A Little Stone in the Road Sends Us Back Home Again,To Indiana

First I want to let everyone know we are in good shape.  We are at home in Plymouth and I will tell you more about the why and how towards the end of this post.  But Monday was a beautiful full day on the Katy Trail and we want to share that experience with everyone.  We have many pictures as it is a beautiful trail and one of the few days we rode anywhere and had shade.  So we will start out with a few of the sites -

This is the side of me that Mary Kay has seen for 21 days of riding!

Lots of shade and a beautiful ride!!

And a few surprises!  There turned out to be six head of cattle sharing the trail with us.  We were a little tentative riding by them.

The Big MO - the Missouri River

As I said we had a wonderful ride.  There was a little detour at the end of the ride due to flooding that took us off the trail.  That prevented us from being able to ride through the old railroad tunnel.  As we rode into Rocheport, MO we were ready for a good night's rest and anxious for more of the trail on Tuesday.  We found the Katy Trail Bed and Bikefest, our lodging for the night and began our usual evening routine.  After cleaning up and deciding that we needed to find a good place to eat (as usual the place recommended for us was closed on Monday) another person staying in the B & B came down and introduced himself.  He was a self described academic finalizing a book for publication on philosophy.  He had chosen the B&B as a nice quiet place to work for a week.  After a short conversation he invited us to have supper with him.  He had brought some food and was going to prepare his own meal.  We all pitched in and had a very nice meal with interesting conversation.  We talked about philosophy, teaching philosophy and ethics to college student who base their early thoughts on their religious background and some of the differences he sees in students for various religions.  He was interested in our encounters along our ride and our question about "Hope."  He "Hoped" that his children would have a clean world to live in.   We did not have Internet access, so after doing a little reading it was an early night to bed.  Things were great!!

About 3:30 in the morning I was laying in bed trying to decide if I could wait awhile before getting up for my bathroom break or not.  I decided the urge was too strong so I got up.  After that I got the worst pain in my lower abdomen that I have ever had.  It came on pretty quick and didn't seem to let up.  I thought it was getting better and then it would start again.  I spend much of the next three hours in the bathroom in various positions trying to relieve the pain.  Of course Mary Kay couldn't sleep either.  We finally called 911 around 6:00 am.  We didn't even know where we were in relation to anywhere else.  It took awhile to get the ambulance there, but I was never so happy to see a paramedic, especially when he got permission from the hospital to give me a little morphine.  After arriving at the hospital going through my medical history and observing me for a couple of hours a cat scan was done and the results showed a kidney stone.  We were told that we could leave and wait out the kidney stone and continue our ride if we wanted, but they couldn't be sure how long it would take.  After a little conversation Mary Kay suggested that we should go home.  Although I didn't tell her I was really thankful that she said that.  I just didn't know how I was going to get back on the bike soon and continue the ride.  We made the decision with some sadness, but with a realization that it was the right thing to do.  It did turn out to be the right decision, as it is Thursday morning and I still haven't passed the stone yet.  We had to take a taxi to rent a car, buy a bike rack, and get our stuff packed up.  Mary Kay drove all the way home, since I was on pain medicine.  I figure she was up from 4 in the morning, spent all morning in the hospital with me, drove 10 hours and didn't get home until midnight.  What a woman!!

As I said, we had mixed emotions about suspending our ride.  However, we were well beyond the point of wondering if we could do it or not.  We know we could physically and mentally complete the ride.  If this had happened earlier in the ride, we would not have had that confidence.  With all the great people we have met on the ride, we met another one of our goals - to talk to people in their own environments and try to understand them a little more.  We have promoted, as well as benefited the theme of "Do Something For Others Today."  Everyday we hear from someone who says they made a decision that day to take time to help someone or do something that they may not have done if they hadn't been reading and riding along with us through our blog.  Our "HOPE" now is that people will continue to do those things.

On our ride home we talked about the most significant things for us from the trip and our hopes.  Mary Kay said she felt so good about us doing this together.  What a great thought!  We did help each other throughout the trip, we made decisions together and after nearly 42 years of marriage, it brought us even closer together.  We also talked about the fact that we were able to highlight good deeds people had done for others.  As we thought more about it I think we realized that these things are constantly going on around us, we just don't take the time to recognize them.  Sometimes we are too busy with our own lives or we think too much about the problems and negative things going on to see the good.  We believe that virtually all the people around us want to do good.

Our hopes - that somehow all the conflict in the world could stop.  Maybe that seems contradictory to our last statement about people wanting to do good.  I am not sure how to explain that but we have learned, even through our short experiences, that people with different views need the opportunity to "know" each other.  Maybe through that knowing and understanding recognition of each others' needs can be more fully understood.  That is simplistic, but somehow it needs to happen.  Another hope is that whatever we have done for others or for ourselves that somehow the idea of service will continue to be part of the way we live our lives.  We aren't riding now - maybe sometime in the future we will go back to finish the ride - but we can still do something everyday for others -

Visit someone who is alone

Help that person that looks like they are struggling with something

Pray

If you have extra - give to someone or some group who can make good use of your contribution

Do the little things - like Harold who collects the tops from pop/beer cans for Riley - he has probably donated tens of thousands through his constant search for tops from cans thrown away

This isn't the end - we will continue to blog about our year's experiences throughout the summer.  The Magee 3 Triathlon is coming up on July 17.  This is the triathlon hosted by our family in memory of Michael Noel Magee.  This will be the 10th annual and anyone interested in participating should get their entry form in as soon as possible.  We have lots of fun - 400 yard swim, 10 mile bike ride, and 3.5 mile run.  Teams are welcome to participate.  We will continue to blog about preparations and what is happening with the Magee 3.  We will also be attending for the 40th consecutive year a family reunion week in Wheeling, West Virginia.  We began doing this when our oldest child was just a baby.  All of our kids and now our grand kids look forward to this week every year.  This again points out one of the important parts of our lives and that is family.  Families need to take the time to develop traditions and togetherness.  In August we will join our friends Sharon, Greg, Ruth, and Ian for a trip to Europe.  It will be interesting to see what kinds of hopes and opportunities to do something for others we observe in Germany and Italy.  So if you want to, we invite you to continue the journey with us - if not we really appreciate the time you have spent with us.  This has been a fantastic adventure, one that has made a difference in our lives.  Thanks for riding with us!! 
Jack and Mary Kay