I took a ride with my friend, Chris Rupp, who is biking across the country in remembrance of those firefighters who perished on 9/11/2001. You can check out his website:
Fire Ride Tribute 2011. He started his ride in July in San Francisco, California. Keeping right on schedule, he arrived in Mount Horeb on August 23rd to a huge party with many local fire departments represented. I am super proud of Chris for committing to this ride and biking his heart out. He was not a "biker" before the ride; most of his training was indoor over the previous winter. He plans to get to New York tonight a couple days ahead of schedule.
When he was in the area at the end of August he had a couple of rest days in Mount Horeb before he was headed to Milwaukee. The route that day was going to be around 125 miles. I biked along with Chris for about 50 miles from Mount Horeb to the Trek headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Trek helped Chris out with a bike for his cross country ride. There were about 15 of us riding with Chris that day, one of the largest groups biking with him on his trip. Trek served all of us lunch in their cafeteria. The Trek chef put together the feast for the lunch stop and it was quite good. Chris was being kept to a tight schedule due to continuous fire truck escorts planned on the route, so there was little time to look around. I did snap several pictures while at the headquarters, and have a few from others.
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| Only stop on the ride at Fitchburg Fire Station, playing photographer for others |
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| Lunch provided by the Trek chef |
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| Chris received some goodies from Trek that were much needed |
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| Bikes in Trek lobby |
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| More of Trek lobby |
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| Trek employee bike storage for those who commute or take rides at lunch. They have a mechanic that services the bikes |
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| Hallway full of the same bike, team bikes maybe? |
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| Getting ready to head out again post lunch |
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| Chris headed out towards Milwaukee |
