Thirty years in, it would be easy enough for Kyle Petty to look at the work made possible by his Charity Ride and be prideful. Yet, this is not his approach as he prepares for another spring motorcycle trip with hundreds of companions.
"Sometimes you want to stand back, and you want to be proud of something, and you want to pat yourself on the back and think, 'Man, look what we just did,'" Petty told AltDriver. "'We rode motorcycles for 28 years in this 20th year of (Victory Junction) camp. We built a huge water park' and yada, yada, yada.
"And then you see the kids in (the pool), and it's like, oh man, you're just humbled to be a part of that. You know what I mean? It's not about what you did."
Last season's Charity Ride served as a stark reminder for the NASCAR driver-turned-broadcaster.
Petty and his fellow riders, several of whom had been involved since the first year, completed a nine-state trek by pulling up to Victory Junction, the camp created in honor of his late son Adam.
What they saw was the newly completed pool built specifically to make children happy as they battled chronic and serious medical illnesses.
"There was a humbleness about it more so than a sense of pride," Petty said about seeing the pool for the first time. "And I think there was a sense of accomplishment for all the riders."
Completing the pool and seeing the kids enjoying it was a huge accomplishment for the Charity Ride and its participants. Yet the work is far from over for Petty.
The goal is to help children in need and have them at Victory Junction 50 weeks of the year. The week of Christmas and the week of Easter can be the breaks in the schedule.
This continued goal of helping these children is one major reason why this group of riders keeps reuniting with each passing year. Many started in their 30s; now, they are in their early 60s, but they keep climbing onto what Jon Bon Jovi called steel horses.
Photo credit: Kevin Kane Photography
This year, this group will revisit some territory from past rides but with a twist. They will stop and visit some iconic locations instead of just rolling past at 100 mph.
Sure, Petty acknowledges that the route starting in Traverse City (Michigan) and ending in Virginia looks odd, especially with stops in New York and Pennsylvania, but that's by design.
He and Morgan Petty -- the person who makes the entire operation go as planned -- know that next year's 30th-anniversary ride will have to be epic. This year was an opportunity to check off some destinations that had been frequently requested by the Charity Ride's participants.
"It was like, 'Well, how do we connect the dots,'" Petty asked. "I love the Henry Ford Museum. My mom used to take us there when I was a little boy. And we'd race in Michigan in the late 60s, early 70s. My mom would drive us over to Dearborn, and we'd spend a day in the Henry Ford Museum.
"It was just an amazing place. So once we got to the Henry Ford, it was like, 'Oh my God, let's go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!' So we went to Cleveland, and then we were like, 'Oh, let's go up to Niagara Falls!'"
This process continued as the Pettys continued looking at destinations. "Where is a race track where the riders can make some laps?" This led to Watkins Glen International, conveniently located just under three hours southeast of Niagara Falls and on the way to the ultimate destination, Virginia.
Now that the route has been set, the time has come for Petty, celebrity guests, and hundreds of other riders to get back in the saddle for a special week on the road.
They will cross part of the country while seeing incredible sights and celebrating the lives of longtime riders who have passed away. This includes Charity Ride board members Eddie Gossage and Jon Manafort.
More importantly, they will focus on what really matters -- continuing Victory Junction's mission.
"There's been over 125,000 kids who have come through camp in 20 years," Petty said. "You've touched their families and touched (the lives) of these kids. And that's crazy.
"That's crazy to think that in 20 years, there's been that many kids. The sad part about that is there's probably two or three million kids that didn't get to come through camp, that we just didn't have the capacity and didn't have the ability to see. And that's what we need to see."