The Ride Against Hunger is Complete...Finished!!!

Portland, Maine
Saturday, July 31, 2010

Today at about 1:30 p.m. EDT, Joe and I finished our ride. You may have heard the whoops, whistles, and yelling. The scene could not have been more beautiful. We arrived at the East End Beach and Boat Ramp and were welcomed not only by our own crew and Joe's brother's family, but some interested by-standers who also got into the spirit of the event and welcomed us "home".

I'm not going to write much tonight other than to say that when Joe and I hugged each other, we both started crying like babies...without shame. We were so filled with emotion that it just came rolling out. The moment was caught 60 different ways on camera, but I like the one that shows us riding the last 50 feet, tongue hanging out and absolutely full of joy. Two seconds later we were hugging everyone in sight and then dipped our front wheel in the Atlantic ocean. My words now simply cannot express the sense of accomplishment, gratitude and relief that we felt.

Our final day was pretty magical. We started at the normal time, met the gang for lunch around 11 a.m. and rode the last 20 miles very carefully so as to avoid any last minute mishaps. Our final mileage was right at 75 miles and put us well over 4000 for the whole ride.

Tomorrow we start the transition from bike ride to truck ride home. I am excited to see this new truck and get it on the road toward home. I'll post some more pictures of our finish tomorrow.

Love to you all and thanks to all of you who are sending good wishes. It means so much to receive them.

Last Day--Tomorrow

We are in Maine tonight and saw our first sign indicating that Portland is less than a 100 miles away. So after riding more than 4000 miles, we are closing in on the goal we set so long ago: to dip our front wheels in the Atlantic Ocean. I've been trying to get in touch with what I'm feeling about finishing and thought I would share those reflections in my blog today.

The first thing that comes to mind is gratitude and the list of things that I'm grateful for is long. Most and most importantly, I am grateful for Cindy and Kathy who have given themselves totally the past two months to support this Ride Against Hunger. Joe and I get alot of credit for doing the ride, but they have done so much work to make the ride possible, easier and safer.

I'm also grateful for my riding buddy, Joe. We have stayed together almost every mile of the trip. We've supported each other, watched out for one another, and have respected the differences between us. We have very different skills. I'm more the bike geek/mechanic. Joe pays attention to the detail of what roads we should be on al all times. He uses road maps as well as the Map My Ride cue sheets. Several times, Map My Ride was wrong, and his checking has saved us many hours of being lost or riding off in the wrong direction. I will never forget this time of riding with Joe whom I now call Joe Awesome Man rather than Joe Ossmann.

I'm also grateful for all the words of encouragement and support that has come from family, friends, blog followers and contributors to the Ride Against Hunger. I will report at a later time how much has been raised. Whatever it is, I will be grateful and know that it is a drop in the bucket to what is needed to really end hunger in our world. I've tried to balance the blog with some information about our ride and some about hunger. I hope I wasn't too heavy handed in my encouragement for you to contribute to ending hunger.

And frankly, I am grateful to God. I'm not sure why or how I've been blessed with the good health to be able to do a ride like this, but I know it isn't because I've been "good". It is a gift that I acknowledge and appreciate. I wish I could tell you the number of days that we have looked at the weather report and found that the wind was blowing our direction. I don't believe that God did that for us, because if that were the case, all those riders going the other way were getting a bum deal. But when the wind was at our backs, we just kept saying, we are blessed and we are grateful...and when it was in our faces, we tried not to whine too much.

And finally, I am grateful for good fortune. We just learned of a California cyclist who was killed two days ago in Quebec. I'm not sure where he was from, but it could easily have been one of us. But here we are, a day away from finishing, and I have not fallen nor have I had a flat. (LOUD LOUD KNOCKING ON WOOD SOUND HERE). That is pretty astounding. My old 1984 Trek 520 will have an honored place in my garage. It has become my good friend, one that I have tried to treat with respect and care.

In addition to being grateful, I am feeling a sense of accomplishment. When we think back on May 27th and our start in San Francisco, it almost seemed impossible that we could, by pedaling our bikes, make it across the continent. That day in SF seems both like an eternity ago and also like it was just yesterday. The ride has gone quickly even though it sometimes felt like it would never end. But here we are, on the threshold of finishing. The accomplishment is such that I feel like walking up to strangers and just working into the conversation that I just rode my bike across the country. I'll try not to be too obnoxious about this, but it feels like a big deal this afternoon.

The final feeling is one of relief. It has been hard and some days very hard to do this. My body feels on the one hand like I've never been in this kind of riding condition; but on the other hand, that I am tired and need not one day, but several days off. That will happen starting tomorrow after about 3 p.m..and continue as we drive back across the country to our wonderful home in Sacramento.

So, gratitude, accomplishment and relief. Those are the emotions of the day. I'm sure others will come as I reflect on the trip. Tomorrow (or Sunday) I will complete the story and post my last blog. Thanks for checking in on the ride once in a while. I'd love to hear from you your reflections on the ride. Send them to richowlman@gmail.com. OK?

Back in the USA!!!

Danby Quebec to Colebrook, NH (93 Miles)

The pictures tell the whole story for today. We are BACK IN THE USA! After eleven days of riding in the great nation of Canada, we are very pleased to have returned to the U.S. OK, so it took 93 miles to get here and so what if we spent most of the day climbing (much smaller) mountains. We are "home" in Notch View Campsite over looking a beautiful valley and mountains in the back ground. There is a picture taken from where the RV is parked.

Also shown in the picture is a very happy rider who has just left Quebec and has finally arrived in the state of Vermont. About five minutes later we took another picture of the welcome sign for our entry into New Hampshire.

Two more days of riding left, and tomorrow is shaping up to be a fairly short day, maybe less than 50 miles. We will ride to Hanover, Maine. Then Saturday we will finish in Portland. The tradition is that we will dip the front wheel in the Atlantic...and then go out for a Lobster Dinner!!!

The other big deal for the day is that Joe's brother and his family joined us at campsite tonight and will be with us for the duration of the ride. It is great to begin reconnecting with family and friends.

