE for everyone else. (Now - I'm gonna mention some names here, and these are just the instances that I either witnessed or heard about. I'm sure that there were more and I hope that folks w/ the first-hand scoop share!)

Maggie hangin' w/ Peggy when the going got tough....
Steve stayin' w/ Katie @ Ashford Mill after she and I decided that it was time to be done.....
Did interrupting his descent from the Pass everytime he spotted a Teammate en route to the top.....
John helping folks on the climb....
Ted goin' back out to Golden Canyon from the Ranch not once but twice w/ cold water and a helping hand....
J.D. helpin' Dan-from-Indiana (a guy he just met on Friday!) on the way back in......

and all the other moments, little and big, that made us a "Team" in every cool sense of the word. All the laughter and the tears @ the finish line, all the cheers for every rider (even Wisconsin!), all the pix and the poses and the Corvette and the "hall party" and the painful stretches and the pink jerseys and cherry trees and the pool and ..............and...............and................

and every damn minute of every day that we do this thing together. I'm so proud of our Team - I always have been you know - and everything I saw and felt and heard in DV was affirmation. Just like Asheville. Just like Whitefish and DV in 'o7 and '06 and AV and DV in '05 and all the training rides and Van Andel gigs and everything else that makes this Team what it is....a special group of people that, even though they're all plenty awesome enough as individuals become something much more than the sum of their parts when they get together.

So - congradulations to every West Michigan rider that made the trip to Asheville and/or Death Valley! Not to mention everyone that helped any of us, whether @ home, in the JDRF office or on the road. We've left our mark on the Ride to Cure Program and we're gonna leave our fingerprints on history 'cuz when there's a cure for Type 1 we're gonna be able to say "Yeah, we had a piece of that!".

I love you guys, let's do it again, huh?

See you next month for the party if not before!

Mike