This video inspired me and just made me feel good that I know Rick and am proud he is such a fighter. I never had any doubts about him or his bride working together would beat his cancer.
Cycling Friends Rick & Mary’s Inspiring Video
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Category Archives: Interesting People
Day 24: Houston, We Have A Problem
Bob called me tonight to let me know he was packing it in. He didn’t quit — his bike did.
It had rained again today and when it had quit, Bob was moving his bike when he noticed something was wrong with his rear wheel. He looked close and found it was way out-of-round. One spoke was broken and the wheel needed to be trued. There was a hostel nearby just for bike campers called Perry’s.
Bob called and a woman answered, who turned out to be Perry. She asked where Bob was. He told her and she said she could pick him and the bike up in 15 minutes. He was surprised, but asked if she could pick him up in 30 minutes because he had just started to pack! She was there in 30 minutes.
Perry took him to a bike shop and the guy there said it would cost $250 to get his bike back in shape to ride. Bob knew then the ride was over; he had only paid $200 for the entire bike back in Florida. The guy at the bike shop said he would buy the frame for $150. Bob thought about it for a micro-second and said, “Sold!”
Bob told me he had put up with as much rain as he could and to get back almost what he paid for his bike, “It was a no brainer.”
He also said he was SO impressed with the people at Perry’s and the way they treated him. They are really great people and he appreciated all their hospitality and help.
Bob called his son in Houston and he will drive over tonight, stay the night with him and they’ll drive back to Houston today.
Bob has no regrets. He said he got in 800 miles and knows he could have finished the ride and will probably try it again. He will hang out in Houston with his son and just enjoy.
Bob is a class guy I would be proud to ride with anywhere, anytime.
Thanks, Bob!
I’m going to work this next week on filling-in some details of our ride together, complete with the photos and videos I brought back with me. I hope you’ll enjoy the visuals. Thanks for ‘riding along’ with us — and with Bob — and all of your encouragement and support. It meant a lot to both of us.
Until my next update,
Chuck
Day 23: Stop the Rain Dancing!
St. Francisville, LA
R&R (for RAIN & Relaxation!)
Bob is still in St. Francisville, Louisiana, holing up in a motel.
Rosedown Plantation
He did do some sight-seeing today. He said he visited the Rosedown Plantation, and was very impressed with the way it was being restored. There are 170+ year-old oaks that were just beautiful.
LOTS of trees
It does seem the rains follow Bob around. It was raining again today and that kind of hampered his sight-seeing. He asked me to stop my rain dancing; he has had enough of the rains! 🙂 I told him that was the only dance I knew but would stop just for him.
Below you can see a video that shows what I mean about the rains we experienced. This was on Dauphin Island:
Bob did run into another bicyclist we had run into a few times before going in the same general direction we were going. His name is Randy. We kept crossing paths. He even camped with us at Pensacola NAS.
Randy and Bob are sharing a motel room in St. Francisville. Randy isn’t feeling well and told Bob he is going to a clinic in the morning and then wrap it up and take a Greyhound bus back home. At least Bob had some company for a while. Sometimes it does get a little lonely out there.
With 80% chance of rain for today maybe Bob will have to sit it out another day, but Bob never complains.
Day 21: Hot Dog Cyclist
Franklinton to Easleyville, LA
34 miles
Bob is in Easleyville, LA tonight. He said he only did 34 miles. Campground availability is the reason for this short ride, the next campground would have been too far for a one-day ride.
There were no big hills today, but plenty of rolling ones. The roads were very desolate, though. When Bob thought he wouldn’t find anything, a casino out in the middle of nowhere showed up.
Bebo's
He went in and only wanted something to eat and got a hot dog. As he was eating it the lights went out — Bob said someone had probably won a jackpot. He didn’t stay long.
Bob added that on yesterday’s ride another little puppy tried to adopt him. Bob just seems to draw puppies to him; this is the second pup that has tried to follow him. I told him he may have a new dog by the time he gets back to Florida!
Bob also told me that he was lucky the night before because as he was putting up his tent the campground owner showed up and said he could stay in one of his cabins. Bob got a $50 cabin for $15; not a bad deal.
The owner, a guy named Chris, was a welder but also trained horses and he told Bob how one of his horses almost killed him. Seems he was behind the horse and for some reason the horse kicked him, injured his spleen and he almost died.
I passed on messages to him and will wait for tomorrow night’s report. Keep him in your thoughts and continue sending him your encouragements.
Day 20: Getting Drunk in a Dry County & Outrunning Dogs
Poplarville's Main Street
I received a phone message from Bob this morning. He said he was leaving Poplarville, MS and that he had to stay another day because of storms.
Bob said he will give me another call tonight and let me know where he is and any news.
Looks like the rain is following him. Hope Bob doesn’t get wet again today. Will post more when I get more info.
