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I thought we would provide a little information on why we choose the two charities that we have chosen to support.

The first is Movember Foundation through one of their organized events called the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR). I had heard of Movember for several years. Their initial fund raise event was in November growing a beard or mustache to raise awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer. They have subsequently branched out into mental health and suicide prevention in men. The DGR is an organized ride on the last Saturday in September. It is a global event and organizers within a city create a ride route and the riders dressed in the dapper clothes meet up and ride together. The entry to the event is to raise money for the foundation. We participated in the event last year and were able to raise over $1,000. It was a lot of fun; we saw some very cool and interesting bikes as well as outfits. The ride was cut short because of rain, but we still had fun and it is a great cause. I also thought it would be cool to tie in an annual trip to a larger ride. The plan this year was to hit Chicago on our way to Key West. Well unfortunately this year the event has moved to “Ride Solo Together” canceling the large group rides due to COVID-19 issues. Our plan now is to be in Indiana and ride through a bunch of scenic covered bridges, in not so fancy clothes since we will have limited space on the bike. We choose The DGR because Alex would have absolutely loved to have dressed up in some sort of outfit and participated in this event and the mental health support they fund across the globe.

The second organization we have chosen to support is Child & Family Services of Northwestern MI (CFS). My connection to CFS, indirectly, goes back to 2003 shortly after we moved to Traverse City. I was asked by an individual I met through work if I would join the board of Third Level Crisis Center. At the time they were having some challenges financially, as well as turn over at the Executive Director Level. Third Level, in addition to many other services, was the NWMI call center for the National Suicide Hot Line they also ran a local crisis line and a 411 platform. I served on the Board for about 5-years and then took a break. I rejoined the Board a few years later at another difficult juncture in the organization’s life, and ultimately was part of the Board that merged the organization together with CFS were I served on the Board up until Alex’s death. I have been added to the Board of Trustees there, but in fairness have been mostly inactive. I have had a very challenging time dedicating much energy anywhere outside of my immediate family and work since Alex’s passing. A little over a year ago CFS lost the contract for the suicide hotline to a large national provider. They continue to provide education and training on suicide prevention in NW MI as well as a 24/7 youth hotline, street outreach, and counseling for all ages. All of the services and the foster work they do has a direct or indirect impact on mental health and suicide prevention.

Immediately after Alex’s passing Brian Pitser and Matt Hartman and all of his friends at The Northern Angler, our local fly fishing shop and his employer during college, put together a warm water fly fishing tournament in Alex’s honor called The Cheese Cup. The events name came from his shop nickname Cheese. It has been amazing to watch the event grow and thrive over the past few years. Even with a pandemic this Spring, they held it socially distanced and had a great turn out. In total they have raised over $30,000 for CFS through the great support of some local and industry sponsors and a ton of great people in the fly fishing community. It makes Kathryn and I cry, in a good way, all the time to know how touched these good friends were by the short time they spent with Alex.

You can go to the organizations websites to learn more about what they do here:

https://us.movember.com/

https://www.cfsnwmi.org/

Additionally, under the donations page on this site we have links to our Movember DGR ride page as well as a donation box link for CFS. That way we will know who has supported us and we can thank you personally.

We are both looking forward to getting on the road and seeing this great country from top to bottom. In a period in which our country appears to be bitterly divided with so little tolerance of other’s and their views and opinions. My personal hope is that we find that in this age of 24/7 news and social media, that makes it feel like the country is full of hate and that we are pulling apart at the seams, we find what is so great about this country.

To me that is a country filled with people from all walks of life, who when you get down to the core, are all the same and want the same things for everyone, peace, love, and freedom.

8/7/2020

Well I signed us up for the 2020 Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride. Originally our plan was to be in Chicago on 9/27 to ride in that event as it has been one of the larger groups. Well the COVID has changed plans. The event is not going to be ridden as group rides, but instead riders riding solo. I totally understand that decision, and it will work out for us.

We had intended on trying to get some larger groups, especially leaving from Traverse City, and then from Sarasota to Key West. Given all that’s going on we aren’t going to do that. We have had several people that have reached out and want to ride some of the ride with us, and that is fine. We just aren’t going to organize any group rides in conjunction with our trip.

What has been going on since my last post you ask. Well we have done two long weekend trips to get some longer overnight trips in as kind of test runs.

