Keep On Rollin'

   Put together 750 riders, 400 volunteers, a caravan of trucks doing an intricate dance of delivering and picking up supplies, a steamy hot weekend of cruising down southwest Missouri backroads, and an office staff of four that does the work of a dozen, and what do you have? The 2013 Multiple Sclerosis Bike Ride and my weekend adventure.
   If you don't know about the MS Bike Ride, it's an annual monster of an undertaking where riders travel up to 200 miles (there are lots of mileage options depending on rider skill level and time availability) over a weekend, fully supported by rest stops with food, water, and medical staff; safety and sag wagons; mobile bike shops for repairs; and a rider village at the end of the ride with food, beer, music, and massages, to raise money for the southwest Missouri MS Society and all those affected by MS in this area! Our part in keeping the monster rolling was my sweetie DMan driving a 26-foot Penske truck and me helping navigate to drop off supplies to seven rest stops and the lunch stop along the bike route.
   Let me give you just a glimpse of what our adventure entailed:

• Up at 4 a.m. Saturday morning to make it to the starting line at Clever High School for our departure by 5:30 a.m., followed by another 26-foot Penske delivering tables and 5-gallon water bottles and a pickup pulling a Reddy ice chest. We made quite a sight for the cows and farm dogs watching us rumble by on all those county roads!
• At each rest stop, we unloaded boxes of bananas, apples, oranges, Little Debbie cakes, and granola bars; tubs of peanut butter and dill pickles (the riders love them and say the pickles help them not to cramp up, but those tubs are crazy heavy!); bags of popcorn; medical supplies; four 8-foot tables; anywhere from six to 20 water bottles (weighing 40 pounds each!); and bags and bags of ice. Sometimes we had volunteer help unloading, sometimes we didn't. UGH!
• Getting lost when the map was wrong, wandering around narrow farm roads and trying to figure out where we were supposed to be through several dropped cell phone calls, and having to drive like we were in Land Rovers instead of big trucks and unload our supplies like maniacs to get back on schedule. It's a good thing DMan is such an excellent backer, even in a 26-foot Penske, because he had to do a lot of backing up and turning around!
• After our deliveries were done, the TownePlace Suites in Joplin -- a very nice place, lovely rooms with mini kitchens, and paid for by the MS Society -- let us check in early, so we had time for a quick nap before heading to the rider village in Schifferdecker Park. The village was phenomenal, with a huge tent where the riders and volunteers could eat a free burger supper, plus small cups of Andy's frozen custard (donated -- thanks Andy's!), drink two free beers, and listen to the Classic Reunion band from Kimberling City cranking out the classic rock covers. A welcome diversion before going back to our trucker duty!
• Sweating away inside hot trucks while transferring leftover day one supplies onto our day two truck, then heading out on our own to grab a bite at Freddy's Steakburgers and relax in our lovely hotel room with a bottle of wine. That was the plan, but no, not so fast. The water bottle/table truck had broken down in Joplin earlier in the day, been repaired, then died again at Schifferdecker Park, and somehow Penske could not get it repaired or replaced so we could use it for Day Two. Bad Penske, very bad! So, after scarfing down Freddy's it was back to sweating away moving all the tables and water bottles onto our already packed Day Two truck, plus put the bottles that wouldn't fit into the ice-hauling pickup. It was 9:30 p.m. by the time we hit the hotel. What a long, physical day! We barely had the energy left to shower off the sweat and sip a bit of wine before we collapsed.
• Sunday it was back up at 5 a.m. to hit the road by 5:45. Day Two had it's share of complications -- running out of ice and scrounging local stores to buy more, running behind schedule because the lunch stop location wasn't open on time -- but at least our Penske kept running so the rest stops had supplies to take care of the riders. We were done with our deliveries and had the empty truck dropped off at the MS office in Springfield by noon. Hallelujah, we made it!! Not getting to see fruit of all the MS Ride labors as the riders cross the finish line back at Clever felt like a let down, but I was pooped so we headed home for a nap. I slept for three hours and could've slept even more!

     This weekend was one helluva adventure! Was it fun? Depends on who you ask. DMan loved it, he was totally in his element wheeling that big truck around and chatting it up with the other "truckers." My big-hearted crazy man even took a week of vacation so we could participate and spent one day last week picking up supplies and another day doing the food sort and loading the trucks! Then today he is helping redistribute the leftover supplies and return the trucks. He says he enjoyed the entire thing. Did I have fun? Yes and no. I am sore from head to toe and feel like I was hit by a Penske instead of just rode in one. I'm guessing it will be days before I get my energy back to full power. Physically, not so fun. But I did enjoy mingling with the riders at rider village; they are truly amazing people to give so much time and energy to raise money for MS. I got to see two friends doing massage therapy for the riders that I haven't seen in ages, that was a bonus. Plus, hanging out with DMan for two days and seeing him so happy was great, even though we were too tired to have hotel sex (really, what good is staying in a hotel without hotel sex?!). So overall, I'm tickled that we had this adventure together. Will I do it again? I'll definitely be volunteering again -- I was a rider way back in 1991 and when it was over my back said "Never again," so I've been volunteering ever since -- but truckin'? Can't say for sure. Stay tuned for next year's MS Ride blog to find out.
   A HUGE thanks to all the MS Staff -- Debbie, Mel, Ashley, Layla -- for your tireless efforts and being so wonderful to work with, to the volunteers who do everything from cutting bananas to sagging in bikers and always do it with a smile, and to the riders who make the MS Ride a financial success every year!!
The MS Bike Riders ROCK!!

Roni and DMan before leaving Clever on Day One. Look, no sweat stains yet!

Our 26-foot Penske truck, Day One.

DMan, in his trucker element -- see how happy he looks! He is now dubbed by the MS Society staffers as "King of the Truck Dance"!!

Roni and DMan, trucking our supplies to the rest stops.

Lunch stop at Pierce City High School, Day One.

Rider Village, Schifferdecker Park in Joplin.

Rider Village, DMan and the food/beer tents.

Bikes locked up at Rider Village. All those bikes made quite a sight!!

Some of the riders even had the energy to dance to the Classic Reunion tunes!

Sun coming up, Day Two, on Newton Road, headed to Rest Stop Two.

A little more sun

My favorite Rest Stop -- Josette's Tiki Hut!