UPDATE:
After 50 miles of riding today, Bob is in Frankinton, LA. He said he had a good time last night in Poplarville, MS drinking with the locals and that it was funny getting drunk in a dry county. It was raining, so the guy that owned the RV park let him stay in a $50 cabin for free.
Bob met another cyclist today, coming from San Francisco, through San Diego, on to St. Augustine, and then up to Maine. The guy is 62 years old and averages 85 miles a day!
Bob said 2 – 4 pm is the hardest riding time because of the heat.
Today he had several animal sightings. First he saw a possum in the middle of the day, which he thought was odd. He also had two encounters with dogs. He was lucky he was going downhill and out ran the first dogs. The second encounter was with a small yapping dog and a Great Dane. Bob said he got off his bike and had his pepper spray ready but he didn’t have to use it.
Yikes!
Bob still has about 400 miles to Houston, about 8-10 days.
Tonight Bob is at an RV Park with about 90 sites and only 1 RV parked in it. He hopes the owner will show up soon and let him stay in the back room of the cabin, where there are 4 bunk beds set up. That would save him from setting up his tent tonight.
Tomorrow could be a short ride because of available campsites ahead. Today’s ride was a lot of little rolling hills. Not a bad day.
I passed on all the emails and comments the blog has been receiving for him and he enjoyed hearing from everyone. I also passed on info from Iris Hollis who said that the Dragon Boat team Bob is on won First Place in the B Division. The whole team really worked hard and I’m glad they got their just reward.
I told Bob to ride safe and I’ll be waiting for tomorrow’s update on his progress.
If anyone has anything they want to pass onto Bob, please leave a comment on the blog and I’ll make sure he gets it.
Chuck
MS to LA!
Day 18: Bob’s in Mississippi
Grand Bay, Alabama to Perkinston, Mississippi
? miles
Got a call from Bob tonight. He is in Perkinston, MS.
He said this morning when he took off, he saw an eagle. I told him that was a good luck sign. Bob said somehow he got off the route and lost about 15 miles. It was a very unpopulated area, no small towns, or gas stations, no anything. He almost ran out of water. He carries 4 bottles. He does like the Thermos bottles I finally convinced him to get. On a hot day, cold water is so much better than drinking warm water, but these bottles do hold a little less than a regular bike water bottle.
He also ran into another cyclist that we met earlier in our ride who is going the same way. Randy and Bob spent some time riding together, then separated.
Bob got caught in another sudden storm. Just when he thought he couldn’t ride much further, he came across an RV park not on the map. He rolled in and it had hot showers, laundry, and a place under an awning where he put up his tent. He is dry and well fed.
Bob riding after a storm
He also said there was a gaggle of geese there. He started the day with eagles and ended with geese. Gotta be a good sign. He’s in good spirits and will be back on the road again tomorrow.
Day 11: Headwinds vs Tailwinds
Cheryl reporting again this evening. I think Chuck prefers the interview method of blogging. 😉
Chipley to DeFuniak Springs, FL
44 miles
The plan this morning was to take the trail to Florida’s Highest Waterfall at Falling Waters State Park before leaving the campground, but after being told by fellow campers that the hike was 25 minutes each way and that the ‘waterfall’ was bone dry, as it is dependent upon rainfall, the guys decided to just break camp and start riding.
According to Chuck, the most exciting thing that happened today was meeting a cycling couple heading east from Austin, Texas.
Another rider heading East
Chuck was impressed that the woman riding was using a rubber belt type of chain, as he’d never seen one before. He said he definitely wants to check it out once he gets a chance, as it looked like a good idea.
Belt Drive?
While they were talking about their travels, Chuck said she complained about the headwind she and her partner were experiencing. Chuck was incredulous. Headwinds? They were heading east and should have had a killer tailwind from the headwinds Chuck and Bob were fighting all day while heading west. But as we’ve learned from all our thousands of miles riding the Withlacoochee Trail, sometimes it feels like you’ve got a headwind no matter what direction you’re riding.
Tonight they’re staying in DeFuniak Springs, enjoying a rare night in a motel room. There weren’t any campgrounds close enough to the route today to take advantage of today, so it was the best choice. I was told that no one’s complaining about the accommodations.
Chuck spent part of the evening recharging all his gadgets before they had some dinner and settled into bed.
Charging away
Day 10: Docs on Bikes
Cheryl filling in tonight for Chuck with info from his phone call.
Sneads to Chipley, FL
50 miles
Chuck called tonight (via FaceTime, which is the Mac equivalent of Skype – technology is so cool!) and said the guys are camping at Falling Waters State Park in Chipley, FL. Chuck’s familiar with this campground, as we stayed at Falling Waters together back in 2003 when we took our ‘Big Trip Out West’, RVing for the first time.
By the time everyone made it to the campground and got their tents set up, it was too dark to hike the short trail to Florida’s Highest Waterfall this evening, but they plan to take a look at it tomorrow morning before heading out again.
