Barry Davis's
Cross Country Bicycle Ride
From Seattle to Provincetown
For The Jimmy Fund
Cross Country Bicycle Ride
From Seattle to Provincetown
For The Jimmy Fund
My Second Attempt '05
5:45am, Sat. Oct.1st. The Sturbridge Host Hotel parking lot. The starting point for the PMC and my second attempt. From Left to right....Paul Fahey, Mark D'Agostino, myself, Joanne Butler
I'm in the lead with Mark on my rear wheel as we are on Sutton ave in Oxford, 14 miles into Day 1. Paul Fahey is in the car behind me and Joanne Butler is taking the photo.
It is hard to see, but the crack that put me out of the PMC is right below my fingertip. And the crank arm is made out of carbon-fiber!!!
Steve Carlsen, holding the bike, and I are talking in the hotel parking lot about the broken frame on the Felt 65.
The replacement bike. Thanks Steve!!!!
That's Matt Dillis (L) as we take a break somewhere along Rt 6A on the Cape during Day 2.
Jim Stewart (L) and Al Homer (center) meet up with Matt Dillis and me at the Burger King rest stop along Rt 6 in Barnstable. The four of us will ride the rest of he way to P-town together.
The "GREATEST CREW EVER!!!" From Left to Right.....
Front row...Joanne Butler, Janice Homer,
myself, Al Homer
Back row...Paul Fahey, allen Eyden,
Cheryl and Steve Carlsen
It was my 23rd PMC in 2005. Things were going well in preparation for this years event. I had bought a brand new high end bike, a Felt 65. The brand was new to the market and I was looking for something different than any other bike I had ever owned. I was professionally fit for the bike, it had some carbon fiber components and was really light. It would be a really cool bike. But then came the PMC weekend and things went south quickly.
My preparation for event weekend went smoothly, I picked up my best friend and fellow PMC'er Mark D'Agostino from Syracuse on Thursday, got to the Sturbridge Fire Department HQ were I have spent night before the ride for the past 16 years early Friday morning, helping set-up the Sturbridge Host Hotel for opening ceremonies, etc.
Saturday morning, Mark and I ride the half-mile from SFD to the hotel at 5am and depart with the nearly 2,600 other PMC'ers in Sturbridge at 6am. Six miles into the ride I start hearing a rhythmic clicking sound with every stroke of the pedal. I pull of the road at the Masonic Home Road and found that my left pedal crank arm is bent and cracked and makes the bike unride-able. I am what I hope to be temporarily out of this years PMC.
I got picked up by one of the 25 PMC road safety vans and get transported to Oxford center where my family is waiting for me. Mark's wife Vicky is driving my truck so I can have it on the Cape after the PMC and she drives me and the kids to the Mass Maritime Academy, the over night home to the PMC. There's a bike shop across the street from the MMA's main entrance and the shop owner lets me make phone calls to other local bike shop to see if they have a replacement crank. None does. I AM OUT OF THE EVENT!!!
I spend the night in my assigned room at MMA, get up with Mark and wish him well and safe journey. I get a ride from PMC Road Coordinator Allen Eyden to get to the Provincetown Inn, the finish line of the PMC and greet Mark there. It was rather strange being on the other side of the bike this year. The PMC is over.
While vacationing on the Cape, I came became very depressed that I didn't even get to ride the PMC. It bothered me because I felt I let down my mom and my wife Linda (both of whom passed of cancer) by not putting my body through the pain of riding nearly 200 miles over 2 days. So, I came up with the idea of doing my own PMC after I got a replacement crank.
While I waited, I contacted Allen Eyden again and asked him for maps of the middle 40 miles of the first day route since I didn't know this new part of the route. A few days later, Allen calls me back to say he has done me 4 better. Four in the way of being able to assemble 4 crews (including himself) of PMC Road Crew teams to guide me from Sturbridge to Provincetown on Oct. 1 & 2, 2005. Those crew members were Allen, Al and Janice Homer, Paul Fahey and Joanne Butler, and Steve and Cheryl Carlsen.
So on Friday night, Sept. 30th, I arrive at Sturbridge Fire HQ and prepare as I always do for a PMC, but I'm the only one. There's no opening ceremonies, no helping setup. A bit different. Just before I head for bed, Mark shows up at SFD. I knew he was coming because this was Patriots football game weekend for he and his 3 brothers. He stopped by to wish me well. But before he left, he asked me to help him with his bike. Yes, HIS bike. The football game was Sunday, so he was going to join me on Saturday and ride with me from Sturbridge to the Mass Maritime Academy. I couldn't ask for a better brother in life. So at 6am, Mark and I depart for MMA with Paul Fahey and Joanne Butler as tail-end Charlie. As I ride more miles, I meet up with the rest of the crew.
We all spend the night at a local hotel near MMA, and have a great time. When we arrived at the hotel, Steve Carlsen noticed something wrong with my bike. The frame was broken at the bottom bracket. No wonder I was having problems shifting all day. Well, Steve had called be prior to the weekend and brought a back-up bike. WOW! What a save. Steve worked at a bike shop a short distance away and took all my accessories from my bike and put them on the back-up bike.
