October 31st. Austin, TX. I did not grow up roaming the streets of London at night, vandalizing public transportation and dreaming of escaping to America to becoming a midwife. I know that may be hard for some of you to believe. What I wanted to be was an astronaut. I wanted to be the youngest person in space. There were no books at the local library about space and space exploration that I had not read. I was devastated when the show “Lost In Space” came on and I saw that Will Robinson had beaten me to it.
My dream did not end there but it took a dent. My dad made light of my ambition telling everyone I was going to be the first dustman (garbage collector) on the moon but I remained undaunted. I should mention that to his credit, some 40 years later, he did apologize.
For as long as I can remember, my reach has exceeded my grasp.
We’re still on the road winding our way east. And by winding I mean winding. Once we get to Austin we’re going to take a break. They have an MDA Clinic and I have some body parts that need to be looked at. Not to mention there is some serious trick or treating to be done.
The initial notion behind “Ride for Ray” was to make up the 2,500 miles or so that I could no longer do and we would move on down the road as others rode the miles. But we have already exceeded that goal. Someone suggested “ride around the world” (24,859 miles). Recently a friend from the Minneapolis biking community posted a video about accumulating enough miles to fly me to the moon. That’s 238,900 miles. It got me thinking about a lot of things. It may be too late to become a dustman but not to fly to the moon.
Don’t forget to log your miles at Ride for Ray. We look forward to including you in our next video. Send pictures or video to bychopath13@gmail.com with a message about yourself and who you are and where you are from.
Peace, love and midwives
Ray
