As with all prior Team BrAvery Challenges, this one had a few surprises for us and pushed us into some unknown and uncomfortable territory. Initially, the only “sure thing” in this Challenge was the date of May 1st, International Fanconi Anemia Day. We wanted the Challenge to take place during that day. The route was redesigned weekly and kept changing up until the week before the start. The direction changed from originally starting at the north end (Indiana) and from an early morning start to an evening start in Mississippi. As it turned out, the weather became a huge factor with 8″ of rainfall on the route and both of those original options could have spelled disaster, putting us into the eye of the storms and facing significant headwinds. As it turned out, our Mississippi start was on time, less than an hour after the rains had stopped, and we had tailwinds for nearly all of the route. Odd, how some things work that way!
It was to be just three of us, with no support crew, and we had not found anyone else that could do it with us. Only two days before our Sunday start, we picked up a fourth team member, Curtis Shoch from Atlanta. A longtime friend of Orion’s and a capable biker/adventure racer, Curtis would turn out to be a valuable addition to Team BrAvery. But with so little time to prepare, he didn’t have the perfect bike setup and he had three flat tires in the first 45 minutes of the journey! Losing perhaps an hour and burning through our limited tube supply, it is safe to say that it was a foreboding start! But Curtis would more than make up for all that with his strength on the bike and coaching skills. We believe there could have been no better addition to Team BrAvery for this Challenge.
Wingman and I had left Sarasota on Saturday (14 hour drive) with a plan to arrive early at the start point and get some important naps in while we waited on Zar (St. Louis) and Curtis (Atlanta) to arrive. Both of them had Sunday morning commitments and wouldn’t arrive until a couple hours before our 5:30pm start time. The skies were dark and angry as Wingman drove us into the parking lot. As soon as we were in the room and I was already laying down, Zar sent us a video of wind damage along our route in Missouri. He was driving down from St. Louis through very heavy rains and asked that I check on the Dorena-Hickman ferry for tomorrow’s planned crossing. The only Mississippi River crossing for over a hundred miles, it was a critical part of our route – and I found out it was not going to open due to rising water levels! Wingman expressed his confidence in my emergency route planning skills by taking a nap. I began working on a solution for saving the Challenge route, the solution wasn’t ideal, but a dawn crossing was possible, using the I-155 bridge, and it kept the mileage exactly the same for the route. Traffic would be light and the chance of getting hassled by law enforcement was minimal. At least it had a full emergency lane to bike along. The rest of the team arrived by 3pm, the weather lifted by 4pm, and we made our start at 5:30pm, right on schedule.
We biked through a corner of Mississippi and through Memphis, crossing the Mississippi River by Mile 30. The earlier heavy rains also created some problems with the route. At mile 32, just inside Arkansas, we had an unmarked trail to navigate that was absolutely necessary to make a connection with main roads. By then it was 10pm and the trail disappeared into a pond. We literally dragged our bikes around the pond and into a quagmire. The mud was too deep to roll the bikes so we had to carry them on our shoulders for the next couple miles (1.5 hours). We eventually reached a paved road and sped into the Arkansas night, aiming for the first of several preplanned water stops at 24-hour convenience stores. We hit the first 100 mile mark around 3:30a.m. near Blytheville, Arkansas.
The storm also brought very cool temps, expected to hit mid 40’s before dawn. At Steele, Missouri we changed course and biked across the river, using the I-155 bridge (instead of biking north to the ferry) and going back into Tennessee we headed for Hickman, Kentucky. Dorothy’s Restaurant in Ridgely, Tennessee was our burger stop and the folks there were so nice, we were in no rush to leave! It also gave us a quick chance to clean some of the last night’s mud off ourselves, gear & bikes. We biked into Hickman, Kentucky and that put us back on our original route, along with introducing us to some of the steepest hill climbs of the entire route. As we left Hickman, the flood waters again made us divert from the planned route and we added an additional 15 miles as we were forced by closed roads. Around 2pm near Arlington, Kentucky we hit the 200 mile mark.
A heavy cloud cover kept the temps very cool, urging us to keep any roadside breaks to a minimum or we chilled quickly. After traversing Kentucky, we reached the Highway 60 bridge that crosses the Ohio River and into Illinois. Another key component to any of our route options, it is two lanes with no bike lane. On top of that, there would be crosswinds now gusting at close to 30mph. As we approached the bridge and pulled off the road, we decided it would be well worth trying to hitch a ride for the four of us and the bikes. Although we didn’t take bets, we considered it a long shot but were optimistic for some strange reason. We literally put our thumbs out and waited for traffic. Apparently, we had reason for the optimism as the very first vehicle that came along was a pickup truck and he stopped! It had only been a couple of minutes and this gentleman, Wardell, was kind enough to cram everything into his truck for the hop over to Cairo, Illinois. We offered profusely to pay but he would have nothing to do with that! It had been just under 24 hours and we were now biking in our 6th state. We had fallen shy of the hoped for 7 states in 24 hours but we weren’t done, yet, we still had to complete the Challenge – Indiana, here we come!
We had a terrific water stop (and some fried chicken) in Cairo and began our traverse of Illinois. Around 6pm and just north of America, Illinois, we cheered that we only had 100 miles to go to the finish in Mt. Vernon, Indiana. A mere century ride and we would be done!
By Mile 256, we turned onto the Tunnel Hill State Trail. Although expected to be a highlight of the route, it was now getting dark, the trail was very wet and slow, and we kept passing signs that there may be flooding ahead. As we crossed Dutchman Creek a little south of Vienna, Illinois, the trail was covered with about 18″ of flood waters for almost a quarter mile. We biked through the flooded trail and decided we would reroute in Vienna, seeking paved roads less likely to flood. After a good water/pizza/cookie stop in Vienna, we traded flooded trail for hilly roads – very hilly roads. It was less than 80 miles to the end and around 9pm – we were almost done!
It had been more than 30 hours on the bikes and each of us took turns pulling as a pace line, we handled the hills as best we could, taking in one final water stop. We had worn our jackets all day to keep warm and by midnight we now had on all of the clothes we carried to just keep warm. The temperature continued to drop and we were OK as long as we kept moving but our stretch breaks (about every 15 miles) were too cold to linger long. It was good motivation to keep up the pace! I’m sure each of us was also battling the sleep monsters but every pedal stroke brought us closer to a warm bed in Mt. Vernon. At 3am on Tuesday morning we finally reached the Wabash River and crossed into Indiana – our seventh and final state for the Challenge! Eight miles later we were at the Ohio River in downtown Mt. