Team Alpha on the Greenbriar River Trail WV

Back home again in Circleville, Ohio 10,300 miles

It's official we are home! And it's double official because I went back to work today at Berger Health System. I am the Wellness Director at the hospital. Don't tell my boss but I think that I have the best job in the world. I get the opportunity to go out into the community, local businesses and Berger employees to help them to learn ways to become healthier. I am not sure that taking a 10,000 mile + bike ride is a healthy idea but I'll get back to you on that.

We rode the last leg of the ride from Chillicothe to Circleville in a downpour. But then that's bike ridin'! It didn't bother us at all. In fact we had a wonderful tailwind so it actually felt like we were sprinting to the finish line. A great end to a wonderful ride. When we rode out our driveway last May we decided that we would do everything and ride anywhere we wanted for a year. We wouldn't regret anything or leave anything out. And that is just what we have done. No regrets. No, we wish we had..... just it's time to go home for awhile. Then??.........??

When we rode into Circleville we were pleasantly surprised to see Amy and Gregory standing on the side of the road with balloons, flowers and signs. Thanks guys for the great welcome. They really went above and beyond to come out in the rain. Then they followed us through town taking pictures of us. And all of the balloons on the car was a bonus! It was sort of like a parade!

Our house survived, but as you can see from the picture someone needs to mow the grass. I think our grass would get mowed more if the lawnmower had pedals!

Thanks to everyone who has supported us during this year with notes, emails, phone calls and prayers. We couldn't have done this without the support of all of you.

I will be making a couple more entries in the blog. We are doing a ride this weekend in W. Virginia with Dugan, my brother in law who has Alpha One. It is a fundraiser for the American Lung Association along the Greenbriar River Trail. Two days and 70 miles. Dugan is planning to ride with us. So for all of you who have all of healthy lungs, Dugan will be riding with about 1/4 of one lung with oxygen on his bike! No excuses is there?

Chillicothe, Ohio

When we arrived in Charleston we went out to dinner with Deb from the ALA and Neva who is an Alpha One support group leader. She has arranged for Hap & I to meet with the WV Governor tomorrow at the capital building. What an opportunity to do some PR for Alpha! Thanks Neva! We also were going to present our check to the ALA for the TREK bike tour we are doing with Team Alpha next weekend. It is a 2-day ride along the Greenbrier River in WV. It is a beautiful trail. Hap & I rode it a few years ago.
The next morning we were supposed to be at the capital building at 9:15a. We were only a few blocks from there so we got to the gate a little early. A TV cameraman showed up from WOWK Charleston station and did an interview. Another station WSAZ also did an interview. Meeting Governor Manchin was really cool. He read a proclamation stating that May was Alpha One Awareness month. He told us that he had mandated that when any knew roads were built in WV that a 2-foot shoulder was required. We thanked him for that. All in all it was a special day for us. We are still trying to figure out why people are so amazed at our “little bike ride”. All we are doing is having fun! When things get tough sometimes along the way, I remember Dugan and how hard he trained and worked to ride his bike with a quarter of a lung! What we are doing is easy. Hopefully we got some good press for Alpha.
We left Charleston and headed towards Huntington. We stopped at John’s bike shop in St Albans. We were very impressed with the bike shop. Great selection of bikes, parts and Jeff actually knew something about them. He had done a tour across the US back in 1976. We ate lunch at Taco Bell. We stopped at Jim’s Campground outside of. Milton, WV. There were two choices of campgrounds. The KOA wanted $30 to pitch our tent. Jim’s wanted $12. Which would you pick? Jim’s was really nice. We had a huge shelter house that we could park the bike under and cook our dinner too. It also had electric outlets as a bonus.
We left the next morning after eating our traditional oatmeal, peanut butter and banana breakfast. It was hot and sunny. The road was little busier as we got closer to Huntington. Most of the traffic gave us plenty of room. But there’s always that 10% rule. We had a flat tire on the way into town. It’s always much more fun to have a flat tire, in traffic, with no shoulder. It didn’t take long to get it changed. Hap’s getting really good at it. I don’t even have to tell him what to do anymore! It was supposed to start raining so we planned to stay inside in Ashland, KY. We stopped at a gas station to look in a phone book for hotels. While we were there a guy said, “Hey didn’t I see you on TV this morning?” He talked to us for quite awhile. We had been wondering why so many people had been blowing their horns at us and waving as they passed. Maybe they saw us on the TV! That would explain it. Before we got to the hotel we stopped and bought another tube. Just in case…..We have had to ride in more junk on the side of the road just because of the traffic. We got to the hotel, left the trailer and road to a Wal-Mart for dinner supplies and to get a prescription filled. While I was standing in line a lady behind me said, “Didn’t I see you on TV this morning?” I asked her if she learned something and she said yes she did. It was very interesting. Oh, did I mention that the Wal-Mart was on TOP of a big hill? So here’s the picture…..four lanes, no shoulder, slow tandem, lots of traffic. We had a lot of people come pretty close. I guess they had to get to Wal-Mart in a hurry. I am sure that it was some sort of an emergency that’s why they couldn’t wait 10 seconds or so to get around. But we all made it into Wal-Mart and no one got hurt. That’s the important part.
The next day it was pouring down rain. We decided to stay an extra day in Ashland. We spent the day doing laundry and eating. We only have 30 miles to go to get to Portsmouth, OH. Then maybe 70 miles or so to home.
This morning we left Ashland, stopped at Bobby’s place (or Bob Evans to all of you who aren’t from Ohio!) and road north on Rt 23. Rt 23 runs through Circleville HOME. Not far now. We are getting to our neck of the woods. It was overcast all day but still a great ride. We made a call to All Saints Episcopal Church in Portsmouth about spending the night there. We have stayed there many times when we road TOSRV (Tour of the Scioto River Valley). They agreed to let us stay even though TOSRV is the next day. We planned to be riding north tomorrow as TOSRV riders are heading south to Portsmouth. This way we get to see all of our biking friends that we haven’t seen for a very long time. We got to the church just in front of a big downpour. My brothers and wives are driving down tonight to take us out to dinner. It sure will be great to see them!
We are down to two more days of riding before finishing this year long (and three day) adventure. I go back to work in a couple more days. Where did the time go?

