I'm not Batman

Who am I? What defines me? This has been a question that has come to mind a more than a few times over the last 3 years of my life. I have to believe I am not the only one that has these questions.
There are simple answers for this question, but sometimes those simple answer just don't do it for me. A simply answer looks something like, Husband, Father, Friend... Not that i take any of those things lightly, these are all core values in my life. I strive to be the best husband, father and friend I can be everyday. But I still feel like I am not fulfilled.

There is a line to a song that I will probably will get wrong (thanks US Air - 5hr NS flight and no wifi) by FireFlight:

"I'm moving forward, I'm standing on my two feet - these second chances...will define me"

These line always come to mind when I am faced with this question of what defines me. My second chances can define me. I just have to be open to letting that happen.

How many second chances do we pass up when we can really cash in on the lesson by turning to God for the answer instead of the what "we" think? what the world says? I know I do miss these opportunities. Sometime daily!

I am putting this out there now because of the challenges that I am facing in my life right now and I know I am not the only. Don't let those opportunities pass you by - to do the right thing. I don't know what that looks like for you. I don't completely know what that looks like for me? But I want to know. I want to be able to capture those times and make a difference in a positive light instead of the alternative.

Summer Vacation 2012 - Part 2

Okay, I am going to do my best to keep it short and if there is something I miss I apologize. We really packed alot into 1 week in Ohio. So here we go!

Tuesday the 10th we headed to the Columbus Zoo with My Dad and Linda. We saw all the areas of the zoo and spent a solid 7-1/2 hours at the zoo. It was funny, after hitting all the areas (Africa, Asia, North America, Australia, Aquarium) we all realized on the way out that we didn't see any zebras. We managed to spend all that time there and never did find a zebra. We hit up a good Mexican joint all the way back to the house. Good food, it is funny to come from Arizona and eat good Mexican food in Ohio? go figure. The kids had a blast and we all slept good that night.

Wednesday the guys said at the house and did guy things, and my wife and Linda went to Amish country to shop. We spent the majority of the day outside, we cut up a small tree that blew over on a path in the woods and the kids help clear the path. Isaac and Nathaniel loved. Then we split and stacked wood for the some time. The kids loved it!

We ended the day making a fire out in the yard and cooking hot dogs over it. The weather was just right and the breeze help make it perfect. Sarah and Linda had fun and Sarah was able to experience the Amish country and some Amish food.

Thursday was another packed full day. We headed over to some friends house for lunch. Funny story. One of Sarah's good friends growing up moved to a small city near my dad about a year and a half ago. Of all the places. We were greeted with hugs and smiles. She had a tasty lunch prepared for us and then brownies and ice cream for dessert, in the middle of the day - that is a good lunch experience right there! The kids, took off to the tire swing out back and laughed and had a good time. We spent the afternoon there and went straight to my cousins house for dinner. Again we were greeted with hugs and smiles. I was able to see my aunt and uncle, my cousin Tiffany and her husband Jason, and there son Dominic. My grandma was also invited over and I was able to see her again. The kid, who had never met before took off like kids do and were best friends for the night. Playing in the tree house and running around the yard. Jason grilled some burgers, and my cousin and aunt prepared some delicious sides to go with it. It was topped of with some homemade blueberry cobbler and ice cream. If you are following along at home, you will realize this was in fact my second serving of dessert in one day...:) The best part of the evening was just sitting around the table outside and catching up, telling old stories from when we were kids and laughing. We had a great evening, again the kids were done, way before we got them to their beds, actually we carried them to their beds.

Friday - we hung out around the house, my dad though Sarah his bread recipe that he uses and the kids ran around and showed us tricks they knew how to do. Soon after lunch we headed to the airport to send off Sarah and the kids to go spend 13 days with Grandma and Papa Holmquist. We were sad to see them go, but happy to know they were continuing the fun of this trip. Sarah on the other hand had a goal n front of here making it to on those flights with the kids. you will have to ask her to get the full story.