Coteau-du-lac, Quebec to Danby, Quebec…87 miles

For the third day in a row, Joe and I put in more than 85 miles, this time in the suburbs of Montreal. And frankly we did not get off to a good start. After riding for nearly five miles, we were right across the street from where we started. We were looking for the pedestrian and biking bridge across the St. Lawrence, a mighty river in this part of the world. Fortunately, Joe had taken French in college and knew just enough to get us the directions we needed to finally find the bridge.

Riding in cities (or suburbs) is hard riding…lots of traffic, noise and way too many decisions. We stopped numerous times to consult ride sheets and maps, and when that failed we would try to find someone with enough English to help us (and that was not easy to do in Quebec). I mentioned to Joe that Quebecans are as mono-lingual as most citizens of the U.S. Even though they are living in a bilingual nation where all the signs in other provinces of Canada are in both English and French, here the language is FRENCH, and that’s it. And very frankly, they don’t have much time for those of us who don’t speak French. Tough day for all those reasons.

But the real thing on our minds today is that we have only three days left. I can feel myself begin to transition from cross country bike ride to car trip home, to friends, and to work. I’ve been really trying to stay present and enjoy these last several days, but I find myself thinking more and more about the route home, stopping in Nebraska to see my mom and family, and a lot about the new truck I’ve purchased to bring home.

OK, so it is not really new. It is a 2003 Chevy S-10 Pick up…crew cab, etc. etc. We sold my car (The Subaru Forester) before we left Sacramento. Since we have Ginger with us, we could not easily fly home, so we decided that we would buy our new vehicle when we arrive in Portland. I kept looking on Craigs List/Portland, and finally found just what I’d been looking for. I called the people who were selling it and sent them a deposit for them to hold it for us. So Monday morning of next week, we will drive up to Richmond, ME to pick up our new/old pick up.

We will load up bicycles, dog, bags, etc. and start home…still anotherl leg of an amazing adventure.

But tomorrow we ride once again into the mountains. We will be climbing most of the day. And our mileage is again over 90 miles. Yikes…what are we doing? But by the end of the day we will have returned to the good ole USA, signs in English, and maybe wireless service that actually works. I’m at an Internet Café right now, and can’t seem to get on line at all. May have to send this tomorrow. My best to all of you and we are looking forward to seeing you all very soon!

Oldest Polish Catholic Church in Canada

The church shown with the blog from yesterday was at the top of a hill a few days back. We stopped to take pictures, but I could not work it in to the blog, but I wanted you to see it. We are seeing a whole lot of beautiful churches these days and I could load the blog with them, but will not.

This one was interesting to us, however, because I've never thought of Canada as a place where there were large communities of Polish people. The signs out in front of this church indicate that Mass is still said in Polish at 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings....prime time.

Tonight we are about 15 miles south of Montreal in Quebec. YAY! We were in Ontario for 9 days. We are in a great camp-ground with an internet cafe...so al of us are sitting here trying to catch up on our blogs.

I've got to go start the fire for our burgers tonight.

Did 87 miles today and will do 90 tomorrow. Yikes!

What Tail Winds Do to Rider's Egos…

Ride Against Hunger
Renfrew to Kemptville, Ontario

What Tail Winds Do to Rider's Egos…

Tonight we are in a campground about five miles outside of Kemptville, Ontario. I’m calling it a campground, but it seems more like a town. There are lots of “permanent campers” who live here, with children, etc. Not long after we arrived the kids came around with their bikes to see if we had any oil for their chains. (We did.) So we are not seeing a lot of other motor homes; rather, long time residents who treat us a little like “strangers in town.”

I wanted to comment briefly on our ride today. At first it was a lot of hills, up and down short but steep inclines. But then we turned just the direction that the wind was blowing and it just kept growing in velocity. At one point I looked down at my odometer, was not pedaling very hard, but was going almost 27 miles per hour.
We finished 87 miles before 2 p.m. and had gone 70 by lunchtime. That’s just plain fast for two old guys.

And you know what happens? We start feeling like we have legs of steel. I’ll speak for myself here, but I start feeling like I have something to do with how fast I’m going. There was even (frivolous) talk of who would take Lance’s spot on the Radio Shack Team, and Joe said that the new sponsor would have to be Metamucil or Geratol (for those of you old enough to remember that product). I said the peloton would have to stop every ten miles for me to relieve myself. But the point is, we start feeling really good about ourselves and how we are doing, etc.

We then turned and had a cross wind for the last 20 miles or so, and all the sudden the big talkers went quiet. I started feeling the fatigue creep in to my legs and I had to gear way down to hold the bike in place against the heavy “breeze”. What became obvious to us as we rode is that the wind was what gave us such an easy day…not our “legs of steel.”

And so it is with many of us in life. We are born with the wind to our backs…with parents who care and plan for our education and/or training for careers. They attend our ball games and give us “roots and wings”, as they say. And we don’t even realize that we have it “easy”.

That is clearly not the case for so many in our society/world. Millions of people are born into poverty and deprivation, do not have parents at all, or do not have families that provide a vision and support to achieve the goals attached to that vision. They do not develop the “I’ve got legs of steel” mindset. In fact they may decide that they are weak and that something is wrong with them.

So these wonderful people some of whom come to our doors week after week and month after month to get a small basket of food need much more than a little food. They need a vision. They need lots of support and love. They need opportunity to grow and learn. They need jobs, medical care, and good, nutritious food. They need hope that things can be different for them.

You and I can help our neighbors achieve these goals by making a contribution to Catholic Charities or the South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership. Please do it!!!

Five more days left to ride. Tomorrow is another 80-mile day…and if it is ok with you, we will pray for the winds to be at our backs for a

Zero Day in Renfrew, Ontario

Sunday, July 25, 2010
Ride Against Hunger

It is 6 a.m. on Sunday morning and I'm trying to write quietly while the others continue sleeping. After getting up every morning at 5 for the past two months, my body just doesn't "sleep in" very well, so I thought I would work on my blog for a few minutes.

We are in a very nice KOA campground near the little town of Renfrew, Ontario which is maybe about 45 minutes to the west of Ottawa, Ontario. Tomorrow as we ride we will circle under Ottawa and avoid the traffic and congestion of the City. We will then move on over toward the Province of Quebec where we will be riding for a couple days, and then back in the U.S.

