The South

We have made it through 3 states since my last post making the grand total now 8 states. This past week flew by traveling through Arkansas and then a day in Mississippi and now Tennessee. The south is truly beautiful from the rolling hills to the rice fields to the bayous and to the cities. We truly experienced the dirt south and southern charm this past weekend and I also enjoyed what several of our riders offer to the team.

If you follow my Facebook and Twitter you pretty much know about our previous weekend. It began Friday night in Marvell Arkansas by enjoying a huge potluck provided by our host with a dessert table that filled up my plate just as full as my initial dinner plate. (The strawberry cheesecake was definitely the winner!) We followed that up with the tri-county rodeo, a $150 buy-in bull riding contest open to all. The field ranged from 1st timers to pros which really created an extremely entertaining atmosphere. The next day got even better entering Mississippi and Tennessee. Mississippi truly has some of the friendliest people. Their economic status may not be the best but they by far have the best hospitality. Through every town everyone waves, starts conversations, and are just all about relationships. Tunica treated us well for lunch introducing many team members to crawfish and good southern BBQ. They have us $60 worth of crawfish and were so inspired am interested in our ride. We got to Memphis Saturday night and enjoyed the evening on famous Belle Street. More great BBQ and oysters along with great people watching through the night. One of our own, Kyle, killed a "freestyle" blues jam in the pavilion area. It definitely double the tips of the band actually performing. I was amazed by how effortless it appeared to be for him. We finished the epic weekend off on Sunday with a rest day in Memphis with brunch at the historic Peabody hotel and witnessing the morning march of the ducks. I also fully enjoyed the playoff basketball start this weekend, eating pizza and Thundering Up with my fellow riders. I'm not sure what else we could have fit into the weekend to ha made it any better.

I was also very inspired this weekend by Joel. Saturday morning he gave the best pre-ride speech that is useful for the ride and life. It was a talk about reflection, which I have already posted about on here but he approached the topic so well and appropriately. We all do it in life and most days, rushing through, trying to reach the finish. But the saying is true about the real reward being the journey. As medical professionals our lives have been rushed: finish undergrad to start med school, finish med school to start residency, finish residency to start on your own. With this common approach it is easy to also take it on this ride: finish the ride... How great is finishing something just for the sake of finishing though? This is true for med school or biking across the country. Without a cause, at the end it is truly not worth it. Ive continued to reflect daily on this ride and will aim for it to carry over to my life as well. We all should aim for a cause in life and not just look for finish lines. The journey and cause adds meaning to the finish. I'm very thankful for the group I'm with to help me stay focused on this.

Thank you for reading again and of course there are more blog posts from riders on R4WH.org and please click on my personal page under riders to learn more about my cause and journey.