Day # 15 was a day full of many great happenings. We woke up this morning after participating in an exceptional event on the previous evening. Mr. Drayton McLane Jr., the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Houston Astros Baseball Club arranged for our bike ride team to attend the Houston Astros Baseball game against the San Diego Padres on Friday evening. In addition, just prior to the game, we were introduced on the field to the fans with information shared about our orphanage project and the bike ride. It was a fantastic evening that was fun filled with the Astros winning the game 2 to nothing. We were also interviewed live in between inning by Houston Fox TV and had an article about our ride in the Houston Chronicle on Saturday, May 9. The article can be viewed online at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6415511.html We all were very touched by the entire evening and the kindness of Mr. McLane Jr. and his staff. It certainly is a night we will always remember and cherish with the many great memories of our trek.
We began our day having breakfast with a few members of the Houston MSU Alumni Club. We commended the brave souls who came to the breakfast because it started at 7 a.m. on Saturday. We had a wonderful time together and it gave us a great boost for the day.
After we met with the Houston Alumni, we were getting ready to start our ride and Mr. Denis Rhodes ran up to our team and stated he saw us on TV last evening at the Astros game. He stated that he wanted to give us a special donation because he especially appreciates what we are doing because he was adopted as a child. As you can see from the picture below, we were very pleased to meet Mr. Rhodes and receive his generous donation.
Things just kept getting better as I checked my phone and found that Governor Rick Perry from the state of Texas left a message on my phone when we were being introduced at the Astros game. The most touching thing about the phone message was that Governor Perry welcomed us to the state of Texas and congratulated us on what we were doing. He said he wanted to talk to us directly and left his personal cell phone number to call him back. I called the Governor and had a 15 minute conversation with him about the orphanage project, common interests, and the bike ride. We also spoke about my personal bout with Head and Neck cancer 18 months ago, and he assured me that his leadership along with the commitment of many exceptional doctors and researches in Texas are going to have a cure for cancer within the next decade. He discussed the Texas 3 Billion dollar research fund for cancer and how it will get results. It is difficult to articulate the impression that can be left from a brief conversation with one of our top leaders in this country. However, I will say this. When a Governor who is extremely busy and in demand takes the time to contact our bike ride team to wish us well, says a lot about the “person” not just the Governor. Our bike team once again was amazed by the outpour of support of all kinds of people throughout this trip. There really is a lot of heart alive and well in this country.
It’s finally time to get to the bike ride. The ride today was quite exceptional most of the time. It was sunny and hot, however, not severe enough that it hampered our riding. The roads were smooth until the end of the day and we were able to increase our per mile riding to almost 13 miles an hour, because of better riding conditions. Eljay Bowron and I conquered another large bridge today which gave us a great feeling of accomplishment. When you look at some of these bridges and hills from far away, they seem very intimidating. However, if you put your mind to it and stay focused, you really can ride a whole lot higher and longer than you ever imagined. We began our ride in Galveston where we left off from the previous day. I have included a few pictures that shed additional light on how homes were destroyed, but also how the houses looked prior to the hurricane. These pictures were taken today and show some of the areas that were not as damaged by the hurricane. People are working hard at restoring the beauty of Galveston, to bring it back to the beautiful city it was prior to this disaster.
We finished the day transitioning from smooth roads to gravel roads, which can cause a lot of bumps as you ride. I have included a picture of the gravel road to give you an idea of what I am talking about. These types of roads can cause pain in your back and other padded areas of your body. We will just need to pull out the warm compresses and get ready for tomorrow.
Lastly, I must admit that my experiment with Joe DeLamielleure of pinning his gloves to his pants didn’t quite work the way I hoped it would. I thought Joe was doing well until I noticed his frustration late in the afternoon. I will spare you the total picture, however, no gloves and no pants is not a very pretty sight. You can see from the last picture of the day, I have a lot of work to do, and only 3 more days to do it. I will report back to you tomorrow Day # 16.