Joe and I have been pushing our bodies pretty hard the past few days. We have had several 80 plus miles in a row and were really feeling it the last couple days. Decided that this would be a good place to just take a rest. In fact we found a woman here at the campsite who is a message therapist and we both had her work us over yesterday afternoon...on the picnic table outside our RV. No pictures of that sight.

In today's blog I've included a few pictures from our las few days of riding. We rode through Algonquin Provincial Park a couple days ago, and the lake and river shots were taken there. We've also had some days with a lot of road construction and I've included a shot that pretty much defined one whole day of riding. And of course it continues to rain off and on, and I caught Joe in his very dorky (but functional) rain gear.

Hope you are all well. We will rest today and then push on towards Portland, ME where we plan to finish next Saturday afternoon. Big challenge for us is to focus on the day and miles ahead and not get ahead of ourselves.

Have a great day!

Summary Report

We haven't had any web service for the past three days, and have the weakest of signals tonight, but I will try to put up a couple of the blogs I wrote in the in between time. No pictures tonight, although I've taken a bunch, but not a strong enough signal to upload any pictures.

In summary, the new roads have been much better (safer), but they have also been longer and more hilly. Today we rode through the Algonquin Provincial Park which is the Canadian equivalent to Yellow Stone National Park. It has a million lakes and is surrounded by lush greet forests. And the road went UP and DOWN all day.

It was also Joe's 64th birthday. (yea, he's just a kid), but we had a great dinner and celebration tonight. Tomorrow we ride to Renfrow, ON. which is a far out suburb of Ottawa...and then take our last day off on Sunday. We then ride for six more days to finish in Portland on the 31st.

Here are the other posts.

Ride Against Hunger
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

White Birches Camp Ground
Rode 80 Miles from Sudbury to Port Loring, Ontario

Topic for the day: Daily Routine

The one thing we have learned to count on is change. Two nights ago, we were stressed and distressed. We had ridden unsafe roads all day and had the prospect of several more days of the same. But we circled the wagons, re-planned our route, and today took off in a different direction—South rather than East.

About noon I told Joe that so far, we were geniuses. We had four lane highways, wide shoulders and wind to our backs. What’s more, it was Canada at its very best with lakes, beautiful rivers, and miles of woods in between. We rode 80 stress free miles into the most beautiful campground of our whole trip. So we are rejuvenated and excited about our final nine days of riding. We haven’t made a decision yet as to whether we will take another down day. We will decide on the basis of how tired we get over the next few days.

I thought you might like to know the routine Joe and I have fallen into. We pretty much follow this same scenario every day.

-Get up, dressed, breakfast and leave no later than 7 a.m. (When we first left Cindy and Kathy would come out and take pictures of us as we rode out of the campsite. Now they may wave out the door as we leave.)

-We ride 15 miles and take our first break, usually not more than five minutes, but long enough to stretch, maybe strip off jackets or long pants, and take care of personal needs.

-As we ride we take turns as the lead rider. If I start I ride one mile and then Joe charges by me and he leads for a mile. We do this to preserve energy. The second rider puts out much less energy than the leader as he is protected from some of the wind. We continue this practice throughout the day.

-At mile 25 we take our second break, just like the first, only here we may begin to take in some refreshment. Joe always eats half of a Luna or Cliff Bar, carefully saving the other half for the next break. My snack-food is a micro waved sweet potato that I eat during my breaks.

-We then take a break every ten miles thereafter without fail. At the ten mile mark whoever is leading just pulls over in as convenient location as possible. The breaks are almost never more than 5-7 minutes, and then we are on our way again. Each ten-mile segment takes about 45 minutes counting breaks.

-At mile 55 almost without fail, Cindy and Kathy show up in our rear vision mirrors and ask if we are ready for lunch. Most often we are, and so they stop and we eat lunch together someplace along the road.

-After lunch, Joe and I continue the ten-mile segments and usually finish well before 2:30 or 3:00 depending upon how many miles we are doing. Today we did 80 miles and completed our ride by about 2 pm.

-The rest of the day is taken up with setting up the RV, taking showers, naps (sometimes), bike cleaning and repairs, fixing dinner (Joe or I usually are cooking something on the grill). We have had absolutely wonderful meals, night after night due to the diligent work of Kathy and Cindy to find and prepare locally grown and produced foods.

-After dinner we get out our laptop computers and if we have adequate web-coverage, write and post our blogs, just as I’m doing tonight. We are usually in bed before 10 p.m., and then up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. ready to do it all over again. Is this living or what?

-It is working well for us and as of tonight we have only a few riding days left. We are beginning to talk about last days and last nights, and not buying any more of this or that. The challenge now is to stay in the present and ride today…not Friday of next week.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hard Riding Days!

Some days on a bicycle trip like this are pure pleasure. The riding comes easy and the beauty is overwhelming. Other days are not (pure pleasure). These days are hard work. From the time you start in the morning until the time you finish, it’s just a grind. Today was one of those days! From the moment we left the campsite and started up a 10% grade hill on gravel, to the dense fog and sharp hills, to the afternoon road construction, it was not a fun day. The simple goal became to finish the dang ride.

I’ve noticed, however, that what contributes the most to good days and or bad days is the attitude I bring to the ride. If I have an expectation that the day will be easy or fun or that I will be strong and have no problem with the hills, etc. etc. I will almost always be disappointed, and then start feeling cheated that the day didn’t work out “the way it was suppose to.”

The other (better) choice is for me to simply accept what is…and look for the good in it. If it is a lot of hills then I know that they are challenging me to get stronger and they provide a different vantage point to see the beauty of what is around me. If there is wind in my face, to enjoy the breeze and keep in mind that on other days that breeze has been at my back and pushed me up hills.

I work at bringing the positive attitude to the ride. Sometimes I am successful. Sometimes I fail terribly. But I am learning that I have much more control over my good days and my bad days than I thought before leaving on this trip, and that how I approach the day is the key to having more good than bad riding days.

