The official Dancing Deer Baking Company Blog

. . . . to stay in your own space, whatever the description, and you’re exhausted and know that the next day is another uphill climb, it is a great luxury to be able to choose where to lay your head. I made that choice tonight. There happened to be rooms in the center, clean sheets and a real shower! We could easily have stayed and everyone in the shelter was welcoming and it would have been fine. Beth and Kim were agreeable either way – especially since Beth is willing to sleep on anything – including a roll out cot which was the option. But I was thinking about how I’d drag myself out of bed and do another one of these marathon days. I was on the sidewalk working on my bike. It was totally encrusted with mud from the day of riding in the rain. I couldn’t even spin my rear wheel and wasn’t sure how to fix it or how I’d managed to ride it the last 20 miles. I was doing an inventory in my head while pouring lube on my chain and wiping, wiping, wiping with the rag (hoping it would magically make the thing easier to peddle tomorrow) of the bits of things I needed to pull out of the camper and in to the shelter and wondering what the bed would feel like and whether I would sleep in a new space. My team mates made the call for me. We were staying in the camper. I didn’t argue. I was glad. It was home. I didn’t want to be somewhere that wasn’t. Just too tired. And THAT is just too ironic. Need I say more?
It seems impossible that for the tenth night in a row I could fallen in love again with the staff and residents of the shelter of the day. Zoom out and you begin to see the picture of the people who have devoted their lives to this work – wonderful. I want everyone to meet all of them. The person in clear focus at the moment is Doug Hopwood. Wow what a great guy. You’d want him to be on the life raft or the desert island or whatever pinch you found yourself in. The folks that arrive at 105 East King Street in Lancaster, PA, must all appreciate that they are lucky to have Doug open the door or lay down the law.

Doug is the Director of Taber Community Services Transitional Living Center which I think has about 25 rooms and a range of guests from families to singles with a variety of issues. The building used to be a hotel. There are vets on the 5th floor. I met woman who is managing life with the extra burden of schizophrenia, a young couple with two children whose story I didn’t have a chance to hear, and a two year old wonder who actually helped clean up with more attention and focus than most teenagers.

Today was also special because my daughter Eleanna goes to college at Franklin & Marshall – which is why I put Lancaster on the itinerary. She borrowed a car and loaded it with four friends who helped us with the shelter event. It was a powerful theme of the day for me on my Mother’s Day Ride. We are very lucky people. I couldn’t wait to see her and kiss her forehead and stroke her long hair.

This whole crazy gingerbread house thing started with Eleanna when she was about two. I used to design a new house every year and construct a cardboard armature and hand cut all the pieces. When Dimitri came along there were two unique structures and double the fun. It would be the one time of year when I’d buy candy and all my food standards went out the window. Junky was fine. It was about color, variety and shape. When the kids were old enough I’d turn them loose in the store to find the most appealing architectural possibilities. There was less restraint once we got to the decorating. Pandemonium reigned. Once the house was assembled and I thought it could take the beating we’d start the no-holds-barred decorating binge. There would literally be icing on the ceiling. I essentially abandoned the kitchen to all but this one important purpose for at least several evenings running. Years later I designed a kit for making Gingerbread houses that solved a lot of the design and construction issues so that people could spend more energy on the decorating fun.

I could write all night. But I need to pedal in the morning. Signing off.