Big
Ride Updates...
32. Winona to Viroqua, WI 7/19 Miles 65.8 Total 2108.3
We are riding to support the American Lung Association and all people who are affected by lung disease. We have carried with us a daily reminder of our purpose in the form of a small yellow bike trailer that can be
attached
to any bike. It is our "dream machine". In it, interlinked on small blue
plastic bracelets are the names of people who, in one form or another, struggle
to breathe. It is a "chain of hope": hope for prevention, hope for better
treatment, and even hope for a cure for people coughing, wheezing, short
of breath and living with lung disease of any variety. The names on the
blue bracelets came from our donors, from our own experiences, from people
we have met along the way, from friends and family. Many riders have taken
turns pulling this "dream machine" and the hopes of so many people, and
today, Lia Pugliese, Jim Hosp, Nathan (all from Santa Barbara) and I (honorary
"Santa Barbaran" for a day) took our turns pulling the trailer and all those
"hopes" a little farther along.
We
began in the Mississippi River valley moving south along the west bank
with tall bluffs rising above us on our right. Sometimes the broad smooth
river was close to us and we could watch tugs pushing their load of barges
upstream; sometimes the river was far across the flat fertile flood plain
along the opposite line of bluffs dark green in the shadow of the low
morning light. The road was flat and smooth for the most part. At 25 miles
we turned and crossed the flood plain and a small side channel of the
river, entering Wisconsin, our seventh state. We crossed high over the
Mississippi's main channel a few minutes later crossing another sort of
"great divide", another landmark on our 
journey
then continued along the east riverbank where cardinals and blue jays
called to us, and great blue herons slowly flapped over us. Even the bird
life was proclaiming that we are moving east. The road up the eastern
bluff was steep, long and winding, but the reward at the top was a scene
very familiar to me: rolling farmland, green and golden with small Amish
farmhouses and red barns, horses, cows, children in blue and purple, and
hand washed laundry hung on the line to dry. It looked like the countryside
in western Pennsylvania that has been an important part of our family
experience and I was thrilled.
I
am fortunate that I and all the other riders are able to make our personal
dreams of riding across the country come true. Over two thousand miles
and it's still a challenge, but we are well on our way. I hope that our
fund raising efforts eventually will move some of the hopes we carried
in the "dream machine" a little closer to realization.
33. Viroqua to Madison, WI 7/20 Miles 108.9 Total 2217.2
A "century",
100 miles, is a long time on a bike and gives one lots of time to think
about life and work, and Judy Williams' last e-mail also included this piece
by Lewis Thomas "I'm quite sure my father always hoped I would want to become
a doctor, and that must have been part of the reason for taking me along
on his visits. But the general drift of his conversation was intended to
make clear to me, early on, the aspect of medicine that troubled him most
all through his professional life; there were so many people needing help,
and so little that he could do for any of them. It was necessary for him
to be available, and to make all these calls at their homes, but I was not
to have the idea that he could do anything much to change the course of
their illnesses. It was important to my father that I understand this; it
was a central feature of the profession, and a doctor should not only be
prepared for it but be even more prepared to be honest with himself about
it. . . . Most of them (diseases) tend to kill some patients and spare others,
and if you are one of the lucky ones and have also had at hand a steady,
knowledgeable doctor, you become convinced that the doctor saved you. My
father's early instructions to me, sitting in the front of his car on his
rounds, were that I should "be careful not to believe this of myself."
Here is Thomas in the first half of the paragraph addressing the "caring"
struggle and carrying it back several generations to his father. I am
not so pessimistic about our ability to help patients. We certainly have
more that we can do for some patients, but the struggle still exists even
in a culture as rich as ours. Yet Thomas (or his father) adds a new twist
at the end, "be careful not to believe" that you, the physician, are responsible
for saving the patient. How much more risky this is in an era in which
there is much that can be done for many patients. But it is not just one
doctor that has restored the patient's health for a while. It is a whole
team of people working together; one shouldn't claim too much personal
responsibility for success. A bicycle ride across the country with 200
other people is a good way to keep one's ego in check. In front of others,
I have:
1) failed to get out of my pedals at a "cattle guard" and fallen flat;
2) rolled my glasses up in my tent early in the morning (they looked like
spirrelli when I retrieved them);
3) spilled hot wonton soup in my lap;
4) "puffed" my way up enough hills to prove that I am not a "strong" rider,
and
5) paid someone money to cut my hair in a way that Nathan could have done
with his clippers for free.
And
more importantly, while I am away from work (rolling across the green
ridges of this surprising hilly section of Wisconsin) the work goes on
and the other members of the team perform their roles, and mine. And,
at the end of a very tiring ride, I can collapse in a real bed, in a dormitory
at the University of Wisconsin, and, I can resolve to take Thomas' advice
and "be careful not to believe this of myself."
