Hello, friends, and welcome to the Bikes for Death podcast. As always, my name is Patrick, and I am your

host. And on today's episode, we are going to honor a personal hero of mine and a pillar of the

bike packing community and even beyond. In his family, in his his community and the running community.

Howell's presence has been felt and will contain a ripple through all of these communities

and in our hearts for a long time.

As many of you will know, two weeks ago, I was scheduled to interview Hal again for the second

time on the back porch of his Missouri home. And the morning I woke up to go visit with him,

I wasn't feeling too hot, so I took a COVID test and tested positive.

So I went back home to Texas, and the next week I had planned to drive back up and meet with him again.

And we found out last Wednesday that Hal had passed away in his home, in his favorite chair, surrounded by loved ones.

And I'll be honest, it's hard to know that I miss that opportunity.

I know that we were both looking forward to meeting again,

and I wanted so much to give him an opportunity to share some more

stories and really anything that he wanted to share. I wanted to see him again. I knew that he

had been battling cancer. And I am grateful that, you know, towards towards the end I was able to be in pretty

constant contact with him and whether it's through messages or phone calls he always kept a

positive attitude a smile He always was optimistic.

I mean, even, you know, the week, you know, before he passed away, he was talking about

maybe making a trip down to Texas to come and see me.

So, you know, he wrote a book called Touching or Touched Both Lines and Hal touched both lines all the way to the end.

He never stopped fighting. He never stopped trying. He never stopped inspiring all of us and being a

positive example in our lives.

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