The start of The Organ Trail ride

This is a recap of the 150 mile ride beginning in Plover, WI to Madison, WI for my donation surgery.

We gathered on the street in the front of our house early on September 19th. in Plover, Wisconsin.

Among the friends, family members and neighbors was our 7 year old granddaughter, 11 year old grandson and a friends 10 year old daughter.

My wife Lynn rode with our granddaughter Alyssa for a mile then turned around and rode back home. Our friends daughter and her mom rode on approximately 4 more miles before they retraced their ride back to our house. Our grandson Jason continued on for 20 miles to Wisconsin Rapids where we connected with the Wisconsin River and an interview with a local newspaper before he ended his ride by meeting his Dad who had covered the distance by car.

After this short stop 6 of us continued on. 2 guys turned around a few miles later with 1 rider going on to the the 30 mile mark before he turned around to meet his goal of a metric century as a round trip ride total.

That left Greg, Bill and myself to continue on to meet my wife Lynn around the 50 mile mark at a gas station on a wide spot in the road called Arkdale. We got off the bikes, ate a little something and used the facilities.

I had one flat along the way. Will be setup tubeless for the ride to Louisiana!

We mounted back up to meet Lynn and my 2 sisters, Pamm and GeeGee with their husbands on the outskirts of Wisconsin Dells. After a brief stop, Bill needed to pull out due to a hamstring issue so that left Greg and I to continue on to finish in Portage, Wisconsin covering 100 miles for the first day.

We met for dinner before heading to bed for a much deserved night of sleep.

Bill had recovered enough to join Greg and I in the morning and we headed out to meet another Bill at the ferry that would take us across the Wisconsin River in Merrimac, Wisconsin. Lynn was there in the car to meet us as well.

From there the 4 of us biked into Saulk City where we turned south towards Madison as the Wisconsin River turned west towards its rendezvous with the Mississippi River.

We found ourselves ahead of schedule so we popped into a local bar to catch the score of the Packer game and catch one cold one.

Arriving into Middleton, Wisconsin and a stop at Restoring Hope Transplant House. RHTH is the charity we’re highlighting for the initial start of this awareness ride. It’s a private non-profit that offers very affordable housing to family members of people receiving organ transplants at UW-Madison.

After meeting with the folks associated with RHTH, the local DONATE LIFE of AMERICA chapter and a local TV station that covered our ride, we mounted the bikes one last time and continued on to the UW-Hospital where in 10 days I would be having my donation surgery.

Once again DONATE LIFE AMERICA was there to meet us with a few more members and we discussed some of their efforts in the transplant community. We finished with a TV interview trying to get the word out for the need of kidney donors.

From there Lynn and I said our goodbyes to my riding buddies Greg, Bill and Bill and we tossed my bike on the rack and headed towards home to rest up for the trip back down in 10 days for my kidney donation surgery.