Alas, it's over. Saturday we cycled the last 60 somewhat miles (95 km) and finally we entered the Los Angeles arena. On the way to LA my legs once again gave in. All of sudden 10 miles seemed to last forever. Fortunately my friend and tentmate Jennifer and my brother Otto were around. Let's start with Jennifer.
In January 2006 I came to San Francisco because I wanted to know what kind of organization the San Francisco Aids Foundation (SFAF) was. Since I was going to ask a lot of money from my friends for a foundation that wasn't even based in the Netherlands I felt I needed to explain to them what their donations were used for. To be quite frank, I was flabbergasted by the efficiency, devotion and expertise of the SFAF staff. My second reason for coming to SF were training rides. As I mentioned earlier on Holland has got no hills and since I was going to do a 545 mile ride with tons of hills I wanted to find out how one conquers hills.
On one of these training rides I met Jennifer. I think during that ride I got lost in the Palo Alto woods. It was a rainy day and the only thing I could remember was a supermarket. However I didn’t know the name of the market, let alone the town it was in. Finally a man helped me out. When I arrived at the supermarket with a victorious smile on my face I could tell the training ride leader looked a bit troubled. After all it’s not an everyday thing to loose a foreigner who doesn’t know his way around. Anyway, Jennifer and I didn’t meet again till the first day of ALC5. Ever since we have been friends. She even came to Amsterdam three months after the ride. This year we have been tentmates and on day 7 I think she and I were both rather tired and could do with some distraction. We’re quite good at that.
Secondly there’s my brother Otto. He moved to a very unique location last year, the Island of Kerrera [www.kerrerabunkhouse.co.uk]. It’s located just a few miles off the Scottish coast and has 35 inhabitants. You can reach Kerrera only by ferry. Furthermore the island hosts a Teagarden. And that’s where Otto works. He is the gardener and the cook - almost sounds like the title of a film, doesn’t it? A few weeks ago Otto called when I was at the office. Since it was rather tumultuous - nothing exceptional by the way - I understood only half of what he was telling me. It turned out I hadn’t even understood that particular half. After 5 minutes it became clear to me he had launched a fundraiser especially for me. In the Kerrera Teagarden and close to the ferry he placed a sign mentioning that his little brother was going to do a cycle ride for the San Francisco Aids Foundation, accompanied by a handmade money-box. The visitors and people of Kerrera have donated more than $400 to SFAF. Boy, do I have a sweet brother! PS Download my ALC newsletter, edition May. There you'll find pictures of my brother.
Download ALC_Chronicle_May_2007.pdf
Now I took my brother along with me. He was on the back of my cycle jersey. Two weeks before the ride Chris and Severine stayed up late (01:30 AM) while dipping there brushes into many a paint-pot. They created a modern image of Dutch farmer’s life, containing the faces of my friends, and printed it on a jersey. Since a lot of riders couldn’t quite get what was going on, here’s what happens: the top part is a farmer who is pulling a cow’s tail. The bottom part contains the cow’s utters pushing the poor farmers wife’s head down. She clearly is in agony. I admit it’s rather an awkard situation.
On day 7’s lunchstop I tried to explain this to one of the riders. I also told her I came from the Netherlands when all of a sudden another rider starts talking Dutch to me. It took me a moment to realize what was going on. Well it was Mel, a Dutch man who came to the USA when he was 19. We spent the afternoon on the patio of Peet’s Coffee in LA talking in Dutch and it felt good talking in my own language for a brief moment.
After closing ceremonies Mel took Jennifer and me to our hostel in Venice Beach … in a Hummer. In Holland we have this tv series called Try before you die. Riding in a Hummer surely must be one of those things you have to try.
The next morning we had coffee next door. It was 08:00 AM and Venice Beach was not yet awake. Early risers like us sat outside, drinking their coffee, reading the newspaper. On the other side of the road two cars were parked. The owners were talking to eachother through the window. Apparently it was more than your casual Sunday morning chat because at one point one owner yelled: “He’s threatening to kill me! He’s threatening to kill me!” I’m not used to these kinds of situations but I guess this was the cue for the other owner to start his engine and get the hell out of there. The he’s-threatening-to-kill-me owner did the same and with swift speed he followed the other car. Gone they were. A few minutes later police car number 1 passed by, 30 seconds later police car number 2. You know, on Dutch tv I regularly see these spectacular American car chases, filmed from a helicopter. When I sat there on this quiet Los Angeles morning I thought: Who needs helicopters? A Sunday morning coffee on Venice Beach is just as exciting.
In the meanwhile I returned to San Francisco. I just love this city. It’s small, it’s cosy, it’s liberal, it’s weird as well. It’s certainly not bustling with energy, the excitement is to be found in more subtle places and I like that.
ALC6 has crossed my mind a lot of times the last few days. I am darn proud that I finished the ride completely this time albeit with a little help from my friend Vitamin I. Do I feel like a hero, a term often used by public speakers during the ride? No, not at all. I somehow don’t feel comfortable with this predicate. Yesterday I showed Jennifer an episode of the tv series I made a few years ago, called Shit Happens. This series showed young people with chronic diseases varying from asthma to Duchenne muscular dystrophy and from bipolar disorder to the fatal skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa. The reason why I am so proud of this series is that it wasn’t either sensational let alone sentimental. Instead these young people talked freely and honestly about every aspect of their life: they go shopping, they go to school, they have sex, they laugh, they cry, they go to work etc. Although their disease seemed to restrict their lives, they themselves often didn’t think about it that way. Simply because they had found solutions to overcome their restrictions. None of these young people considered themselves to be heroes, nor did they feel the need to be one. They were who they were, people.
When I think of the ride I often wonder why the term hero is used so frequently. To me it seems that in America there's a bitter need to do something about the stigmatization of people with hiv/aids. Still a lot of people think they must be either gay or promiscuous, which is utter nonsense. But it’s easier to think about it this way, because it makes life simple. It’s easier and certainly safer to stay at the other end of the line. To overcome these prejudices I feel a big statement needs to made. The word hero is such a statement. But it makes all of us, both the people with and without hiv/aids more than we are. I wish this wouldn’t have to happen. I wish we could just be who we are. I know this is rather a naive thing to wish for, because politics, culture, social climate etc. need to change and it’s most likely a matter of decades. But coming from a country where after many years of activism and lobbying, gay marriage is now part of the constitution I know it is possible. Amen.
Finally I want to thank all my sponsors. Three weeks before the ride I had raised only $900 dollar. By now that is an astounding $3.609,41. On behalf of the San Francisco Aids Foundation and the people who are able to make use of their services a big big thank you.
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. And who knows, perhaps I’ll be here next year for ALC7.
