Onset of ALS symptoms usually occurs in late middle age or later, although it also can occur in young adults, as well as in the elderly.
After a lovely night at Dave and Maryanne's, we had a nice breakfast, began packing up the support vehicles and heard that Dave had made the morning news!
Around 7:30am fellow riders Neal Restivo, Sarah Conwell and Fred Carmean, and the support crew of Scott Golen and Tim Hecker arrived. We needed Dave's brother Bart's help to get all the bikes and luggage to Oxford, about a 45 minute drive from Cincinnati. Once we got to the frat house, we met up with other riders, Rod McGregor and Gio DeLuca, affectionally now known as the "Italian Rock Climber". Gio did not attend MU but is a rock climbing friend of Dave's from Red River Gorge. (He's an awesome rider to boot!) We had a small but lively send off from the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house and were thrilled Meg and Frank DiNardo, our daughter in-law's parents made the trip up to wish us well.
The first day of riding was fabulous! Great weather, a bit overcast, cool temps and no wind. We encountered one road block but quickly regrouped and made our way around it to get back on the route. We met up with the support crew for lunch about 30 miles in. We had a few hills the first part of the day but they were just a warm up of what's to come once we hit the Berkshires.
I had the first flat tire of the trip as we were riding some chunky roads through Dayton and rolled over a nail. I knew fairly quickly that I had an issue and pulled over to start to change the tire. In about 3 seconds flat, Gio and Steve were by my side and completely took over in an effort that would have put any Indy 500 pit crew to shame. We were back on the road in under 10 minutes. They then proceeded to ride behind me to make sure I was ok. I felt so very supported and well cared for!
We stopped one more time and I had a chance to facetime with my mom at her Assisted Living Facility. I had made a map of our route to help us stay connected while I am away and I am so grateful to the Activities Director, Kathy for facilitating this time with my mom.
What followed was several miles of lovely bike trails until we reached our destination of the Hearthstone Inn in Cedarville. This is a lovely inn with gracious hosts, Stuart and Ruth. After cleaning up the group split up to get take out, some Mexican and the others pizza, and brought it back to enjoy a group meal on the side patio. I stayed on the porch to call home. As I was talking to Emily and Charlie, I noticed a man sitting by himself on the other side of the porch who kept looking at me. It was kind of strange, but I just kind of put it out of my mind. When the call ended, I got up and he came over to me and asked if I were Dolly? Now it was really strange... He said he recognized me from various photos and then introduced himself as one of Doug's fraternity brothers, John Smirtnik who saw some clips of our ride and decided to meet up with us at the inn! What a fabulous and fun surprise once I realized he was not some creepy stalker!
The Alpha Delts are having a great time reminiscing but it's time for me to get some sleep!
Thanks for checking in. We appreciate all of the support from near and far and feel so very blessed to be a part of this event!
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