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
all around.
Everything is perfect right now. Everything
after nearly 2500 miles cycling from Los Angeles,
California on my way to New York City.
I had arrived in Madison, Wisconsin with the help of six very different companions.
The next leg of our journey was a short 1, 175 miles to Chicago, Illinois.
And after a rest in Madison,
I'd found my next companion to take a seat.
Uh,
in the final hour yesterday,
we,
uh, came up with a lady called Judith who's blind, who works at the local, um,
council for the Blind.
My name is Judith. I'm
from Madison, Wisconsin, which is where we're starting our little trip today.
Uh The last time I was on a tandem bike was probably um maybe 15 years ago. So,
and how do you feel about this trip to
Chicago?
Uh It's exciting,
maybe a little nervous because I don't know exactly what to expect.
Although we had had a visually impaired rider before
Judith was the first completely blind person to grace our front seat.
Uh I was born prematurely
£3.02 ounces and
babies at that point need to be in incubators for respiratory reasons.
And they didn't realize that
a
high percentage of oxygen damages retinas.
So I had compromised retinas and at the age of 12
was hitting the side of the face with a batted baseball,
got a detached retina
years later,
complications during eye surgery only made things worse.
It was probably 05 to 10 years uh that I could see light had light perception and then
the sight slowly went away completely. So
I was curious to know how Judith
having completely lost her sight,
learned how to live in a new world.
I remember there were specific days when I
felt negative.
But then I also know that I usually kind of give myself a little pep
talk or get mad at myself or mad at the world or whatever and say,
ok, so
let's do something about this or, you know,
I'm not gonna sit in the corner the rest of my life because of this.
There must be a way to figure it out or if it's not something that I can deal with,
then maybe it's not important and I can get rid of that.
But losing one's sight goes further than just making it
difficult to get things done on a practical level.
It changed some relationships like friends.
I lost a couple of friends and,
you know, it's kind of
interesting to who, to see who kind of steps up and
is supportive and helpful and who
can't handle it. And
yeah, it's a life
changing
thing and I'm sure it changes for,
it's kind of life changing for the people around who, you know,
who you associate with too.
By the end of her first day,
Judith had peddled a full 50 miles east out of Madison
on her way to Chicago, Illinois.
Having not cycled for years.
Judith was ready to camp for the night
after Judith's 1st 50 mile day on our journey from Madison, Wisconsin to Chicago,
Illinois,
she had proved herself as an enthusiastic companion.
Judith seemed to enjoy the night's camping,
didn't sleep very well. Because of the trains and cars.
Not that they're very, very close, but
I guess she's not used to it. He hasn't been camping in years and years
instead of sleeping.
Judith defied belief by not only easily finding
the tent door zippers but breaking them too.
How destroying the tent
do they just slip on or?
That's why? Ok. There you go.
I do have a sweatshirt in. Oh,
that's a really pretty,
oh, this your wash
kit?
You don't know about it, do you? No, I have no idea what it looks like.
Has anyone ever told you what it looks like? I don't think
so.
On the second day of our journey,
there was no denying that autumn had arrived,
but Judith remained positive as we cycled through her childhood backyard.
So we've crossed the Illinois State line
into your neck of the woods,
into my birth estate.
Whereabouts
in the state we
won
in
Waukegan, which is in Lake County. Ok. So not far away from where we'll arrive
that evening in the suburbs of Chicago. A
friend had kindly left her empty house at our disposal,
saving us from another night under canvas.
So moment of truth, have they left it open or not?
Uh
The message says,
welcome call. If you have any questions
with only one day left on Judith's journey,
it only seemed fair that since she had taken a seat in our world,
we take a lesson in hers
when I'm using this. I have to punch each
dot in each cell that I need. Ok. So I'm gonna write an, a ab ac ad
as Judith attempted to teach us the braille alphabet.
I quickly realized it would take more than just an evening to understand
the next morning,
Judith saddled up for the last time to
peddle the remaining 40 miles to downtown Chicago.
Let's go
before we have to go to the bathroom again.