34. Madison, WI 7/21
Another
rest day and after just four days of riding, all of us were rejoicing,
but by the afternoon, many folks were thinking about how nice a short
bike ride would be. We thought about it, but we didn't do it. Instead,
we explored Madison, a wonderful town on two lovely lakes 
enjoying
a cool spell in their usually hot summer. Our appetites did not take
the day off. We enjoyed eating. Lia, Keli Crawford from Queens, and
Matt McCormack from Brooklyn found great seats on State Street with
full plates and a view of the passing parade of riders and locals. Steve
Carter from Tupelo MS had notes to write and most riders worked on their
journals. Ray Gilden and his wife Karen of Corvalis OR browsed the local
bike store for bargains, new "toys" and additions to his wardrobe. (Day
after day on a bike and we haven't had enough: we go to the 
bike
store!) Stacy Gilbert of Washington DC kept in touch or maybe was planning
a new event; she has instigated and organized several side tours. And
Gabby Brinton from Wayne PA joined the crowd at the ballpark for some
minor league fun.
35. Madison WI to Belvidere, IL 7/22 Miles 80.6 Total 2297.8
We have been seeing some of America's history in the towns that we have touched on this ribbon of our country. I'm not talking about the events or the people associated with these towns, but the towns themselves. Many of the western towns were little more than a few buildings; a bar/café, a post office, a couple of houses and a church. Other than the signs for twentieth century products (Coke), the lights and concrete, many of these places seem little changed from what they might have been like 125-150 years ago. Moving farther east, and especially in eastern South Dakota and Minnesota, the towns were larger, more business enterprises were evident, but there were no "fast food" places, no "chain stores" and the railroad and farming were the major activities. One could film a movie about turn of the century America in any number of these towns without having to change much. But now we are up to date. Every little town today had lots of reminders of current American culture, and the little "strip malls" here look like the millions of similar stretches of highway throughout the country. We seemed much closer to home today. 
Turning
south today we cycled over the long rolling hills through rich farm country.
For the most part we have moved off national highways and now are riding
on state and county roads. They are not as direct, and not as flat, nor
do they have large shoulders, but the traffic is very light, and the roads
are quiet and roadside advertising is sparse. We had an almost continuous
carpet of wild flowers between us and the corn and hay fields: Queen Anne's
Lace, Clover, Batchelor Buttons and Monarda: white, lavender, periwinkle
blue and pale purple punctuated by occasional asters and several types
of yellow flowers I did not know. For the most part Nathan and I rode
in companionable silence; we enjoy each others company, but neither of
us is a "talker". The miles rolled by quietly and pleasantly under a sky
filled with an assortment of cumulus, and cirrus clouds.
We celebrated another state line.
Marcia
Larson from Sartell MN rides with a sock monkey; it is easy to identify
Marcia's bike. More importantly, she rides with special purpose, to commemorate
her family's personal struggles with lung disease and the difficulties,
disruption and grief those lung problems caused. She is also working at
ending her own battle with cigarettes. She was able to quit for two years,
but returned to smoking. Now she has quit again and is riding for her
family and for herself. Go Marcia!!
36. Belvidere to Naperville, IL 7/23 Miles 64.4 Total 2362.2
Jack
and Claudia Russitano, from Union City CA (near Sacramento) are bicycle
enthusiasts. Their first date was on bicycles. Claudia was the stronger
rider and suggested a 15 mile adventure! Jack said "sure" and then paid
the price. He said he thought he would die. Now they classify 65 as an "easy
day". They have done several other tours: the Oregon coast, the San Juan
Islands, but this is "the big one".
When
I woke this morning the temperature was a cool 50 degrees, and by the
time I had packed away my dew soaked tent, I was wet and cold. Breakfast
chilled quickly; even the oatmeal was chilled by the time I was ready
to eat it. We left camp hoping for a hill, something to make us work hard
and generate some heat, but northern Illinois is a flatter version of
Wisconsin. To the east, 
30-40
miles away, a fog bank rose from the horizon over Lake Michigan, but the
rest of sky was cloudless. The sun began to warm us and the half moon
faded quickly. Before we pedaled into suburban Chicago, we passed through
the grounds of "Fermilab", one of the world's most powerful linear accelerators.
Underneath the ground atomic particles are raced around an oval track
and smashed into targets. Scientists from several Universities around
the world use the data to identify and understand building blocks of the
physical world that have never been seen. They are breaking the world
into its smallest pieces. Ironically, scientists above the accelerator
are looking for building blocks that used to be "everywhere". They are
using the land over the accelerator to recreate a facsimile of the all
but extinct tall grass prairie ecosystem that used to cover thousands
of square miles until it was destroyed by a century and half of continuous
farming. By 9:00 am, we pedaled past the first "city"signs: scattered
gated and signed communities of "luxury" homes plunked down on previous
corn fields and surrounded by acres and acres of soy beans. No trees,
just very large homes or shells of very large new homes accompanied by
promises of "community living". The homes became "thicker" and the farmlands
"thinner" and sports (soccer and baseball) complexes appeared, then malls
and eventually we were enveloped by residential and commercial property.
There was no possibility of confusion over the century or decade anymore.
--- Paul Fairman, Big Rider #2152.
< pfairman@earthlink.net>