We dropped them off and had dinner in Columbus, and then off to Costco to load up. I learned something this week. When you live in the country we take advantage of trips to the store. My dad is 25-35 minutes away from most stores that you need to go to. They loaded up the cart, and then put everything into cold bags in the truck so everything would keep for the 60 minute ride home.

I still have Saturday and Sunday to share with you, but it is almost time to board my flight.

Summer Vacation 2012 - part 1

I titled this part one, because I intend to write about the second half of my vacation either on the way home, or when i get home. Hopefully I don't forget.

Last Friday night, when the 4 of us flew from Phoenix to Columbus, OH. I realized this was the first time I had flown with my entire family. Sarah and I took Isaac to Montana once, but we haven't all flown somewhere since Nathaniel was born. We have either drove to our destination or gone at different times and met up and then left at different times.

Summer vacation has been great. We are about 45 minutes north of Columbus in the middle of farm land. I get some cell service and hardly any data service. Both have been fine with me. We have access to the Internet so we aren't flipping out when we can't check our face book or the weather or something. I do feel a little off the grid because I hadn't watched any live TV until last night when I caught the end of the All Star game and then the news. I like to keep my self pretty informed at home, not sure why since most of it is so depressing, but I guess I just like to know what is going on in this crazy world we live in.

Back to vacation, we came in Saturday morning at 12:30am and by the time bags were collected and we drove to my dad's place it was close to 2am. Best part about being up to 2 am with the kids is they slept to almost 10am! Sarah and I still felt like we need more sleep but we were thankful for the 8 hrs we got. Saturday my Dad had a project for the boys and I, more of a project for my Dad and I since the kids were in overload mode with all the new things to explore and see in Papa's backyard. The project was to add a "rock climbing" wall on the side of an existing playground. He had all the lumber and the finger grips to attach, we just had to cut all the parts and assemble. Ended up being a really cool project and the kids love it. Best part was it was something we could all do together.

The only bummer of the day was it was one of the hottest days on record here. They actually received a reverse 911 call because of the extreme heat. And what are we doing, outside in the direct sun light building erecting a wall. All I can say is that my clothes we soaked with sweat through and through, I had to take my 2nd shower of the day after that project was complete. The kids never did stop sweating all day long. We had a BBQ out back, once the sun started to set it cooled off a little, introduced the kids to the endless summer fun of catching lighting bugs. They thought that was the coolest thing ever. We had a little cage they could but them in, I am not sure how many they caught before we put a cap on it. My wife hadn't seen a lighting bug either, so I introduced her the only way I knew how, I caught one, and smashed the glowing element out of the bugs but and smeared it on her arm! She was grossed out, but it was well worth it! Sometime around midnight I took my 3rd shower of the day. It makes me enjoy the low humidity region I live in.

Sunday was a blast as we went into my grandma's house and had a BBQ with all my family on that side. It was so good to see my cousins and all of there kids who I hadn't had a chance to meet until this last weekend. The weather was much better and with a breeze was close to perfect. Took my boys down to the Lexington HS football field were my dad used to play football at all those years ago. I explained to him that Papa used to play on this field and run track around this field when he was in high school. They looked at me and asked when dinner was? Hopefully down the road Isaac remembers it somewhere in that expanding mind of his. We had a great time catching up, Grandma out did herself with all kids of food and sides. I even walked down to the ice cream shop that I have had almost every time I visit. Had the same Sherbert and Vanilla twist cone, and the taste was the same as it always has been. Took me back a few years.

Monday morning was full of physical labor. My dad had spotted a tree that had fell in the corn field. So I learned how to sharpen a chainsaw chain, once we had sharpened 2 chains, we oiled and filled the saws with gas. Then started walking, and walking around the field, through the woods and finally we came upon a tree that was laying in the field. It took my dad and I 2 hours to cut up and pull that tree piece by piece out of the field. Turns out it was a large section of a walnut tree. We were able to get 2 piece of tree that still are 10' plus and 20-22" in diameter. My dad knows a guy with a portable saw mill and for a small fee with cut that tree up in whatever thickness you desire. Once we got that out of the way we hiked back to the house for lunch and a shower. After lunch my dad helped me fabricate a jig for a project. Didn't take that long and it turned out great. For dinner we had camp fire pizza's and apple pie, not a bad way at all to end a day.

