Good morning and happy Monday! 

Weekend Rides

Lots of cycling went on this last week, which is all good since we need to be gearing up for the Valero MS 150 Bike to the Beach, which is only 40 days away.

On Saturday morning, we had our Kickoff Training Ride, which over 50 riders participated in.  It was great to see all the riders in Velo Valero colors, ready to hit the road again.  We tried to organize a team picture, but I'm sorry to report that we are better cyclists then we are supermodels - the best picture we took completely obscures the team truck, and 50% of us are looking away from the camera.  But, hey - there will be other chances. (To see all the photos from the kickoff ride, click here.)   The important thing is that we got on our bikes, and we got to spend time with each other on the road.  Hats off to the HQ chapter of the Valero Motorcycle Club and their fearless leader, Anthony Jackson, for riding alongside us this weekend.  And a special thanks to Ashwin and Chaitra for riding SAG for us in the team truck.   Because of the heat and the hills, this was a weekend when we needed all the help we could get!   Everyone who rode is special, but I want to give a shout out to two folks in particular - Hal, for finishing a very grueling 50 miles on only his third ride with us, and to Darren, son of Glenn, who will be riding in his first MS 150 this year, and who did the 30 mile route.  

Where's the truck?  And why is nobody looking at the camera???

Board Member Lucy Hernandez poses by the Team Truck on the cruiser bike.  Lucy has big things planned for our team tent during the overnight in Beeville!

 On Sunday, a handful of riders joined Carl for a ride on the Northeast side of town.  Here's his report -

 Ken Mayfield, former Velo Valero Board Member, and now captain of the NuStar team, gave me this idea.    

As I mentioned last week, our team size is growing, and more importantly, our fundraising is starting to creep up.  (Click here to see the latest totals.)  Fundraising doesn't have to be a hard.  For example: All of us have loose change around the house and in our cars - why not put this to good use?  Sometime before the MS 150, go through your house and your cars, collect all that change, and take it to a bank and turn it into cold, hard cash you can donate to the MS Society.  It may not be much per person, but multiply it by the size of our team, and we're talking some pretty big numbers.  Let's say our team size this year is 250, and we each scrape together $30 worth of change - well, my friends, we'll suddenly talking about $7500, which is nothing to sneeze at.  Think about it...

The Rich are Different...

On Sunday afternoon, I went to the annual San Antonio Parade of Homes, which this year focused on multi-million dollar homes in the Dominion, the most expensive private real estate in all of San Antonio and home to high rollers like George Strait and David Robinson.  To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the rich are different than you and me - they have a lot more money, and they live in much bigger houses. Most of the homes we looked at were 8000 feet or larger.   In these homes, typically 2000 feet was devoted to the master suite, which included lavish exercise rooms, massive his and her closets, and bathrooms that had more toilets, tubs, and showers than the fitness center at Valero HQ.  In addition, most had a wing of the house devoted to the predominantly male pursuits of guzzling spirits, smoking cigars, grilling red meat, and watching high definition television.  The fashionable term for these spaces is "media room", but I like the term "mancave" better, because it just sums up the purpose of the room much better.   Most men, if given the choice, would probably never leave this room...

What is a Hero?

The term hero means different things to different people.    I personally think everyone who organizes, volunteers, fundraises, or rides in an event like the MS 150 is a hero - I am so amazed by the energy and the commitment of each of you.    But, I want to take a little time to talk about another type of hero, one that snuck up on me Saturday after our ride, and one that is suddenly real close and personal.... On the way home from the ride on Saturday, I got a call from my dad.  He was at Dulles airport in DC, waiting on a connecting flight to Kuwait City, the first stage of a journey that will take him to Iraq.   This in itself is nothing special - hundreds of thousands of military personal and contractors are over there, and many of you have a personal connection to one or more of them.  What makes this different is that my father is 69 years old, and he volunteered for this mission.   He will be over there as a contractor, training troops in the field at forward operating bases (FOBs), participating in sweeps with 18-year-olds to look for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), wearing a steel pot to protect his head along with 50 pounds of body armor.  His decision to volunteer for this mission was a lively topic of discussion at our family reunion in Michigan this summer.  He said he was doing this to serve his country - it would be his "last hurrah" as a soldier before he retired.    Dad served in the army for 31 years, and did tours of duty in Germany, Korea, Vietnam (twice), and Panama.  We told him he had done his time for his country, but he felt otherwise, and nobody could change his mind.  ...When I got the call, I had to stop the car - I ended up parking under the I-10/1604 overpass, and we talked for almost 30 minutes.  It hit me with the force of a sledgehammer - he was really going, and it was in God's hands whether he would return to us. And at an age when most people were fishing or golfing all day, basking in the warm glow of retirement, he was risking his life in a war zone...

...This Tuesday is the sixth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers.  The forces that led to that tragedy have not subsided, and there are folks making sacrifices every day - often the ultimate sacrifice - to try and change things.  Whether you agree with the politics or the strategy of what's going on over there, it is what it is.  My dad is over there now, and I hope and pray he comes home in one piece before his 70th birthday.  And when he does, he and I will retreat to a mancave somewhere, and we'll drink a few beers, smoke a fine cigar or two, complain about our wives/mothers/daughters/sisters/girlfriends, and maybe we'll watch an episode of Entourage on HBO HD. And life will be good again.  

Be safe, Dad.   I'm so proud of you.

My brother Bob, Dad (during his JR Ewing from Dallas phase), and me, sometime during the late 80s

See ya' on the road!

- Peter