Today we rode to Chillicothe. It was fun to see all of the TOSRV riders coming south. We saw alot of old friends that we haven't seen for a long time. It sure is good to be on home turf. We have ridden the Tour of the Scioto River Valley every year since 1983 so we felt like we knew every turn and crack in the highway. It is a very pretty ride following the Scioto River. In Chillicothe we made a quick stop in the park to talk to the local newspaper and take a picture. Then we stopped and bought my mom some roses for Mother's Day. Of course I told her that I had bought them in Portsmouth and hand carried them from there. All of my family showed up for a cookout. It was great to see everyone. Especially the three new babies, Korbin, Reed and Rowdy. I plan to spoil all of them soon!! Tomorrow is our last day on the road. I go back to work at Berger Health System on Monday. Hap will be busy getting our house (assuming it is still there) back in working order. We have ridden 10,280 miles. Tomorrow's ride will be about 30 miles. It is supposed to be a stormy, rainy day. A fitting end don't you think?

Charleston, WV 10,000+ miles!

We ate a banana and peanut butter for a pre-breakfast before we left the motel. We continued south on Rt 7 toward Gallipolis. It was nice because we had a nice shoulder and not much traffic. It was also warm and sunny. We stopped at a restaurant for some pancakes. OK, so we ate twice in an hour, is somebody out there counting? It was such a pretty ride along the river. Everything was so green, spring is finally here! We stopped in Pomeroy for a very special event! Our 10,000 mile of this trip. Of course we had to have ice cream. It seems impossible that we have actually ridden that far and it has almost been a year. Today we were on a secret mission. Niece Kendall (Dugan's daughter) is graduating from Rio Grande this weekend and we are planning to surprise her. She thinks that we are a million miles away (in biking miles....) and has no idea we are coming. Ssshhhhh....... Traffic started to pick up on Rt 7 but we were going to turn west off of Rt 7 before we got to Gallipolis. We had ridden between Rio Grande and Gallipolis before and taken this route. But that time we were on our mt bikes with Hap pulling Katie (our dog) in the trailer. We remembered the route as being really pretty with not many hills. But guess what happens when you add 180 pounds to a tandem. The route gets hillier and the hills get steeper. Or maybe we just didn't notice the hills. By any standards it was a very hilly route. It started to rain just before we got to Rio Grande. Several members of my family were on their way to Rio at the same time so we were on the phone alot talking to them. On the outside of town we called Kendall's sister, Tiffany to have her call Kendall and find out where she was. Tiff said she was at the apt. We rode to the apt to surprise her. Boy was she surprised. It was great! I told her that I had been lying to her for several wks. And everytime I lied I had to call someone to confess. About that time Dugan called. He and Sonnie were on their way down. He asked where we were and I told him that we weren't there yet, we were about 4 miles from Rio. Yes, I lied to him also. But I'm confessing it to all of you! The rest of the family showed up a short time later. It was great to see them. The best part was seeing the twins, Reed and Rowdy. If you have been following us you know that they were born last November.