This principle may hold true in other aspects of my life. I guess I’ll find out when the ride is over…just eight more riding days left to get us to Portland. We’ll be home before we know it, and then I’ll wish we were back on the road….so enjoy it Rich!

Today we rode 85 miles from Port Loring to Huntsville, Ontario. All our rides for the next few days are between 80 and 90 miles. Our average daily ride is now over 70 per day. Not bad for a couple old guys…and speaking of OLD, Joe Ossmann’s birthday is tomorrow. He’ll be 64 years old. We will celebrate!

A Weird Day in Ontario

Last night in conversations with the gentleman who ran our RV Camp, we learned that the conditions we rode in yesterday would be continued for five more days across the rest of Ontario. The "conditions" I speak of are lots of traffic, including huge trucks, and no shoulders for bikers to ride on. So last night we put our heads together to determine what we should do. None of us wanted to continue to ride on Canada Highway 17 East. We needed an alternative route to get us across Ontario and Quebec.

So today, Joe and I rode about 25 miles into Sudbury where Cindy and Kathy found a nice hotel with fast WiFi service so we could re-map our ride. It is now about 4:30 p.m. and we have just finished. We've had to add a day and we have some very long riding days over the next week, but if we are able to sustain it, we will finish on Saturday, July 31 rather than Friday the 30th in Portland, Maine.

Flexibility seems to be the word of the day for us. We thought about loading up the bikes in the RV and just driving down the road on East 17...but somehow that seemed to not honor this Ride Against Hunger that promised to RIDE across the continent, not ride in a motor home.

So tonight we will find a nice place to have dinner and ride South on 69 tomorrow rather than East on 17. Hang with us folks. We will do our very best to get us there safe and sound. We're working hard at this...hope you are donating generously to your favorite food banks. God knows that those who come to our food banks run into a few rough roads now and then!

Bad Traffic and Shoulder-less Roads

Traffic and Shoulders

Today we rode about 65 miles from Spragge to a few miles west of Sudbury, Ontario, which is a pretty good sized city with a population of over 160,000. It was a very stressful ride for two reasons: very narrow shoulder (sometimes none at all) and lots of traffic including big logging trucks. My only memory I have is staring at the 12-15 inch strip of pavement that I was trying to stay on so as not to be hit by the stream of cars, campers, and trucks.

We haven’t said much about traffic on this trip and that is because for the most part, we have been able to avoid high population areas where there would be more cars. We had a few miles in Salt Lake City that were pretty crazy and a few other places where we had to watch out, but NOTHING like today.

These are two lane roads. The worst scenario is when two cars or trucks are meeting each other right where we are riding. I tend to hold my breath and keep my bike going as straight as I possibly can.

So by lunch-time, Joe and I were pretty burned out. We looked and looked for a place to stop for lunch. Finally we saw two small homes set off from the road a bit. I suggested we go ask if we could eat lunch in their front yard. No one home. About that time Cindy and Kathy showed up with RV. We parked the motor home in the driveway and sat down at the table to eat lunch. No sooner had we gotten our lunches out and the owner drove in. OH OH!

How will she react? I got out of the RV and walked up to her garage as she parked. As soon as she was out of the car, I asked her if we could eat lunch in her driveway. “Why do that?” says Myrna Martin. “Why not bring your food around to the back and eat at my picnic table?” By then we were already spread out at the table in the motor home, so we passed on the offer. But we were so impressed with her kind Canadian hospitality. The picture you will see tomorrow when I can upload it is of course Myrna, for sure our angel for the day.

We have several more days on this same highway. We are praying for less traffic and wider shoulders. Go ahead, you can pray for the same thing!

Riding Gently--and More Angels!

St. Ignace, Michigan to Echo Bay, Ontario (73 miles) Saturday, July 17th

Echo Bay to Spragge, Ontario (90 miles) July 18th.

The picture today shows riding buddy , Joe (red shirt) with two new friends (and angels). Joe has a younger brother (Bill) who lives in the Boston area. The couple in the picture are friends of Bill's and were on their way to a summer vacation near here. They heard we would be on the same road and decided to stop by and see us. They were a delightful couple, and when they left there was a generous contribution left on the table for Hunger Relief. I am so grateful for this kind of experience where we meet people, and then all the sudden, they do something surprisingly generous and kind. So here's to Kate and Tom Stohlman, and Joe's brother Bill for hooking us up!

Our ride is now international in scope. Yesterday, we left the security and familiarity of the United States and rode across a huge and beautiful bridge into Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. All the sudden road signs are in French rather than English and accents and language of some have become more difficult. But for some reason this transition seems like a big one. We will ride here in Canada for 10 more days before crossing back into the United States in Vermont, and then we will have only three nights still on the road.

I know that Joe wrote a few days ago on his blog about riding these kinds of distances vs. riding to work or doing a ride down the American River Trail. For the past few days we have been concentrating on “gentle riding”. Way too often when I am out for any ride at home, I am “pounding” out the miles as fast as I can go. It is “balls to the wall” as they say, and no matter how long the ride, I come back beat.

I’ve done a lot of that on this ride. Let’s get through this thing as fast as possible. Someone will be impressed if we finish the 70 miles before 1 p.m. etc. etc. Truth is, we can let up a little bit, put it in an easier gear to go up the grades, and it makes very little difference in the time of our finish. What does make a difference is that we’re not as tired when we are finished.

Joe has helped me with this. He’s better at utilizing lower gears and easing off a bit on the grades. I’m slow to learn, but it is starting to rub off on me, and I’m grateful to him for the “lessons”. The riding becomes more pleasant and frankly, more fun.

Today we made it over to Spragge, Ontario. It is a small town you would probably have trouble finding on a map, almost 90 miles away with a few small towns in between. We had gentle breezes, some light rain, and a growing understanding that gentle riding is much better on this kind of ride. Because there is a very good chance that we will have another 80 or so to do tomorrow!

Rest Day in St. Ignace

Five Miles (Road into town and back)!

