NBG Concetta Finding the Love in Florida

Cheery saint that she is, Concetta Curtis signed in Tuesday evening with these words:

========================================
Checking in from Tampa Florida. My ride from Miami to here was very cool and went by so fast. I can't believe that tomorrow I will meet my second mayor. I am staying with a couple from the Suncoast Bike Club this evening. What great people they are for feeding me dinner and offering me a place to sleep that isn't outside. Speaking of sleeping outside, last night I camped out behind Peace Creek Baptist Church near Bartow Florida. When I was breaking down camp this morning the Pastor came out to see how I was doing. I told him fine and that I was just drying my things out because it rained last night. He smiled and said to me, "No honey it didn't rain last night, that was the sprinkler system". Oh well, I learned something along the way and got a little spiritual cleansing as well.

Yesterday about 13 miles outside of Lake Whales where I tuned west onto 60 I got a bungee cord stuck in my rear cassette. I ended up riding through Lake Whales, down 60 an additional 17 miles to Bartow. All the while, unable to stop pedalling or the chain would fall off! Cycling is much harder when you can't stop pedaling. Regardless, I woke up this morning and rode another 30 miles like this to Power On Cycling in Plant City. Mark Power is an amazing person. He fixed my cassette, cleaned up my bike, fixed my computer, and fixed my handle bar bag so that it wasn't pressing my brakes in. WHOOPS! That added another 2 miles to my average speed. Seems all the way from Miami I have been riding my brakes.

I have to say that the people in this world are so wonderful and that if you trust that the grace and goodwill of others will be your grace and goodwill then sure enough it will be.
========================================

Indeed she is a breath of fresh air for all those who she touches. In fact, here is Mark Power's assessment of Concetta:

========================================
Martin,

Conchetta arrived this morning with her fixed gear bike! It turned out to be some bungee cord or rope that was stuck in between the backside of the cassette and her rear wheel. 

We got her cleaned up and running again for the dash into Tampa. 

She seemed to be in good spirits and holding up health wise.

We've got a date tomorrow at the Mayor's office.

Mark
========================================

Concetta Curtis kicked off the 4th Annual National Mayors' Ride when she left Miami, FL on Friday May 3, with the blessing of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. Her ride to us here at NBG headquarters in San Francisco is part of five different relay legs involving hundreds of cyclists and 52 (and counting) different Mayors' offices. And not only is Conccetta helping to spread the NBG message far and wide but hers is the story of hope. When I met Concetta a year ago, she was in the full body cast that her broken back had made it necessary for her to wear. Click Here for our 2005 Schedule.

Broken Back Cyclist Powers to Tampa for NBG

For Immediate Release Contact: Martin Krieg
April 18, 2005

On Wednesday, April 20, at noon at City Hall, officials from Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio's office will receive National Bicycle Greenway (NBG) Scout, Concetta Curtis, who will have arrived from Miami where the Miami Herald did a a feature story about her send off from Mayor Manny Diaz. And Concetta has a story to tell. Upon rehabilitating well enough to walk once again after falling off a rope swing a little over a year ago, she did not return to her successful career in HiTech but took up bicycling so she could ride coast to coast in the 2005 National Mayors' Ride.

Inspired by NBG Founder, Martin Krieg, who she met at at a garage sale, she made the decision to help spread his message after she read his book, "Awake Again". Krieg wrote about the comeback from his two month coma, paralysis and clinical death and subsequent two bike rides across the nation that fuel his dream for a safely bikeable two wheel America. Well Concetta not only plans to use her effervescent personality to interest others in the NBG, but she will be doing it the hard way as she first travels north to Washington DC before she continues on the the rest of the way to San Francisco.

Concetta's relay is one of five different runs that will be crossing the US this Summer. In this 4th Annual event, cyclists will also be leaving Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles as they meet and exchange with 52 big city Mayors along the way. All as they get the message out there that we need to be able to use our own two legs to safely connect to other cities and even to the people within those cities. Tampa was selected for a visit once again this year because of the excellent work Tampa Greenways continues to do on behalf of its own population of human powered users.

Concetta web: http://www.bikeroute.com/ConcettaCurtis
National Mayors' Ride: http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide2005
Herald Article: http://nbg.bikeroute.com/News/Archives/week_2005_04_10.php#000318
NBG Home page: http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com