We spent a wonderful weekend with family. The worst part of this last year is being away from them. Mom and Dad came down. Dugan and Sonnie were there. We shared lots of stories, ate alot of great food and just enjoyed being together again. I tried to show everyone where my shingles were but no one seemed interested.

Yesterday we reluctantly let go of the twins and road away from Rio Grande. It was cool and sunny. We took a different route to Gallipolis that was alot better than the other day. We crossed the Ohio River and then the Kanawa River. We had planned to camp in Point Pleasant WV. But when we called they said sorry we don't allow tents. Then why do you call it a campground! We thought there was a hotel in Buffalo, WV so we headed south on Rt 62 on the Kanawa River. It was a beautiful route. When we got to Buffalo we were surprised to find that the hotel only rented by the week. Whoops! We asked about camping down the road and no one seemed to know of anything. So we just bought a gallon jug of water and planned to camp along the river. We stopped at a convenience store for a snack. When we were talking to some locals they said they wouldn't camp along the river. OK so now what? We didn't have any choice so we kept going south toward Charleston. We stopped in Eleanor at a convenience store. There was a local policeman in the store. We asked the clerk if she knew of a place to camp and she said why don't you camp in the city park. The cop said it closes at 10pm. Hap said can't you look the other way for one night? He said no! For the record, in alot of the towns we have been through they will let you camp in the park. We have many times. But I guess in WV you have to keep out the riff raff! I looked in my AAA book and found an Econolodge in Nitro. I called, made a reservation and we headed on down the road. We got to the Econolodge after a long day. Hap walked next door for spaghetti dinners.

This morning we had a short ride into Charleston. It was warmer today. I had been dreading riding into Charleston but it actually wasn't bad. We stopped at a Shoney's for lunch. We also stopped for haircuts. Are you wondering why we are going to Charleston, which by the way isn't on the way to Circleville from Gallipolis? We had an opportunity to raise some awareness for Alpha One. We are doing a fund raiser ride for the American Lung Association the weekend of May 15. Which is the weekend after we get home. We decided to hand deliver our donation for the ride to the main office of the ALA, in Charleston. They have arranged some media coverage for Alpha. We'll let you know how it goes next time.

Little Hocking, Ohio

We left Wheeling on a cold overcast rainy morning. And because we are in West Virginia we started with a climb. We finally had our first view of Ohio across the river. Our plan was to ride south down the WV side of the river hoping that Rt 2 wouldn't be as busy as Rt 7 on the Ohio side. Before leaving Wheeling we stopped at AAA to pick up more maps. While we were in AAA they mentioned a bike trail along the river. It took alittle bit of trial and error but we managed to find it. It was only maybe five miles long but it did get us out of the busy downtown section of Wheeling. When we got off the trail we stopped at a KFC/Taco Bell for lunch. Then we got back on Rt 2. Or at least we thought we were going to. The road became a limited access freeway. When we headed up the entrance ramp we saw the sign (the dreaded sign) that said No Bicycles. Mmm.... well look at that! We sure didn't expect that. We checked the map and our options were to go back into Wheeling, go across the bridge into Ohio and take Rt 7. Or get on the freeway to the next exit which was only 1/4 mile and then climb the ridge and loop way out south and then get back on Rt 2. We decided that was the best choice. We were only on the freeway for a few minutes so I don't really think it was a foul. We got off and wound our way through the small towns of Benwood and McMechen. On the south side of McMechen we discovered that the freeway was no longer limited access and was ok to ride on. Thank goodness. There was some construction but traffic wasn't bad. Just before we got to the town of New Martinsville traffic really picked up. Not sure why. We couldn't find a campground so we stayed at the Plaza Inn. Next door was a grocery store so we bought some dinner fixins. Tonight we had beef vegetable soup and salad.

