See,
life is an adventure made richer by the people
around you and those you meet on the road.
I'm Dominic.
And when I met Ernie Greenwald,
I wanted to help realize his dream to cycle across the USA.
I'm looking forward to seeing the country that I've lived
in for 70 plus years and never really seen.
But Ernie's adventurous hopes were destroyed.
It looks like maybe the cancer has got the better of
him. Had every reason to believe we'd be able to do it,
I suppose in a way, Ernie's left a legacy.
This is the story of how Ernie's impossible dream became possible
for 10 strangers that could never make this journey alone.
I
haven't been on a bicycle in 10 years.
We're riding cross country and we're loving it and living it and uh sharing it.
This is the last long bike
thing all around.
Everything is perfect right now. Everything
460 miles into our journey,
we picked up our second companion Carlos at the blind center in Las Vegas
and thanks to a heartfelt send off, we peddled out of town in high spirits.
Carlos is representing not only the center
but blind and visually impaired people everywhere
in our state of mind or state of being.
It's a dream we would be with him by him telling us
about it.
After a day in the saddle on our way to Salt Lake City, Utah,
the only barrier hindering progress was the ever increasing heat of the desert.
We
just got up
after our first day on the road from Vegas with Carlos
and feels like I haven't rested at all.
Maybe it got down
beneath 100 last night.
Maybe it didn't.
So to try and survive a daytime heat that climbed well over 120 degrees.
We developed a strategy,
I guess. Apparently the idea is just
to be pedaling
and doing most of the biking in early in the mornings.
Obviously, the sooner we start the better to
beat the noon time heat
to save time and start peddling early.
We didn't hang around at camp to eat
instead, we satisfied our appetites on the move.
I'm
hungry.
Carlos had already told me he rarely lets his
visual impairment get in the way of adventures.
So, while I wouldn't stop in the heat to eat,
I couldn't resist letting him try his hand at climbing
the way Carlos felt his way up the rock face.
It was hard to believe he only had 10% vision in his right eye and nothing in his left
as we headed out of Nevada along the Arizona strip
and into Utah, the scenery became more varied.
I tried to imagine with Carlos's help exactly what he could see.
I can definitely see the plateaus better, far, far off in the distance,
straight ahead.
Very nice.
From what Carlos described. I imagined a small circle of not totally focused image,
but while carlos' sight was limited,
I don't think he had much of a problem with his other senses,
that smell of rotting animal
as if the heat wasn't enough.
I'm kind of picky about when people burp or something.
And they don't say, excuse me, I'm
gonna have to remember that and no matter where in the house, if someone,
usually it's my dad though, but no matter where you are, if you do it and you don't say,
excuse me, I will always hear and I will say, hey,
from that moment onwards, I made sure I was on my best behavior.
40 more miles to go
today. It's gonna be a
day twice as long as yesterday,
that day, we planned to cycle 80 miles through the desert,
pedaling through a thick wall of heat.
We were craving an oasis.
I finally made it to civilization. That was a hot, hot road.
Bottom of my feet were burning on the asphalt for a while.
But guess what?
We found an ice cream parlor.
So uh Carlos is just devouring some
amazing looking
ice cream.
I don't know if I'm ever gonna appreciate it as
any more than I do right now,
but you can only eat so much ice cream
and the respite from the heat didn't last long
while we rested in the ice cream parlor. Still miles from our camp,
the temperature climbed even higher.
This is the first flat tire I've had in,
I think over 500 miles
and in the worst possible place,
uh, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas in the middle of nowhere.
It's in 100 a record breaking 100 and 33
°F
at over 130 degrees. The bonding solution used to fix the tire barely sticks
but with a wing and a prayer we moved on.
I'm gonna put the wheel back on and we'll get back on the road
before
the soles of my feet burn on this highway.
After the hottest weather I'd ever experienced.
The ominous looking storm clouds in the distance suggested we might
soon be in for something other than wall to wall sunshine.
I don't think we're gonna escape the full force of a thunderstorm.
It's gonna be the first rain we've seen
and I kind of welcome it if it wasn't in the middle of supper.
The first rains of our journey had been a long time coming.
This rain such as it is
little drops of it
with the wind feels
like Manna from heaven.
It's really,
oh, it feels good,
but
I don't think it's gonna be enough to really satiate my appetite for cool water.
