Biking for JDRF: Pictures from a Bicycle Ride across America 2011

I cheated a little on this post and included places I’ve seen on several shorter bicycle rides, plus a couple from hiking, but almost all are from my second ride across the U.S.A. in 2011.

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“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

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Emily is why I rode across the U.S.A. a second time. Picture from 2012.

I ride for other young people, too.

I wanted to ride in honor of a few young people in 2011 again. So, I went back to my old school.

This time, I rode in the name, Dezaree Heath, an eight grader at Loveland Middle School (left), and seventh graders Alyssa Heal, whose father John, I had had in class (second from left), some big dope (middle), Sydney Mahon (second from right), and Jason Ratterman (right).

Get out there and pedal:

Going to the Sun Highway (the line at right), Glacier National Park.

You can go down faster on a bicycle than a car can.

I’ve ridden that road three times: 1999, 2024, 2025.

Glacier National Park. I pedaled across the park in 2024.
What a thrill.

Mountain bloom.

Glacier National Park. I carry camping gear when I pedal.
I like to be self-contained; plus I like the challenge.

To get ready for my 2011 ride, I did a practice ride of about 100 miles in Florida;
pedaling in the Florida Keys.

I wanted to be ready to ride over the high passes in the Rockies.

Florida practice ride – The Everglades.

What a climb!

Yellowstone National Park. View from Mt. Washburn. My son-in-law in the picture.

You can get just about the same view by pedaling here.
I went through Yellowstone on three bicycle trips: 1999, 2007 and 2011.

(You should, too.)

Kancamagus Pass, N.H. in fall. The ride up this pass is a challenge.
Drivers in New Hampshire and Vermont are used to seeing bicyclers
and give you room. Picture from 2019.

I pedaled up this pass in 2011, on my way across the USA - headed for California.

(I did it again, age 75, in 2024.)

Western Kansas is good pedaling; but population is declining.
Abandoned house along Route 96.
Headwinds can be a “bitch.” if you're going west.

Rode here in 2007.

Door to nowhere. Kansas.

Sculpture in Kansas. Picture from 2019.

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“Not much is ever gained simply by wishing for it.”

Thucydides

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I SAID THIS BEFORE (when I posted pictures from my first ride in 2007). If you’re thinking about bicycling across the United States, I absolutely encourage you to get out there and pedal.

Almost any decent rider with a good bike could do what I did.

I should also stress this: I consider both trips among the greatest adventures of my life; and if you make the same kind of journey, you almost certainly will too. I used this same line last time I posted about that 2007 ride. So here we go again. I tell everyone who’s interested: It’s not that hard.

I did both rides to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, because my daughter Emily developed type-1 diabetes at age fourteen. Fortunately, she does a great job watching her insulin levels and now works as a diabetic nurse educator in Washington D.C. Today she helps others learn how to manage their disease.

I was 62 years old when I rode 4,600 miles in 2011. I was in good shape for my age. Still, you don’t have to be a super athlete to make this happen.

In fact, my training methods for the ride left much to be desired. (See below.)

I seem to eat a lot of candy while I’m getting “in shape” for my rides.

A LOT of candy.

Here’s the best news. When I reached the Pacific in 2007, and again in 2011, I wished I could turn around and ride back.

I had that much fun.

Camping out at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.

This is what I look like when I fail to pedal enough.

Consider this a public service warning:

If you are getting in practice miles around home in Ohio,
and a goose jumps in your path try not to run into him or her.

Both of you will go flying.

I think it was a goose assassination attempt.

For details check this link.

Cadillac Mountain, (el. 1,526 feet) Acadia National Park, Maine.
If you've never visited this park, take a trip, even in a car.
This is where I started my 2011 ride.

You get a lot of great views from the seat of a bicycle if you cross the USA.

Lupine beside the road. Maine.

Hiking in Acadia National Park, October 2019.

I was pleased to see New Hampshire elected officials take this threat seriously.

I did not mess around with any moose.

I did see this moose lurking in the forest later.

Was he looking to bulldoze bicycle riders?

Again: Watch out for killer geese!

First big climb in 2011, up Kancamagus Pass, New Hampshire.
It's a beautiful ride along the Swift River for the first ten miles.
The last five or six miles are steep.

The pass tops out at 2,867 feet.

Dipping my toes in the clear waters of the Swift River - 2011.

Swift River, Fall 2019.

It’s 26 miles to the top of Kancamagus Pass.

But you fly downhill for eight miles into Lincoln, N.H.