Unfortunately, for Judith,
our ride into the city was either bumpy or filled with traffic or sometimes both.
And then
just as the roads got a little nicer, we lost all contact with our support crew.
We are
so close to our goal
and
in the final hour
we've lost the trail vehicle.
I don't know the address of the hotel we're staying at.
That's the thing I'm most concerned about.
So we're just waiting for them.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in Chicago, we lost Judith and Dominic
and we're in downtown Chicago,
we got caught up at some stoplights and they
turned a corner and we couldn't find them anymore.
So we've been looking for like 45 minutes for them.
The fact I didn't carry a cell phone meant I
had to dredge up Nadia's number from my memory.
Ok. But just stay at Sheridan
and Rogers and we're gonna come back here.
Ok,
bye. Thank you.
Ok. So apparently he does remember my telephone number very good
and
he said he's at Sheridan and Rogers.
So
after an anxious wait,
we were reunited for the last few miles into the heart of Chicago,
which I described to Judith as we rolled into it.
Yeah, downtown, spread out in front of us.
Sand
Beach. Sandy Beach is just here.
Barely anyone's on them.
It always seems like a bit of an epic getting in and out of cities
because it is, I suppose
with Judith never flinching at the sound of the city.
We arrived at our final destination.
The Bean in Millennium Park.
That's it. Judith finished.
She's been awesome. One of the strongest peddlers I've had. Certainly
and uh,
fearless.
Not sure. I'd want to be on the front of that if I couldn't see, but
she seemed to trust me,
which is nice
and I think she enjoyed it
the next morning in downtown Chicago,
our next companion and her husband met us at Buckingham Fountain
for the next leg of our journey to Cleveland, Ohio.
I'm Diane Jones from Barrington, Illinois
and I have a peripheral neuropathy.
So I'm not able to ride a single bike anymore and haven't been for about five years.
Peripheral neuropathy is a disorder that affects the
nervous transmission of information throughout the body.
Often causing loss of sensation
and an inability to control muscles.
Walking is probably the biggest problem that I experience day to day
because I have no balance.
So as long as I'm holding on to something or can touch something.
Uh
I'm all right and people really don't notice very much
and because of her balance issue, she wanted to bring her husband doug along
literally for a hand to hold.
Yeah, it's nice because you hold my arm now
because Diane's condition that had been affecting her for 10 years is so hard to see.
I wasted no time finding out more about her neuropathy.
The doctors describe it
as an idiopathic sensory peripheral neuropathy,
an idiopathic is they don't know the cause
leaving Chicago and the safety of its bike paths behind us.
We headed into the gritty city of Gary Indiana.
We're just getting quite close to Gary Indiana,
which is supposed to be supposed to be one of the most run down places in,
in the country, I think.
But
so far
it's not too bad.
I
am scared.
This is a little different, but we are
three miles from Gary Indiana and uh the
bicycling conditions are becoming increasingly more sketchy.
So I'm just, I'm trying not to leave my
my man hanging.
It's uh
probably the least nice entry into any state we've had,
but it's all right.
In 2006, Gary was ranked 10th most dangerous city in the United States.
Perhaps nothing had changed since then.
But we met the Black Pistons, the burliest of chaperones
any time you want in Lake Station. Honey, I'm being dead serious.
I can give
as many bikes as you need
to make sure you're safe,
maybe two miles away from the hotel.
And we meet
the,
the king of the neighborhood here
who's
absolutely insistent that him and the rest of the Black Pistons, his motorbike club
escorts us to some kind of a motel.
I feel very fortunate that we were allowed to do
this ride and that we met these great guys.
Uh
What can I say? Black Pistons and the motorcycle club affiliated with the outlaws.
You guys are in my territory. This is my area.
I am the head guy in this area.
I wouldn't be riding one of those.
You get a bad rap,
you know, TV. Everything else do we do our thing. Yeah, we don't take no shit off.
Nobody.
No one can touch us in Gary, Indiana. Now,
no one,
I'm not sure whether cyclists and bikers have
ever joined forces to block traffic so successfully
and we rolled together until they thought it safe to leave us
the following day.
