Pittsburg_Spoke

Saturday, September 11th 2010


Pittsburg PA.

David and Anne Mitchell were our hosts for this Spoke. Incredible hospitality. I told Anne that the dirtiest room in her house was probably cleaner than my cleanest room. Anne is a breast cancer survivor and a nurse like me. She is also studying massage therapy and could teach classes in grace and charm. She is truly beautiful on the inside and the out.

We were up early and left for Gilda’s Club for “Bagels and Bikes”. This was a special Spoke, planned by Dave Mitchell… as it was how we met Patti Beahan last year, and now she was with us in full force. Last year she was just 2 days out of diagnosis, and had no idea how to tell her family or what she had before her in treatment.

Now Patti is done with all her treatment and has joined our ranks on the other side… she is a “spokes” person now and has been helping Dave plan this Spoke.

This year in addition to cancer survivors, we were joined by Oncology Nurses. Initially we started talking to people individually. The first person I spoke with was considering reconstructive surgery. So we talked about options, discovered that we both had dealt with “cording” and how our PT differed. She initially seemed quite conflicted and at the end of our conversation she seemed much more relaxed.

Next we all sat down and went around the room and shared our “stories” and then finished by signing the banners.

We rode from there to the Children’s Hospital. We crammed 9 bikes, 9 riders, 2 camera crew guys and a Hospital administrator into an elevator to go up to the Atrium level where we were last year. We met wonderful parents and children in the atrium. One father and son were there from Columbia. There for the son’s treatment. The Father spoke to me in his best English about his love of cycling. He was about my size so I let him ride around the atrium on my bike. His Son’s eyes lit up when he saw him riding around. Both smiled brightly. How wonderful it was to be able to bring light into their day of waiting and treatment.

After the administration saw what we were doing and could do, I was asked to bring my bike into the room of an 11 year old girl who had just had surgery. Her voice was still raspy from having the tube down her throat, but she appeared to be quite interested in the bike.

We left the Children’s hospital in search of food. The ride from there was all down hill from there and we went down to the “Strip District”. It was a Saturday at lunchtime and the district was alive with people shopping eating. We were hoping that we were going to eat some of the famous local food fare… but alas the line for the restaurant was wrapping around the building. So Ken stopped in and snagged some famous local donuts! What a variety of mini donuts he brought back.

Unfortunately for us, and hundreds of others, there was a big air show in town and traffic was awful. We didn’t get to eat lunch as we had to go straight to the REI to conduct a mini clinic. We did have an incident with a car door and fingers… but everything appears to be all right.

Attendance was very light for the clinic… so we just talked to people as they arrived at REI. Then Patti took us on a tour of Pittsburg on the river. It was a split second decision, as daylight was fleeting … but as we stood on the top of sycamore hill… the urge to just “go” won out. The Spokes ladies followed Daredevil Patti down a very steep and exhilarating 22% grade descent with crazy scary hair pin turns. Patti knew this hill well, but the rest of us were a bit more cautious. Then we crossed large bridges with bike paths that at times felt like we were threading the eye of a needle, the passage was so narrow. As darkness fell we rode on the lit pathways, past boats “tailgating” on the river. We saw a man riding a motorized beer cooler and the lights shimmering on the river. It was so such a thrill… not just the ride, or the night or the lights and the music… but to get to spend these moments with my “Spoke-sisters”.

We are headed to Dave’s house now for he has promised us “Smore’s”… then we will try to sleep and get up early for the trip to Hershey. Some concern for tomorrow, as it is predicted to storm. The rain just arrived as I type this. Hoping that is passes quickly through the night. But at this point we can only hope.