Friday, July 26th- Watertown to McHenry

We are fortunate to have 4 webteam members on Team Oz this year. Here are their reports and pictures.
and Edie Kalweit has been a St. Joan of Arcer for 25 years now. Now that her children are grown, there is time to participate more fully in activities taking place at St. Joan's.	Bridget Gaeleigh became a SJA parishioner in the fall of 2000. Bridget lives with her two cats in Richfield. During the day she assumes the role of a business/techie in corporate america, but at night she's obsessed with satellite tv medical shows, working out, reading, listening to music and doing fun stuff with friends and family.	Michael Reinbold is a professional photographer and banquet caterer with an extensive theatre background in acting, writing, and directing. He loves all aspects of the arts, staying fit, and helping and inspiring people. A passionate believer in St. Joan of Arc's mission of social justice, Michael is a continuing AIDS Ride participant, Grace House volunteer cook, mass reader, and Joan of Arc choir member. He looks forward to web reporting and photographing for the website.
Rick Spaulding is a photographer specializing in digital photography for the theater and works for National Camera Exchange. He is also an antique dealer and eBay afficianado who enjoys collecting marbles but his true joys in life are his two boys and his beautiful wife, Tinia.

Red Day
Last night was an adventure, whether you stayed in your tent or evacuated to the Watertown High School gym floor. We experienced a short downpour of rain and high winds. The rainfly on the tent I was in flew off, and my daughter's tent collapsed on her. The organizers of the ride acted quickly and efficiently. The tents were evacuated and the HS opened to accommodate the almost 1200 folks on site. Within minutes towels were distributed to everyone, so they could dry off, and metallic Mylar sheets, so they could retain body heat. The time of evacuation was 11:30 PM. That time is important only in so far as it gives you a clue as to how much sleep we all got that night. The gym floor was hard, the Mylar sheets noisy, and most folks had nothing that was dry and cuddly to curl up with.

Friday was steamy! The only saving grace to riders was a tail wind. It again proved to be a tough day of cycling, in spite of the fact that it was ONLY 88 miles, (nothing in mileage after the three century rides that preceded it).

The vast majority of riders today wore red. Red as a symbol of "hope" and as a gesture of respect for the "Red Ribbon Lady".(explanation below) The steady stream of single file riders was impressive to all who looked on. The heat, the lack of a good nights sleep and the fact that this was day five( 88 miles added to the 405 we had already biked on previous days) made the day very challenging.

Editor: Edie wrote about the Ribbon Lady in a previous report- This picture is from this year. The "Ribbon Lady" spoke again at camp five. Jackie is "The Ribbon Lady" during Red Day and is probably the most powerful image and story of the entire ride. Shortly after crossing the Illinois border, one sees red ribbons tied to every tree and fence post along the route. These ribbons go on for miles, in fact into the next pit stop. She is remarkable in that she's been HIV positive for just short of twenty years herself, has battled breast cancer and had a broken neck and back, and so strongly believes in positive thinking and love that she has survived. She spoke at camp night five and told of the visitors she had from the AIDS Ride in the hospital when she was recovering from the accident that caused her neck and back breaks. She valued those visits and those friends, those people who cared for her. And, of course, these befrienders were largely the result of the efforts she had made for many years to say "Thank You" to them by the simple act of tying red ribbons to all of the trees and fence posts she could. Say a prayer for her continued health and spirit.

Tomorrow we bike 60 miles, and we celebrate the week we spent together. We celebrate having made this journey. Not one soul who has participated in the Heartland AIDS Ride will tell you it's a cakewalk. It's perhaps one of the toughest weeks any one of us will face in life. Tragic? No. Just plain tough. Lets you know what you're made of.

Some photos of riders not gotten on other days, at the lunch pit. Dick Voss(right) for one. Dick finishes early each day and then sets up tents for others back at camp, (a truly generous and kind spirit). Also photos of things drying out on the fence, at the lunch pit. The storm was fast and furious last night, much got wet. We were all glad the storm was close to the end of the week and not in the beginning.

Rosemary Moore sends special greetings to her Dad and she says, "Hi Poppa! See you soon.

edie

Tired, Hot, Exhausted
I'm tired, hot, exhausted. There was a huge severe storm that blew through camp last night about 11:30 PM. It was raining sideways into my tent and I thought I was going to blow away. Everyone was evacuated to the gym of the school. The medical staff ran around handing out Mylar blankets for everyone who was soaked - which was about 1000+ people.

I only got about 2 hours of sleep, and worked a full 13 hours today. The weather was humid and very hot - we heard it was over 100 degrees. Our pit was very busy with overheated riders and crew. I was kept hopping for several hours, and finally ended up like many others with an icepack on my head in the shade.

At dinner tonight, Pallota Teamworks announced that this would be the last Heartland AIDS Ride. It wasn't a big surprise, but still made us feel a bit sad. It's been a great week, and it all ends tomorrow. I've made some new friends and learned a lot about myself this week. Thanks for following me on the adventure.

Bridget

Positive Peddlers
The previous night Thursday July 25 proved to bring out the real meaning in the title of the city-- Watertown --literally. About 11:30 PM we experienced a storm that blew up a few tents and drenched a few that were not floor lined. Just imagine that you've ridden all day in some of the worst windy weather conditions imaginable and just one hour after you've fallen asleep in your cozy tent, a horrendous storm starts to stir so heavily causing such high winds and downpour that the entire camp is evacuated. We had to skidattle to the Watertown High School to spend the night on a gymnasium floor. We were given towels to dry off and covered in Mylar blankets to keep warm. The gym site was so surreal as we cowered about the floor; it looked like a pile of silver foiled baked potatoes or like Jiffy Pop Popcorn. We stayed most of the night, enduring backaches and general chaos, only to return the next day to ride an 88-mile bike ride to McHenry, IL.

The following day proved to be quite hot, temperatures in the high 90's and humid. Today being Red Day, I donned a bright scarlet nightgown with my biker shorts. Had a blast, but unfortunately experienced my first flat tire. I've never had one in the past three AIDS Rides I've attended. This misfortune put me behind for riding time but I had a blast riding with so many animated and colorful characters today.

After riding with the Positive Peddlers we had our group photo session today. It's always quite meaningful to stand with a group who not only out themselves with their HIV status but participate as riders as well. I finished the evening talking with many loved ones and received a wonderful, if brief, massage from a terrific masseuse.

Michael Reinbold