I rode from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to the Delaware shore on my Fuji touring bike, Third Wind. Riding a cross-country trip had been a goal of mine for decades and I was excited to finally make happen. There was also a personal symbolic significance to the timing of that trip: 40 years ago from the summer of 2021, my dear friend David and I rode up the west coast from LA to Seattle. 

More importantly, I was riding in honor of Hindy Shaman, my sister-in-law, who had been living with cancer since 2002. Hindy and my brother Mark received services – free of charge – from Life with Cancer -- an award-winning program of the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Virginia.

Hindy was quick to say that this fundraising effort was not about her – it’s about the cause. I wrote, “While this is true, I am doing this ride in her honor because her strength, resilience, courage, and perseverance are not just admirable, but truly inspiring. The pain I expect to feel when climbing up the steep Rocky Mountains and Allegheny foothills will burn like hell, but such suffering from physical exertion is transient. The pain Hindy and all cancer patients deal with is continuous; even when in remission, it is there, lurking in the background.