Indiana showed its prettier face as we
pedaled on into the countryside towards Ohio.
Diane had admitted that she didn't like the idea of camping.
We'd stayed at a motel the first night
and on the second,
she had a strategically placed vacation rental
later that night. I too became grateful we had a roof over our heads.
It's getting a little bit wild out here.
But uh
doesn't really matter
because we're inside
eating.
Do,
could you bring the butter?
We're getting quite close to New York.
Probably six or 700 miles away. Which
sounds like a long way, but
we're getting there.
It's gonna get colder
and wetter
as well as me. Not enjoying it.
I don't think any, any of our future companions are gonna enjoy
a rainy journey
very much.
Oh, it's still some serious lightning out there
after two days of our journey from Chicago, Illinois to Cleveland, Ohio
Diane and I set out from her vacation rental.
The storm clouds had disappeared
and we progressed quickly over 50 miles to our first campsite.
Diane was not looking forward to a night under canvas.
Is it or is it not true, Diane that you want to avoid camping at all costs?
Well,
I don't know at all costs but um,
if there's any other possibility, yes, I would rather do something else
partly due to a tight budget
and partly because I'm a bit stubborn.
There was no other choice.
Diane would be subjected to a night of camping
three miles or four miles to go until
Diane's first camping experience.
Great
Diane and uh Nadia have gone in
to the supermarket.
I think to make Diane's first camping experience on this trip
a bit more pleasurable with a bottle of wine or something.
By the time they get back,
the flyer should be ready for
steak and sweet potato.
Diane made me think that the success of this leg depended
solely on whether she could stomach a few nights of camping.
Thanks to our fine dining efforts.
That first night seemed to be going ok.
I
think we might have succeeded in giving a
positive sort of fairly upbeat camping experience for Diane
on her first night camping with us,
half a bottle of red wine and a T bone steak should do that for anyone. I think
we'll see you in the morning.
Unfortunately,
the meal wasn't enough to assure a good night's rest for my companion.
Well, I don't think I slept at all.
Now, Doug told me that I did sleep, but I don't think I did.
It was like sleeping in the middle of an express highway
and I want to try to get us out of here as soon as humanly possible.
So, rather than force Diane to eat breakfast at camp,
we headed out into the historical feeling Amish country in search of food.
Fortunately, after a few miles,
we found a classy looking establishment in which to eat.
Ok.
Now, this is my idea of camping
back on the road
as well as the horse drawn traffic. We found some like minded adventurers
through local press. They had heard about our journey
and for a little while that day, we traveled together until our routes diverged
and we were on our own. Again.
It's hard every day to think that
can the next day be
better.
And the time is going so quickly. I think we're, we're halfway down
by the fifth morning, we were midway between Chicago and Cleveland
and Diane's second night, camping was better than the first.
Thanks to the tranquility of the forest,
we got up so much earlier this morning, which is great.
Um
Diane seems to be doing pretty good. I think she slept a bit better today
as well, which is always a bonus
after a promising start
the day, just got better
with the wind pushing us helpfully east
into Ohio.
The conditions were so favorable.
We decided to push on further than we'd originally planned
to the shores of Lake
Erie.
Never
in the history of
cycling has a favorable tailwind stayed for so long.
We have blown
and we only have six more miles to go.
We're coming to the end of what was actually quite a long day in mileages.
It's the longest day you guys have done on the bike, I think.
And I'm hoping this park that we're gonna find is
gonna be
nothing short of perfection.
Camping perfection.
After an 85 mile day,
the golden sunset over Lake Erie was perhaps
enough to change Diane's feelings about camping.
This could even change my opinion of camping.
This, this is heavenly.
It's wonderful.
In the next episode,
Diane and her husband finished their journey into Cleveland, Ohio.
Everything has really gone so well. It seems like it's going to be strange to go home.
Plus I meet my second to last companion,
a former US marine,
who was the first rider in need of medical attention?
A little plugged in. How's your morphine feeling? Uh,
not so much pain, it's noticeable but it's not as uh
intense, shall I say?