Cycle America
July 13th 04, 09:47 PM
Only 24 more days till the 2004 Mayors' Ride end in Chicago!!
We finally hit good weather on a Pittsburgh NBG Day (last Friday July 9)
and that resulted in one of the best Mayors' Ride receptions to date. To
help you understand what I mean, when I talked with Ro Fischer, Mayor
Tom Murphy's Sr. Aide, not only did her boss celebrate with our riders,
but she told me everywhere she looked there were bikes and cameras and
smiling faces. Added kudos to Michael Sobkoviak of Venture Outdoors for
making sure the media and the local bike clubs, both of which came out
in numbers, had been fully advised. Nick and Troy, as U saw in here last
week, also made sure Michael's time was not wasted as they had gone in
to town the night before and participated in an indoor bike race on our
behalf . So before I share the latest on Don Loomis, Unicyclist, Patrick
Thomas, and our Columbus to Indy Rowbikers, here is what they are saying
in Pittsburgh:
========================================
Friday July 9, 2004 was a lovely day to be outdoors in Pittsburgh, PA.
As luck would have it, on this specific day riders from the Mayorıs Ride
were arriving from Washington, DC. After riding for 1 week, covering
about 325 miles, Pittsburgh was looking better and better. The riders,
Troy and Nick were greeted by 25 fellow supporters at the Eliza Furnace
Trailhead. The riders were escorted by the city police and the 25
supporters for 3 miles to Market Square where the Mayorıs Office and
Venture Outdoors, an organization with the mission to get people
outdoors, had set up a welcoming ceremony. The mayor of Pittsburgh, Tom
Murphy was present at the event to honor the riders on their completion
of the trip from D.C. Mayor Murphy discussed his familiarity with the
trail, having been on it a month before. Throughout his tenure of being
mayor he has fought continuously for the development and maintenance of
trails in the Pittsburgh area and surrounding regions. After the
ceremony, the 25 supporters of the ride were escorted back to the trail
by Maggie Feinstein, Program Coordinator at Venture Outdoors. The riders
and staff of Venture Outdoors were treated to lunch by the mayorıs
office, at Primanti Brothers after the event concluded to reward their
hard work and dedication to the Mayorıs Ride.
Audrey Swartz
Program Leader Intern
Venture Outdoors
Also:
What Audrey didnıt mention was that, although 25 bikes and two of
Pittsburghıs bike police led the way through the city streets at 12:30,
there were bike clubs who went straight to the staging area to greet the
riders. At one point there were easily 60 bikes in Market Square, when I
stopped counting, plus the normal lunchtime crowd. The weather was
glorious and the crowd very appreciative of the work Mayor Murphy has
done with our trail system. We also had several TV stations there as
well as radio coverage.
Rosemary Fischer
Office of the Mayor
Sr. Executive Assistant*
Note from NBG: As soon as Troy gets the CD to us, we will turn the
awesome pictures he took of the C&O Canal Path into a slide show that
will help others see how absolutely stunning this bike run truly is!!
And why Troy says he wants to do it year in year out for the NBG!!
========================================
As our ride from the East Coast heads next for Columbus, not only is
veteran NBG rider, David Huggins Daines, going to ride an all nighter to
get there, but it looks like Race Across America star, Jeff Stephens is
going to go out in the dark to find him so he can usher David to the
Columbus city limits. There the both of them will meet even more riders
for their run to City Hall
At City Hall, they will meet Rowbike riders Marshall Lafferty and Victor
Grinshtein as well as former Mayor Steve Shaw who will be on a road
bike. The three of them will be riding first from Columbus to
Cincinnati, a new NBG Day (July 19) city this year, and then to
Indianapolis NBG Day on July 23. More on their well researched ride and
the amazing Rowbikes themselves as their rides evolve!!
========================================
Max Chen offers this excellent report about our amazing unicyclist who
is holed up in the Vernal, UT furnace as you will see:
July 9th update for Patrick.*
He was on his way from Kamas to Duchesne in Utah
Friday morning (near Park City if that helps). He was
hoping to visit his uncle in Denver, CO by the
weekend. After three days in Salt Lake City, sending
out press releases, being on TV, and running errands,
he was back to the incredible pace of 6-7 mph.
His morale sounded much higher, partly because of the
dramatic scenery of snow capped mountains and forests.