About one day a week we try NOT to get on the bikes, and let our bodies rest and heal. Today was the day, and it simply could not have been in a more beautiful spot. St. Ignace is located right on the shores of where Lake Michigan transitions into Lake Huron, and the Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Bridge connects the upper and lower parts of Michigan. We woke up this morning to the cry of sea gulls searching the campsite for leftovers from last night's dinners.

We slept in (that means until 6 a.m. for me), had a leisurely breakfast, read and sent e-mails, and rode our bikes into town for some fun shopping, good long cups of coffee and conversation, and a picnic lunch along the lake shore. We learned that Jesuit Father Marquette played a huge part in the development of this part of the country and was beloved by the native Americans who lived here at the time.

Even Ginger couldn't keep her eyes open today.

So tonight we are preparing for our ride into Canada tomorrow. We will enter into Sault Ste. Marie at about 55 miles, cross the international bridge with passports in hand, and then ride for the next eleven days in the great nation of Canada. We will be there for nearly 750 miles...and then finish in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine...two weeks from tomorrow. Yikes...we may make it!

Short blog tonight...but a few pictures are added to help tell the story of the day.

Take care, all.

Why a ride against hunger?

Thursday, July 15, 2010
St. Ignace, Michigan

Today we rode from Manostique to St. Ignace, Michigan, about 88 miles. At the end of the day we were in the home town of Joe Ossmann and went directly to the newspaper office where Joe was photographed and interviewed, etc. What fun. Tonight we are camping on the far northern shores of Lake Michigan Tomorrow is a down day to rest weary bodies. By Saturday night we will have our first night in Ontario, Canada. And as of today we have completed over 3,000 miles of our journey.

I decided that for my blog today it was important once again to share some of the reasons I am doing this ride. All of the information below was "stolen" from a book called "Ending Hunger, An Idea Whose Time Has Come,” given to me by my friend Jerry.

Please take a moment to read through this information slowly....

"All of us have been "hungry" at some time or other. This usually means simply that we have an appetite or that it is time for lunch. But the hunger experienced by millions of people on our planet is not an appetite that comes and goes; it is a consuming, debilitating, minute-by-minute, day-after-day experience. Hunger keeps people from working productively and thinking clearly. It decreases their resistance to disease. It can be intensely painful. Prolonged hunger can result in permanent damage to body and mind. And ultimately, if hunger goes on long enough, it kills"

Loretta Schwartz wrote a book called "Starving in the Shadow of Plenty" in which she describes her experience of hunger here in the U.S. She says, "I've had no income and I've paid no rent for many months. My landlord let me stay. He felt sorry for me because I had no money. The Friday before Christmas he gave me ten dollars. For days I had had nothing but water. I knew I needed food; I tried to go out, but was too weak to walk to the store. I felt as if I were dying. I saw the mailman and told him I thought I was starving. He brought me food and then he made some phone calls and that's when they started delivering these lunches. But I had already lost so much weight that the five meals a week are not enough to keep me going.

I just pray to God I can survive. I keep praying that I can have the will to save some of my food so I can divide it up and make it last. It's hard to save because I am so hungry that I want to eat it right away. On Friday held over two peas from the lunch. I ate one pea on Saturday morning. Then I got into bed with the taste of food in my mouth and I waited as long as I could. Later in the day I ate the other pea.

More than one billion people on our planet are chronically hungry.

Every year 13 to 18 million people die as a result of hunger and starvation.

No other disaster compares to the devastation of hunger.

More people have died from hunger in the past two years than were killed in World War I and World War II combined.

If you can, please make a donation to an agency dealing with the reality of hunger.

True Confessions

A year and a half ago, I would never have considered doing a bike trip across the USA. Not that I wouldn’t have wanted to, but I simply could not have considered it due to the shape I was in. I had eaten myself into about a 285 pound body that simply didn’t work very well. Riding up hills with that much weight is not impossible, but it is punishment for all those extra pieces of pizza, cashew nuts, and donuts.

When I went to my doctor, she told me that I was obese. I thought that was pretty rude, but it was the truth. She told me that I had high blood pressure, that my triglycerides were all out of kilter, and that she would have to put me on some medicines if I didn’t deal with my weight issues.

A friend of ours told us about a twelve step program for people like me…people who don’t seem to have a turn-off switch when it comes to food. So I went to a meeting and decided that it was a program that could help me get a handle on my weight, but also teach me to eat healthier food. So since January of 2009, I have been in this program. I have a sponsor who has been a wonderful help to me in figuring out how much food and what kind of food to eat for good health.

So, now I am a bit under 200 pounds and have been for nearly a year. I feel 100% better and am now able to take on a challenge like a ride across the country and not worry (as much) about having a heart attack along some road some place. I continue to work the program as I ride eating no sugar and no flour. I do eat huge amounts of vegetables and salads, and healthy amounts of proteins and carbohydrates.

Probably because I am in this program and because I was extra heavy a while back, I notice that there are a lot of us are eating too much and carrying a bunch of extra pounds on us, but don’t seem to be able to stop it. I am grateful that I found a way for me to not do that anymore. I don’t believe my solution is necessarily right for everyone, but it has been a godsend for me.

Tonight we are camping on the north shores of Lake Michigan in a delightful little town called Manistique. We rode about 75 miles and have about 90 to do tomorrow to get to Joe Ossmann’s hometown of St. Ignace. They will probably have a huge parade for him as we ride into town.

More Transitions--Good Ones!

Ride Against Hunger
July 13, 2010

See the picture! Today we crossed two more lines of demarcation. Fairly early this morning we left the great and beautiful State of Wisconsin and entered Ossmannland. You may not know this but my riding buddy, Joe, is a YOOPER. That means that he grew up right here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (He calls it the U.P….and that’s where the term YOOPER comes from.) So this little transition for me, from one state to another, was a coming home for him. In fact he just got lost in thoughts, memories and desires for a regional treat called a Pastie. (a meat pie of some kind that I have not yet seen). Anyway, it was fun watching him enter into his own turf” and see the joy that was being experienced.

Then late in the day we crossed still another barrier. We are now in the Eastern Time Zone. So our California friends are now two hours earlier and my Nebraska family is one hour earlier. And it also means that we are nearing our destination of Portland, Maine. Last night I looked at the schedule to the end of the trip. We have three more nights in Michigan, eleven nights in Canada, and then three more nights in New Hampshire and Maine…and we are there. The plan now is to finish on Friday, July 30. But maybe I should not get too far ahead of myself. We still have well over a 1000 miles to ride.

