As Typical As A Day Gets On The Refuge Ride

If you are interested in what a typical day on the Refuge Ride looks like then read on.  

We get up at 6a, pack our belongings and put on riding clothes that hopefully dried from hand washing the night before.  Away goes our clothes line which is our emergency rope strung around the legs of an inverted ironing board or whatever is available in the room.  We fill our water packs with 1 to 3 litres of water and sometimes ice, depending on weather, number of services we will see on our route and distance between.  

At breakfast we load up on as much hearty food as is provided and our stomachs can handle, usually eggs, sausage, yogurt, waffles, milk, oj, bananas and the like.  If available we take fruit, bagels and cream cheese for lunch down the road.  We refill our food bags with granola bars, jerky, fruit snacks, energy chews and most importantly, dark chocolate.

We'll check out at the front desk of the hotel and thank them for donating a room, hand out cards and answer questions about the Refuge Ride project to inquisitive people in the lobby or outside the hotel and on a good day, receive some donations.  After stretching and praying and either putting on sunscreen and sunglasses or hat, gloves and jackets, we fasten on our helmets and back packs, turn on the GoPro and off we go on day #?? of the Refuge Ride!

Every 5 miles or so we'll take a short break to stretch, rearrange layers of clothing once we warm up if need be and every other stop eat something.  Often we'll ride up to a car that has passed us, pulled over and someone is taking pictures or video of us riding up.  We'll hold hands and pose in front of them on our unis, give them a card and tell them why we are doing such an insane journey.  We tell them we do pictures for donations for Syrian refugees.  

On we ride, over the river, through the woods, up and down the hills and across the country.  We are constantly watching traffic approaching in our little helmet mirrors and jump off our unis if we see vehicles crossing the line into the shoulder behind us if there is one, or jump off if there is little shoulder and we see 2 semis or motorhomes about to converge next to us.  When semis pass us we brace for the wall of wind they bring.  We get lots of honks, waves and thumbs up from passerbys who may have seen us on the news, heard us on the radio or are just excited to see weirdos cruising along the highway on one wheel.  And there are always the cows that continue to bring us such encouragement with their undivided attention. 

If we come upon a gas station (or coffee shop!) we'll stop in and refill our water packs if need be, often receiving donated power drinks (or decaf mochas!) from kind employees.  With our unis parked in front we inevitably get into conversation with people about the crazy big unis and what we are doing on them.  Katie will take advantage of breaks along the way to do a bit of business and call hotels to secure donations for sleeps down the road.

We always give a "Hallelujah!" when we arrive at our destination for the day.  Before even entering we take pictures of the hotel or lodging and inspect our tires, removing rocks, glass, corn, thorns or whatever debris the tread may have picked up.  This can save us from having a bad next morning.  After checking in we settle in, immediately shower then wash all our sweaty riding clothes in the sink.  Usually we'll use up a small bar of soap during the clothes washing process.  We never take for granted the blessing of running water!   After ringing out our wet clothes we lay them out on a towel, roll them up and twist the towel (a trick we learned from Dustin's mom).  It always amazes us how much water the towel soaks up which greatly speeds up the drying process.  We then hang up the clothes on the makeshift clothes line.

Each day we receive an email or call from Katie's wonderful dad telling us who has donated dinner for us that evening.  Though bleary eyed, we eat a hearty dinner, take pictures of the fine and generous establishment and whole-heartedly thank the powers that be who have contributed to the Refuge Ride through their donation.

Back at the hotel, Katie inputs stats and journals about the day while Dustin adjusts and reviews the route for the next day and posts a Facebook update for the next morning.  We usually fall asleep working on our evening tasks but manage to finish before turning in after midnight to sleep for 5-6 hours before getting up to start over again.  

There you have it.  One day at a time with the support, prayers and contributions of many, we're making this cross country trek to bring hope and help to Syrian refugees a reality!

Another inquisitive passer by.

Laundry is done and wrung out.  Getting ready for a roll and twist in a towel.

Twisting the laundry in a towel.  Before learning this trick we often had wet clothes the next morning.

Ironing boards have more than one use.

Some nights we get to practice the limbo every time we need to leave the room.

Katie confirming another hotel donation along the road.