La Crosse Ride - Day 1

I did such a lousy job of keepin' y'all posted when I was in VT last month that here I am - with not all that much to say....still, I promised my-own-self that I'd do a far better job this time 'round so.......here I am!

Jeremy, John J and I (w/ help from The Hellkaat) loaded up the truck this morning about 8:30 and headed west, bound for LaCrosse Wi and Ride to Cure #2. W/ my compadre Tim St Clair suddenly unavailable I go t"promoted" to Head Coach Guy for the weeked so J2 kindly offered to fill my flip-flops in the Bike Room w/ Berger. Given that we have 240 riders headin' this-a-way I lined up Noel Kegel (of the legendary Wheel and Sprocket Kegels) to meet us here as well. The Bike Room oughta be fine.

Hotter n' Hell here....92 when we pulled in @ 5:30pm. Tomorrow we set up the Bike Room and start settin' up bikes. I need to find time to drive the route and then there'll be that welcome dinner and all that and the whole dang shebang revs up again!

Whew!

I'll drop y'all a line fillin' ya in on the proceedings as they unfold. Stay tuned!

By the way - once again as I hang w/ JDRF Nat'l types I'm struck by the level of esteem w/ which our team is held in the General JDRF Universe. Sure is easy to be proud of bein' a member of our team! I wanted to take a sec to call out the members of the Ride Committee 'cuz they've been bustin' their butts for years now and all-too-often covering mine lately!

Anyway - I wanna thank 'em and when you run across 'em @ the next ride or whatever you might wanna too!

Long time Committee guy and now Co-Coach Derek "Did" Dykstra
Current Committee Leader and past Coach Nicole Nelles
Long time Committee Leader and web-whiz Katie Clark
Long time Committee Member and Van Andel architect Cindy Aley
New this year Committee Member and $ guy Tom Miller
New this year and legal eagle JD Stone.

I'd be remiss-as-all-get-out to not call out past members John Jasker, Rob Andro & Sarah Andro as well!

Sigh - It's late, been a long day and it occurs to me that I'm virtually guaranteed to forget a name or 2. I'll fix it later.

So - keep riding, keep rising $, keep hangin' w/each other, krp caring, keep being the extra-exceptional folks you are!

See you soon.............Coach Mike