"Everything I need is right here"

I really got to know Bob from traveling with him during business trips for Seattle Bike Supply. He and I would travel together to put on consumer bike shows in Portland , OR in the early 90's. On the first trip we took together, I noticed that Bob only had this tan colored, leather-looking, ugly suitcase that was very very small. I asked him where his other clothes and "stuff" was? He just patted the small and ugly suitcase and said that "everything I need is right here". We got to our room and as he unpacked he was right. He really knew how to pack light.

We travelled to Las Vegas for many years and that very small and very ugly suitcase made every trip. I could hear other reps ask him the same question I had asked- "Bob, where's the rest of your stuff"? He would always answer the same way, "Everything I need is right here".

I grew up a skier and just never thought I would get into snowboarding. Bob talked about teaching me to snowboard and I would gently say maybe later. A few years went by and finally I decided I was ready. Bob drove me to Snoqualmie Pass and all the way up to the lifts he instructed me on what to do. The things he said I needed to do to snowboard were so simple and made so much sense to me that I figured he was just yaking and yaking to make the trip go by. I got to use his hard boots and his favorite snowboard that had his own design of bindings mounted to it. Wow, was I cool!!
In one night, Bob had me going down the hill, heel side and toe side and from one side of the run to the other, up all the lifts that the mountain had to offer. To this day ( amost 8 years now) I remember Bob's lesson on grabbing the "Buddha's belly" with my right hand and pointing in the direction I want to go with my left arm. My daughter learned some of Bob's boarding techniques during a few trips with him at Snoqualmie Pass and at MT Baker. I have taught a few of my daughters freinds to snowboard and I use the same simple techniques that Bob instilled in me. Snowboarding has taken me places all over the western US. My daughter and I have been to MT Baker for the Banked Slalom race, to Colorado a couple of times, and MT Hood in July! All of these places I never would have experienced had Bob not been persistant and taught me about snowboarding.

Bob says many times to me and his fellow friends of Bill W, that the answer is in the Big Book ..."We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change."

Everything I need is right here.
Michael Adamson
Seattle Bike Supply