Or as Patrick said, "The view does the pedaling for you". The limiting
factor for the ride will either be the distance, the
weather, or the seat. Up until now, he's been using a
t-shirt for an extra cushion, but will hopefully be
getting an air filled seat in Colorado.
People have been kind to him, probably a lot to do
with the unicycle. How can you not trust a man on a
unicycle? A motorcyclist who passed him on Highway 50
ended up being a motel owner down the road. She saw
him and then later gave him free room and board.
Patrick said it was very generous but he was so tired
that night, he ended up sleeping on the covers and in
the morning it looked like the room had not been
occupied at all.
A few people have also offered him money. Five
dollars here, ten there, but he has declined, telling
them to donate through the website or give a little to
their local cause. His web: http://www.pedalthewaves.org
He faxed a number of pages last week, but I'm still in
the middle of typing them up. They cover up to Day 6
near Placerville. Ancient history by now, but I'll
get them out maybe tomorrow.
The words above were followed by this note from Patrick yesterday
afternoon:
At 7:20 PM +0000 7/12/04, Patrick Thomas wrote:
Hey Max and martin
Just a quick word from the town of Vernal, Utah, 30 miles from the
border with Colorado. My pedal started falling off in the town of
Roosevelt (28 miles back) and, even though I would screw it back in
tightly, it would already be falling back off within the mile.
I was fortuntate to hitch a ride for the last 22 miles here to Vernal
but, unfortunatey, it was Sunday morning, 7/11, and the bike shops were
both closed. Apparently, alot of places are closed here on Sunday,
greatly due to the Mormon Church influence.*Even though the problem is
with my right, crank arm , which is stripped ( after logging over 1,000
miles)*I am trying to get two new pedal cranks and two new pedal,
shipped overnight from Unicycle.com in Georgia (figure, i might as well
do both pedals and cranck arms while I'm at it and not wait for the
other pedal to start falling apart. I suppose with all the training and
trip miles I have logged on these pedals, especially with the climbs,
they have endured a great deal of stress). If I can get that done, I
will probably leave here for Colorado on Wednesday, 7/14. Tryin' to
keep cool in the 90 degree daily weather.
========================================
Don Loomis is powering away as he surges toward Omaha on his way to
Chicago, the end point for this year's Mayors' Ride. Faye Saunders
connected with Don, who is now in Nebraska, and she filed this great
report:
From Ogallala, Nebraska
I received an interesting geography lesson from Don this weekend as he
called me from the Ogallala Aquifer. The Aquifer is a huge underground
reservoir covering a total of 800 miles north to south and 400 miles
east to west. It includes the states of South Dakota, Nebraska,
Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. There is
grave concern about the water level of the Aquifer since "it has been
cut off from almost all of its natural recharging sources". See
<http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/gw/Ogallala_1.cfm> for more information about
this incredible natural resource that is being rapidly depleted.
After leaving Galeton, Colorado, Don took Hwy 14, which is the same
route he was on when he crossed Cameron Pass back in the Rockies. He
was a celebrity at the restaurant in New Raymer where he stopped to grab
lunch. Everyone in the restaurant came out to see his bike, and those
who had cameras with them, took lots of pictures. Must have been a
hearty lunch, because when Don saw some nice grass along the side of the
road, he decided to take a nap.
There have been many wide load trucks passing him lately carrying all
sorts of large items; manufactured homes, lumber, etc. At the Walmart
in Sterling, he picked up some batteries, bananas, oranges, Oreo cookies
-- much needed supplies for the road. A guy there was a recumbent rider
and knew the former mayor of Iliff. Once in Iliff, the former mayor
gave Don directions to a park where he could camp for the night. At
another park in the middle of town there was a band playing Chuck
Berry's Johnny B. Good. And it did sound good, however, seeing some
storm clouds in the distance, he opted for dinner and beer in a local
tavern instead. There he met a fellow named Zack who was there with his
mother and sister, and his stepdad, who was the bartender. They warned
Don about a rabid skunk who was known to be prowling the area. When Don
arrived back at his tent, he found it unzipped. After looking inside
very carefully and finding no skunks, he climbed inside, zipped the tent
up tightly, and fell fast asleep.