Seems my week has been more jammed packed then I originally thought, I need to turn in for the night, but I will have to tell you about the rest of my vacation at a later date.

Only have 2 more days with my wife and kids before they head off to Montana for the rest of the month. I plan on making the best of those two days.

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you, without a dope beat to step to.

On July 16th it will have been 1 year since I last posted a blog. What happened to the last 12 months!

Since my last blog, my oldest son has completed Kindergarden, lost a tooth, and doubled in height. Well I am not positive about the his height but he is growing like a weed. It will be interesting to see how tall he ends up being. My youngest has developed a personality like no other. I am convinced he is a desendent of Thor, his blonde hair, his linebacker frame. He has learned how to close his fist and swing it toward my gut when I am least expecting it. Let me be the first to tell you he can throw a punch. My wife has continued with her rockstar status, taking care of our kids full time, working at the church with kids for a portion of the last 12 months and putting up with me all the time. I am a blessed man to have a family like I do. It something that if you are careful you can start taking for granted.

So much has happened in my life and I am still trying to sort through it all and make heads or tails of it. I look forward to sharing more of these situations with you. I feel that I have something to say and that there is something that may want to hear it.

I am currently 40k feet above Indiappolis and I can feel the engines on the plane start to throttle down. My time is short tonight, but I have the next week off and plan on detoxing and clearing my head during that time, not to mention escaping the heat! Time to go, Columbus here we come.

NO MORE FACEBOOK?!?

It is almost 3pm on Saturday afternoon. I have taken care of everything I could fit in before the sun was to much to handle. The temperature is only 103 right now but in the direct sunlight it feels a lot hotter then that. I have retired to the couch watching the Golf and writing this blog. The kids are resting and the house is quiet. 

I am writing this blog to let everyone know that I have closed my facebook account. I actually did it last Sunday afternoon. It was something I was thinking of doing ever since we completed our ride the end of May. A good friend of mine sent me a txt this morning asking why I de-friended him on FB, I told him i shut it down. His response was "did i have a beef with someone?". That thought never crossed my mind, so in discussing this txt communication with my wife she said it would be nice to let people know that i am not going to be on facebook anymore so people know why I am not on there friend list anymore.

For those who are still reading this, the reason I closed my FB account was so that when i come home from work, or on the weekends i want to be 100% focused on my wife and kids. For 6 weeks I lived on FB, it was my connection to the rest of the world. When I got back to "normal" life it was hard to flip that switch off. i would find myself sitting on the couch after a long day at work and be going through my FB, while my kids are begging for attention in different ways. I didn't want any distractions. For me the answer was to shut it down, i would try different things but i was always drawn to "check my facebook" and i just didn't like it. I am thankful to all my friends and the support they provide to me, and i look forward to continuing those friendships. I can always be reached by e-mail at kyle@popsride.com and if you send my a e-mail I will be more then happy to give you my cell number so we can hang out sometime soon.

I am getting close to doing the same to my twitter account, but for some reason I don't feel the need to check it as often as i did my FB? I know I am weird, but that why you are friends with me!

Since last Sunday I have been able to set my phone(s) on the counter and love on my family without a need to keep a phone with me all the time. Will I ever open my account again? maybe?maybe not? I am not really sure, what I am sure of is I am treasuring all the free time i have with my family as well as the time i have to sit and read and find out more about myself.

Ride debrief - 1 week after beach landing

It is hard for me to believe that one week ago we were in Alpine, CA  getting ready to ride the last 35 miles of a 3,100 mile bike ride. 7 days have passed since I rode through the San Diego hills and onto the beach and right into the Pacific Ocean. Just like that it is over, thrown back into the reality of working 10 hour days and the stress that comes along with it.

