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 from all I have.
Everything is perfect right now. Everything
I had been on the road for five weeks and
traveled over 1000 miles on our journey to New York.
Chad was my fourth companion
having cycled with me for 10 days so far from Salt Lake City,
Utah on our way to Rapid City, South Dakota.
The primary symptom of Chad's muscular dystrophy is fatigue.
But since cycling into the uplands near Yellowstone National Park,
the cold weather was more of a concern.
Uh,
it's getting colder
and fresher
and as we travel east,
which isn't great news for Chad. Given that he's,
he's pretty much all skin and bone so he can't keep warm easily.
One thing I, one thing I do find really difficult about Chad is
his slight affect,
which basically means
there's not really much inflection or emotion in his uh in his speech.
How are you doing?
Ok.
How did you sleep?
Ok.
But his flat affect didn't totally hide the
fact that he was enjoying himself that day
as we explored a small corner of Yellowstone.
But for me,
the Yellowstone experience was marred by the news. I had been dreading,
I guess I
kind of knew it
would happen really quickly. But
I heard
this afternoon while I was sitting watching old faithful
and Yellowstone that Ernie passed away,
died of heart failure.
The person that inspired this entire journey, died of heart failure.
And we're barely a month into it.
It's hard enough sometimes on the road to feel
like you've got a reason to carry on
why you don't just stop,
I
suppose in a way. And he's left a legacy
and
through him,
having the dream of wanting to cross the country by bicycle
and me wanting to get involved with
kind of by accident, given
10 other people an opportunity to
experience an adventure.
Mhm.
I really wanted Ernie to be around and do the last leg into New York with us. But
we're gonna have to lay that idea to rest.
He can be with us permanently in spirit instead
that day
with Ernie in my heart and mind
we peddled with two new friends away from old faithful to
climb out of Yellowstone over the misty mountains to the east.
It was almost as if the weather had been sent to wash the last of Ernie away
and to test the resolve of the dream, he had left to us
to ride across the country
with dropping temperatures and hammering rain.
Chad suffered more than any of us
convulsing with cold until it was no longer safe for him to be on the bike.
Ah,
get off the bike.
Chad is way, way, way too cold,
you
know.
Is it good
for
the brunch?
Ok.
I
don't think this is what Chad signed up for at all.
Uh,
I don't want, he's got no body fat. I don't want him to get too cold
and it's, it's pretty freaking cold at the moment
for the first time on the entire journey.
In order to avoid my companion getting dangerously hypothermic.
I cycled the remaining 12 miles to shelter on my own
after the Yellowstone emotional and physical rollercoaster,
Chad recovered and the next day dawned bright
things were looking up
and we'd pedaled through what we hoped was the worst of the weather.
Over two weeks into Chad's leg of the journey from Salt Lake City, Utah.
We'd seen some of America's most beautiful landscapes.
It was now time to experience one of its
most celebrated traditions in the home of Buffalo,
Bill Cody Wyoming.
We are gonna take Chad
to the rodeo. Apparently we've been told this is the home
of uh of Rodeo
way
home.
I was excited to see Chad's wave of enthusiasm,
which I'd been unable to conjure up in two weeks on the bicycle.
Ta da
once Chad had ground into action each morning,
he was fitting into our traveling life. Well,
and lending a hand whenever he could,
but he still had a long hard road ahead of him
over 450 miles until Rapid City, South Dakota.
There's both a huge sense of achievement and
let down because achievement had gone this far,
let down because this is only the halfway mark.
So I had to go through this at
least once more.
But uh
I don't think I traded for the world. I'm enjoying the experience.
I'm enjoying the company.
So
I
think we're gonna have a rest day tomorrow.
But then the next day
we've got the Big Horn mountains
and
that mountain pass tops our nearly 10,000 ft.
I
think that's gonna be the highest we get on this trip,
the high point
or depending on how you look at it. The low point of our journey.
All I can hope is that these
storm clouds
um
start giving us a bit of a wider berth
cos if it starts hailing or snowing up there
and
chads
this chicken carcass like frame is gonna be in danger of
getting hypothermic. I think.
Hope you don't mind me saying that Chad,
it's not too far from the truth.
Looking forward to some time off the bike,
we stopped in a small town at the foot of the mountains.
Back in the day,
the native peoples measured distance to settlements
by the number of nights or sleeps.
It took to get there.
That's how tensely Wyoming got its name.
It was not only well placed for a rest day before the big hill,
it was also the perfect small town to get a large dose of Americana.
Seems like we've lucked out intensely
after a quick visit to the bar.
We met Bill, a local musician who's
invited us to camp in his yard
means that
we
have access to lots more interesting stories. Get to meet some of the locals.
This is all I wanted
on this trip to have
experiences like this.
Well, I'm Bill Austin
pushing 70
uh live in tensely. Wyoming been here since 1951.
Uh
I met you folks in a bar of all places
which I never go to.
But that one day I just happened to be there So you folks was there
and, uh,
he invited you up to use the art and
we become friends
after making friends with our new host.
And knowing that tomorrow was a rest day,
Chad joined Bill at the bar and put the evening to good use.
He was shooting pool like a pro down there.
He was just kicking everybody's butt.
That.
Yes, I do.
Yeah.
You see, I was paying attention to him all the time.
Ok.
16 days into the fourth leg of our journey from Los Angeles, California to New York,
Chad and I took a rest day intensely Wyoming,
not wanting to expend too much energy before our hill climb. The next day,
we decided to try our luck at the powder River on the edge of town.
It's a beautiful, really nice day,
taking the
the
afternoon to go fishing for a little bit,
hoping to catch a fish to um
cook bill.