For breakfast, Don had yogurt with some raw oatmeal and water mixed in
with it. After hitting the road again, he experienced flat tire #6,
this one on the BOB trailer again. For lunch he stopped in Ovid,
Colorado, which had received 4" of rain the night before! Don was glad
he missed that. He then had an interesting cow experience. A
(gang/group/bunch/herd?) of about 100 cows all began walking toward him,
ran away, and then cautiously came back again. I'm sure they had never
seen the likes of Don before with his fully loaded recumbent bicycle
dressed from head to toe in his white 30 SPF outfit! He spent about 20
minutes with the cows, capturing them on his camcorder and even managed
some form of communication with them -- when he mooed, one of the cows
returned the sentiment. A little further along, he was greeted by a
couple of dogs, one of whom gave him a big hug.
He then came across an interesting looking but no longer active grain
elevator. It reminded him of the large redwood trees that you can drive
a car through out there on the West Coast. He parked his bike inside
and took a picture and thought what a great campsite that would have
made had it been later in the day. Later, as he was riding along, he
came upon a bearded man walking along the highway with his pack and
guitar. He was hiking his way from California back to New York where he
came from after having run out of money on the west coast. Several
police cars had stopped and given him rides along the way and Don gave
the man some of his water.
Once in Ogalalla, Don found a campground with shower facilities. It had
been three days since his last shower and his clothing was beginning to
stick to his skin. There is a couple camping next to him named Marty
and Jean who travel the country singing in churches. Many thunderstorms
and tornados begin in this area because of the winds coming down from
the Rocky Mountains combining with the humid winds from the Gulf of
Mexico creating turbulence. There are currently flood warnings east of
Ogalalla, but Don didnt' seem too worried about that -- he's got
electricity at his campsite, he'll be taking a shower soon, and will
then go swimming in the campground pool. While we were on the phone,
Don was looking at the sunset to the west, thunderstorms to the south,
the interstate highway to the east, and Marty and Jean singing to the
north. Marty and Jean recommended a beautiful route for Don to take on
his way from Chicago to DC along Hwy 30 east of Pittsburgh. The wind is
out of the west right now and Don is hoping that continues into tomorrow.
========================================
btw: You can learn about all of our riders at:
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/bios
Our dynamic schedule with links to reports and pictures and
proclamations can be found at:
http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004
We finally hit good weather on a Pittsburgh NBG Day (last Friday July 9)
and that resulted in one of the best Mayors' Ride receptions to date. To
help you understand what I mean, when I talked with Ro Fischer, Mayor
Tom Murphy's Sr. Aide, not only did her boss celebrate with our riders,
but she told me everywhere she looked there were bikes and cameras and
smiling faces. Added kudos to Michael Sobkoviak of Venture Outdoors for
making sure the media and the local bike clubs, both of which came out
in numbers, had been fully advised. Nick and Troy, as U saw in here last
week, also made sure Michael's time was not wasted as they had gone in
to town the night before and participated in an indoor bike race on our
behalf . So before I share the latest on Don Loomis, Unicyclist, Patrick
Thomas, and our Columbus to Indy Rowbikers, here is what they are saying
in Pittsburgh:
========================================
Friday July 9, 2004 was a lovely day to be outdoors in Pittsburgh, PA.
As luck would have it, on this specific day riders from the Mayorıs Ride
were arriving from Washington, DC. After riding for 1 week, covering
about 325 miles, Pittsburgh was looking better and better. The riders,
Troy and Nick were greeted by 25 fellow supporters at the Eliza Furnace
Trailhead. The riders were escorted by the city police and the 25
supporters for 3 miles to Market Square where the Mayorıs Office and
Venture Outdoors, an organization with the mission to get people
outdoors, had set up a welcoming ceremony. The mayor of Pittsburgh, Tom
Murphy was present at the event to honor the riders on their completion
of the trip from D.C. Mayor Murphy discussed his familiarity with the
trail, having been on it a month before. Throughout his tenure of being
mayor he has fought continuously for the development and maintenance of
trails in the Pittsburgh area and surrounding regions. After the
ceremony, the 25 supporters of the ride were escorted back to the trail
by Maggie Feinstein, Program Coordinator at Venture Outdoors. The riders
and staff of Venture Outdoors were treated to lunch by the mayorıs
office, at Primanti Brothers after the event concluded to reward their
hard work and dedication to the Mayorıs Ride.