What would you feel like? Uh,
Carlos if this storm passed directly overhead?
A,
I'd probably freak out a little bit.
Thankfully,
the storm
didn't quite get us last night.
The sun's just coming up.
Unfortunately,
the monstrous tail wind that came with the storm has also disappeared
despite the fact that the storm did not gift us with a refreshing drenching.
It was a good omen as far as temperature was concerned.
Uh This is a kind of a bit of a turning point in the trip
because
we're going
from the hot desert.
So they're slightly cooler hills.
Finally,
how has the last three days been for you
grueling and very, very rewarding.
We'd all been looking forward to cycling into Zion National Park, Utah where
we took a rest day to take in at least a fraction of the beauty there.
How much of this can you see describe what you can see, Charlot?
Uh Definitely all the green on the very bottom of like pretty much
well everywhere you look
and then just all, I mean,
the towering towering
cliffs just everywhere like there's nowhere you can look
and not see anything like that,
walking in the fast flowing waters of the river.
I was amazed by Carlos's confidence.
It made me think that perhaps a life of visual impairment put him at
an advantage in places where the rest of us have difficulty seeing our footing.
I
was
saying
to
the
other
day,
I reckon if we all used
every percent of our vision as well as Carlos uses his 10%
there would be no limits to what we could see.
Not just me, but like anyone who has any kind of impairment,
if they have enough confidence,
I think you're ok.
It's like when I said with the bite, like sometimes when we would go like, uh,
downhill really, really quick, just no fear, just
no worries and everything is gonna work out.
When Carlos checked in with his parents that night,
it seemed like Zion was the jewel in the crown of his journey so far. It's amazing.
We've, I wanna go back because there's so much that,
that there is to do. There's no way to.
Huh?
Oh, yeah. No. And that's, it's not an, I mean, you have to be here. It's, it's
obviously
right. We're sitting here in the middle of Zion National Park
and it's a good time really to explore
a really
central part of carlos' life.
His hair,
uh, is now going to get done for the first time in
what, 34 days or something.
It's, it's funny seeing this going on because obviously any
fully sighted person
would spend
minutes in front of the mirror manicuring themselves.
But Carlos has got it, got it down to a fine art simply by feel by the looks of it.
You can feel exactly which spike is in place and which isn't do your, uh,
parents ever complain about the time you spend in the bathroom?
No,
I think they're used to it by now.
Carlos has turned into a biohazard.
Oh, and it's all flaky now too.
So, we're here
and I'm thinking that
to their,
it shows 26 miles, 23 and 21. So that's about 65 miles. Ok. So this campsite
feeling slightly better about having given Carlos a chance to get his hair fixed.
We planned the route and headed east out of Zile.
Oh, so Fresh
Echo.
Hello.
By the afternoon we had left the red rocks of Zion National Park behind
and the cycling got easier.
But what started as a good hair day for Carlos
turned into something else.
I hate it.
This is worse than not having it spiked at all
because it started out great.
Now it's just disheveled and ruined.
Oh,
but I wasn't going to let the state of Carlos's hair spoil my fun
pedaling through the greenest fields and valleys we'd seen so far on our journey.
Thankfully anyway,
his hair product meant a repair job at our
next campsite was all it took to regain perfection.
I'm happy.
1000 miles into our journey across the States
been really lucky to have two really able impaired people,
which means that we've progressed
quicker than I would have thought possible. 50 60 70 even once 80 or 90 miles, I think
uh a day
we'll be in Salt Lake in three days time,
take a bit of a break there
and that's where Carlos jumps off and, uh,
we get someone else on, but as yet
don't really know who that's gonna be.
But before we had to worry about Salt Lake City or even our next companion,
the Utah roads gave us something more life threatening to think about.
Oh, my gosh. It's like freaking
just insane how close some of these drivers are
with no regard at all for,
for any bikers.
Carlos is right. It's, this road is small and the traffic is passing horribly close.
It's not pleasant. There's no shoulder
good
and as if cars weren't enough to worry about
there was traffic of another kind to contend with.
Unlike the cars, this dog's bark was worse than its bite.
Ah,
despite Carlos's high level of fitness and enthusiasm,
the journey began to test him as we pedaled towards Salt Lake City, Utah.
How about your hair? How is it in here?
Hm.
I don't know. I'm sure it's fine.
