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
by the time we reached Minneapolis, Minnesota,
I'd been on the road for over two months and pedaled more than 2500 miles
with five different disabled companions.
The sixth leg of the journey would last about a week
from Minneapolis. About 300 miles to Madison, Wisconsin.
I questioned whether our next companion could stand up to the challenge.
Her name is Rachel.
She's 31 years old
and she has cerebral palsy.
Uh
She'll be the most disabled person that we've had on the bike. But
um
she
communicates by way of a, a
word board or a electronic
device.
Hi, this is Rachel Swanson.
I am 31 years old.
I have cerebral
palsy.
I am non
verbal, but I am able to hear and understand perfectly.
My SRO
palsy has impaired my ability to walk severely.
I get around using either a walker or a wheelchair. Normally,
Rachel was the shortest companion to ride with us so far
and the big question was whether she could reach the bike's pedals?
Ok. That's it.
So, what we'd have to do
is build up the pedals
to make the whole bike
to make it a bit shorter here for her because Rachel's
legs aren't long enough to reach the end of it,
safety
goggles.
Luckily,
thanks to Rachel's friend, Joan, whose house we were at,
we had all the tools necessary to make something that might work for her.
We're gonna have to bump up the pedals a little bit
and take a, a lot of links out of the chain
and hopefully
this bike's gonna work for us, but we're just about to find out.
Uh We can put the straps around later
despite being almost totally nonverbal,
Rachel was very expressive
and through noises or motions, she could often make herself understood
and you like them.
I think we've proved that this is
doable.
And when Rachel really needed to communicate,
that's when her word chart came in handy.
If you
want to
sleep in the car, you can.
It was pretty clear to me that Rachel was
used to working around barriers to get things done.
I learned that first afternoon that achieving seemingly impossible
goals is what she did on a regular basis.
As her ski instructor in adaptive skiing,
I had the privilege of seeing her move from being
a student in a sit down ski. I ski to skiing under her own balance
and it didn't stop but just skiing.
Once in 1995 I went on a trip to Colorado
there with the help of some friends. I was able to do some mountain hiking.
I only regret that I don't get more opportunities to do things like that.
Hey,
we'll make it work. Cool.
Let's do this.
Give me a, a
celebrate three
H
having met Rachel and fixed the pedals to allow her to ride.
All that remained was to have a last supper with our hosts in the twin cities.
Ensure the support crew were in high spirits.
Then pack the car the next morning
and head into downtown Minneapolis to prepare for departure
on the morning of departure.
On our sixth leg from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Madison Wisconsin,
my new companion Rachel and I had the
company of two other impaired riders on identical bicycles
for the first time in the history
of
uh, or my bicycle journeys. We've got an entourage of identical bicycles,
uh, cycling with us. It's going to be quite exciting.
Uh
Let's see how long
we all stick together. And I should imagine somewhere in the day we'll trail off and
be left alone again.
If, if you can find your way to East,
be West River Road. After figuring out the best way of escaping the city,
we headed out in convoy
Rachel, enjoying the experience of pedaling a bicycle for the very first time
for a while, our little bicycle troops stuck together.
But in the afternoon,
the band of well wishers
not used to long distance adventure yet
said their goodbyes as we left the twin
cities behind us and struck out towards Wisconsin.
But it only took a short first day to find out
my pedal adaptions were not as good as I had thought.
It was still difficult for Rachel to control her feet on such small platforms.
Ok. We found out that the pedals pedals aren't working so good for Rachel
and I'm not sure we're gonna make them that much better,
but we're gonna try our best to make a slightly more stable platform.
It's day two
yesterday, we only went 32 miles
or 35 miles or something.
She seems to be enjoying it.
But uh we kind of, she's not really able to pedal. So,
since she really wants to,
I wanna try and make it as possible
as possible.
Not quite Macgyver, but
I'm just aspiring to be
Macgyver's apprentice.
So all we can do is try and stabilize the whole thing
and mean that her entire foot dictates the motion of
her legs as opposed to just one little bit,
which could go either way.
Right. It's about time we got on the road.
Rachel's been waiting patiently in the car
all this time. I've been making the pedals outside the hardware store.
We gotta prepare for this freezing windy, blustery
English weather.
Let's do it.
Ok. Pedal as best you can Rachel, we'll just have a good time.
I'll turn your music up a bit.
I hope that the second version of the pedals would do the trick
if this adaption didn't work
anyone that could help was now 50 miles away back in Saint Paul.
But the new design seemed effective.
Rachel was happy.
And furthermore,
she developed a keen interest in being filmed,
never missing an opportunity to practice her royal wave.
We discovered after a little while
that it wasn't, the camera. Rachel had developed a bond with
it was the person behind it
a
loom.
In fact
that second day
she got comfortable enough with her new traveling companions
to let us into a secret she had been keeping from us
when we fixed the pedals the first time Rachel evidently didn't want to tell us
that they were no good just in case she couldn't come on the trip.
That's quite sweet.
Uh, but they're much better now.
Somehow our feet of timber engineering seems to have worked out
thanks to the hardware store. So,
um,
her enthusiasm for this trip is kind of infectious
despite the weather and despite
been quite road weary,
she's rubbing off on us and
respond.
Rachel made it pretty clear that she was really enjoying herself. Sadly,
this leg was less than a week long.
I wish to
T
RT three.
What
not
be
as
sure.
Let's make the most of it.
Let's make the most of it all.
She was not the only one who was enjoying this stretch.
Any fears I may have had that she was too impaired to make the journey had disappeared
and we were getting even better at understanding each other while riding.
We gave Rachel a we gave you a whistle, didn't we?
But you can't blow it very well.
