John C. Anderson
Stroke Survivors Tattler
Road to Margaritaville
from
Anacortes, Washington to Key West, Florida
The Cast: Dan, Catherine, Bill, Dana, David
|
| John C. Anderson Stroke Survivors Tattler |
Anacortes, Washington to Key West, Florida
The Cast: Dan, Catherine, Bill, Dana, David
Date | Start ✔︎ = DONE
----------------+------------------------------
Jun 29 Stage 1 | Anacortes, WA; 462 miles ✔︎
Jul 16 Stage 2 | Sandpoint, ID; 342 miles ✔︎
Aug 03 Stage 3 | Cutbank, MT; 544 miles ✔︎
Aug 17 Stage 4 | Dickinson, ND; 413 miles ✔︎
Aug 30 Stage 5 | Pierre, SD; 485 miles - ✔︎
Sep 13 Stage 6 | Council Bluffs, IA; 559 miles - So far: 361 miles (581 km) / 6 days.
Sep 28 Stage 7 | St. Louis, MO; 570 miles
Oct 12 Stage 8 | Tishomingo, MS; 454 miles
Oct 25 Stage 9 | Mobile, AL; 570 miles
Nov 08 Stage 10 | St. Augustine, FL; 533 miles
Nov 23 Stage 11 | Ft. Lauderdale, FL; 189 miles
Nov 29 End 12 | Key West, FL; End of Ride
Some details from Spokes Fighting Strokes and CrazyGuyonaBike:
Smithville to Hardin MO 59.6miles 2845ft climbing, max speed 37.11mph 64-68degree we wake raining we had TV interview left camp late 10:45 we stop Lawson for lunch & interview with newspaper! Check out David click on journal my website www.Spokesfightingstrokes.org
Attitude is 90% of life, think positive! "Fins Up”
DanTrikeMan
David Babcock - CrazyGuyonaBike:
Day 82: Henrietta to Arrow Rock
Thursday Sep/18/2014, 64 miles (103 km) - Total so far: 2,647 miles (4,260 km)
Fog. That would be today's word. At least the word for this morning. It is cold and clammy outside, and very foggy. There is a light breeze blowing and when you stand outside for very long moisture condenses on you as if it were raining. We check the humidity level and it is 98% - can't get much higher than that I guess.
We try to get an earlier start today because it will be a pretty long day. Between the mileage and the predicted stops we will be out a while. Everyone is on on the road by 8:45. Not exactly crack-of-dawn but earlier than the last few days.
I ride with Dana and Chuck for the first 4-5 miles. We start on a deserted country road and then turn onto Highway 13. As we cross over the Missouri River Dana drops back to ride with Chuck and I cruise on alone. The fog has lifted a bit but it is still completely overcast and cool.
I come to the outskirts of Higginsville and see the golden arches and pull in. I am thinking that I haven't had an Egg McMuffin in a long time and that sounds like a good second breakfast. But once inside I realize I am late by 15 minutes. Breakfast is over and lunch is now being served. So it's a small burger and a soda while I update my notes and observe people coming and going.
Back on the road I enter downtown Higginsville. Very nice with fall festival decorations up on almost every street corner. After visiting a US Bank location for cash I head down Main Street and roll out of town. At a stop sign I chat briefly with a local who comments that he sees lots of cyclists coming through their town. I explain that they are on the Lewis & Clark ACA Route. He has never heard of this so I give him the website and he says he will look it up and check it out.
I am following Highway 20 which runs for miles almost directly east. It has no shoulder but the traffic load isn't too bad. When vehicles do come by I try to make sure I'm not close to the top of a hill. With the low hanging clouds the visibility isn't the best.
At this point I see our van and trailer coming over the hill in front of me and coming towards me. That's an unusual situation in that I hadn't seen them go by me earlier. They roll by, execute a U-turn behind me and them come back by and pull over ahead of me. Bill is out when I get there and he explains that the road and weather conditions aren't the best and he has already pulled Dana and Chuck off the road
When I ask how that's possible (since I thought they were behind me and he just came from in front of me), he says that they never went into Higginsville. When Bill created the GPS route file for everyone last night he accidentally programmed them to use the business route which bypasses the town. So while I was doing stuff in town everyone else was rolling by me.
After thinking for a moment about it I decided I would join them in the vehicle and move forward to Marshall so we would be together. Dan and Catherine were up ahead a ways and we drove on to Marshall but never saw them. So we get on the phone when we get to town and find out they had gone off route to look at an old farmhouse, and we must have driven by them while they were there.
Since they are still a ways out we head to a restaurant for lunch. It is a Mexican place called Mexico Lindo and the food is great. The chips and salsa are as good as any we get in Arizona, and the rest of our meal is good too. And Dana had called her mother as we came into town so she drove over and had lunch with us.
Just as we are finishing we get a call from Dan saying they are in town and at the bike shop. It is the Back From The Past Bicycles shop and is run by a gentleman named Tom. Chuck is able to get a new front shifter cable and other parts from them. Tom is very friendly and has a very nice shop that also doubles as the visitor center for the town.
Next door to the shop is the "Jim The Wonder Dog" Memorial Park. Jim was a hunting dog who became famous years ago for being a very bright dog. You can learn more at this link. Stories about Jim were a big part of Dana's childhood. She said every time the family got together they would start telling the tale of Jim The Wonder Dog. She was never sure what was true and what had gotten embellished just a bit.
Dan and Catherine had gone off to get lunch at Joan's Drive-In. While there they ran into a woman named MaryAnn Plexico who had seen them on their last television interview. She was very excited to meet them and gave them a donation, so a big thankyou to her. And when they were in the restaurant they ended up getting their lunch paid for by a woman named Katie, so thanks to her too.