Well, you could, if you, like, if you feel carefully enough being smashed there's,
well, it's being smashed but there's still some spikes poking through though.
Carlos admitted that he was tired today.
I was beginning to think he was superman.
I find a relief really given that he's supposed to be
the impaired one and I'm supposed to be the tough one.
so, yeah, at least he's now beginning to lag and not make me look like such a pansy.
Um,
I think we've got three or four miles to go today with the setting sun.
I'm looking forward to going to bed.
Luckily for me,
an unexpected treat meant I got something a little
better than my tent and a camping mat.
We have seemed to have lucked out and I'm really not sure how, uh,
sweet talking ourselves or Nadia, sweet talking us into this.
A
Bose. It's a bit like a Disneyland house.
Not sure what strings Nadia has been pulling. But this is a
interesting,
as we bonded with the SUD weeks.
I was happy to see Carlos filled with childish excitement.
So, what do you think about pulling into this lodging tonight?
Oh, so awesome.
Just totally random.
I'm just glad I was here.
So, the thing I really doubted would happen on this trip was hospitality,
getting invited into people's homes because this time
it's not just me on my own with a bicycle, there's me,
whoever my companion is
and we've got a vehicle,
there's Nadia, there's Alonso.
So it's,
it's quite a lot to ask for people just to get them to invite us into their home.
But it's happened already and that's what it's all about,
I guess connecting with other people on our way to New York,
uh, seeing what we've got in common
and
feeling the love
we got the pleasure of, of having these great guys spend the night.
Carlos is, is awesome. He, he found his way around pretty good. Huh?
I tried,
I think it's awesome. I told
Alonzo and Carlos on the way home from church this morning that I wish we were
part of your adventure.
That sounds so exciting.
Carlos and I both agreed that it would have been
nice to spend longer in the lap of luxury,
but so close to our goal,
we had to move on
leaving the comfort of the Sud Week's palace.
We cycled into the heat once again
to cover the 80 miles that separated us from Salt Lake City, Utah.
After 10 days of carlos' journey,
we were within 80 miles of Salt Lake City, Utah
and with no more hills in sight,
we had time for him to notch up another thirst on the road
in over 600 miles, whether on or off the bike.
He had taken every opportunity to have fun
and he never let his visual impairment hold him back
so close to the end of his journey.
Carlos began to reflect on the past seven days.
Pretty much since the half point from Zion Park.
The last recent days have just kind of flown by.
I've loved every minute of it every day.
New town, meeting new people,
new surprises around every corner.
Just
the whole spontaneousness of it.
I've loved it.
I hadn't, I hadn't been on a bicycle in probably about 10 years.
It was tough as heck but
I made it, I managed, I didn't quit.
I kind of do wish I could have stayed
a few more days actually,
because th this trip has been just so much fun.
Carlos seemed to me to be a born adventurer.
There was only one thing that stood between him and a life on the road. This is not
how it's supposed to look one bit at all.
No,
no,
my precious hair,
despite it, all,
Carlos battled through the lack of hair care
and on our last day found an imaginative way to take his mind off it.
There was an old lady who swallowed a Marlon.
She swallowed the Marlon so she wouldn't be starving.
She swallowed the Marlon to get the eel. She swallowed the eel to get the fry.
I don't know why she swallowed the fry.
Perhaps she'll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a giant octopus.
She swallowed the giant octopus
on the edge of Salt Lake City.
A youthful bicycle escort came to guide us to the end of carlos' 600 mile journey,
isn't
it?
Why do you think it's weird
because there's two seats and both are pedaling.
By the time we rolled into downtown Salt Lake City,
I was unsure whether I would have another companion as strong as Carlos.
It's finally done,
finally made it
and I am very proud of myself.
Yes, I surprised myself many, many times.
So I guess that really just shows how much I'm really capable of doing.
Have to set my goals and my sights a little bit higher.
Since pedaling away from Vegas Carlos never
doubted that he could make this journey,
but he had proved one thing
however hot it gets
or however difficult it is to see the way ahead.
There is always room to have fun.
In the next episode, I meet two brothers who despite having the same genetic disease
have very different strengths and weaknesses. Idaho
has not only brought with it, the friendliest people
but also the biggest hills. Whoopee
south.
Hard.
No.
All right.
I wanna see a face of pain.
I'm
gonna see you out of breath and half dead.
You can smile and talk.
You don't try hard enough.