Today was another ‘Death Valley Day’ according to Chuck. This is his way of saying the winds were miserable. Chuck has used this phrase a lot on this trip, but the first time he said it was back in 2009 when he rode his bike from the entrance to Death Valley National Park down to Badwater (the lowest point in the U.S.) when we were traveling as full-time RVers. If you click the link and read his post, you’ll know what he’s talking about. 🙂
Chuck said he’s not complaining, though, and that everyone’s still motivated and feeling strong, but “we feel slow.”
The boys seem to be settling into the routine of riding, with not too much to report out-of-the-ordinary. They stopped in Chipley at a laundromat to do some laundry, and did some shopping at CVS and Wal-Mart for some batteries and stuff before riding to the campground.
The big excitement of the day was meeting yet another group of riders coming east from San Diego on the Southern Tier trail. Jessica, Caley, and Tad are three med students on their way to St. Augustine.
The "3 MDs" Riding Sea-to-Sea
Everyone chatted with each other for a little while, took pictures of each other, and exchanged blog addresses. Before long they parted ways, but not before one of the girls complained about having fallen on her bike and Chuck joked facetiously that he’d never done that before.
Of course, as they parted and the light turned green, Chuck clipped in before he had enough momentum and promptly fell. He said he never felt so embarassed in his life. But, hey, it happens. The only time we cyclists ever seem to fall is when we have an audience, right? It must be bicycle Murphy’s law!
The current plan is to ride to DeFuniak Springs tomorrow and maybe stay a couple of days to see the sights.
Snead to Chipley, FL
Day 7: Kick My Butt If I Complain
Suwannee River to Marietta, FL
50 miles
This morning I could not get organized. Felt like I was going in slow motion. It was 42 degrees this morning. It was cold, but my sleeping bag was nice and warm. Hated getting out :-). We were up at 6:30 and riding by 8:10 am.
Today was a very hard day on the bike. 50 miles isn’t much, but fighting head winds all the way really beat us down. But I’m not complaining. No way, it was a cake walk.
About 30 miles into our ride, we stopped at the top of a hill for some water and to catch our breath. As we were recuperating, a couple (husband & wife) coming from the other direction came across the road and stopped to chat a bit.
They had started from El Paso about 6 weeks earlier. The guy was a retired Army officer and asked how long I was in the Corps (he saw my USMC flag). We talked military stuff for a while, then we talked biking.
He is completing going around the perimeter of the whole United States. WOW! Plus, he had done the central route too. On this trip he had broken his chain and had fixed it, but it was too short and he couldn’t use his high gears.
We told him he probably wouldn’t find a bike shop until he got to Gainesville. We said our goodbyes and they headed east. As they rode off Bob said to me, “If I complain about anything on this trip, kick my butt.” I said that goes double for me.
The guy we had been talking to had his right artificial leg strapped to his center tube. This guy was riding with only his left leg.
Kick me if I complain about anything!!!
Today's 50 miler
Day 6: On The Road Again
White Springs to Suwannee River, FL
30 miles
Sometimes things happen for the right reasons. The whole time we spent at Suwannee Bicycle Association was like serendipity. We missed the rain. We met great people at SBA. We met Kevin & Josh, fellow cyclists completing the same route we are beginning.
Kevin & Josh about to get back on the road
And we learned the amazing history of the SBA from Jean, who helped start SBA 21 years ago.
SBA's Jean
Yesterday we had a good talk with Kevin and Josh – really great guys. They are super adventurous. They had a lot of good stories to tell us, including one about backpacking with skis for two weeks! They gave us good info on places to avoid and things to look out for on the rest of our trip.
Pumping the tires
Late last night, someone tried to get into SBA. It was Jean. She was coming in to be there early for some street marking the next morning for the Florida Bicycle Safari. We were all sleeping on the couches and Josh & Kevin were sleeping on the floor. Bob gave up his couch so Jean could sleep on it and he moved to the floor. Jean joked the next morning she better not tell her husband she slept with 5 guys! 
Jean talking to cyclists
Jean told us all about the history of SBA. She said the founders (husband & wife Dan and Lys Burden) did a huge cycling trip from Alaska and were featured in National Geographic at the time. They are also the founders of Adventure Cycling. Wow.
Suwannee Bicycle Association Beginnings
We could have left earlier this morning, but we only planned to go 30 miles to Suwannee River State Park. We’re having to adjust our route based on campgrounds. There’s nothing between there and Tallahassee. With the strong winds (20-25 mph) today, 35 miles is like 50 miles.
After Suwannee River State Park, there’s a big strip of 110 miles to the next campground. We have info on two Warm Showers possibilities Wednesday night in Tallahassee. We’re trying to break down the mileage to manageable chunks.
The ride was cold. Having to wear long-johns, but having a good time!
White Springs to Suwannee River