Dana and Chuck decided to get their bikes back out and ride to the end. I decided to stay in the van and help Bill get camp set up, so we drove off to the town of Arrow Rock. There is a really nice campground in the Arrow Rock Historic Park. Very reasonable with large sites and a clean restroom/shower house. And they gave us the site right next to the facilities which is a handicap accessible site.
We were just finishing setting everything up when Dan and Catherine rolled in. Dana's mom had driven over to visit some more with us. Dana and Chuck got in a bit later and we hung out outside telling tales of our recent riding. Rita (Dana's mom) had brought a bunch of food for dinner so we had a picnic on our "patio". And she had made half a dozen kinds of cookies and a chocolate sheet cake.
Tomorrow is a rest day. On the schedule is a tour around Arrow Rock and possibly a run back to Marshall to do some shopping. And tomorrow evening we have two more riders joining us - Chuck's brother and son will be riding with us on the Katy Trail portion of our route.
Thursday Sep/18/2014, 64 miles (103 km) - Total so far: 2,647 miles (4,260 km)
Fog. That would be today's word. At least the word for this morning. It is cold and clammy outside, and very foggy. There is a light breeze blowing and when you stand outside for very long moisture condenses on you as if it were raining. We check the humidity level and it is 98% - can't get much higher than that I guess.
We try to get an earlier start today because it will be a pretty long day. Between the mileage and the predicted stops we will be out a while. Everyone is on on the road by 8:45. Not exactly crack-of-dawn but earlier than the last few days.
I ride with Dana and Chuck for the first 4-5 miles. We start on a deserted country road and then turn onto Highway 13. As we cross over the Missouri River Dana drops back to ride with Chuck and I cruise on alone. The fog has lifted a bit but it is still completely overcast and cool.
I come to the outskirts of Higginsville and see the golden arches and pull in. I am thinking that I haven't had an Egg McMuffin in a long time and that sounds like a good second breakfast. But once inside I realize I am late by 15 minutes. Breakfast is over and lunch is now being served. So it's a small burger and a soda while I update my notes and observe people coming and going.
Back on the road I enter downtown Higginsville. Very nice with fall festival decorations up on almost every street corner. After visiting a US Bank location for cash I head down Main Street and roll out of town. At a stop sign I chat briefly with a local who comments that he sees lots of cyclists coming through their town. I explain that they are on the Lewis & Clark ACA Route. He has never heard of this so I give him the website and he says he will look it up and check it out.
I am following Highway 20 which runs for miles almost directly east. It has no shoulder but the traffic load isn't too bad. When vehicles do come by I try to make sure I'm not close to the top of a hill. With the low hanging clouds the visibility isn't the best.
At this point I see our van and trailer coming over the hill in front of me and coming towards me. That's an unusual situation in that I hadn't seen them go by me earlier. They roll by, execute a U-turn behind me and them come back by and pull over ahead of me. Bill is out when I get there and he explains that the road and weather conditions aren't the best and he has already pulled Dana and Chuck off the road
When I ask how that's possible (since I thought they were behind me and he just came from in front of me), he says that they never went into Higginsville. When Bill created the GPS route file for everyone last night he accidentally programmed them to use the business route which bypasses the town. So while I was doing stuff in town everyone else was rolling by me.
After thinking for a moment about it I decided I would join them in the vehicle and move forward to Marshall so we would be together. Dan and Catherine were up ahead a ways and we drove on to Marshall but never saw them. So we get on the phone when we get to town and find out they had gone off route to look at an old farmhouse, and we must have driven by them while they were there.
Since they are still a ways out we head to a restaurant for lunch. It is a Mexican place called Mexico Lindo and the food is great. The chips and salsa are as good as any we get in Arizona, and the rest of our meal is good too. And Dana had called her mother as we came into town so she drove over and had lunch with us.
 |
| The bike shop we visited. Tom, the owner, is a good guy and knows a lot about the area and biking. |
Next door to the shop is the "Jim The Wonder Dog" Memorial Park. Jim was a hunting dog who became famous years ago for being a very bright dog. You can learn more at this link. Stories about Jim were a big part of Dana's childhood. She said every time the family got together they would start telling the tale of Jim The Wonder Dog. She was never sure what was true and what had gotten embellished just a bit.
Dan and Catherine had gone off to get lunch at Joan's Drive-In. While there they ran into a woman named MaryAnn Plexico who had seen them on their last television interview. She was very excited to meet them and gave them a donation, so a big thankyou to her. And when they were in the restaurant they ended up getting their lunch paid for by a woman named Katie, so thanks to her too.
Dana and Chuck decided to get their bikes back out and ride to the end. I decided to stay in the van and help Bill get camp set up, so we drove off to the town of Arrow Rock. There is a really nice campground in the Arrow Rock Historic Park. Very reasonable with large sites and a clean restroom/shower house. And they gave us the site right next to the facilities which is a handicap accessible site.
We were just finishing setting everything up when Dan and Catherine rolled in. Dana's mom had driven over to visit some more with us. Dana and Chuck got in a bit later and we hung out outside telling tales of our recent riding. Rita (Dana's mom) had brought a bunch of food for dinner so we had a picnic on our "patio". And she had made half a dozen kinds of cookies and a chocolate sheet cake.
Tomorrow is a rest day. On the schedule is a tour around Arrow Rock and possibly a run back to Marshall to do some shopping. And tomorrow evening we have two more riders joining us - Chuck's brother and son will be riding with us on the Katy Trail portion of our route.
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