Written by: Mark Murphy
One of the most interesting and peculiar components of the FCBA experience is related to the human interaction and connectivity. I’m the kind of guy that is initially quite shy—I’m sure this will shock my fellow riders—and takes some time to warm up to be the full, loud-mouthed idiot that I am. This shyness had me pretty apprehensive about the trip, meeting 25 strangers and being stuck with them for nine and a half weeks.
So wandering into the room at St. John’s Armenian Church in San Francisco on June 2, I was a tad nervous. The first couple of days were filled with the herky jerkiness of a new group dynamic..Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do? How long have you ridden? etc, etc. Nothing deep, mostly nervous interactions from nervous people trying to find some sort of connection.
What a joy to see how this group has morphed into a loving, caring community—no, community is an insult, for family is what we are. Do we always please each other? Heck no! Do we frequently frustrate each other with chore execution, bathroom duration, etc.? Absolutely. But make no mistake, there is a familial feeling of love shared towards all. We worry when someone is late coming into a rest stop, we rejoice when riders conquer a new distance, biking skill, or scale a high pass, and we feel the pain when our people share stories of sadness and/or loss. And we grieve when our members leave our company and return to their normal lives.
We have developed into a loving family that is committed to each other’s success.
Hard to imagine this group of knuckle heads as strangers, I love ‘em all!!
