Pretty Good Team

Robin and I made a pretty good team. One Sunday afternoon years ago we decided to take our bicycles to Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts and ride to the summit - it's several miles of brutal, unrelenting uphill. We arrived at the visitor's center at the mountain's base late in the day with the intention of making it to the top and then riding back down before sunset. I'd done the ride years ago and recall it was about an hour and a half to the top and thirty minutes to ride down. We got dressed up in biking shorts and shirts and extracted our bicycles from the car. As I attached my front wheel to the bicycle frame I noticed a huge bubble in the tire. The rubber had weakened and given way. Now it was deformed in the shape of a small marble, and like a bubble gum bubble it was just waiting to burst!

We talked about options to fix the swollen tire. We had spare inner tubes but rarely carried whole spare tires. We asked a stranger about local bike shops. We could drive into town and try to find one, but they're typically closed on Sundays anyway.

We consigned ourselves to not making the ride that day until it occurred to me that Robin's bike was still in fine shape. "Why don't you go up and I'll follow you in the car? I'll be your support vehicle." After a little haggling the offer was accepted and she was on her way. I put my bike back in the car and followed her up, keeping my distance. She had a great non-stop ride to the top. Exhausted, she declined the offer to cruise back down.

I guess this pattern repeated itself in our lives. In the late 90's she wanted to pursue baking (before she knew she was allergic to wheat). A friend offered for us to come up to Alaska and work under his supervision for four summer months in a restaurant kitchen. Robin and I went to dinner that night at Friendly's and I noted that with the mortgage we couldn't both afford to go, but one of us could - and so she went. She supported me through years of flying lessons, and then when I wanted to learn to fly gliders she sent me to Estrella in Arizona for a week. When she wanted to go to massage school, but they didn't have one in our area we went to Ithaca, found her an apartment and enrolled her in school. I really miss that feeling of being part of a team, of supporting one another's dreams. (Not that I don't get excellent support from my friends these days!)