And the most important transition of all is that Kathy Ossmann rejoined the team. She drove up to Escanoba from her lower Michigan home of Paw Paw. Her father has now been lovingly moved from his home to the White Oaks Assisted Care facility. Kathy reports that there were difficult moments, tender moments, funny moments and a deep down feeling that this is the right thing to do for him and for the family. We will continue to pray for Kathy and her family.

So here we are, poised for the next phase of our ride. Today we rode 76 miles and will do about the same tomorrow. Only thing is, we will be skirting lake Michigan the whole way for the next two days. I’m really looking forward to that!

Hope you are all well!

LOST LAKE

Ride Against Hunger
July 12, 2010

Lost Lake, Wisconsin (At a National Forest Campsite of which there are thousands)


Some nights when I sit down to write, I’m not sure which “story” to write about. Several are floating around this evening. I’ll do a little of each.

First thing I wanted to pick up on is how kind people have been to us. Two quick examples. Yesterday, Cindy met us in a little town called Fifield for lunch. The clouds had been darkening all morning, and just as we arrived it started to rain pretty hard. As we rode into town, I told Joe that I hoped Cindy had parked close to a covered place we could park our bikes while it rained. Turned out, she did.

Across the street was a house with an open garage door. I knocked on the door and a guy yells out for me to come in. I asked him if there we could park our bikes in his garage while we ate lunch since it was raining. “Sure, bring them in,” said our newest angel, Don. You see his picture at the top of the blog. He seemed very pleased when I asked if I could take his picture. I hope he sees it.

Then today, Cindy and the riders got mixed up as to which corner we would meet at. I was at one corner, she at another about a mile away. I didn’t want to leave because I was fearful I would miss her coming a different way. A guy came up in a pickup truck heading her direction. I asked him if he would tell her where I was (if she was where I thought she would be). Not five minutes later she came driving up. There really are angels all around if we look for them.

Second, I must comment on the place we are staying tonight. It is in the Nicolet National Forest close to “Lost Lake.” Our campsite is about 40 yards from a wonderful little beach alongside a pristine lake. Cindy and I put on our swimsuits and refreshed our selves in the very clear, cool waters of a like we were glad had been found. We sat on the beach for a while discussing how fortunate we are to be able to take the time to travel across the US and to experience the really out of the way, beautiful spots like Lost Lake. What a privilege.

And finally, the ride today was 66 miles of simple beauty in the Northern part of the State of Wisconsin. Tomorrow night we will be in Michigan, Kathy will rejoin the team, and we will enter into the Eastern Time Zone. And we will move on toward our eleven days riding in Canada. Thanks for hanging with us…Make a donation for hunger relief!!!

Brothers and Angels

Tonight we are close to the town of Monacqua, Wisconsin at the Patricia Lake Camp Ground. It is definitely one of the nicest RV Camps in which we have stayed. A huge rainstorm went through at dinner time and we failed to close the window over our bed. I just returned from the laundry drying towels, sheets and pillows. The campsite is clean, quiet, and close to a beautiful little lake (of which there are hundreds, it seems).

We rode over here from Teal Lake (90 miles) where Joe Ossmann's grandfather had established a family cabin back in the early 1930's. Joe's brother, Bob, met us there. Bob lives in a suburb of Chicago and had driven ten hours to welcome us to this family compound full of memories for the "boys". It was fascinating watching Joe and Bob be together. Their laughs were almost identical and the mannerisms clearly are those passed down through generations of Ossmanns. And yet, they are so different in personality and temperament.

Our son Chris is adopted. He lived in Korea for the first five plus years of his life. In spite of our efforts to find family in Korea, that has not happened. Chris tells us that what he misses the most is not being able to look at another human being and see himself, or at least recognize himself in the lives of others. I go home to Nebraska and if my brothers are there, I see my walk, I hear my laugh and my voice, and they are coming out of other human beings. It is a way to be connected that is much deeper than words can say. I belong here...these are my people.

Being with Joe and Bob, I saw once again how important those connections are. From a distance Cindy and I watched and celebrated those blood ties still so very important to these two men. What a privilege.

And speaking of Angels, Bob certainly is one for the record book. He came up early to the cabin and had everything ready for us. He welcomed us, waited at the end of his driveway for who knows how long for us to arrive, drove us around in his shiny red car, and showed us every possible kindness. I am grateful now to know Bob as well as Joe Ossmann.

Teal Lake--A Bit of Heaven

It's late and I am not writing much tonight...maybe more tomorrow. We rode from right outside of Superior, Wisconsin 87 miles to Teal Lake, an unbelievably beautiful and serene place just outside of Hayward, WI. The ride was beautiful but uneventful except for the fact that we had an extra rider. Jeremy Fahy (I hope that is the right spelling) is a friend of Joe's family here in the Teal Lake area. He heard we were coming in and asked if he could join us. It was great having an extra rider in the pace-line today. He is young, has raced in the past, and has a MUCH lighter bike that we do. It sort of seemed like we were riding work horses and he was riding a race horse. We tired him out a bit by the end, but it was great having him along. Actually at the end of the day we went to the restaurant where he is the cook, and he put together some very fine meals for all of us.

But the clear message of the day is Teal Lake. I wish I could capture the tranquility, serenity and beauty of this place. I will attach a picture of the sunset, but maybe tomorrow I can give you a better picture of the place we are staying. And it is wonderful to watch riding buddy, Joe, remembering the time that the bat got into the cabin, or the time that he spent here with his grandparents when he was 8 or 9 years old. While it is fresh for us, this place is full of childhood memories for Joe and his brother Bob who came up from Chicago to meet us here. Cindy and I feel like we are watching as two grown men relive a bit of their earlier lives.

Lately a number of you have written to say you are watching our progress as we move across the country. It is so good to hear from you and to learn that many of you are actually making contributions to the hunger organizations of your choices. I thank you on behalf of all those who will eat because of your generosity.