So
that won't work if Rachel's got a problem to draw my attention to it.
But instead you raise your hand like this.
There you go
to add icing to the cake.
The English feeling weather we had had vanished
and we cycled towards Wisconsin under blue skies,
really nice weather. Now,
cycling all day long makes you hungry.
But Rachel was the first of any of my companions to have a bigger appetite than me.
I'm slightly
scared that Rachel's gonna eat
all of our bits too.
On closer inspection of her words sheet,
I realized that food was definitely at the top of her priority list.
But
so we're traveling along the banks of the Mississippi.
So nice to have trees again
for ages on our journey, we just had deserts and fields
and no big trees. It's really nice.
We're nearly two thirds of the way through this journey.
We've done about 3000,
about 3000 miles.
We've only got about 10 miles till our campsite.
Well, Rachel told me during lunch that
you're very excited about camping, aren't you?
We'll have a good campsite.
I hope
before the journey began, Rachel was worried she might not be able to sleep in a tent
and having stayed in a motel for her first night on the road.
This would be the moment of truth.
As soon as Alonso laid out her mat,
she collapsed into her sleeping quarters with unbounded enthusiasm.
I have a
suspicion. Rachel's gonna sleep quite well
after 50 miles
and a fearsome
game of 20 questions on the bicycle.
Do
they,
Madonna?
Oh,
no,
I like Celine Dion.
Oh,
ok.
Definitely not.
After Rachel's preliminary nap.
Sandwiched between the railroad and the Mississippi,
we settled down to an evening round the fire.
How are you enjoying your camping?
This is Rachel's first camping experience
for ages, I think.
Yeah, she's nodding ahead.
Um, busy eating steak at the moment
with the help of her communication device.
Rachel put some of her feelings into words
so far. I have been on the bike for two full days.
It has been so fun.
Even though we aren't that far from Minneapolis, it feels like a new world
Day. Three of Rachel's leg of the journey from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Madison.
Wisconsin dawned bright on the banks of the Mississippi.
My suspicions about her sleeping well,
were confirmed that morning
when we had to resort to deflating her mattress to wake her.
Ok.
Uh
It didn't take words for Rachel to make her reluctance to get up known to us,
but with a little help, she got up and we rolled back out onto the road
after two days on the road with Rachel.
It struck me that while on paper,
she should have been the most difficult companion to deal with.
She was actually one of the easiest.
It seemed like she was just happy to be with new friends in the outdoors
that day
as we peddled in the sunshine southeast over the Mississippi.
I had a similar feeling of togetherness.
We slept in the
little park here
last night.
Rachel's still fast asleep.
It's been pretty amazing having uh
a nonverbal
communicator with us.
We've had to show a little bit of patience learning
how to communicate with her with her word chart,
but I guess she's probably had to show a little bit more patience with us,
struggling to uh
learn how to communicate with her.
And since the last day,
I'm quite sad that the time Rachel's had on the bike is so short because
she's great company.
Uh, enthusiasm is,
is in, is infectious when we're on the bike.
If she laughs, it just makes me want to laugh.
I think Rachel
may have been sleeping on the bike.
Were you sleeping on the bike?
She really wants to be here.
Really wants to be here even when it's raining,
even when it's five o'clock near the end of the day.
And we're still not really very close to our goal.
She wants to be with us.
And I think for her, the companionship and being surrounded by people
that take a little bit of time to listen to her
and communicate with her is
perhaps the most important thing
I'm gonna miss her when she goes.
Seems like our companions just carry on. Getting more and more inspiring.
Rachel's fourth and last day was the longest
passing telltale signs that we were approaching the heart of the C state.
We pedaled on into the evening.
I'm absolutely done for the day and we've still got 30 miles to go.
And I think Rachel
is probably,
it's slightly non plus that we've still got 30 miles to go to.
I think she's expecting this to be a breeze.
But apart from the remaining distance,
Rachel had everything she wanted.
Chocolate
and the company of Alonso
due to the unique design of the bicycle,
my companion didn't have to pedal if they didn't want to.
But Rachel
however tired, she was
just kept on going until her last day was over.
Over the past four days, Rachel who suffers from cerebral palsy,
successfully pedaled 300 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota
to Madison, Wisconsin.
Without many opportunities to experience adventures,
she had embraced every mile of the journey
having arrived in Madison,
it would have been wrong to part ways without sharing a taste of Wisconsin.
Apparently any visit to Wisconsin
and even more Madison wouldn't quite be complete without a visit to the cheese shop.
The go
to Galloway,
all you get is cheese.
It's a cheese head
ready.
Oh,
there we go.
Do you know what a cheese?
Can
you
write
on it? You want us to say it?
Yeah.
After presenting Rachel with a memento of our journey together,
it was sadly time for her to go home.
Rachel's return journey wouldn't be on public transport.
Thanks to friends who had agreed to pick her up.
It would be in something a little more personalized.
Hi, Kiddo,
how you doing? Honey?
Are you
having
fun?
You ready sleep when you're in bed?
The hardest thing about the ride was sitting in the seat for such a long time,
but it was much better than not being able to
experience all of the people and places along the way.
And
I
will
keep in touch.
Yeah.
Although Rachel was unable to speak,
she had taught me that sometimes words aren't necessary,
armed with a smile, a wave and immeasurable enthusiasm.
Anything is possible
in the next episode,
I meet my seventh companion who lost her sight as an adult.
It changed some relationships.
Interesting to see who kind of steps up and
is supportive and helpful and who can't handle it.
Plus with companion number eight, a rare tail wind helps us east towards Cleveland,
Ohio.
It's been wonderful.
We have blown.
Never in the history of cycling has a favorable tailwind stayed for so long.