Why Bicycle Across the USA for JDRF?

To donate to find a cure for Emily and Sidney please click HERE!

Often, when I tell people I want to bicycle across the United States, especially at my age, they give me funny looks.

As Will Rogers once said, they smile to your face, but internally they pity you.

I'm going to be 62 in a few days.  I say:  Why NOT?

First, I ride for my daughter Emily. She handles being diabetic without complaint. That's her above. Her mother and I think she's pretty.

I also like to ride because you get to see the country at a human pace. Below, I offer examples of scenes you might see on the road. I thank Dan and Rebecca Staebler for use of the following photos. Their daughter, Sidney, 7, is a type-1 diabetic.

Sidney 's family (they wanted me to leave their last name out for internet purposes)

and her younger brother Sam live in Bozeman, Montana.

This scene is from their home.

This is Sidney, picking flowers for her mom.

Notice her pump at her waist.

This is Sam gathering flowers for his mom, too.

Sidney and Sam at Artist Point in Yellowstone.

It looks like Sidney has a chokehold on her brother; but trust me, she's not the type.

A grizzly bear in Yellowstone.

You would not want to meet a grizzly while riding a bike.

Gates of the Mountain, Montana.

Snow in North Dakota. 

Okay:  not really bicycling weather.

When we think "ghost towns" we usually don't think Eastern Oklahoma.

This is Carhenge, near Alliance, Nebraska.

The family has been traveling around the country for two years.

They've seen a lot of cool sites.  Here's where the legend of Sam Walton began.

This is the Sponge Man in Key West, Florida.

(Some think he's Sponge Bob's dad.  Look close and you may notice the family resemblance.)

The family visited Ft. Ticonderoga, too.

Maine lobster during one stop on their trip.

Gooseberry Mesa, Utah, not far from Zion National Park.

Here we see a moonrise over Zion National Park

and a view of the tunnel leading into the canyon.

(Obviously Dan and Rebecca take good pictures.)

Here, Sidney marks two years successfully taking care of her diabetes.

Sam is ready to come to your rescue.

That's a big truck even if Sam and Sidney are small.

The Great Salt Lake.

Sam and Sidney don't do anything unless it's creative.

Sunset near San Diego.

When I bicycle across the country I ended up near Tillamook, Oregon.  It's cheese country.

Here the family visits one of the factories where cheese is made. 

When I rode through the area all I could smell was the waste cows were making.

You need their milk to make the cheese.

Then the cows do what cows gotta' do:  they poo.

Sidney collected these samples of petrified wood near Gooseberry Mesa.

You'll see later why this picture has significance to me.

I rode to raise money for JDRF in 2007.
There are all kinds of places you can see on a bicycle.
Monticello, Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson.



This is one of my favorite pictures from my 2007 ride.
Near South Pass, Wyoming, where the Oregon Trail used to run.

Another "older" rider I know, Chuck Boehme, took this picture.
He was riding from San Francisco to Yellowstone (above) at age 65.