That's it for tonight. Day off tomorrow to rest this old body!

More Bike Geek Stuff: Brooks Saddles!

When Cindy and I rode across the U.S. in 2001, the thing that hurt the most all the time--every day, was my rear end. I mean it felt like a very deep bruise and every bump in the road made it hurt even worse. I was riding a Terry saddle with a hole in it to protect parts that need to be protected. The seat was a little bit soft, and it had come with very high recommendations for long-distance riding. Needless to say, it didn't work. About 20 times a day, I would say, "Stand up break!" and the two of us would stand on the pedals as long as possible to give "it" a bit of relief.

This time across, I am riding an old fashioned Brooks leather saddle...with springs. What a difference a saddle makes. I have not had one day of discomfort with this seat. If you will take a good look at it, you will note that the saddle has now formed to fit my particular rear end parts/bones, etc. I could be sitting in a lawn chair...it really is that comfortable.

The Brooks saddles were originally made in England. Back in the late 1800's John Brooks had purchased a bicycle that came with a very uncomfortable wooden seat. His father was a leather worker and made saddles for horses. John decided to make a more comfortable bike saddle. He accomplished his goal to the point that in the 1950's Brooks was selling 55,000 leather saddles per week. Then, like lots of things, they fell out of favor with the racing crowd. They were too heavy, etc. But about 15 years ago, with the help of a company called Rivendell Bicycles, they started to come back. Recently, the company was taken over by another saddle company, Selle Italia, but they continue to produce really excellent, old fashion Brooks saddles.

And tonight that Brooks saddle is sitting in the state of Wisconsin. We finished up Minnesota about noon and are safely in our campsite. It is good to be "home", and no black flies tonight! Tomorrow we will turn south and ride down to Teal Lake, where Joe Ossmann's family owns a cabin. We will meet his brother and cousin, take a day off on Saturday, and enjoy a place that is very special in Joe's boyhood memories. We look forward to this experience.

Camping in Black Fly, Minnesota

Tonight we are in the Hay Lake State Park campsite close to a little tiny town called Jacobson, MN. It is absolutely the most remote place in which we have camped. There is one more family camping here and it looks like they've been here for about a year. I'm not exactly sure how they do it because the mosquitos and black flies are voracious. This is one of those places that we will spend most of our time inside the motor home and not be too upset about leaving tomorrow. Frankly, the setting is beautiful and if it weren't for the insects, could be a very nice place to stay. However...

You will see in the picture attached that Ginger has gotten a promotion. Usually she is tied to the table in the middle of the motor home. If she is not tied she absolutely drives the support team crazy with her panic breathing, drooling, and need to be as close as possible to the windshield. But now look at her! She's in the front seat, still doing her panic breathing and drooling, but much happier being able to see the sites of Minnesota. As I mentioned in my blog a couple days ago, Kathy Ossmann has taken a few days to return to her family home of Paw Paw, Michigan, to help her father move into an assisted care facility. So Cindy has been the sole support person, except, of course for Ginger in her new role as navigator.

Today we rode 72 miles from Walker Bay over to Jacobson, Minnesota. We started the ride in rain, but it soon stopped and we were able to finish under threatening skies. The cloud cover was actually a relief from riding in the direct sun. Just as we arrived in Jacobson, we once again crossed the Mississippi River, now grown into more than a bubbling creek into a real river. I have attached a picture of the now adolescent river.

Tomorrow night we will be in Wisconsin. After about 80 miles down through Duluth, MN, we will cross into our ninth state and be officially moving toward Michigan and then Canada. We will ride in Canada for 11 days, and then move into our finish in New England.

But tonight its stay away from the black flies!

Magnificent Minnesota

I told Cindy and Joe that Minnesota may turn out to be my favorite state. Today was simply an over the top perfect day. At one point Joe said to me, "OK...smooth roads, wind at our back, astounding beauty, light traffic, what do we have to complain about?" And of course there was not one thing that I could come up with that wasn't just perfect. Sorta makes up for some of the days we had last week with the head-winds in North Dakota.

The high-point of the day was a quick ride through Itasca State Park. Joe planned the route for today and noticed that this park is the home to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, so we took an extra hour to take it in. The pictures you see include Lake Itasca which overflows into a bubbling little stream that will eventually become a mighty river. We couldn't help wonder how long it would take for this beautiful, clear water to be fouled by the BP Oil Spill at the other end of our nation. Will they ever get it stopped?

Received a care package today from my younger brother, Ron. Two new tires and a pair of water-proof shoes...maybe just in time. The rear tire on my bike was getting pretty smooth, but it has been replaced with a brand new one. Still no flats (wood knocking sound)!

Tonight we are in a wonderful campground on the south edge of Leach Lake. The town nearby is called Walker. Temps are mild, we had a wonderful dinner, and we are celebrating a beautiful 77 mile ride and the astounding scenery our Creator has somehow put together for us to enjoy, learn from and love.

Tomorrow promises new challenges. Rain predicted for much of the day, and the pesky head winds may be back. Will make the 70 miles over to Jacobson, MN a bit more difficult, but tonight the word is GRATITUDE!

Transitions

Today we were welcomed into Minnesota and tonight we are camped at a Casino in the White Earth Indian Reservation. The Casino is huge and we are in the RV Camp that is very well equipped and located right behind the hotel. We were almost carried away by the mosquitos, but now we are safely seated inside the motor home for the evening. Every time we enter a new state, we we feel like some major transition has taken place. So the picture you see tonight is proof that we are now in our eighth state. First impressions of Minnesota are that it is "neat" and "tidy". Everything is mowed, painted, and clean. It frankly is a welcome change from some of the very poor towns we visited in Montana and North Dakota.

But today there is a bigger transition going on that has taken our numbers from four to three. Kathy Ossmann left us this morning to fly over to Michigan to be of service to her family. Her father is simply not able to live on his own any more, so the decision has been made to move him into an assisted care facility. These are very hard decisions for any family. Are we rushing into something? Will dad or mom be able to care for themselves for another few months? What if he falls and can't get to the phone? Are there other options that we should be exploring before moving him to a residential facility? These are all the questions that Kathy and her siblings have been struggling with, but now the decision has been made and Kathy knew that she needed to be in Paw Paw, Michigan to help with the transition. Our prayers are with Kathy and her family this evening.

