6/17 ~ Entering Ohio

1995 USAIDS 5,000
Post #18:
Though it was vital to have Carl Lebman serve as Project Manager, which included following me with our support vehicle; much of my work took place in the 15 months prior to our departure on May 31, 1995, a full year before Carl met me for the first time at a fundraiser at Buddies in Buffalo. (Each picture has more details.)

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Picture #032

Stopping for photos, breaks, lunch, agency visits and on-the-road interviews for all sorts of media was actually the easy part. Bicycling, on some days, was quite difficult. Peddling on other days, like the one in this picture, proved actually pleasurable. Yet, to get to that point, I trained near daily on a bicycle, and/or stationary bikes (during inclement weather) for 15 months. Even when I worked at Benedict House, I would train before 9am, and after 5pm, everyday. Also, I used a Soloflex, 4 times weekly. Don Lucas, from my Post #17, offered to be my support and follow vehicle to Ashtabula, on June 17th, while Carl headed back to Buffalo to pick up another supply of Tee Shirts. During one of our stops, that day, Don presented me with some healing stones, a dream catcher (he made for me the night before) and a stone, bear necklace. (I still have them all, today.)  And I have the memory, that during the same stop, he pointed to an Eagle flying in circles over us.  Don believed, "That is the spirit promising to guide you safely on this ride."  He must have been right.  As a side note, the Buffalo-Albany-Manhattan-Erie loop was 971 miles, yet we were less than a hundred miles from our starting point, lol. (Picture from June 19, 1995)

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Picture #032b

It was a time, before common GPS usage; so, I relied on maps. Though I gathered state and local maps along the way, this large map, courtesy of AAA, was the actual map I used en-route, to document agency stops. As part of the logistics of this trip, done late nights, during those training months, I had corresponded with state travel departments, CDC, AIDS support agencies, media outlets and major companies (for financial support), all by U.S. Mail. From late 1993 through departure in 1995, Internet was barely being tapped, until this thing call "Windows 95", being rolled out as we were finishing our bike tour. Little did we expect how much our world would change, from that point. Yet, it was too late to help me. I stayed in debt, keeping up with snail-mail. (Picture of the original map with super-imposed book cover from the date of the book release on Veterans Day, 11/11/2011, not a coincidence.)