Let me ride in tribute to your loved one

The 2016 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s will shove off later this month as I fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico to visit Ship Rock and then pedal home.

This is my fourth tour designed to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s.

I was inspired by my  father, Al, who will be 92 years old this month. He is fit and farm strong but often adrift in a cloudy world of memory loss.

His day resets every three seconds which means there’s no sense of a current timeline and often there are repetitive questions and limited conversation.

My family is blessed, as my father is a ‘happy Alzheimer’s.’ He’s pleasant, pretty much all the time. He’s easy going, has extremely good manners and I like hanging out with him.

On the bicycle tours I raise money for music and exercise programs at Cedar Community. All the money stays local. I’ve found my father responds well to music and a couple weeks ago I added rummage-sale therapy to my Dr. Steffes list of remedies.

My dad and I always used to go to sales together on Saturday morning. Baseball cards, fishing equipment, tools, bikes – we would be gone an entire morning hunting for bargains.

This is a good opportunity to reach my dad. He’s never going to be able to step into my era so I’ve got to work to drift back into his.

At the sales we gravitate to hardware, tools and farm equipment. “What’s this,” I ask holding up a carpentry thingamajig. “That’s a planer,” he said. My dad was a ‘Mr. Fix It’ in his prime.

“How about that,” I said pointing to something leather and clunky. “It’s a horse collar; you’d put it over the back of the horse’s neck……” And there he goes; it’s more words than we’ve heard in a week.

“Did you have horses when you were growing up,” I ask. “Well, yes. Matter of fact I’d have to get up in the morning, milk the cows, load the milk into the wagon and take it to the cheese factory in St. Cloud.”

I’ve heard the stories a million times. But now he’s in his element. It’s kind of amazing really.

A couple of things about the disease – my dad doesn’t initiate conversation and when we walk from sale to sale he follows about five paces behind. I’m told that’s normal for someone with Alzheimer’s. It’s a little disconcerting; I glance back to make sure he’s still with me. It’s our two-person parade, minus the waving. I figure, if this is as bad as it is right now – I’m lucky.

At each sale I hear the same comment “high prices.” It’s a hard thing to grasp, this 2015. Maybe my dad is the lucky one – stuck in his era of Happy Days, 15-cent a gallon gas, and when neighbors helped neighbors – because it’s what you did.

This year I will ride in tribute to your loved one.  Simply make a $100 donation to the tour and email me a jpeg photo or send via U.S. mail and I will copy and return the picture.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community.  Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2016.”

IMPORTANT

100% of your donation will go directly to Alzheimer’s programs which could positively impact the life of your family or friends.

Logo courtesy Michael Albiero.