Well, Enduro-Tour 2008 was all that Steve McGuire could have hoped for in a story, except for the bit where he didn't get to go. There was Steve, the local hero, planning to ride 2711 miles to help find a treatment for young people with a rare and devastating kidney disease. The backstory began with the training for a year beforehand- if you don't count the 46 years of biking leading up to that. Several months before the ride he was awarded a grant to help fund the Tour Divide and travel around the country doing what he loves, telling stories about the ride to college students. There were newspaper, TV and radio spots leading up to the sending off of the bike to Canada. It all seemed so perfectly scripted. Until the Chapter 7 disaster. The rains came down and the floods came up. But the people of Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty, came out to sandbag. With typical Iowa Attitude, they were even annoyed when, at one point, they were asked to stop sandbagging to seek shelter after tornado clouds were sighted near the University. Although thousands of people of all ages sandbagged against the Iowa River, the waters rose higher and higher, over the sandbags and bridges, into our roads, homes and the University of Iowa. Still, hope floats and Steve postponed the Enduro-Tour start date by 2 weeks (what's a little flooding?) trusting that all would still be ok. But things went very wrong and with disastrous timing. Steve watched his dreams of the Enduro-Tour, his home, his workplace and the fundraiser washed away by the flood. It could have been the end of the story, except Matthew Lee, another biker on the Tour, was watching what was happening to Steve, and stepped in and offered to ride as Steve's proxy for Kidneeds, taking that from Steve's shoulders. However, ride was scarcely the term- for Matthew seemed to be flying. The speed with which he covered the 2711 off road miles through storms, snow, mud and lightning was staggering and unimaginable to those of us who ride an upright bike with 5 speeds. Along the way he managed to stop and encourage other riders and still wind up at the NM/Mexico border in first place after a 19 day ride. During those same 19 days, Steve had been relocating his family, organizing information from national, state and local levels in an attempt to help his neighbors get the best possible outcome in a bad situation and as head of Uni of Iowa Studio Art program, he had been organizing the move of the UI studio art dept. to a vacant hardware store, while the beautiful, new School of Art and Art History awaited repair. Two different Enduro-Tours by two remarkable and big hearted people.
The stories will go on from today. Matt Lee returned from a brilliant ride to NC to await the birth of his soon- to -arrive son. In Iowa City, Steve continues to tear out parts of his home, now that the water is gone from the basement, well almost, with the aid of a pump. But like all good stories, there is a happy ending because dreams might be thwarted, but they aren't extinguished. In fact, sometimes the obstacles make the committment more cemented.
I was helping some friends tear out their drywall the other day, when Steve stopped by to check on them. I just happened to be wearing my Enduro-Tour T-shirt. Seeing it, he clutched his heart and said, "Oh, no, it's killing me to see that shirt." Then with the briefest of pauses he said, "But we are going to do it next year, aren't we?!" Stay tuned. (Fabrizio, that will give you a whole year to get ready to join Steve.) In the meantime- thank you to everyone in the US and Europe who played a big role in making this a very successful and exciting fundraiser. We are now over $35,000. 100% will go to help fund DDD research. We hope by next year, we will be able to report that we are on the final leg of the Kidneeds Enduro Tour story too. Until then- Thank you- especially you, Matthew Lee !!
Lynne, Jenna and the DDD families
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