Donating
Spares Needed!Leg 3 brought with it the introduction to the mountains as we left Las Vegas heading to Salt Lake City. The change of scenery heading north was drastic and immediate as compared to the desert entry in from the south. Brian Striggow from Athens, GA, another complete stranger, but fellow kidney donor, replaced Megan Conner in the RV, with Tim Mullen moving to social media person and Brian taking over as the driver. My Son Nick from Salt Lake City joined up to replace Tim the night before we entered Zion National Park . The next day we all experienced the majesty and beauty of Zion. Tim stayed long enough to help me get the bike through the bicycle restricted 1 mile tunnel in Zion then he turned around and drove Nick’s car back the SLC to catch his flight home to Illinois. Somehow, I climbed 4500 feet in 70 miles that day without much noticing it. I did feel quite drained at the end of the day and at one RV support stop I downed as much sugar as I could (pro tip: Wisconsin made Embark Maple Energy) We stayed just short of Hatch, UT that night and woke up the next morning to 33 degree temperatures. The water lines had ice in them. I suggested a nice bacon and fried potatoes breakfast to let it warm up some outside before I took off pedaling. I had a 92 mile scheduled day ahead of me, but it was virtually all downhill after all day climbing the day before. 8 miles later I pulled into a cafe and ordered a 2nd breakfast of French Toast and hot coffee. By that time it had warmed up nicely and I sated my appetite for living on the edge at times by hopping on a primitive dirt/gravel road 12 miles to the next RV rendezvous checkpoint. It was so nice. Solitude, no cars, no buildings, nothing. Just endless high desert landscape. A short reprieve to charge the batteries. I furthered my desire to avoid traffic by again choosing farmer roads that turned from pavement to gravel for another 14 miles. After that I switched gears to eat up some pavement miles, my iPhone already experiencing that as I had dropped it on the blacktop farmer road and rolled my back wheel over it screen side down. It still worked, thankfully, but looking through the shattered, spider webbed screen in direct sunlight added to the fun of the day. I got in 87 of the 92 miles that day as I rolled into the campground. Brian had brought his Brompton folding bike and got in some nice riding as did Tim and Nick on my spare bike during lulls in their duties. We ended Leg 3 with my grandson Mason, son Nick, and a local liver recipient, riding in with me to an event sponsored by DonorConnect Utah. South Jordan, UT City Council members were there to greet us along with representatives of Intermountain Health . A local heart recipient told his emotional and heartfelt story of hope and resilience. He specifically talked about waiting for the heart that would save his life. About learning about what people like us do, like everyone associated with The Organ Trail, out there fighting to help save lives and give hope to complete strangers, people we will never know about, much less meet. His tear filled thank you as he looked at me meant so much as I thought about our TOT 6.0 Team and everyone following along on social media as we all do what we can to help people like him. Two people in attendance said they never knew about the potential of being a living organ donor. I then took off to cover the 55 miles of bike path to Nick’s town of West Haven. 3 miles from home, grandson Mason joined me and he lead me to his home, it was a great finale to Leg 3. As with Team Jannene and the Scream Team, Brian, Tim, and Nick, the 3 Amigos Team, did an excellent job supporting me as we head into the final stretch to Denver. From the salt air and sandy beach of Santa Monica, to the heat and Joshua Tree forests of the Mohave Desert, through the magnificent landscape of Zion, to the Great Salt Lake, we’ve experienced many stories of hope and success in the transplant world. Some people did not want to be interviewed nor pictures taken, some it didn’t feel appropriate to ask after hinting, some were too busy (waitresses, people at work) but rest assured, literally every person we spoke to had some connection to transplant, dialysis, or organ donation. A huge Thank You to all of you for helping create awareness of the need, the belief that this is a solvable problem, and helping to demonstrate that living donation only adds to one’s life after donation.
