Thanks Brad.

I think the awareness aspect went pretty well overall for a first time try and I certainly learned a couple of things that I will apply moving forward. Happily, upon my return, my wife herself suggested she might enjoy the idea of following me in a camper/rv on a longer run

Another really bright spot was that my friend, who has early onset dementia and was the primary genesis for the idea, felt totally connected to the ride and followed along via my blog posts and several phone calls, with his wife's help. I think (I hope) it made him sense the positive response so many people were having towards the cause.

My goal was to generate buzz about the subject and to drive interest towards the dementia friends program offered by the Alzheimer Society and I think I did that pre (and hopefully) post ride, as I knew I could not do too much on the road. I really didn't meet that many people. I'm really happy with how it was promoted and shared on social media and by my facility and extremely happy that it was shared by recreation and care staff with the residents who live there. There may still be some talks to do now that I have pics and video to share.

Looking back I think I would not do it all myself next time and would have a savvy "communications" person who could work media on my behalf. It was hard to try to blog and respond at the end of the day by hen pecking into my phone and the app I was using was glitchy, dropping blog posts several times and not allowing me to respond to comments on the blog. I could have been more effective if I (or another person) could have worked media like FB better and I didn't even touch twitter or other platforms like Instagram. Too much for a tired rider, a cell phone and so so reception.

I would also add a fund raising component next time. This ran counter to my initial sensibility as I thought people would find it refreshing and be more receptive to something that was not asking for money but almost everyone who heard about what I was doing wanted to donate something. I came away feeling that donating is a way people could actively connect with the activity that they either support or perhaps wish they could do themselves. People were very positive towards what I was doing and I was impressed by the overall response. At the same time as my ride, a friend participated in a Cops for Cancer ride that raised 500K!

Next time I will either use a link provided by the Alzheimer Society for donations or have a specific fund raising goal in place. For example, I think I could have easily raised enough to buy an adaptive bicycle for my facility to start a recreation program to take residents for rides which would have been a good tie in to my ride conceptually.

Mostly, I came away feeling good about this aspect of the tour and also realizing the need not to wear all the hats myself and to create a team to share some of the duties associated.