The bed of the Baker River, also in New Hampshire, was one slab of granite.

On this trip, I got hit by heavy rain five different times.

In Vermont, I got drenched twice.

Pedaling in Vermont, especially around Middlebury, was a joy.

You can take a ferry across Lake Champlain and see Fort Ticonderoga, N. Y.

Ethan Allen and his “Green Mountain Boys” capture the fort

without firing a shot – May 10, 1775.

The British recaptured the fort on July 5, 1777,

in part because the defenders were drinking.

A boater on the Erie Canal.

In 2011, I pedaled along New York Route 5, which had a wide shoulder.

In 2024, I pedaled along the Erie Canalway Trail.

Wedding on a canalboat, c. 1840.

Street view – Google Maps, New York Route 5, near Delta, N.Y.

Farm scene in the Finger Lakes area; outside of New York City,

large parts of the state are rural.

I used to be a history teacher.

I visited the museum at Seneca Falls, New York,
where the fight for women’s suffrage began in 1848.

Susan B. Anthony fought for equal rights for women for fifty years.

“Failure is impossible,” she once said.

I like that spirit of perseverance,
which is all it really takes to pedal across the U.S.A.

Yes, ladies: You could have been fitted with a corset and bustle in 1876.

In the 1970s women protested over hiring practices for secretaries.

One desirable quality: typing skills. Second: great legs.

I should have stopped for a snack...and maybe some weed. New York.
By the way, the roads in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York
are generally good for cycling.

Morning, camping near Lake Erie in New York - 2011 ride.

Storm on Lake Erie.

Abandoned home in Ohio.

Interior of the abandoned home –

you don’t see wood beams like that anymore.

If you prefer, pedal across Pennsylvania instead of New York.
The battlefield museum at Gettysburg is fantastic.

My older brother and I, and a group of friends pedaled the battlefield in 2019.

This soldier was very lucky. Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).

Union troops charging into battle.

I stopped at my house in Cincinnati for a few days to rest up.
Otherwise, I didn't take many pictures of my home state.
I already know what it looks like.

I ride to raise money for JDRF. My daughter Emily was diagnosed in 2005.

In 2012, she graduated from Ohio State University, with a degree in nursing.

I do a lot of stealth camping. It's free!
Unfortunately, in Indiana, the first day out of Cincinnati,
I got handcuffed briefly at this spot.
Police though I was a bank robbery suspect.

I was framed!

The good news: Indiana is mostly flat and easy riding.
It looks a lot like big chunks of Ohio.

One blistering hot day, I started checking my phone for a nearby motel.

In the middle of the Indiana countryside, I found the Dog Patch Motel.

When I got there it was a kennel; but I slept in the air-conditioned office that night.

Only $20.

Crop dusting in Indiana.

A trash dump in rural Indiana.

I wonder if we’re ever going to run out of space for our junk.

“Cathedral in the Cornfield” – Beaverville, Illinois (pop. 362)

St. Mary’s was built between 1909-1911.

A cute young lady watches a parade. Wilmington, Illinois.

Birthplace of President Ronald Reagan, February 6, 1911 - Tampico, Illinois

There was only a small Reagan museum in town – closed when I pedaled past.

Campground hosts in Illinois feed a wild turkey.

Campground hosts in Illinois feed the cross country rider breakfast.

I kept meeting nice people at almost every stop.

Tyrannosaurus Rex – Illinois, 2011.

One day, I got lost. Mike Frizoel waved me down, gave directions
and noticed my JDRF shirt.

He introduced me to Kathy, his wife, who also has type-1 diabetes.

The tiger tattoo on Mike’s back was in honor of his wife’s courage,

fighting the disease.

Also shown: Jerry Garcia.

It also takes faith to ride across the USA on a bicycle.

Laundry day. Illinois.

My rig: About to cross the Mississippi,

Clinton, Iowa just ahead.

It was easy to find good roads to pedal in Illinois.

Joe Ossman rode with me one day.
He pedaled across the USA when he was 64.

Eastern Iowa has some good hills.

Caesar Lopez began his career as a busboy at a restaurant owned by his cousin in Virginia. By the time I ate at his place, La Feria, in Clinton, Iowa,

he told me he was serving 2,000 meals on a good day.

In Clear Lake, Iowa, a good Samaritan named David Delperdang, got me to a bicycle shop, where Russell Rayburn fixed me up.

He was a mechanic in the spirit of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

A sign on his front desk read: “In the summer I will refuse certain jobs. I refuse to sacrifice quality for quantity.”

