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Tour de Palm Springs - 2003 On the 2nd Saturday of every month, there is a recumbent, mini - rally at People Movers, in Orange, Ca. at 8:AM. The time makes it difficult to ride to, because it is 66 miles from my home. If I get there on time, I will join the group on a 25 mile (RT) ride to the beach. February 01, 2003- Tour de Palm Springs On January 31st I will leave Hemet, & ride 80 miles to Palm Desert, Ca. where I will stay with friends that I met at the Great Western Bike Rally, in Paso Robles. They have invited me to stay with them on the night before the rally. I have also, been told that we will be having spaghetti for dinner (and breakfast ??). With consideration for my trip mileage to go to, & return from this rally, I have elected to, again, ride in the 55 mile tour, as I feel the century ride would be too taxing. The trip home will be very challenging, as it will be a gradual climb, with a headwind, almost all the way. One way to make that into a "positive", is to think that if it is all up & windy coming home, it will be a fast trip getting there! Because of my responsibilities I chose to transport my trike to Palm Springs for the rally. The 55 mile ride was a test, but I mustered the will to finish it. Something less than 10 miles into the ride I was joined via cell phone, by my friends in the "Valley Bikeway Action League"(the Hemet bike club). They called me from their club meeting. This was a positive action, & a definite motivator. But at 10:30, I took a short break & that is when I heard that the space shuttle had crashed. It was tough to continue. We started at 8:am, & I finished near 2:30pm. Later that night, my friends invited me to join them for a Chinese new years dinner & show. The food was excellent, & the show was very interesting to see. I hope to do the Tour de Palm Springs again next year. -------------------------------------------------------------------- March 02. 2003- Los Angeles Marathon/Bike Tour Last year 26 miles, & 18,000 cyclists, all going in the same direction!! To give you some idea of how many bikes that is, I will tell you that there was bikes lined up, on 2, two lane roads. And for ALL THE RIDERS to cross the "STARTING LINE", took 25 minutes!! The Acura Bike Tour was very exciting this year. Again this year, as a member of Team Parkinson, & because I was on the list of athletes nominated to receive their Patsy Choco Courage Award, I was invited to attend the L.A. Marathon media luncheon. This is where I met Joe Hamelin, the reporter for the Press Enterprise. I was also invited to attend the carbo dinner for Team Parkinson, but do to poor planning & the L.A. freeway traffic I didn't have anywhere to secure my trike. So I missed out on that dinner, but a cycling couple who I met at the Tour de Palm Springs invited me to a pasta dinner with them. As they live only 12 miles from DTLA, I spent the night there. Only problem there is that the bed I slept in was so soft that I woke up 30 min. later that planned. I was very lucky that my friends woke me up, because as soft as was the bed, I might still be asleep. (thanks Keith). So I hurried (?hurried?) to get to LA & arrived before it started, but was almost at the back of the line. In fact I was so far back, that as I approached the announcers booth at the starting line he was we were, already, 30 minutes into the marathon & I hadn't even crossed the starting line, yet. I managed to finish the Bike Tour in just over 2 hours. Watch photo page for new L A Marathon pictures When I got to the staging area I found that I had left my camera in the car & although I tried, there was too many bicyclists behind me. It was like going the wrong way on an LA freeway. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Something new for 2003! It's the Citrus Blossom Century(?) No!! No Century ride. Instead, I will opt for something more challenging. I will ride the 40 mile ride & see how difficult it will be to finish before the century riders do. I arrived in Oxnard, Ca. on Friday in time to have a late lunch with my friend Jim. With a choice of tacos or spaghetti, I chose tacos. Actually I had tamales &. After we ate, we went back to his home & embarked on a project to make it easier for me to do work on the trike. I stand 6’3” & find it difficult to work in a kneeling position because of circulation (lack of) problems in my legs (too many years driving a bus). So Jim graciously offered to build me a work stand that raises the trike 3 ft. off the ground. It is wonderful. Normally, the Voyager is designed to tip up vertically to work on, but w/ my modification to 451mm rims the tires touch the ground when the trike is vertical. Now, working on the trike is fun again. Good friends are priceless. Thanks Jim! After dinner we planned our strategy for Saturday’s ride, as it was a 6-mile ride to get to the CBC starting point. The 40-mile “fun ride” didn’t start until 8:30am so we were able to get a good night’s sleep, unlike the L.A. Marathon, where you have to get there at 4:30am in order to beat the rush. We cycled the 6 miles & arrived at 7:40, in time to sign in & we left (in a staggered start) at about 8 O’clock. It was a 25-mile ride to the sag stop. There, we were lucky that there were only some 300 riders, because the only available restroom was just a little wider than my trike. But you meet a lot more riders that way. But the highpoint of the ride was still before us. Jim & I had noticed that the wind had been increasing as the day progressed, but little did we know what lay ahead. After leaving our sag stop we rode out of the college campus & turned north, along Hwy 1. Before we changed direction again (10 miles later), we fought a head wind that was so strong that it shredded the safety flag that I had on the trike. Also, there were times, while riding side by side, that we had to use hand signals to communicate because the noise of the wind was impossible to talk over. Upon returning to the start area we signed out & got into a discussion on the pros & pros of recumbent riding & why I ride one, & before it was over I was told of a ride for Parkinson’s in July. So I am thinking about adding it to my itinerary for 2003. The ride is somewhere in the San Diego area, hopefully near the harbor. As soon as I have the information on the ride, I will post it on this page, so keep watching. -------------------------------------------------------------- May 20, 2003- My 4th Annual "Parkinson's Survivor Ride!" This year I am planning to ride to Los Angeles, where I & my trusty trike will board an Amtrak train that will take us to Paso Robles, & "Bicycletown". Then, after 4 days of coherent fun (5/26/03), I will ride an unhurried trip back to my Home in Hemet, Ca. I'd be pleased if you would save a place for me in your thoughts & prayers. Parky See GWBR-03 for recap. ************************************************* July 26th 12th Annual Roger's Ride for Parkinson's - Carlsbad, Ca. I have been invited to join in on this ride that will raise money for their local support group. It should be a cool, & beautiful ride along the mighty Pacific Coast. I hope to see you there. ********************************************