In a way it was fun to return to my normal life. It was fun because I was able to share my adventure with so many people that I came in contact with. Everyone has different questions about the ride. Was it hard? Was it fun? Did your butt hurt? Yes, Yes and Yes! It was odd to me that the first question most everyone asked me was, "how much weight did you lose?" I would just smile and tell them 20 pounds, and I did it eating everything and anything I wanted for 42 days. I am not sure why this was always the first question people ask me. Either they can see it in my face that I did drop some weight, or they look at me and think I should have lost more weight? If you have spent any time around the sport of cycling you would know that cyclist are very thin and light athletes. If you know me, you would know that I am not thin and not light. I like to think I am breaking the mold for cyclist all over the world!

But the question that I keep getting asked that makes me really scratch my head is "what did you learn on the trip?" or "what did you think about for all those hours on the bike?" They are hard questions to answer. Most of the time my mind just wandered. Some days there was so much to see and take in you were constantly observing, other days you would swear you were just riding on a trainer and the scenery was on a loop. But there were a few things that stood out to me while I was riding, and I will do the best to describe them to you. I will start with the most obvious and then on to the ones I am still processing.

"Damn good riding with you!" one of my favorite quotes from Young Guns. It is also how I feel about riding across the country with Shane and Shannon Stutzman. It was a heck of a ride. We experienced great days together, we experienced some of the hardest days imaginable together. But that was the beauty of it all we did this together, and made it across the United States one mile at a time. When you think about spending 6 weeks with a small group of people it can be kind of scary. Not only did we ride together everyday, we ate together, bunked in hotel rooms/cabins and church floors together. Even on rest days, we went out to eat and walked around small towns together. I don't know about you but at first glance that seems like way too much time to spend together! But I wouldn't trade these guys for nothing. We went in to this as good friends, and as far I am concerned they are like brothers to me now. We had amazing volunteers from coast to coast. Even after days and days together we would still laugh and tell jokes at dinner time.

It was abundantly clear to me that I love my family through and through. There wasn't a minute that went by that I didn't think about them in some way. It was amazing how many things I saw that reminded me of my wife, or when I rode by a park and would think how much fun my boys would have playing there. Sure we had all kinds of technology to keep in contact with. I would text my wife almost every morning and every evening. There weren't very many days that went by that I didn't speak to my wife on the phone. We would set up a skype date at least once a week. It really depended on where we were and if we had a good wi-fi connection. I spent time thinking of how I want to raise my boys to know things boys should know, like how to start a fire, and widdle a tree branch with a pocket knife, change the oil in a car, replace the brakes in the garage instead of taking the vehicle to a garage.  It made me want to make sure my wife knew every single day that I loved her and that she was special to me. These things made me smile while I was riding my bike, and that, my freinds, is a good thing!

It's just not worth it! So many things, that we spend time chasing in life, are just not worth it! I am not talking about chasing your dreams and that sort of thing. I am referring more to material things that we find ourselves chasing. Or maybe it is a status? Or a certain amout of Facebook freinds or followers on Twitter. Those are the things that just aren't worth it.

Surprisingly I did spend time thinking about somethings that are worth it and it kept being reconfirmed as the trip went on. Relationships are worth it, that is what matters at the end of the day. Starting with my relationship with Jesus. If my relationship isn't right with him, I am only wasting time trying to do the rest on my own. As I mentioned above, my relationship with my wife and kids matter! My friends are worth it! Relationships are worth it. I heard a missionary from Ruwanda speak 3 months ago and his message was "invest in people" and I couldn't agree more. We need a community of people to support you when you are down, to celebrate with you when you are up. It is the way we were created to be, in community with each other. You never know when you are going to have an opportunity to be that person to someone in need. That is worth it, that is something I want to remebered for. Not that I was the guys that had this and that, what will that amounT to when its all said and done. Invest in people!