Audrey Swartz
Program Leader Intern
Venture Outdoors
Also:
What Audrey didnıt mention was that, although 25 bikes and two of
Pittsburghıs bike police led the way through the city streets at 12:30,
there were bike clubs who went straight to the staging area to greet the
riders. At one point there were easily 60 bikes in Market Square, when I
stopped counting, plus the normal lunchtime crowd. The weather was
glorious and the crowd very appreciative of the work Mayor Murphy has
done with our trail system. We also had several TV stations there as
well as radio coverage.
Rosemary Fischer
Office of the Mayor
Sr. Executive Assistant*
Note from NBG: As soon as Troy gets the CD to us, we will turn the
awesome pictures he took of the C&O Canal Path into a slide show that
will help others see how absolutely stunning this bike run truly is!!
And why Troy says he wants to do it year in year out for the NBG!!
========================================
As our ride from the East Coast heads next for Columbus, not only is
veteran NBG rider, David Huggins Daines, going to ride an all nighter to
get there, but it looks like Race Across America star, Jeff Stephens is
going to go out in the dark to find him so he can usher David to the
Columbus city limits. There the both of them will meet even more riders
for their run to City Hall
At City Hall, they will meet Rowbike riders Marshall Lafferty and Victor
Grinshtein as well as former Mayor Steve Shaw who will be on a road
bike. The three of them will be riding first from Columbus to
Cincinnati, a new NBG Day (July 19) city this year, and then to
Indianapolis NBG Day on July 23. More on their well researched ride and
the amazing Rowbikes themselves as their rides evolve!!
========================================
Max Chen offers this excellent report about our amazing unicyclist who
is holed up in the Vernal, UT furnace as you will see:
July 9th update for Patrick.*
He was on his way from Kamas to Duchesne in Utah
Friday morning (near Park City if that helps). He was
hoping to visit his uncle in Denver, CO by the
weekend. After three days in Salt Lake City, sending
out press releases, being on TV, and running errands,
he was back to the incredible pace of 6-7 mph.
His morale sounded much higher, partly because of the
dramatic scenery of snow capped mountains and forests.
Or as Patrick said, "The view does the pedaling for you". The limiting
factor for the ride will either be the distance, the
weather, or the seat. Up until now, he's been using a
t-shirt for an extra cushion, but will hopefully be
getting an air filled seat in Colorado.
People have been kind to him, probably a lot to do
with the unicycle. How can you not trust a man on a
unicycle? A motorcyclist who passed him on Highway 50
ended up being a motel owner down the road. She saw
him and then later gave him free room and board.
Patrick said it was very generous but he was so tired
that night, he ended up sleeping on the covers and in
the morning it looked like the room had not been
occupied at all.
A few people have also offered him money. Five
dollars here, ten there, but he has declined, telling
them to donate through the website or give a little to
their local cause. His web: http://www.pedalthewaves.org
He faxed a number of pages last week, but I'm still in
the middle of typing them up. They cover up to Day 6
near Placerville. Ancient history by now, but I'll
get them out maybe tomorrow.
The words above were followed by this note from Patrick yesterday
afternoon:
At 7:20 PM +0000 7/12/04, Patrick Thomas wrote:
Hey Max and martin
Just a quick word from the town of Vernal, Utah, 30 miles from the
border with Colorado. My pedal started falling off in the town of
Roosevelt (28 miles back) and, even though I would screw it back in
tightly, it would already be falling back off within the mile.
I was fortuntate to hitch a ride for the last 22 miles here to Vernal
but, unfortunatey, it was Sunday morning, 7/11, and the bike shops were
both closed. Apparently, alot of places are closed here on Sunday,
greatly due to the Mormon Church influence.*Even though the problem is
with my right, crank arm , which is stripped ( after logging over 1,000
miles)*I am trying to get two new pedal cranks and two new pedal,
shipped overnight from Unicycle.com in Georgia (figure, i might as well
do both pedals and cranck arms while I'm at it and not wait for the
other pedal to start falling apart. I suppose with all the training and
trip miles I have logged on these pedals, especially with the climbs,
they have endured a great deal of stress). If I can get that done, I
will probably leave here for Colorado on Wednesday, 7/14. Tryin' to
keep cool in the 90 degree daily weather.
