Pete and Tess
Begin forwarded message:
From: Zack Ham <zack@ridewithgps.com>
Date: December 30, 2023 at 10:38:41 AM EST
To: Pete T <peteandtess@gmail.com>
Cc: cullen@ridewithgps.com
Subject: Re: It's been quite a ride!
Hi Pete,What a wonderful message. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences with Chip & John. I love reading stories like these. I passed your message along to Kevin Prentice, and I'm sure it will make his day. He's been with Ride with GPS for 10 years now. Your points about us holding important memories hits the nail right on the head–we have a lot of fun, and we're running a business, BUT we recognize that what we're doing has a very serious side to it. We talk about the importance of this all the time.Have a wonderful New Year!ZackOn Sat, Dec 30, 2023 at 5:32 AM, Pete T <peteandtess@gmail.com> wrote:Zack and Cullen,What you guys did was incredible and for those of us who hopped on board, irreplaceable!!!Like you just said, and by the way, said it so well, it was 17 short years ago. Helll I've got hiking boots older than that…. But you guys set out to do something, persue an interest, a hobby, an idea but the thing you built is the safe box of people's lives. When you guys started there were several popular tracking apps out there but from the very start I was into Ride with GPS. I don't know exactly why but it was something about your honesty. Something approachable and something real. It was also Kevin Prentice, who got back to me with answers and showed interest in my ideas. Anyway I just always used Ride with GPS and always talked about it when I was riding or hiking with friends. In my mind and in my opinion you have the best planning and tracking app out there and now, like I said, you hold years and years of memories for myself and apparently millions of other people. You are our Journal, Our Memories basically our Histories are entrusted to your app. I think that your letter, the personal tone of your letter is exactly why I am writing this email response now and validates the trust I put in you so many, this one's 13, years ago. And man when I look at the pictures I saved with this ride in 2009, I was a whole different person. Chip is still hiking ridiculous miles every weekend where now I hobble along with a cane. But I can still meet him for lunch because I can create his route, pinpoint a spot to meet and navigate to the trail head or to lunch spot. By being able to create a route, I can determine the actual number of miles and elevation to expect in the ride or hike. Then I can look back on the actual miles recorded in the ride or hike and the pictures of people, the scenery and the thoughts I had along the way. I forget stuff but Ride with GPS remembers. Ride with GPS was there when I was planning and leading the Novice Bike Rides right down the street, to the hundred milers I forced myself to do. RWGPS was there with us when my wife and I went to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, a weekend in Blowing Rock, my hikes with my best friend on the Art Loeb, John Rock in Pisgah and the Foothills Trail in SC. Carl Sandburg and DuPont Forrest…. Chip had a quest to do every trail in Pisgah. He just completed 105 trails. John had a quest to do every trail in DuPont, we did them all. Somehow Ride with GPS provides a format and a motivation to do all these things. We would joke that if we forgot to turn it on, it didn't count and we'd have to start over. Believe me, I Never forgot to turn it on… turn it off, maybe, but then I can go back and fix that. These were once in a lifetime experiences and I will never go back to those places but I can go back anytime thanks to Ride with GPS. Thanks to you two guys who decided to do something and stick with it. Working those days and nights and following that obsession to do it right. You created a legacy and you can and should feel proud as punch for doing it.Thanks again!Pete
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