The Camp across the tracks

What a week! #Blessed

It’s an “ironic hashtag,” I never use them! 😉

We have been doing this whole thing for almost a year now, and the growth has been amazing to watch and just crazy of late! This week was such a victory on the giving front, such a change from the norm.
The “norm” has been us calling in as many favors as we can during the latter-half of the week to ensure that we’ve got our food needs covered. Anyone who has followed the social media outlets for the ‘Riders knows that this week we had it covered by the Sunday before… And then it kept coming in. And kept coming… 😉 By the end, God and the community had blessed us with 355 burritos for our friends downtown. You could’ve just about knocked me over! We rode out on Saturday with 240 burritos and still have over 100 in the freezer for our next ride! So much joy…

Gettin’ our pre-ride prayer on!

Hot Burritos comin’ through!

Mel enjoying a steaming burrito on a cold morning

This is Mel! I’m sure we’ve met before, but this weekend was my first chance to spend some time with him, and it was too much fun. Mel is a man with a tremendous faith, seemingly matched only by his sense of humor and wit. I think we’ll be talking about him more soon. (Hey Mel, it’s Monday!)

In an unexpected and incredible act of giving, a friend of the BR, Steve S., who has been wanting to get involved for a while now, stepped up in a big way for the community. Imagine my surprise when Steve showed up at my house with TWO huge bales of (ridiculously heavy) high-quality moving blankets. He had previously approached me with the moving blanket idea a while back. He thought that they would be good for folks because they are heavy and durable, providing both warmth and protection that is unmatched by a regular blanket. My man Curt and I hitched up the trailers Saturday morning and we split one bale between the two, leaving (hopefully) enough room for the big burrito payload and the water. Curt was a champ too, hauling that load! John bought 4 cases of water, so we had 4 32-pack cases of water, 240 burritos, and 16 heavy blankets split between two trailers. Oh my goodness… 🙂 Anyway, Curt (pictured here, giving out a blanket) and the group gave out all 16 blankets to folks who were so thrilled to have some comfort.

Curt, giving a gentleman a blanket

After the ride was over, a few of us collected the remaining blankets from my house and took them out to a camp that we’d been told about a few times. Some folks have an encampment (pictured at the top of the email) over the tracks where they stay. As we understand it, they get flushed out occasionally, and then rebuild after a time. Anyway, we took the remaining blankets out to their camp and left them for the group. There were only a couple of people there when we came through, so we hung out for a bit and talked about the camp and how they operate.

As an aside, the Burrito Riders obey strict safety-in-numbers rules and we typically serve in safe, open, neutral areas. Please don’t interpret our walk into the camp as something that we would endeavor to do lightly, or without taking precautions.

You guys may have read, too, about Ray’s donated bicycle and how frustrated he was that his wheels were stolen. Help is on the way! We received not one, but two sets of donated wheels to help out Ray, and also benefit the next person who needs a bike! Big, big gratitude to Vic from Vic’s Classic Bikes on Bardstown road and also to our newest Burrito Rider, Richie J. These guys are heroes for folks like Ray, much love!

Vic’s Classic Bikes

A couple more shots for you to enjoy, care of Matt and myself.