Pedaling for Patriots

CNN aired a story about Pedaling for Patriots this morning at about 11:30 AM. Unfortunately the video of the story has not been posted on their website — so for now we will have to rely on this transcript.

CNN Newsroom:

Tony HARRIS: Got to tell you, pay close attention on the roads from Florida to California over the next few weeks. You might be sharing them with a former top spy.

Robert Richer used to lead the CIA’s clandestine division before his retirement several years ago, but this September 11th, he and his wife Kim launched a Bike Across America tour to raise awareness and money for the families of fallen CIA officers. The couple is now 400 miles or so into their tour. They’re calling it the Khost to Coast Tour, because Khost, Afghanistan, was the site of a suicide bombing last December that claimed seven CIA lives, as well as the life of a Jordanian intelligence officer.

The couple has been training for months now for this trip that will take them from, let’s see, Jacksonville, Florida, to San Diego, California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT RICHER, KHOST TO COAST TOUR: And traffic is our biggest concern.

KIM RICHER, KHOST TO COAST TOUR: Right.

R. RICHER: And particularly, you would not believe how many people who are texting while they drive.

K. RICHER: Oh yes.

R. RICHER: And they start curving over to us, and we don’t have much to warn them off with. So, we are worried about driving, but, honestly, in 4,000 miles of training, I think we have had three discourteous drivers. Three. That’s amazing in northern Virginia. So I think that’s my greatest concern.

K. RICHER: And I think the mental part of this is going to be difficult, being away from friends and family, but I think what we’ll remember is that we’re doing it for people who have lost their lives and they never will see friends and family again. And so I think that’s what’s going to continue to push us forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Hey, we really want to support this couple. We want you to as well. They have logged 400 miles in five days, and are documenting their progress on their Web site. We’re going to check in with them from time to time.

Here is the Web site, pedalingforpatriots.com.

It was great to have a day off so early in our ride!  We were able to sleep in a bit and explore the city of Pensacola, after picking up our bikes at Bikes Plus (thanks for the great job you did on our bikes!).  We stopped in a local art gallery, Blue Morning, which had a lot of colorful and interesting art pieces.  We had “breakfast” at Vic & Ike’s – white chocolate bread pudding for Kim and butter pecan cake for Rob!  It was by far the yummiest breakfast we’ve ever had and we’re sad that we won’t be around to sample their other food!  Rob stopped at Esquire barber shop for a haircut and met Joe Brown, the oldest practicing barber in Florida.  We drove to the beach to see the Gulf and the “whitest beaches in Florida”.  It was beautiful!

We then spent time prepping the bikes and getting ready for our next 7-8 days of riding before our next break.  Rob has been busy trying to find the best routes and mapping our stops in cities that have hotels.

We’ve been told that our spot on CNN aired today, but we haven’t yet seen it.

Thanks so much to everyone who has sent notes of support and encouragement.  We couldn’t do this without all of you!  And on behalf of the families of those who benefit from this fund, we want to thank those who have made a donation and for honoring their loved ones in such a generous way.

Leaving Crestview, we saw a sign outside a bar that read, “Ladies in Bikinis Drink Free”.  Too bad we didn’t see that last night! 🙂  We also passed a rather unfortunately named retirement home: “Golden Waters”.  It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed the wide shoulders and little traffic on Route 90.  We passed a horse farm with a large tree carving and stopped to take a few photos.

We paralleled State Route 1 for about 6 miles.  This road is also known as the old Spanish Trail, was built in 1919-1921, and is made of red brick.

We stopped after about 30 miles and had breakfast at a little cafe in Milton.  From there we continued on Route 90 to Pensacola.  There was a lot of traffic from then on, although there were a few marked bike lines up to the until we hit the Bayou Texar Bridge .  We then turned onto the Pensacola Scenic Bluffs Highway and for the next 11 miles it was up and down and up and down, all along the coast.  We never saw any flowers, but it smelled wonderful!

We’ve dropped our bikes at Bikes Plus for a quick check-up while we take a down day.  We’ll be back on the road on Friday!

Stats:

Live Animals:  Nubian and Pygmy Goats, Cows, Horses, Pigs, Chickens, Dogs, Lots and lots of Dragonflies

Dead Animals: Armadillo, Raccoon

We’ve recently made more accessible a ton of photos. Check out the new improved photo gallery here.

Click here to see photos from Day 1 of our trip!

We left Bonifay at 6am, since we are now in the Central Time Zone and it gets light earlier.  We road about 20 miles and stopped for breakfast at Sally’s in Ponce de Leon.  We spoke with a lot of nice people there while watching ducks and cats check out our bikes.  One man asked us, “How are getting married and getting drunk the same?”  “Because if you do it more than once, you’re a fool!”  Then he proceeded to tell us that he’d been a fool 3 times!

Because we’re very close to our Wednesday stop, we decided to break up the mileage and do 2 short days, so we only went about 60 miles today.  Besides the very intoxicated young man juggling a beer bottle on the side of the road, there was little to see.  We did go through Caryville – “Worm Fiddlin’ Capital of the World” – where there apparently is an annual festival, but we missed it.

For those who asked, our stats include the amount of time we actually bicycled, not including stops, breaks, stretches and meals.  The elevation gain is the total amount of feet we climbed during the ride, not how high we are.

Stats:

Live Animals – Brahman Bulls, Miniature Horses, Donkeys, Cows, Dogs, Cats and Ducks

Dead Animals – Armadillo (We wondered why we see so many of them.  Apparently it is due to their habit of jumping to about fender height when startled.  The car wins every time.)

.

We got started this morning at 6:40am, which wasn’t such a grand idea, since it was very dark.  We won’t be doing that again!  We stopped in Gretna for a snack and met a very nice Arab man who owned the store.  How a Muslim Jordanian ended up selling beer in tiny little Gretna, FL is an interesting story, I’m sure!

We passed a Correctional Facility with workers in the field and cutting grass, along with a sign which read “Armed Supervisors – DO NOT APPROACH – No Photos”.  We pedaled a little quicker through there!

Chattahoochee was a small town with a bar named “Hoochee’s” and a salon called “You’re a Hot Mess”.  The hills in and out of there were incredible!  As we left town and crossed the river, we changed to the Central Time Zone.  We took another short break in Grand Ridge, where we met up with Penny and had something to eat.

We continued on Route 90, where the sign for Marianna said “City of Southern Charm”.  It was anything but charming!  We were spit on, yelled at, honked at and cut off at almost every turn.  We were SO glad to get out of there!   Not long after that, we crossed Alligator Creek but didn’t see any alligators, although we did see a big turtle.  We’ve made great time and are already a bit ahead of schedule.  That means a few easier days ahead!

Stats:

Live animals:  Donkeys, Cows, Horses, Lots of Pit Bulls and other dogs, Snake, Turtle

Dead animals:  Armadillo, Opossum, Raccoon, Frogs, Snakes

See the story here.

Pedaling for Patriots got underway right on time — shortly after sunrise on September 11, 2010.

Rob & Kim were escorted by Jacksonville Beach Chief of Police Bruce Thomason (who rode his bike with them at the start) and by representatives of the “Iron Pigs” motorcycle club.