We left the next morning once again on a cold day. But at least the sun shined off and on. We decided to go across the river and ride down the Ohio side and hopefully the traffic would be less. On the other side of the bridge we saw a sign that said Rt 7 is closed 25 miles ahead. Uh oh, that's not good! We stopped in a gas station to see if maybe we could get through. They were all so helpful. Even the customers got into helping us see if we could get through. Hap called the sheriff and he said no way. Does anyone find it ironic that we have traveled almost 10,000 miles all around the US and now that we are within 100 miles or so of home we can't get there! What we ended up doing was ride 15 miles south on the Ohio side and take a ferry back across to Sisterville WV. The funniest thing happened on the ferry. We walked onto the ferry with our bike and were standing behind a pickup truck. A lady got out of the truck, looked at me and said, "Do you know Darlene?" (which is my mom's name!) then she said, "Are you Diane?" It scared me for a minute. I thought something had happened at home and people were out looking for us. She then said "I'm Rita do you remember me?" As it turned out it was my Aunt Rita that I had not seen for over 20 years! Small world! She knew about our bike ride from emails from my mom. What a shock. When we got off the ferry, she and her husband asked if we wanted to stay with them. We said sure and rode 15 miles to St Mary's. It was really great to see her after all this time. And we really appreciated the hospitality and opening up their home.

This morning we left on a warm sunny day. Finally back into the 70's instead of the 50's. We stopped at Subway for breakfast before crossing the river (AGAIN!) back into Ohio. Rt 7 was a good cycling road. It is great to be back in our home state. After traveling all over the country we realize how pretty our state really is. The Ohio River Valley is beautiful. Everything is green and the flowers are blooming. We got a call on the way into Marietta from a TV reporter from WTAP in Parkersburg. She met us at Walmart and did an interview. Check it out at http://www.wtap.com/.

We had planned to ride to a State park south of Belpre OH. When we were riding through Belpre we stopped to call the State Park. We thought we had about 20 miles to ride but when we asked her how far it was she said "It's a 40 minute drive". Umm... we didn't think that we could get there before dark so we decided to punt. We stopped in Belpre, got something to eat, and looked in a phone book for campgrounds or motels. We found a motel in the town of Little Hocking that was only about 5 miles south. The bonus!? It was only $25. When we got there we were very happy to find a small, very clean place to stay. See? Sometimes you don't know where you are going to end up? Look what happened to us the last two nights! I can't wait to see what happens next! Can you?

Wheeling, WVA The 27th state!

We had a wonderful breakfast at the B & B. Then we started out our day by climbing a steep hill to get to Rt 136. I love to climb hills, but not first thing in the morning especially on a full stomach. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 70's. The day turned out to be hilly all day but then it was pretty much what we expected. The traffic wasn't too bad but there were a few drivers who were just annoying. Hap asked me if I had my target shirt on today. At times it felt like it. There was one ol' guy in a pick up truck who was trying to pass us just as we were crossing some railroad tracks, with another car coming toward us. There was no shoulder. He was right on the trailer. He was going really slow just sort of following us. I could see what was happening and I did the math and realized that all three of us (four counting Hap!) wasn't going to fit at the same time over the tracks. I yelled at Hap and he just pulled off the road and stopped. It was pretty exciting. And it just made no sense. But we made it safely over the tracks and headed down the road. We are back on the "S" route which was a really nice route. In the hotel Hap spent alot of the evening cleaning up the bike. It was pretty dirty from the time on the trail.