I even got to sleep in his shop on a cot that night, for free.

Fueling up for the next day’s ride – at a breakfast place in Clear Lake.

It’s a pretty tourist town.

Iowa directions: Turn left at the cornfield. Or go straight.
You’ll see more cornfields, either way.

When I pedaled through Butler County, Iowa, I was told
it was the only county in the state without a stoplight.

Lexie’s family, the Woitte’s, put me up for a night.

Lexie developed type-1 diabetes when she was little.

The day I crossed into South Dakota, the Heat Index was 118.

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Wide open spaces for pedaling in South Dakota:

Population density in 2010 was about 10.5 persons per square mile.

The road, pictured above, ran parallel with Interstate 90.
I pedaled along for twenty miles, and only two cars passed.
It was just me and the hay rolls.

Everyone else was using I-90, about half a mile north of my route.

View from above, Badlands National Park. South Dakota.
Great place to pedal.

Badlands scenery.

Stealth camping two miles south of Mount Rushmore.

Four deer watched me eat breakfast the next morning.

Not my best picture -but trust me:
The Mickelson Trail, 109 miles long, is beautiful.

It will take you through the heart of the Black Hills.

The Mickelson Trail through the Black Hills of South Dakota is fun to pedal.
Stop and say hello to the Stone Four.

George Washington keeps an eye on America.

I was pedaling through South Dakota the same week the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

was being held. That seven-day rally can attract up to 739,000 riders and friends.

Good luck finding a motel room.

The population of the state nearly doubles.

The flag mugs for sale at Mt. Rushmore,
and just about everything else in the gift shop, were made in China.

Baby mountain goat grazes at Mt. Rushmore.

Most experts feel there’s no good rock,

if we ever want to add another president’s face.

BLOGGER’S NOTE, January 27, 2026:

Such as Donald Trump, who would love it if we could.

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You can pedal along Interstate 90 in Wyoming. It's legal to ride the
interstates in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana too.

Not in Utah, though!

You do have some long climbs during a cross country trip.
Coming out of Buffalo, Wyoming you gain a mile of elevation
and pedal uphill, basically, for 33 miles.

What a view on the way.

Looking back the way I came, after 22 miles.

The Powder River Pass is gorgeous.
Also, you get to coast for 30 miles on the way down.

I did a lot of riding in the Yellowstone area; every inch was beautiful.
I pedaled up to Bozeman to see the family of a young lady I met in Florida,
Sidney, then seven, also has type-1 diabetes.

Sam and Sidney. I went to visit their family near Bozeman.
Sidney is type-1, like my daughter.

Sam had a pet pig named “Slugbutt.”

If you're coming down from Mt. Washburn (center of photo)
you can coast for fourteen miles - Yellowstone National Park.

The hike up Washburn is also fantastic.

Blurry picture: but a real live bear in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone: hot spring.

Buffalo along the Yellowstone River.

Yield to buffalo in the park.

I wanted to tell a park ranger,

“Shouldn’t you add the silhouette of a bicycle rider to this sign?”

Yellowstone reserves camping spots for cyclists.
Dave Rothschild was fun to talk to one day.
He was riding from California to New York City.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.
The Lower Falls, seen here, is 308 feet high.

Close up of the falls. Note observation deck, at right.

The falls.

These guys went off the road while sightseeing and took the bark off two trees.
The driver, left, was lucky. No injuries to the people inside.

Mammoth Hot Springs.

I spent a beautiful day riding back south along the Gallatin River.

I ended up riding in the dark at the end of that day,
having missed a campsite I thought I'd find along the way.
In an effort to reach West Yellowstone and find a motel room, I crashed in the dark.

I guess you can tell.

Grand Prismatic Hot Springs, Yellowstone.

Indian Paintbrush – flower beside the road in Yellowstone.

Old Faithful erupts. Obligatory photo.

Old Faithful Lodge, worth seeing, for sure.

Yellowstone view: Grand Tetons (center), 44 miles away.
Leaving the park, I turned south for 800 miles, headed for Salt Lake City.

My route took me through Grand Teton National Park.
Good place for a lunch break.

Grand Teton view #2.

Grand Teton View #3.

Grand Teton View #4.

Hiking in Grand Teton National Park is also cool.

Someday, I hope to pedal the Bear Tooth Highway, in Wyoming and Montana.
Some say it's the most beautiful highway in the United States.

Bear Tooth Highway, not far from Red Lodge, Montana.

When I pedaled south from Grand Teton National Park, in 2011,
I was further west in Colorado, on Route 89.