The following morning, Steve arrives with the new bike, makes final adjustments for me and I am off. The Bourne Police escort me over the Bourne Bridge and I meet up with fellow PMC'er Matt Dillis. His sister Valerie Souza lives 5 miles on route from the lunch stop on Day 1. She provided a great lunch for all of us yesterday. Valerie does this for Matt every year on the event weekend for Matt and his friends. A few miles later, I meet up with Al Homer, one of my road crew members on his bike. He and a friend Jim Stewart also join me and the 4 of us ride on to Provincetown.
After all was said and done, I was able to ride the PMC, well my own PMC in 2005. All in all, I had 23 people help me complete my "Second Attempt". Twenty three wonderful people that took a weekend off from their lives to help me feel better about myself that I did more than just ride six miles in the PMC.
There are no words that I can put together that can adequately thank all of these people for the sacrifice they made for ME.
My preparation for event weekend went smoothly, I picked up my best friend and fellow PMC'er Mark D'Agostino from Syracuse on Thursday, got to the Sturbridge Fire Department HQ were I have spent night before the ride for the past 16 years early Friday morning, helping set-up the Sturbridge Host Hotel for opening ceremonies, etc.
Saturday morning, Mark and I ride the half-mile from SFD to the hotel at 5am and depart with the nearly 2,600 other PMC'ers in Sturbridge at 6am. Six miles into the ride I start hearing a rhythmic clicking sound with every stroke of the pedal. I pull of the road at the Masonic Home Road and found that my left pedal crank arm is bent and cracked and makes the bike unride-able. I am what I hope to be temporarily out of this years PMC.
I got picked up by one of the 25 PMC road safety vans and get transported to Oxford center where my family is waiting for me. Mark's wife Vicky is driving my truck so I can have it on the Cape after the PMC and she drives me and the kids to the Mass Maritime Academy, the over night home to the PMC. There's a bike shop across the street from the MMA's main entrance and the shop owner lets me make phone calls to other local bike shop to see if they have a replacement crank. None does. I AM OUT OF THE EVENT!!!
I spend the night in my assigned room at MMA, get up with Mark and wish him well and safe journey. I get a ride from PMC Road Coordinator Allen Eyden to get to the Provincetown Inn, the finish line of the PMC and greet Mark there. It was rather strange being on the other side of the bike this year. The PMC is over.
While vacationing on the Cape, I came became very depressed that I didn't even get to ride the PMC. It bothered me because I felt I let down my mom and my wife Linda (both of whom passed of cancer) by not putting my body through the pain of riding nearly 200 miles over 2 days. So, I came up with the idea of doing my own PMC after I got a replacement crank.
While I waited, I contacted Allen Eyden again and asked him for maps of the middle 40 miles of the first day route since I didn't know this new part of the route. A few days later, Allen calls me back to say he has done me 4 better. Four in the way of being able to assemble 4 crews (including himself) of PMC Road Crew teams to guide me from Sturbridge to Provincetown on Oct. 1 & 2, 2005. Those crew members were Allen, Al and Janice Homer, Paul Fahey and Joanne Butler, and Steve and Cheryl Carlsen.
So on Friday night, Sept. 30th, I arrive at Sturbridge Fire HQ and prepare as I always do for a PMC, but I'm the only one. There's no opening ceremonies, no helping setup. A bit different. Just before I head for bed, Mark shows up at SFD. I knew he was coming because this was Patriots football game weekend for he and his 3 brothers. He stopped by to wish me well. But before he left, he asked me to help him with his bike. Yes, HIS bike. The football game was Sunday, so he was going to join me on Saturday and ride with me from Sturbridge to the Mass Maritime Academy. I couldn't ask for a better brother in life. So at 6am, Mark and I depart for MMA with Paul Fahey and Joanne Butler as tail-end Charlie. As I ride more miles, I meet up with the rest of the crew.
We all spend the night at a local hotel near MMA, and have a great time. When we arrived at the hotel, Steve Carlsen noticed something wrong with my bike. The frame was broken at the bottom bracket. No wonder I was having problems shifting all day. Well, Steve had called be prior to the weekend and brought a back-up bike. WOW! What a save. Steve worked at a bike shop a short distance away and took all my accessories from my bike and put them on the back-up bike.
The following morning, Steve arrives with the new bike, makes final adjustments for me and I am off. The Bourne Police escort me over the Bourne Bridge and I meet up with fellow PMC'er Matt Dillis. His sister Valerie Souza lives 5 miles on route from the lunch stop on Day 1. She provided a great lunch for all of us yesterday. Valerie does this for Matt every year on the event weekend for Matt and his friends. A few miles later, I meet up with Al Homer, one of my road crew members on his bike. He and a friend Jim Stewart also join me and the 4 of us ride on to Provincetown.
After all was said and done, I was able to ride the PMC, well my own PMC in 2005. All in all, I had 23 people help me complete my "Second Attempt". Twenty three wonderful people that took a weekend off from their lives to help me feel better about myself that I did more than just ride six miles in the PMC.
There are no words that I can put together that can adequately thank all of these people for the sacrifice they made for ME.
