{"id":983,"date":"2010-08-18T18:17:21","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T01:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=983"},"modified":"2010-08-19T04:58:39","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T11:58:39","slug":"he-has-my-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=983","title":{"rendered":"He Has My Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Ray on Uncompaghre Peak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Ray, you don’t look like you belong on a bicycle; you look like you belong on a horse.”<\/p>\n

The words belonged to my cousin Sheryl, at whose El Paso house my friend and I were staying on the eve of a 400-mile bicycle relay.<\/p>\n

Sheryl was right. Ray’s large frame, combined with an equally large handle-bar mustache, belongs in a world of cowboys and motorcycle riders.<\/p>\n

Certainly not in my world, but we are friends. Close friends.<\/p>\n

Not sure why. Ray’s a working man, at home with a hammer, a welding torch, a lariat. The only tool I use with any success is a ball point pen.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s our shared love for cycling and hiking and the adventures they bring our way. But it’s more than that.<\/p>\n

I like Ray because I trust him. Like when he kept his pickup between me and oncoming traffic during the bike relay. Or when he once offered to go along on a peak climb just because he didn’t want me going alone.<\/p>\n

Ray is on my list of close friends because he does what close friends do for one another. He has my back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Ray, you don’t look like you belong on a bicycle; you look like you belong on a horse.” The words belonged to my cousin Sheryl, at whose El Paso house my friend and I were staying on the eve of a 400-mile bicycle relay. Sheryl was right. Ray’s large frame, combined with an equally large […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}