I still want to ride up and over the top of Rocky Mountain National Park someday,
elevation at highest point of the pass: 12,183 feet.

Morning, camping in Rocky Mountain National Park.

You could pedal past Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado.
Some dunes are 700 feet high.
Young boy does a back flip.

Just visiting: I wasn’t pedaling on this trip.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado.

Utah view.

Abandoned Mormon church, Ovid, Utah.

Utah scenery. There are wide open roads in many Western states,
which makes pedaling fun.

Sunrise near Bear Lake, Utah. On this morning, I was stealth camping on a golf course.
I didn't even put up my tent.
Did you know they turn sprinklers on at golf courses in the morning?

Trust me, damply. They do.

Bill and Shirlee Wyman, newlyweds.
Bill has been dealing with type-1 diabetes for more than fifty years.

Raspberry milkshake. Rocket fuel for a cyclist.
The region around Bear Lake is the raspberry capital of the world, I think.

Climbing up the hill from Bear Lake.

Rest stop.

Mormon Temple, Salt Lake City.

Model of the Mormon Temple.

Many Mormon pioneers crossed the continent in 1846, pulling handcarts.
At least I had 27 gears.

Crossing the Sevier Desert in Utah.
I didn't even know there was a Sevier Desert till I pedaled across it.
As you can see, this part of Utah was pretty bleak.

Colleen Zinn was finishing a cross-country ride she started 25 years before.
Husband Doug was supporting her ride.

The 92-mile stretch from Delta, Utah to the Border Inn, on the Nevada border,
was as barren as any place I saw.

I was checking out the route across Nevada in 2009.

Here, I was looking for the site of a ghost town.

Apparently this tourist just gave up.
Highway 50 across Nevada is starkly beautiful.

You can go bicycle across almost the entire state of Nevada,

using U.S. 50, nicknamed “The Loneliest Highway in America.”

I call this “Breast Mountain.” Nevada.

Sage brush coming.

Sage brush going.

Lance Crowley was heading east when we stopped for a talk.

This is a fair representation of the scenery in Nevada.

There's not a lot to do in parts of Nevada.
So people like to plug the highway signs for fun.

I think there are twelve serious mountain passes along Route 50.
Rick Arnett was riding across the USA, too. Nevada.

Rick was fun to ride with for a few hours; but he liked to walk up mountain passes.
So I bid him adieu.

Still barren. Nevada.

Occupational hazard: sunburned hands.

Camping for free near Eureka, Nevada.

High school graduates used to throw shoes into this tree.
Some idiot cut it down a few years ago.
Near Middlegate, Nevada.

I took this picture in 2009, while scouting out the road.
It was cut down by a vandal in January 2011.

Some say the tradition of tossing shoes into the tree began when a newlywed couple’s argument ended with the husband pitching his bride’s shoes into the branches. The tree evolved into a landmark for travelers, symbolizing good luck, milestones,

or simply a fun, artistic gesture.

At Middlegate, Nevada I decided to take a shortcut to Yosemite National Park.
(Bar at Middlegate; that's about all there really is there.)

I ruined a tire near Gabbs, Nevada and had to hitch a ride to Reno to get it replaced
the next day.

The owners of the only café in Gabbs helped me find a ride to Reno to replace a tire that had a hernia. In 1970, the town had 874 residents – but by the time I pedaled through, there were only 269.

In 2023, population was down to 158.

As was so often true, the people I met while pedaling were very kind.

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Approaching Tioga Pass, from the Nevada side.
Expect to climb more than 3,100 feet over a twelve-mile route.

Top of Tioga Pass, California.
For perspective there's a large RV, a white dot, on the road above my handlebars.

Lake not far from Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

Cathedral Peak in the distance. There's a cool hike right off the road nearby.

Switch from pedaling to hiking for variety. Near Cathedral Lake.

I can't take credit for this picture - it's from the National Park Service.

Get your fanny out to Yosemite, if you've never been.

Gaze in wonder at sights like the famous "Butt Tree."
Okay, I lied. It's not famous.

Keep your eyeballs peeled for bears - which do defecate in the woods.

Mountain stream; hiking in Yosemite. My bicycle is resting.

Lupine growing in the woods.

Hikers high above the main valley.

Most people enter the valley from the west to see this view.
El Capitan, left, rises 3,000 feet.

Go for a swim in the Merced River - even if the water temperature is 43 degrees.
You may be the only person that dumb.
(That's me - c. 1995, during an earlier visit to the park.)