Joey here.
The pandemic forced us to do a virtual 2020 Ride.
A few of our 2020 Ride routes in metro NYC
This week we pedaled to “virtual” Provo, Utah, 1113 miles (1803 km) from Normandy Park in Seattle. Arrived! (We wish!!)
Here’s our imaginary 2020 route through virtual Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. From 2011 to 2019, we pedaled from NYC to all the yellow states.
To commemorate the end of this, our tenth annual Ride, our friend Emily at Human Rights First created a photo book with kind inscriptions from family and friends too numerous to name here. Our warm thanks to all!
These photos are from Connecticut (2015), Kentucky (2018), and California (2019).
Scenes from our last 11 miles:
Taking a steam bath by a ConEd vent on Central Park West.
Ice and water in Central Park.
In the Conservatory Garden near E. 105th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Christmas tree at “30 Rock” (Rockefeller Center)
Back in our neighborhood: on Pier 1, with the George Washington Bridge 5 miles (8 km) upriver; historic Hudson River machinery; swingin’ in a new park; sunset seen from our dining room.
In 2021 we intend to bike through the wilds again. We want to meet the good people of the Mountain West.
Frederick Brenner: “Citizens Protesting Anti-[Jewish] Acts, Billings, Montana, 1994”. Priests, police, members of First Nations, football players, cowboys, and others, hold Hanukkah menorahs in solidarity with local victims of bigotry. THAT is our America.
But we must wait to travel until it’s safe for us, and safe for the new friends we’ll meet.
Meanwhile, we do what we can.
Age and family circumstances haven’t allowed Jeffrey to use his professional nursing skills to help shorten the pandemic. He does a bit of front-line work, gives blood, was a nonpartisan roving (cycling) election protector for Common Cause . . . this and that.
Jeffrey’s 154th donation, on December 23, after making cycling deliveries for Project Guardianship. I came for the snacks.
My contribution was promoting human rights, and Human Rights First. I designed some prototype HRF swag. (So far it exists only in a kangaroo puppet’s mind’s eye.)
And, through this blog, I have asked for your help. CNN confirms: It’s what kangaroos do!
My Tenth Ride valedictory:
I commend to you the cause of human rights.
I invite you to support the cause with your acts and your words.
And if you want a souvenir Beatles postcard, signed by me and by Jeffrey, put human rights first by donating any sum to Human Rights First.
Come back in a few days for Jeffrey’s annual summing-up.
I wish you everything good in the New Year!
—Joey
My autograph on a photo of the back cover of Emily’s book, Heller Ride for Human Rights.
Ride for Human Rights 