I wasn't sure what I would discover about myself on this trip, I thought I would discover what it is I am supposed to do with my life. Not sure why I thought that would become clear to me, maybe that is what I wanted out of it. But that is not what I learned about myself. I am still trying to process so much of it. So I am sorry to say I can't tell you what it is I will be doing for the rest of my life. What I can tell you is that I will be spending it with my family and make the best with whatever situation presents itself to us.

As for my cycling career! I am excited to see what happens next. We have been invited by The Davis Phinney Foundation, to participate in the Copper Triangle in the Colorado Rockies this coming August. What will happen after that I am not sure. I have been asked many times already if I would do it again. My first response is "Yes, on a motorcycle", and then my next response is that if I did pedal my way across the country again I would go from West to East so that I wasn't fighting the currents as much. But my answer would be yes, I would do it again for the right reason!

I am honored to be part of this and want to thank the Stutzman's for allowing me to join them on this adventure. The awareness and money we have raised for Parkinson's Disease is amazing. We don't plan on stopping either. You will hear from us again in the future. Just like our freinds and family with Parkinson's we just can't stop, we have to keep fighting.

Day 42 - Alpine, CA - Pacific Ocean!!!

Last day of the trip. We schedule our departure 1 hour later then normal to try and peg our 12pm arrival at mission beach. Since my family was staying down the road at a hotel we set the alarms and crashed last night. I had a great nights sleep, I still woke up at 4:30am and just laid there and stared at the ceiling, but that is pretty normal for this week.

We may have set a Worley record for getting up and out the doors. We were very efficient today getting ready! We headed to the church were breakfast was as well as the rest of the crew. We got there and ate breakfast with everyone. Rachael Baderman and Melinda Schlosser had joined us around 7am. They had driven up the night before. My wife and Rachael were driving the SAG (support and gear) vehicle today. Once we all ate, we just sat around and looked at each other. We were all ready to go but we still had 45 minutes until it was time to go. So we did things to stay busy until it was time to leave. We all gathered around the RV and took pictures. Today we had the following riders with us, Myself, Shane, Shannon, Kurt, Kerri and Jordan Ames. Jordan is Carl’s son, and since Carl was not able to ride with us today Jordan was picking up the missed miles for his dad. Jordan you are a great man, and a great son!

We rolled out of the church parking lot at 8am and started headed towards the ocean! We rode through the valleys that surround San Diego. There was a morning haze that was quickly burning off. The temperature was perfect; I would have to guess it was 65 degrees out. Hardly any wind blowing, just right.

We made it to our 10 mile out spot we had located the day before. This is the corner that POPs would start riding with us. It also was the spot where Shannon would hope on the tandem with his mom, Mary. We were ahead of schedule by 30 minutes or so. So we waited a few minutes so we would be on time. We also picked up 2 other riders from the local Von's store in San Diego. We have always been excited to have additional riders join us at any point in this ride. That is what it is all about, doing things together.

It was starting to sink in when we turned and road by Sea World. I knew were getting close to the end. I wasn't too emotional; it was just an amazing feeling that we were getting ready to complete a coast to coast bike ride. We finally headed over the bridge that took us to Mission Beach Park. When we crested the top of the bridge I could see the ocean and it really started to hit me. Also on the top of that bridge I saw one of my favorite POPs Riders - Carl Ames. If you remember Carl rode with us from the AZ/NM state line into Phoenix. Carl has Parkinson’s disease and his doctor switched his medication last week and told him not to ride his bike for a while until they got his meds right. So there he was at the top of the bridge waiting for us with a huge smile. He brought with him a bike with two wheels in the back; you know the ones with the baskets back there. It was sweet! That why he couldn’t lose his balance yet still ride with us the leg of the journey. We road right down towards the beach and stopped 2 blocks short to pick us the junior POPs Riders that were waiting for us there. My 2 sons both had huge smiles on there face and where ready to go. Isaac (5yr old) rode his bike. Nathanial (2 yr old) hoped on my bike and cruised in with me. We were met on the beach with a crowd a people holding signs and cheering us on! It was incredible! My family was there, my mom was there. My wife’s family was there as well as a large group of really good friends. Again it was so good to be surrounded by all these people and signs!

