Only The Curious

photo by Rob Davis

OMG tired…
Yay! Another post from the road. My original intention had been to get something up for each day of our trek, but it turns out that this job is really exhausting. And busy. And exhausting. Which I knew it would be, but… yeah.

Friends have been asking a lot how my riding legs are doing, and the truth is that I’m not getting to ride nearly as much as I had hoped or expected. I did a 53 mile ride the second day, 45 on Saturday, and 15 yesterday. That’s it so far, but that’s really okay, because I would be completely wiped out if I were riding more.

That’s how we roll...
Our days start around 6:30 or 7:00 every morning. We unload the bikes, check them for mechanical issues, pump up the tires, and set them up on racks for the riders. There are various tasks like filling coolers with ice, prepping food for lunch, loading the luggage into the box truck, and putting bikes not to be used on the racks on top of the van. Then the box truck heads straight to the next hotel, where we unload the luggage and set up the massage tables. One of us rides with a guide in the support van, which goes up and down the route, stopping to give riders food and water and to fix flats or pick up anyone who can’t ride. A third van with our equip trailer jets on to set up lunch, which is always a lovely display and prepared as fresh as possible. Once the riders get to the hotel, we go into massage mode, then dinner, a staff meeting, and usually bed right away. It’s intense, but also a great experience.

Crazy people…
None of this is to sound like I’m not having fun. The rest of the staff is fantastic, we laugh every day and I am really enjoying it. Our staff meetings usually take place around 9 or 10 pm, and also become a bit of a social hour. And then crazy things like hotel-room-luge come into play…

A learning experience…
I’m also learning a lot about what it takes to be a guide for Trek. I’m still excited to apply for the position and want to do it, but have a much more realistic idea about what the life is really like. It’s a LOT of work with little personal time. And I’ll admit that while I’m not much of a homebody, I do miss things like cooking my own meals, playing my guitar, and the ability to be spontaneous.

That’s the rub…
I’m learning a lot as a massage therapist, too. Working on the same people every day means that you have to come up with new things to do, but also that instead of doing just a general massage, you’re working on really specific problems. So it’s really interesting, and forcing me to stretch myself as a therapist. Traveling with the other therapists is great though – we’re all learning from one another. Frequently we’re just setting all of the tables up in a conference room, so there’s a good opportunity to see what everyone else is doing and pick up a few new moves.

I’ve also realized that it’s best to do what you know. Thai massage is my specialty, but I’ve been trying to do deep tissue because that’s what everyone else is doing. When I ended up doing a session for another therapist the other night, she just kept saying that I should do the Thai stuff for the clients. So I’ll be going back to focusing on my strengths, while still expanding my repertoire.

Most inspiring to me are the riders; the tenacity of this group is astounding. One woman actually walked three miles in the rain in her bike shoes while we put new tires on her cycle – she is THAT determined to do the whole ride without getting in the shuttle. They’re doing an amazing job and continuing to push forward despite rain, heat, wind, and crazy insane dogs that try to chase you down on your bike and attack you.

It was also great to go by the Rise school in Austin and see the kids we’re working so hard to support. A bunch of tricycles were donated to them and it was completely adorable watching them ride around. Rebecca, the lead guide, was talking with me the other day about how a trip like this you constantly have to “zoom” in and out – looking at the small tasks that make everything work, but then also looking at the bigger picture. I’ve tended to be really focused on doing my job well, so it’s important to zoom out and think about the cause this is all for. When I do I am simply proud of everything that we are doing, and who it’s really about.

Tomorrow is the biggest day of the ride – 110 miles. Wish us luck!

So that’s the general gist of things. Next time I have internet access I’ll put up a day-by-day summary with pictures, and more stories.

For more information you can go to www.RiseAcrossTexas.com, or look us up on YouTube. The AMAZING documentary crew is doing daily videos, and they’re fantastic.

Thanks to everyone who’s been keeping in touch and continuing to offer support and comedic relief. It’s great to hear from you!

Until next time…

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So I had a couple of great posts to put up, but the hotel we are at is having crazy Internet problems. They obviously don’t have many business clients. In fact I think they primarily serve as the pool and dining hall for the seniors home across the street.

At any rate, things are going well. We’re all tired but the trip is rolling along with few bumps in the road (gratuitous puns intended.) I am learning a ton about guiding and trip planning, and my co-workers and I are keeping one another laughing constantly.

We’re going to be without cell or Internet service for the next two days, so I will be off the grid. It bothers me how nervous that makes me, but of course it will be fine. I will post a plethora of posts and pictures as soon as we are back into civilization. In the meantime, follow what we are up to at www.riseacrosstexas.com, and look for our YouTube videos. The documentary crew is doing an amazing job and ostinf daily.

Yes, this was posted from my iPhone.

Off to work and ride!

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I spent a good part of today installing a nifty GPS thingy on my bike that my friend Matt gave me for The Trip. We had a lot of downtime until the RISE riders arrived, and after watching the exercise-aholics that are my peers on this adventure, I got motivated to use some of the time to workout. So I headed to the workout room at our hotel and hopped on the treadmill.

I don’t usually like to watch TV while exercising, but in this case the treadmill was about 6 inches from a very boring wall. So I frequently glanced up at the television. Being that we’re in Texas, it was no surprise that the TV was tuned to the station that covers Country Music all day, every day. The special was “Top 20 Stars of Country,” and they basically went through and interviewed each of the current top 20 recording artists.

One of the times I glanced up, I was taken rather massively by surprise and quite nearly fell off the treadmill when I recognized the guy being interviewed. No, it wasn’t because he was famous, it’s because I had had a very brief but intense flirtation with him in 2005, while we were both working as Resident Advisors for an arts program. And suddenly here he was, on TV. In the middle of the day. While I’m running on a treadmill. In Texas.

I mean, what? It’s not exactly every day that you randomly see the guy you may or may not have kissed that one time and haven’t thought about in years on national television.

I knew there was a decent chance he’d get famous someday; he already had a few CDs and a publicist when I met him. He was 19 at the time, so there was a lot of potential there. But it came out of the blue to see him on that screen today.

Oh, and according to the interviewer, he was recently voted the most eligible bachelor of country music. Eat your little hearts out, country rock-star admiring teenage girls. I don’t even like country.

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