6/13 ~ Carl Lebman Too

1995 USAIDS 5,000
Post #14:
Looking back to my original notes, it seems there were no photos or events of interest for June 13, 1995. I recall needing to rack the bike, without permission to ride it through tunnels and across various bridges and Interstate Highway Systems. Carl Lebman got me safely through the tip of NJ, and across the PA state line, to somewhere between Morristown and Randolph, PA. (Each picture has more details.)

~~~

Picture #026b

Here is an excerpt from the July 5, 1995, Pride Ride News (written on the road, by Jim): "This is not the fun trip our Project Manager Carl Lebman anticipated. Some of his daily chores are: coordinating media interviews, scheduling stops at AIDS Agencies, arranging all lodging and meals, automobile upkeep, communication with two base stations, continuous marketing (and tee shirt sales) including on-the-road live radio announcements, entertainment, tracking Jim's every biking move, insuring cellular link-ups from city to city (quite a task in 1995), lining up sponsors for routine nutritional and medical supplies, camp fires (a closeted pyromaniac), and much more. Carl is not just support, but an integral part of this unfolding story, (even when he is not in photographs or the lime light)." (Picture from June 11, 1995)
— with Lebman Carl

 ~~~
Picture #026c

And if all that was not enough, he had to arrange for our own USAIDS 5,000 PRIDE RIDE news mailings, and collect mail and supplies, air-expressed, for 3 full months. He would make sure I had notes like this, and the newspaper articles which accompanied it, as morale boosters. Now, what about MILEAGE? New Google Maps would indicate the actual routes we traveled totaled 5,727 miles, not counting another few hundred riding around in cities and for promos. Yet, my book AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM STORY suggested that my trip ended some 200 miles short; which I actually did make up when returning to Buffalo. So, where did that other twelve-hundred miles go? You guessed it. I needed on several occasions to rack the bike, for unforeseen road problems, detours, and distances too far to keep me on time schedule for planned events. The end result was that I still bicycled 5,000 miles, yet only Carl is proof of that. Too bad we didn't have GPS back in 1995. (Picture from August 7, 1995)