Hey San Francisco/Santa Cruz!! Parky will be riding your streets in August. Please drive with care! See the National Bicycle Greenway/ Nat. Mayor's Relay Ride. From the NBG News The Jims (Muellner and Wetherell) and Max Chen arrived at the house I share here in Santa Cruz with Faye Saunders at 7PM!! WoW. And I do mean WoW. Huge day for these guys as they left Elliot and Nancy's house (principals with the Peninsula Parkinson's Foundation) in Los Altos, after a beautiful dinner and swim the night before to then hit the road early at 8AM today. From there they took a leisurely ride to the City Hall reception (they got there early thx to Max's expert route planning) in San Jose where Faye met them with her digital camera, she is pictured at the left of this one with her daughter Chloe http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/PaloAlto2003/GallMainPAGroup6.jpg . Faye was also there with pizza from Pizza Lovers restaurant for when the event was over. And if all that is not enough, not only did she find time from her high pressure job at Apple Computer to create the Pizza Lover donation but she also fed all of us, including Scott Campbell who came over to build the new Backsafer http://Backsafer.com bike we are raffling off this Sunday, the great chicken dinner that we all just enjoyed. At today's noon time festivities in San Jose, I was talking with Faye when I heard sirens in the background. And as they got closer, she exclaimed, "there they are, gotta go!". Click. They next thing I heard was how incredibly nice everyone was from the police officers that escorted our riders in to Margie, the vice Mayor's scheduler, to Pat Dando, the Vice Mayor herself. Pat even spent a good amount of time telling the riders how happy and proud she was that they had come to visit San Jose, the city she represented. Pat even talked about how supportive San Jose is of cycling as she then read off a long list of all the things they had done to make it easier to ride a bike there. More on all of this excitement soon. But I want next to talk about the riding that followed. From San Jose, using Ken Hodor's Silicon Valley to the Sea route, http://www.geocities.com/kenhodor/svtoseagps.html , the Jims and Max then climbed over the Coast Range that separates us from San Jose. And this was no easy task. Especially on the bikes they were riding! Not a one of them, two heavy trikes and a BikeE, is a good climbing machine. While I am impressed as usual with Muellner's prowess, I am awed by what Parky (Wetherell) did. At 60 year's old and fighting Parkinson's so hard that his every move is laden with tremor and uncertainty, he powered thru an ascent that is a worthy challenge to even the most fit of cyclists. And all of them did it amidst sometimes impatient rush hour traffic, as the mountain roads they utilized have become an alternative route to those who live in Santa Cruz and work in San Jose. Of which there are many such job holders. Awesome and all of us will be meeting Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly, Councilman Scott Kennedy and Country Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt tomorrow at noon as this segment of our relay wraps up at Santa Cruz City Hall!
Leaving Hemet, California
From left to right: Martin Krieg, Jim Muellner, Mayor Willie Brown, & yours truly. Parky Takes on San Francisco-Santa CruzHi Martin: I want to take a moment to thank you for allowing me to be a part of the NBG's Mayors Relay. When I first saw your invitation to riders, I got the idea that I could do that. But after reading Big Jim's daily reports, I honestly became quite intimidated by his abilities. Especially after hearing that he had done more than 5 century days, back to back. I certainly didn't want to wind up as a ball & chain by not keeping up. I had serious thoughts of calling in sick. But I never made that mistake. Things started to mellow out when I got on the Amtrak train in Bakersfield. And when I got off the train I saw a big smile walking towards me & although I had not met him previous to that day, I knew that this smile that enlightened my arrival must belong to Kern Trembath. Even more, I was able to feel like this was the right thing to do. Kern & his wife made it easy to relax and just kick back. The next morning Kern offered to give me a lift to the Ferry Building where I was to meet this Giant of cycling, Jim Muellner. Kern got me there early, only to find that Jim was already there and enjoying a morning coffee. The first thing I noticed about Jim was, that even though he was taller than me (I'm 6'3"), he was just a regular guy. In the eight days we spent together, he never made me feel "handicapped". Even the day that we challenged the Santa Cruz mountains, he was very patient when I got behind . So was Max! Max Chen was our "tour guide". He would ride up with Big Jim, then turn back to help me pull my 60 lb trike up a hill too steep to climb. It wasn't for a lack of strength, but for a lack of traction. At one time I had run out of water and Max gave me a half bottle to keep me going. But soon it was also gone. So when I reached the downside of the mtns, I spotted a Gatorade farm!! It was actually a small supermarket, but it had water and Gatorade. Then, about 5 minutes after I stopped, Max turned into the parking lot to find me. Yet, he never made me feel like I was holding anyone back. At the last minute I had decided to leave my trailer at home, hoping that I wouldn't need the camping gear it carries. That was a good choice. Each night we stayed at someone's home. Of course Thur, Fri, Sat, & Sun it was you & Faye that treated us riders like Kings. I'm sure that I speak for the Three Musketteers when I say Thank You both. I want you to believe me when I tell you that the 150 or so, miles that I Sincerely, Parky " I Never Give Up! "
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