========================================
Don Loomis is powering away as he surges toward Omaha on his way to
Chicago, the end point for this year's Mayors' Ride. Faye Saunders
connected with Don, who is now in Nebraska, and she filed this great
report:
From Ogallala, Nebraska
I received an interesting geography lesson from Don this weekend as he
called me from the Ogallala Aquifer. The Aquifer is a huge underground
reservoir covering a total of 800 miles north to south and 400 miles
east to west. It includes the states of South Dakota, Nebraska,
Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. There is
grave concern about the water level of the Aquifer since "it has been
cut off from almost all of its natural recharging sources". See
<http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/gw/Ogallala_1.cfm> for more information about
this incredible natural resource that is being rapidly depleted.
After leaving Galeton, Colorado, Don took Hwy 14, which is the same
route he was on when he crossed Cameron Pass back in the Rockies. He
was a celebrity at the restaurant in New Raymer where he stopped to grab
lunch. Everyone in the restaurant came out to see his bike, and those
who had cameras with them, took lots of pictures. Must have been a
hearty lunch, because when Don saw some nice grass along the side of the
road, he decided to take a nap.
There have been many wide load trucks passing him lately carrying all
sorts of large items; manufactured homes, lumber, etc. At the Walmart
in Sterling, he picked up some batteries, bananas, oranges, Oreo cookies
-- much needed supplies for the road. A guy there was a recumbent rider
and knew the former mayor of Iliff. Once in Iliff, the former mayor
gave Don directions to a park where he could camp for the night. At
another park in the middle of town there was a band playing Chuck
Berry's Johnny B. Good. And it did sound good, however, seeing some
storm clouds in the distance, he opted for dinner and beer in a local
tavern instead. There he met a fellow named Zack who was there with his
mother and sister, and his stepdad, who was the bartender. They warned
Don about a rabid skunk who was known to be prowling the area. When Don
arrived back at his tent, he found it unzipped. After looking inside
very carefully and finding no skunks, he climbed inside, zipped the tent
up tightly, and fell fast asleep.
For breakfast, Don had yogurt with some raw oatmeal and water mixed in
with it. After hitting the road again, he experienced flat tire #6,
this one on the BOB trailer again. For lunch he stopped in Ovid,
Colorado, which had received 4" of rain the night before! Don was glad
he missed that. He then had an interesting cow experience. A
(gang/group/bunch/herd?) of about 100 cows all began walking toward him,
ran away, and then cautiously came back again. I'm sure they had never
seen the likes of Don before with his fully loaded recumbent bicycle
dressed from head to toe in his white 30 SPF outfit! He spent about 20
minutes with the cows, capturing them on his camcorder and even managed
some form of communication with them -- when he mooed, one of the cows
returned the sentiment. A little further along, he was greeted by a
couple of dogs, one of whom gave him a big hug.
He then came across an interesting looking but no longer active grain
elevator. It reminded him of the large redwood trees that you can drive
a car through out there on the West Coast. He parked his bike inside
and took a picture and thought what a great campsite that would have
made had it been later in the day. Later, as he was riding along, he
came upon a bearded man walking along the highway with his pack and
guitar. He was hiking his way from California back to New York where he
came from after having run out of money on the west coast. Several
police cars had stopped and given him rides along the way and Don gave
the man some of his water.
Once in Ogalalla, Don found a campground with shower facilities. It had
been three days since his last shower and his clothing was beginning to
stick to his skin. There is a couple camping next to him named Marty
and Jean who travel the country singing in churches. Many thunderstorms
and tornados begin in this area because of the winds coming down from
the Rocky Mountains combining with the humid winds from the Gulf of
Mexico creating turbulence. There are currently flood warnings east of
Ogalalla, but Don didnt' seem too worried about that -- he's got
electricity at his campsite, he'll be taking a shower soon, and will
then go swimming in the campground pool. While we were on the phone,
Don was looking at the sunset to the west, thunderstorms to the south,
the interstate highway to the east, and Marty and Jean singing to the
north. Marty and Jean recommended a beautiful route for Don to take on
his way from Chicago to DC along Hwy 30 east of Pittsburgh. The wind is
out of the west right now and Don is hoping that continues into tomorrow.
========================================
btw: You can learn about all of our riders at:
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/bios
Our dynamic schedule with links to reports and pictures and
proclamations can be found at:
http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004