This morning we left Washington on National Route 40 paralleling Interstate 70. But this time we left in the pouring rain. It stopped during the day but was overcast and in the 50's all day. When we crossed into West Virginia it was our 26 state of the trip! That's amazing. It sure doesn't seem like we have gone that far. When we arrived in Wheeling it began to rain again. It was a very pretty ride today. Not much traffic and the weather didn't bother us much. Thank goodness for gortex raingear. We checked into a Super 8 and took a hot shower. Then walked across the street to a Wendy's. In the hotel we did our laundry, did some reading and watched TV. Nothing too exciting today. For dinner we ordered a pizza. Tomorrow we plan to ride south down the Ohio River toward Portsmouth, OH. Later.

West Newton, PA

We left Somerset on a beautiful sunny day. The temps were already the 70's by the time we left. We had about a 10 mile ride to Rockwood where we get on the Alleghany Passage trail. You can check out their website at http://www.atatrail.org/ We have ridden a section of the trail on another trip from Cumberland, MD to Washington DC. We were looking forward to getting out of the line of fire of the cars/trucks. We rode into Rockwood to the start of the trail and stopped at a bike shop. As we got off we noticed we had a flat tire. Hap fixed it and then noticed that the rear rack wasn't right. He discovered a broken bolt on the rack. He bought one from the bike shop and we were on our way. We stopped on the trail for a lunch of peanut butter and bananas. The trail is not paved but was packed down enough that it wasn't a problem at all on our tandem. It was alot smoother than the section that we had ridden from MD to Wash. DC. thank goodness. There are several little towns that you go through on this route. Lots of B&B's and places to eat. We stopped in Confluence to get something to eat. We ended up camping at the Outflow campground. Unfortunately the shower house wasn't open until next weekend so we didn't get that shower that I look forward to. Oh well! We set up camp and walked over to an ice cream stand. But then we both decided we were hungry and ate fish and chips. How could we be hungry when we just ate?? When we got in the tent we watched a movie that I had downloaded off the internet. That's the first time that I had done that and it worked pretty well. I think I'll try it again.

The next morning was another beautiful sunny morning. We fixed our oatmeal and bananas for breakfast and got back on the trail. One thing for sure we aren't blazing a lot of miles lately! But we sure are enjoying the trail. We are riding next to the Youghiogheny River. It is a big rafting, kayaking, fishing river. We saw lots of fisherman standin in the water. I can't figure it out. I always see them casting but I don't think I've ever seen one catchin'. We loved watching them fly fishing out west in MT, WA, ID. Same deal out there. Lots of castin goin on...... When we went through Ohiopyle we stopped for lunch and had a great Hummus sandwich. Or was it so good only because we were so hungry....again.... We stopped on one of the bridges and watched some kayakers for awhile. Then we saw an upside down kayak. Hey Hap? How long can that guy hold his breath?" Finally we realized or hoped that he wasn't in the boat. That can't be good. Eventually we saw him sitting on the rock way upstream. I guess it's not like snow skiing where we put brakes on our skis. While we were standing there another cyclist rode up and said that he had just seen a black bear run across the trail. Cool! But we didn't see him. He was probably so scared he is still running. We saw lots of cyclists, runners and walkers using the trail. People of all ages. Even people as old as Ol' Hap and me! I love to see people out and doing something. We rode into the town of Connelsville and stopped at the bike shop to ask about camping. A lady told us that there was a campground about 3 miles out of town. We started to head that way and then decided since it was going to rain to stay inside. And of course the motel was at the TOP of the hill (one of those bicycle laws!). We checked in and walked across the street to Walmart to buy some dinner groceries. Anyone seeing a theme here? At the motel there was a small group of cyclists that we started talking to. It turns out that Tom runs a company that leads bicycle tours on the C & O and the Great Alleghany Passage. You can check out his webite at http://www.getoutandgo.biz/ Oh, and we also discovered another flat tire on the rear. Wassup with all these flat tires?? When Hap checked the rear tire he noticed a pinch in the sidewall. And we were so hoping that we could get through without having to buy another tire.