There's
a bit of an issue in that. It's midday.
The sun's shining right into the stream. The fish can see us all of us.
But the main problem
is that none of us have any idea what we're doing
all too soon.
Our rest day came and went
10 sleep, woke to another day, same as the last
and we said our goodbyes to yet another newfound friend
who was pleased not to be peddling with us. I don't even like to look at that thing
on
it.
I looked at them seats and there ain't no way I'd sit on one of them things.
Well, I gotta be honest, I'm gonna miss you guys.
Thank you so much. Thank you guys for being here
next time.
Ok.
Whoa.
Oh,
this is it.
We're leaving tent sleep.
After leaving bills, we began our climb up the Powder River Pass
and with a 30 mile continuous uphill nothing.
Chad had cycled since Salt Lake City could prepare him for this.
Over the last 450 miles,
Chad had surprised himself with how much energy he had when a push came to a shove,
but no amount of trying will make the fatigue of muscular dystrophy disappear.
It didn't take long for the hill climb to make Chad suffer.
But remembering the storm clouds we'd seen days before
I felt lucky that we and especially Chad only had the hill to contend with
the clear sunny skies.
We were peddling under meant that Chad had no problems keeping warm enough
since starting our journey together.
The hardest thing for Chad to do it seemed was to show emotion.
But finally that day, after 30 miles of backbreaking ascent,
Chad came alive.
The massive achievement of climbing up to nearly 10,000 ft on a bicycle
was enough for Chad's emotion to finally break free of his flat affect.
On the highest point
I've ever been both
fly
and
uh physically,
we made it
highest friend ever
after the grueling ascent
all we wanted was to arrive in civilization.
But a rolling 35 mile descent saw to it that we didn't
arrive in Buffalo Wyoming until long after the sun had set.
After nearly 500 miles pedaling from Salt Lake City, Utah,
the biggest mountains of the journey were now behind us.
But as Chad and I rolled slowly towards South Dakota,
something way worse than any hill came to meet us.
I hate headwind
a lot.
It's,
it's not very nice. It hasn't let up. It's been going all morning.
It's the first really bad headwind
we've had
on the trip, I think,
been lucky more than a month with our headwind.
So
I don't feel very grateful for that. Now it's here.
It's just painful.
Did I mention I hate headwinds? Yes, you did.
As the annoying forces of nature began to test my patience.
Chad seemed to be doing his best to pull his weight.
Uh, today was an unusual day for them
and I think more or less we were expecting today to be
relatively easier, even though they had to go 70 miles.
Uh, right now it looks like they've completed just approaching 60.
They have a full 10 miles left to go.
They've had rolling hills and really bad wind,
dump it in his earphones, which more or less means that he,
um,
isn't happy.
The fact that I was tired meant I found my temper hard to bottle up and hide
something beyond angry.
Um I hope anyways, they get through it smoothly. We're approaching 7 p.m.
It's nice light out. But other than that
kind of sucks for them,
the riding didn't get a lot easier the next day.
But as we neared the end of Chad's journey and headed into South Dakota,
the road was broken up by the chance meeting of a handful of colorful characters.
First up were a small group of Harley riders,
not the type usually found admiring pedal powered contraptions.
And then there was Ryan, the hitchhiker
who caught the slowest ride of his life in our trailing support vehicle.
The hitchhiker a born entertainer
thought that when he saw Chad and I,
we posed a serious threat to his safety from like a mile away.
I thought it was a guy with a shopping cart
and he was gonna come and try to rob me honestly.
But then I saw it closer up and it was like, wow, it's a little mini bicycle
on the front and
the back. I said I didn't know what you mean.
I was like, wow, you want to be out here in the heat?
Yeah,
with your water bottle
in return for a bite to eat at the picnic.
The hitchhiker gave us a well
choreographed and slightly threatening performance.
Mhm.
After our picnic and only 30 miles in the support vehicle,
the hitchhiker decided to look for alternative transportation.
That's me there buddy.
And there, he goes just as quickly as he can.
After nearly 700 miles and 20 days on the road from Salt Lake City, Utah
Chad had become an integral and very helpful part of our team.
As we pedaled towards Rapid City on Chad's last day,
he began to reflect on the road we had traveled together.
You guys have given me some very good memories.
Introduced me to a new way of looking at life and living life.
He, I guess just had what's a rare opportunity for him, which is to hang around for
nearly a month
with three people
who now
he says he can call his closest friends, which
he's amazing. I guess he says we were like family to him.
I'm really, really pleased. He,
he saw the experience like that
and I think in some ways that's the most important thing we can,
we can offer on this trip is just the companionship of,
of being on the road together and
eating, breathing and sleeping within,
you know, a few feet of each other all the time
on this ship. I've
done a lot more than I thought I would. And then some and I'm very proud of myself.
I'm proud of
Dominic and Nadia and Milan so far are encouraging me and
pushing me to be as good as I can be. And more
Chad had successfully peddled the entire fourth and longest leg
of our journey over some of the most difficult terrain
more importantly though,
he'd learnt something new about living with muscular dystrophy
just because it's, there. Doesn't mean that I have to let it,
uh,
decide what my boundaries are. I can still decide what my boundaries are.
I instant push myself for all I can be in more.
I'm gonna be sad when this trip's over.
The end of the journey is always unnerving,
I think because
it leaves a hole
in the next episode. I pedal into the badlands of South Dakota
and east towards Minneapolis, Minnesota
with Kelly, my fifth companion
who grapples every day to prevent the disease from taking over his life. I'm falling
off the
left.
My
body
pisses me off.
It's very, very hard to pad peddle.
It
is very hard for me to admit
that I'm done with this.