It is Sunday PM, June 3, the day after the Ride Ataxia NorCal Research Fundraiser Bike Ride! My body feels strange, like it is asking me "What did you do to me again??". LOL  I'm not sure if it is riding the 23 miles (which wasn't really that bad), the increasing heat of the ride (which really wasn't that bad), the two days labor to help put The Ride together and take it apart, (which really wasn't that bad) or sitting mostly under shade in 98 degree heat at the post-event get together at the Berryessa Brewing Company (it really was that bad). Or perhaps it was the accumulation of all of that. :-) As always I response to my body with "Get over it!". It has worked so far.

After sleeping at Brianne's Wednesday night (4 nights a week these days) I got home at 10:30am to finish helping load the trailer and pull it out out the side yard. Each year our packing prep time gets shorter and our "at the moment" packing gets more immediate, and so we pulled out of the driveway around 3pm arriving at the Lake Solano Campground about 4:30pm. Lake Solano is a wide spot (reservoir) in Putah Creek formed by a diversionary dam just downstream from Lake Solano Campground.

In a change from previous years the Rupel family has sold their trailer and so there was no welcoming committee. The fundraiser this year is dedicated to their FA son Matt who died last Fall from infection complications. He was a wonderfully intelligent and humorous young man. Our campsite was a pull-through so in short time we were set up. We had a quiet evening next to Putah Creek with the appropriate number of creek-side bugs.

Friday morning found us in Winters at 9:30am set to lay out the courses.
- With plenty of volunteers we knocked that out by Noon and had lunch together at the Putah Creek Cafe catching up since last we met! The camaraderie of the group warms my heart.
- At 1:30pm we gained access to the community center hall and set up the tables, chairs and all the trappings needed for a successful ride.
- During that time I had fun with the center's coordinator, a 40-year veteran chef now apparently gliding toward retirement. I got squirted in the face by their hallway fountain and then noticed it never shut off completely. What?! She informed me she had called a number of times to city hall to no avail. So I told her to call with the information that a rabid environmentalist was there and threatening to do a picket with TV cameras on Monday if it was not fixed! lol Within a half hour a city plumber arrived. Ya gotta love the government.
- At 3:30pm Susan and I returned to the cool trailer for a respite. As we came in I stopped at the camp host to request an exception to the 9pm gate-closing promising we would be in by 9:30pm and would honk as we came by their rig.
- 6pm found us in Davis at the Woodstock Pizza four an informal before-the-ride get-together for all and sundry! It was so nice! FA'ers Kyle, Sean, Sam, Dylan, and Sienna were there with families and friends. We got to meet wonderful new people that are motivated by their friendships with FAmilies, neat!
- Slid back in camp at 9:15pm (yes!) with a toot to the camp hosts and after a little TV slumbered off at 11pm-ish with the clock set for 6:15am.
- I groggily awoke at 5am listening hazily to a "beep-whosh" sound! What IS that?? What is breaking or has broken in or around the trailer to explain that noise?? Is water flooding through the trailer?? Could it be Susan's Iphone? Susan whispers, "Peacock", of which they have quite a few in the campground. So we listened as they walked past the trailer giving voice to all that would listen. Susan later suggest it could have been a Canadian goose.
- We are at the community center about 7am. This year there is no official photographer so Susan went off to document the start of the 52 mile at 7:30 while I wash the truck's window for her SAG paint and figure out how to remove the new bike rack.
- The hour is a blur until ride-time! I'm riding with my sister-in-law who has been exercising to beat the band! And I haven't ridden for more than 6 months! I may eat her dust!
- The morning is beautiful and we should be back in the air conditioned center when the temperature hits 84, works for me! S-I-L Karen led and I kept up. The 23 miles flew by. On the third leg we were put into the Southbound wind at about 10mph and we weren't having as much fun. But for the last leg the wind was a crosswind and we had a net downhill ride. Sweet!
- At the center Karen went for her camera to help Susan and I tried to visit each of my FA "nieces and nephews". It wasn't a good day for Sean Mazeres and Ashley is fighting a bladder infection but I met Nina and checked in with others! Family and friends gathered together to help push forward for a cure!
- About 1pm-ish we started the tear-down finishing about 2pm. Off we went to the brewing company for about 2 hours pleased that we could sit with the Helms' family and their friends. Finally the sun shifted onto our backs and we gave it up. Back to the trailer where we ate leftovers and just did nothing. :-)
- This morning we got up at 9am and at 10am broke camp. It was already over 80. Gone by 11am and home at 12:30pm.

