|
| |
Chasing the Jersey 2002
 
The daily journal of a cancer survivor and his
wife as they follow the 2002 Tour de France to support Lance Armstrong
My name
is Jerry Kelly and I’m a cancer survivor. My wife and I became active supporters
of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) when I was diagnosed with testicular
cancer two years ago. My dad had died of a brain tumor just three years before
my diagnosis and my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer one year after me.
Angie, my wife and I decided to go to France not only to support Lance, but
hopefully continue to spread the mission of the LAF to fight cancer and support
cancer survivors. We left for France on July 17, 10 days into the Tour and the
first day in the mountains.
The
following entries are written by both Angie and Jerry.
17 July
(Angie)We
had no idea it was going to be so difficult to get to France. The flight from
Birmingham, Alabama was delayed, then we sat on the runway for over an hour
because Vice-President Dick Cheney’s plane was taking off from Atlanta, Georgia
and they closed the airport. We finally got to Atlanta and the British Airways
flight we were on was delayed because it was late landing – the VP still – so we
were late departing. The flight itself was great. We watched Monsters, Inc. and
had a nice dinner, a little sleep, breakfast, then we were on the ground in
London. But we were still late! We only had thirty minutes to get thru
customs/security and on to our flight to Toulouse. Thankfully there was a woman
there from British Airways waiting for us and rushed us straight thru and to our
connection or we never would have made it.
18 July
(Angie)The
flight to Toulouse was short but I had to sit next to a very stinky man. Once we
arrived in Toulouse, there were more problems. We were halfway through the
customs section when French security stopped Jerry and me. He said something
about security, but our very poor French ensured that we didn’t understand. In a
few minutes there was a long whistle, then a very loud explosion that shook us
both. After a moment we looked at the security guard and pointed at the door to
proceed. He gave us a quick “No” shake of the finger. Shortly, another whistle
and another explosion. The security then waved us through. We then discovered
that they had blown up two pieces of unattended baggage. We made our way to the
baggage pickup only to discover that Jerry’s bag was missing. The thought did
cross our minds that Jerry’s was the bag that was blown up. The British Airways
clerk soon discovered the missing bag with all his clothes and shower/get ready
stuff, was still in London. We decided to go ahead to our hotel and scout the
Plateau de Beille for our location tomorrow and hopefully the airline would send
the bag to the hotel.
We drove to
the very top of the mountain, a very long climb! We went into the building to go
to the bathroom (of course) and to get a snack. In the bar there were a huge
group of French and Spanish people watching the Tour (Stage 11), so we crowded
in with them. Close to the end of the stage were two US Postal riders, including
Lance and an Once Spanish rider. We were right on the Spanish border and the
crowd was cheering for Joseba Beloki, the Spanish rider. Lance broke close to
the finish and won the stage. We were the only ones cheering. The entire place
cleared out as we stood alone and clapped as Lance pulled on the yellow jersey!
We drove to
Ax les Thermes and found our hotel with no problem. Our room is small, but has a
water closet(toilet), however the shower is outside and down the hall. I was
almost glad we didn’t have our shower stuff so I’d have an excuse not to use it.
continue to page 2
|
