149 words about 180 miles and a father’s unbreakable ally
What makes a stranger join a father’s fight to save his son? I wondered that as I rode with Michael Staley through rural Alabama, keeping him company for most of a 200-mile training ride — his first of two this weekend, back-to-back, for an upcoming 11-day Maine-to-Alabama ride. All in support of a boy named Gabe and a cause — Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy — Michael has taken on voluntarily. Gabe’s father, Scott Griffin, has an unbreakable ally for Hope4Gabe (www.hopeforgabe.org). Lunch at 97 miles was consumed with not just how to support three riders for 11 200-mile days, but the ultimate goal of bringing enough attention to help spur a cure. It’s not a fight anyone would expect Michael to own, but he’s the kind of fully committed ally any father would want at his side in a fight for a son’s life.