I will be thanking the sponsors of Brianne's Team Blue Skies in another document but let me repeat it here, Thank You all that have supported us and all the 15,000+ FA'ers around the world! You are making the research possible that will release these children and adults from the grip of FA! Thus far this year's ride gained $93K for FA research ($98K by Tuesday) including almost $2.1K from Team Blue Skies! This money might support 3 grants to researchers exploring new FA treatment possibilities giving them the opportunity to prove their hypothesis sufficiently to interest a drug company (with the deep pockets necessary to carry on the research).

And the fundraiser is not over! :-) Go to the Team Blue Skies webpage at  http://fara.convio.net/site/TR/Events/General?team_id=3974&pg=team&fr_id=1472 if you are so moved.

Thanks for joining me through my blog this year! See you next year!

Here I am again! Twice in a year! lol Hopefully I will not get distracted and will give you my post-2018 report in June. I was going through my Drafts folder yesterday and found my 2017 post-ride Email, unsent! Lordy-Lordy way too much going on in my retirement! :-)

All is ready for The Ride in 9 days. The FARA folks are wonderfully organized and participants will feel well supported. We are about 56% of the FARA goal of $100K. Susan and I are ready to help Friday and Saturday to support the logistics and grunt-work to make the event a success for the folks who attend. We'll be camping at the Lake Solano Campground West of Winters where we'll see the Rupel family for the first time since their FA son Matt's death last Fall. What an amazing young man and such a loss! Sigh FA doesn't care.

Speaking of ready I am as un-ready as in any year so far! lol But I can make it 23 miles, if the wind doesn't kick up to 22mph as it did some years ago! Have faith!

I'm off to speak an evening of quality time with Brianne in 1/2 an hour!

Ta-Ta

My last blob was in May 2016 so obviously last year I was oblivious to the opportunity of updating my blog. Brianne was not able to attend last year so I did the 23 mile route and had the pleasure of riding most of the way with FA'er Sean Baumstark. Sean was just a couple of weeks into his first recumbent trike so we made it a social ride (which we are both good at!), breaking no land speed record but did some good sharing.

This year for the 2018 FARA Ride Ataxia NorCal bike fundraiser Brianne again cannot make it. At the beginning of the year she was hit by a bad flu, contracted pneumonia and is still pulling out of that funk. She would love your prayers, good thoughts and even a visit if you are in the area.

I with wife Susan do plan on being there! I will again do the 23 mile route while Susan will be on the road watching after the 12 mile route riders as she has each year. This is Year 9 and we are as excited as on Year 1! Over these years the event has moved from Folsom to Davis and now to Winters but the focus is the same, bring multiple treatments to FA patients like Brianne and Sean. This year's ride is dedicated to FA'er Matt Rupel, an amazing young man who passed this last year. He wasn't able to wait for the treatment. See ride details here, http://fara.convio.net/site/TR?fr_id=1472&pg=entry  .

We ARE getting closer to treatments. The MOXIE trials should get a FDA decision in a couple of years, the HDACi is finally out of the lab and moving toward the FDA by the end of the year, there are 4 or 5 gene therapy drug companies surging forward and 2 groups are looking at bone marrow stem cell treatments in the near future (I thought that was still 10+ years out). Go to http://www.curefa.org/pipeline for more details.

So join us for the first time or continue with us my fine and faithful friends from these years past! Sponsor me, Brianne or our Team Blue Skies by going to
http://fara.convio.net/site/TR/Events/General?pg=pfind&fr_id=1472, mail me a check made out to "FARA" (not me) (1921 Alice Dr., Penngrove, CA 94951), or PayPal works too.

We can make a difference for some 15,000 FA'ers in the world, and for Brianne.

Best regards, from Brianne, Susan, Richard and I, members of Team Blue Skies!

Paul