Follow Ramesh's Journey

Yup, it’s truly spring now – I can smell it in the air. It’s a package deal though, complete with all the mucky dirt on the shoulders of the road.  Because of a short rain today I was covered in dirt from my face, head, back, chest, legs and toes.  Add to that all of the chain grease that accumulates on my jersey every day as I cycle, and you can imagine that I was feeling pretty gross by the end of the day.

This morning we reached Obed Summit, which is the highest point on the Yellowhead Highway, 1163.9 m above sea level. I thought it was all downhill after that, but to my surprise, there was steep hill after steep hill for the next few hours.

About 40 km outside of Edson I stopped cycling so Doug, Chris and I would have the opportunity for Cycle to Walk to spread its message to the Rotary Club of Edson at their weekly lunch meeting. A generous Rotarian by the name of George Mah donated his winnings from a Rotary draw prize – nearly $900 – to Cycle to Walk! Thanks so much to the Rotary Club of Edson and to George for supporting Cycle to Walk.

After the Rotary meeting it was off to participate in an interview with the local newspaper, the Edson Leader. Then, we drove back out to where I’d stopped, and continued the journey to reach Edson by hand cycle.

I love staying at billets. Tonight we were fortunate to have been able to stay at the home of Edson Rotary President-Elect Rob and his wife Jackie’s house. They have two great children, Sam and Lauren. When we arrived at their home, the kids were so excited to see us, they even made up a welcome sign.  I want to thank Rob, Jackie Sam and Lauren for your amazing hospitality.  It was wonderful to meet you and I hope to keep in touch.

As I reflect back on today I got extremely dirty cycling down the Yellowhead, but it’s important to remember that the dirt comes off. In our world we have a culture of crawlers: children, teenagers and adults that have had their legs paralyzed for life because they did not receive the polio vaccine that would have protected them for life. In the lives of these crawlers they are almost always dirty, because many of them depend on cut up pieces of tires for their knees, and sandals on their hands to drag them through the streets of where they live. Awareness is important, but it’s donations that will help polio victims around our world walk. It’s donations that will provide those drops of the polio vaccine to children around the world to protect them for life.

This is why I’m cycling to walk.  Please donate or sponsor today.