This morning it was raining when we woke up but then cleared off and was another beautiful day. This would be our last day on the trail so we planned a short day to West Newton. We made reservations at a B & B. A little unusual for us but hey were just trying to be like all our friends! And we only have two more weeks before we have to live in the real world again. Our first stop was at the bike shop again to buy a new tire and another tube. Hopefully it will be the last! Tom had told us that the trail was alittle softer but it turned out to not be so bad. We just enjoyed the trail and the quiet before heading back to the road tomorrow. In West Newton we ate a sandwich at the Trailside Inn before going to the B & B. It was really a nice place. I especially liked the shower! We walked back to the laundromat and to the drugstore for another bottle of sunscreen. For dinner we got some spaghetti and salad to take back to the B & B. We only ate again to go with the wine that they had at the B & B. We spent most of the evening planning our last two weeks. I can't believe it is almost over. A year ago we were just getting ready to leave. It will be very strange to have a car to drive again. Mmmm....maybe I won't want to. We'll see! Later.

Somerset, PA

We spent three nights in Breezewood with Bing and Susie. And their family of dogs. Hooter, Stoney and Elton. They are on their way to the National Poodle Show in MD. It was so great to see them again. If you have been following our journey you may remember that they drove out to Glacier National Park and spent several days with. We didn't do much in Breezewood except relax, watch movies, play cards and eat. It was great!

We left Breezewood and rode to Bedford. We are still following the PA "S" bicycle route. The route was beautiful. Everything is so green and the trees are just starting to bud. We saw a brand new baby calf. It must have just been born. It was still wet and was trying to stand for the first time. The mom even still had the afterbirth attached. We had quite a few short steep climbs today. But we have been expecting the crossing of the Alleghany Mts to be pretty tough. We have climbed them before on a couple of bike tours. The biggest difference between crossing the Rockies or western mts and the eastern mts is outwest you might climb for 20 miles or more but at a 5-6% grade. In the east you might climb 1-7 miles at a 7-10% grade. Which would YOU pick? We found a few of those 10% grades today. Ah well, that's bikin! As we were entering Bedford we noticed a big factory with the name Cannondale on the outside. Wonder if that is the bicycle factory Cannondale. We pulled in and Hap went in and asked. As it turned out it was. He set us up for a tour in the morning. There was a campground just down the road so we headed down there and set up camp. For dinner we had rice, peas and chicken. Does that sound good to anyone else? We played a game of cards and someone won but we don't need to go into that! Bing had loaned us a movie "Mystery Alaska" so we watched it on the computer. It was really a good one. Thanks Bing!!

This morning we got up at 7a, I know ..... guess I better get used to it since my date to get back to work at the hospital is getting close! I am really looking forward to it too. Not the getting up early part! The being a part of a great team at Berger Health System. That's what I miss. The tour at Cannondale was awesome. It almost wants someone to add to our stable of bikes. But not quite. It is nice to know that an American made bicycle is a quality machine. We saw alot of pretty bikes and learned alot about how they were made. They had one bike that was made special for President Bush who is an avid cyclist. The tour guide said they got tired of seeing him ride a TREK bike! When we left Bedford we decided to take a slight detour from the "S" route. We opted to take Rt 30 to see the Memorial to Flight 93 that went down near Shanksville on 9-1-1. Route 30 is known as the Lincoln Highway. It was a good riding road. Some berm and not much traffic. It was a pretty ride once again. Who knew that PA was such a pretty state. We had lots of climbing. One climb was 7 miles long. We climbed up to over 2000 feet. The memorial was really a special place. It is just a temporary one for now. They are working to put a permament one up. There was a lady there who lived in Shanksville and told us about that day. She said the explosion shattered windows. I just cannot imagine what it must have been like for a large jet plane to hit the ground at over 500 mph. There wasn't much left. While we were there I looked over and saw a familiar face. It was my cousin Wayne from Dublin, OH. What a surprise. It was good to see him! After we left the site we rode into Somerset. We thought we were going to see a campground on the way into town but somehow it wasn't where we thought it was. So we ended up at a Days Inn. Which worked out just as well since it started raining as soon as we checked in. I washed out our clothes while Hap worked on the bike. The gears have not been shifting like we like. Or let's say that I kept having to jump off the bike and "help" us get into the lowest gear. And with all the hills it got alittle tiring. He cleaned everything up and hopefully tomorrow it will work better. Dinner was pizza and salad from Pizza Hut. Tomorrow we plan to get back on the "S" route and ride to the Great Alleghany rail/trail. That connects Washington DC with Pittsburgh. Until then...............