We hugged and high fived people. By this time everyone on the beach was wondering what was going on. There was a film crew there doing a shot with us so the camera was attracting some attention. But we didn’t really care. The 3 of us who had ridden the whole way headed down to the water to dip our tires in the Pacific, just as we intended to when we left the Atlantic 42 days ago. It was something special to be out there. This was another moment that will not be forgotten.

After that we posed for some more pictures, talked to some more people. Then I realized that I was just standing there. I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do now. I knew we had to get back on our bikes and ride some more for the cameras but that is not what I am talking about. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. For the last 42 days I have had a mission, a goal to achieve. We had just completed that task, reached that goal – what now? I just stood there for a while and took it all in. My kids with my sister-in-law playing in the ocean, my wife was talking to friends and family members. I just stood there.

We received word that we were going to ride for 10-15 minutes while the film crew took some video of us riding around the area. It was a little frustrating waiting for them to setup and get the shots. It took closer to 45-60 minutes to complete but we just kept reminding ourselves that it wasn’t about us and you never know who this video may reach or what it can do. When we were complete we were about 2 miles from the beach, so we headed back to where we had already been. Everyone had left except our immediate family. We packed up our bikes like we have done for the last 42 days and pulled the RV and the SAG out of the busy parking lot.

After we were checked in to our hotel and showered and cleaned up we headed to our party for everyone that was in town. One of Shane’s co-workers was staying at a beach house about a mile from where we finished our ride. It a cool place right there against the boardwalk and the beach. We had grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and just enjoyed each others company. After we had all eaten, Rachel had presented us with medals for completing our journey across the United States. They were on black ribbon like Olympic medals. We all wore them proudly. Then Keith and his wife presented the 3 of us with statues of cyclist and they had little plaques that had the miles we had ridden and our name on them. Thank you Keith, these are amazing and I will proudly display this at work so I can share the story with anyone that ask!

After we talked everyone for the gifts and hugged Carl Ames presented POPs Ride with BIG check for the amount that his team raised for POPs Ride. The check was for $15,000! We were blown away, we knew Carl was doing all he could to raise money for POPs Ride and he told us one day that he was going to raise that much, and that day was now. He even shared when his daughter was adding it all up with him, it was 14,988 dollars. His daughter asked if it would be okay if she donated $12 to make it an even $15k. It is amazing to see people go out of their way to raise money for this cause.

We had cupcake and cake and hung out on the boardwalk and people watched. We shared stories with each other about the trip and life. A few people went for a walk on the beach, the kids played in the sand. It was a real nice evening. We all headed back to the hotel. I needed to get something out of the RV so I walked down to where it was parked. A few were gathered outside and we talked about what everyone was doing on Sunday. Some are leaving earlier to get back to Phoenix. Kurt and his family along with a few others are heading to Sea World for the day. Our family is heading to a nice breakfast and then maybe we'll walk around the pier for a few hours. Sarah’s parents are flying out of San Diego this afternoon. We will drop them off and head back to Phoenix and back to work tomorrow morning. Still not sure how I feel about having to go back to work tomorrow? The fact that I have been gone for 6 weeks, and I only had 4 weeks of vacation is a major factor in being excited about returning to work. I do miss a lot of my co-workers and will be excited to see them again and share some of my stories.

For all of you that live in Phoenix and want to know more about my trip, please feel free to contact me! I would love to share this experience with you over a cup of coffee or a slice of pie (pizza pie that is)!

Please remember, just because the ride is over it doesn’t mean you can not donate to the cause. Please visit our website if you want to make a donation to one of the charities that we are working with.

So what is next….give me some time to think about this one. Right now I am excited to spend some time with my family. I have missed them! Stay tuned in the next week for a follow up of my transition back into a “normal” life.

You guys rock!