Our first trip was in mid-June just as the state lifted some of the restrictions on the North Region. We did a Tip of the Mitt loop leaving TC heading up to Harbor Springs and the Tunnel of trees. Stopped at Wienerlicious for lunch in Mackinaw City.

We spent the afternoon wandering down the East Coast side of the State. Neither of us had been past Cheboygan before so we enjoyed the views of Lake Huron and spotted some campgrounds we want to check out. We ended up stopping in Rogers City for the night.

Next morning it was cold. Lesson #1 pack layers more than you think you’ll need. We headed south restaurants were open for carry out only, so we did drive through McDonalds for breakfast. That’s kind of a pain in the butt on the bike…

In Oscoda we headed west on River Rd. This is a very pretty stretch along the Au Sable River with lots of beautiful over looks. All in all, it was a good trip we figured we can probably get a bit more mileage and still have ample time for breaks and scenery stops.

Our next ride was a scheduled 3-day trip in the UP. The plan was to head out to Marquette on Friday. It was a beautiful day and an awesome ride. Any of you that know Kathryn probably know she absolutely hates going over the Mackinaw Bridge. She usually leans her seat back and covers her face, and that’s in a car. I had originally figured we would use the bridge authority to shuttle her over in a car, but she decided she was going to do it.  She made it over and back!

 Victory!!  She’s really not mad I promise. The GoPro died so she didn’t get to see what she didn’t with her eyes squeezed closed.

We road on to Marquette after a great lunch in St Ignace. We saw some of Alex’s hang outs. We relived a lot of good memories of our visiting Alex during the 4-1/2 years he was in college there.

 Drop off Freshman year.

Saturday morning, we got up, packed, and fired up the bike. At 7:30 we pulled out of the hotel and hit the gas. The bike suddenly lost power and then shut down. “Oh SHIT!” was all I could think. I have never had any real issues with my bike before, a dead battery has been the extent of it. After about 5 minutes the bike started again and was running fine. We went and had breakfast at a spot Alex had taken us to when he was in school at NMU and discussed what to do. We decided we would hang out until Bald Eagle HD in Marquette opened and see if they could check the bike out. They were awesome, they got the bike right in and ran a diagnostic on it. Turns out we had a MAP sensor that was going bad. They didn’t have the part but felt we should be able to make it back home. So instead of heading to Sault Ste Marie we headed back south. Ended up having a burger and shake sitting in the sun at Clyde’s in Manistique. Then spent the night at our family’s cottage near Boyne City. Another spot that is filled with a ton of great memories of all of our big extended family.

The lessons learned on this trip, be flexible shit is going to happen that is out of your control. Just like life, you have to roll with the punches make sure you talk to the people you love, and things will work out.

We have adopted the Octopus as the mascot for Alex’s Ride because, for me, it represents the depression he and I both struggle with. Alex’s second tattoo was an octopus engulfing a hand. The tattoo was done by Micah Gunderson who was working at a shop in Marquette at the same time Alex was at NMU.

A few months before he died, I asked him if the hand was his. He answered that it was, and that the octopus represented his depression and “life.”

After Alex died, I began thinking a lot about my own challenges with depression and came to realize that the octopus was a really good analogy for depression. It can wrap you up and smother you. You pull one tentacle off and another one grabs from a different recess of your mind. Ultimately, in my case I need to ask for help to unwind myself when I get sucked in. I have to accept that my “octopus” will be with me forever. I have to understand that it’s okay to not be okay; and not be afraid to ask for the help I need to live side by side with the octopus of depression.

We ride with the Octopus!

The summer after he passed away, we all decided that we would get a tattoo to remember him, and we also wanted Micah to do them. We were able to track Micah down through Alex’s very dear friend and college roommate Alex Nye. Micah had moved to Green Bay and started his own studio Northern Tide Tattoo. We each thought about what we would want to get. When we started talking to Micah about the tattoos, I asked him about Alex’s octopus. It turned out that he still had his original drawing of the tattoo. I was able to get the exact drawing used for mine with the addition of a St Jude medal that Alex wore with his initials added in.

Abbey ended up getting “Love Always, Alex” – the closing of a letter Alex had written her.

Clancey got a line version of Alex’s first tattoo, a rainbow trout, and a copy of his signature from a note he’d written to her.

Kathy found a tribal pattern of a Lotus blossom that she liked and had AMH 93 – 17 added to it. The symbolism of the lotus is that something beautiful grows from the mud, and that resonated with her.

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