Full Circle comes full circle

Words and photos by JK

Tuesday July 22nd The final day. I had agreed to meet the Sage folks about noon to pop some bubbly and celebrate the DesignR1 Full Circle USA charity ride. Before that official ending I wanted to see the newest stretch of Phoenix road. The Loop 202 had only opened on Monday and I was keen to see the desert views on the east side of town. It was a smooth, quick and easy ride as I headed east, swung south then west and scooted up the I10 and 101 to Scottsdale and the original starting point. I arrived at 12:15pm on Tuesday July 22nd 2008 with exactly 15,004.5 miles on the clock. I saw a huge clock/temp gauge that read 110 degrees at 11:30am on my ride. At Sage it was much hotter. Believe me.
I went inside where Ryan Zuk, media contact for Sage, found me wandering like a lost soul. He grabbed an office and brought me water as David van Toor walked in to shake my hand. David is SVP, General Manager CRM Solutions at Sage Software and he is the man that made my journey possible. Without the support of Sage I wonder how far I would have ridden. He teased me about being able to stand upright and then we had a brief conference call with reporter Jane Larson at The Arizona Republic newspaper. I’ll be visiting Jane next week for an interview and to go over photos from the trip. Ryan also informed me that the Scottsdale based photographer Jean-Louis Husson (www.feathertech.com) was planning to have me do his Black Chair interview for the Scottsdale Airpark News business magazine. I felt very privileged and we arranged to visit Jean-Louis the next day to plan the article. Jean-Louis has the finest French accent (it really makes English sound exotic) and his Black Chair interviews are done for charitable causes. His artwork (which inspired his website name) is amazing for its crisp ingenuity and detailed finesse. His immaculate studio reminded me of my dreamy art school days when I would have died for such a place to work.
After a tasty, pasta lunch with Alex and Ryan I popped some undrinkable cheap bubbly and threatened the others with it in plastic USA flag tumblers. The flag tumblers were to tease Garrett Fulton mending in Minnesota. Debbie Cates, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing, Alex Taylor, ACT! National Channel Manager, Jeff Gregorec, Vice President of Sales for SageCRM North America, and yours truly gagged on the awful jungle juice and posed for Ryan as he snapped away with my camera.
Thank goodness I have so many follow-up jobs from the trip or I would wander the halls in a stupor. I just expect to swing a leg over “old faithful” and ride on forever. Never mind…my business partner Rainer will find a never-ending supply of work for me…it’s his special talent.
I would like to thank my business partners Rainer Hoffmueller (CEO) and Mark Hammer (Worldwide Technical Director) for their patience and support. I want to thank all the DesignR1 team too. Larissa Urutia and her sister Gwendolin, Cindy Sturdevant, Michael Kadlub in Cleveland (that bad boy always teases me), Greg Ferber and Kevin Ryan our super programmers in Salem OR and James Burlew our friendly tech support man in world famous Sutherlin OR. I also hope that the awareness raised about Sage and ACT! will, directly or indirectly, bring work to all the skilled ACCs and in particular to all those ACCs that showed such kindness and enthusiasm and support. And, of course, the biggest thanks to all the thousands of workers at Hole in the Wall Gang camps and offices and to all of you that donated towards the children. Any suggestions for lunacy on a bike will be considered with all seriousness by me for next year’s ride.