Kathy and Cindy are our ground crew. They drive and manage the motor home. They search for and cook much of the food (and it has been outstanding). Now Cindy is on her own (except for our Golden Retriever, Ginger. So for the next week the ride that started with 8 is down to 3. But the Ride Against Hunger continues. Cindy did a new flyer that we've sent to both Stockton and Sacramento that reminds people that we are still on the road and that it is not too late to make a contribution. If you haven't yet contributed, please give as much as you can to either Catholic Charities in Stockton or the South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership in Sacramento.

I just received a message from Elvira Ramirez, the Director of Catholic Charities, that St. Anthony of Padua elementary school donated $500 to the Ride Against Hunger. Wow...that is terrific. Can other parishes or schools match that?

New Technology...Map My Ride!!!

Today we are in Hillsboro, North Dakota where we have a day off to celebrate the Fourth of July. We send Independence Day Greetings to family and friends and say with honesty that we are missing you and missing the traditions of picnics, bike races, swimming, and fireworks in the park. Instead we are washing clothes, cleaning "house", and getting ready for another week of riding. None of that is unpleasant, it just isn't home.

Yesterday we rode 85 miles from Glenfield here to Hillsboro. The last 15 miles we ended up riding on a fairly rough gravel road that our ride selector gave us as a "short cut". It may have been shorter in distance, but it was not easier, I can assure you. But the point that I want to make today is that we are using, day after day, a wonderful new website called MAPMYRIDE.COM, that has enabled us to create a route across the nation. It is an incredible site that is free if you want to put up with constant pop-ups, or about 100 dollars per year if you want it to really work well for you. Of course, we are learning that we need to be careful of the "short cuts"!

The way it works is that we type in the name of the town that we are starting in and then simply click on the roads we want to go on until we find a place to stop that has a camping area. We can then print that out and it creates a map, a description of the elevations we will be experiencing and a ride sheet indicating where to turn left, right, etc. So each day we leave with a fresh map of where we are going for the day. We know how far up and how far down we will go, and where to turn so that we arrive at the right place that evening.

There is a company called Adventure Cycling out of Missoula, MT that has created maps to help cyclists travel across the U.S. Cindy and used their maps in 2001 and were deeply grateful for the hard work they had done to help us make our trek. But now with these newer technology tools, those maps are almost not needed. If you have a laptop computer, a printer, and wi-fi service, you can pretty much figure out your own route across the country.

The picture that I've included today shows us lined up in a rest stop in Yellowstone National Park (The day that the road was closed due to snow and ice). We found a place we could get on line, so we all got out out computers to respond to e-mails, read the news, and yes...figure out our routes for the next few days. The new technology available to help people like us is simply incredible...and we can stay pretty connected to all of you through new fangled blogs, I-phones, Black Berries, Droids, and the rest. We are glad. We like being connected to you...especially on the Fourth of July!

Wind and Poverty

Ride Against Hunger
Friday, July 2, 2010
Goodrich to Glenfield, ND…77 miles

Today was another day of fierce winds. We rode directly into the wind for the first few miles, then turned east and fought very stiff crosswinds the rest of the day. Both Joe and I feel beat up tonight after riding for the past several days struggling with the wind.

Most every rider I know would rather climb hills than ride into a wind. For some reason wind kills the spirit. It seems we are working as hard as we can, and still making very little progress. And in the meantime, we are becoming more and more tired.

As I rode today, I though about how riding into wind must be like living in poverty. I’ve known families that work so hard, and still can’t keep up. They may lose a job, or can’t pay the rent, or get cut off of a government program that paid for medicine for grandma. The car breaks down and needs a new generator that cannot be afforded so getting to work becomes an even more difficult chore. And then on top of it all, the baby gets sick and has no insurance. And now there is no money left for food, the most basic need of all.

Riding into a wind is nothing compared to this scenario. It is play vs. real life. But today I was tired and wanted to quit. After lunch I wanted to throw my bike on the motor home and say, “Take me to Glenfield; this is just too hard. Let me rest for a while.” But because we made this commitment to ride, we got back on and kept going.

And about ten miles from our stopping point, the beautiful Lutheran Church in the picture appears on the horizon. The sign says, Lutheran Community Center, and I could imagine this building being a sign of hope and help for families over the years in this North Dakota community.

And I thought about how Catholic Charities and the South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership have become signs of hope for families riding against the economic winds of our times.

Send what ever you can to one of these organizations and put a not on the check that says, “to help a family riding against the wind.”

Surprises in North Dakota

I was not looking forward to riding in North Dakota. I somehow had the view that North Dakota would look a bit like a moon scape with long, endless miles of nothingness. (My apologies to those of you from this state). There have been two major surprises about our ride here. One is that it in the northwest part of the state, drilling for oil has become what one person called a "Gold Rush". I had no idea that oil was such a hot commodity here. And it is doing wonders for the economy of North Dakota. We had heard that the state had not been much affected by the down economy in other parts of the nation. Now we know why. Frankly, the same was true in far eastern Montana. When we pull into a RV Park, it is full of workers who have come from West Texas and other parts of the nation to work on the oil rigs. Who knew?

The other surprise has been the astounding beauty of the state. I'm not sure if it is a product of much spring rain, or if it is always like this, but North Dakota has just been astonishingly beautiful. Today we rode by lake after lake, saw a flock of Pelicans soaring over us, and have seen golden, yellow canola (not safflower as I indicated yesterday), and blue flax fields. By the way, for you flax lovers, we are in the flax capitol of the United States right now. I'm learning a lot about flax that I will pass along in a later blog.

I will try to download two pictures. One of an oil rig with cattle in the background...a picture of the old and new in North Dakota. The other is of the Canola fields taken today.

By the way we had a wonderful 80 mile ride from Stanton to Goodrich, ND. The wind was our friend today and we were "in camp' by 2 p.m. Pretty fast for a couple old dudes...even with the wind.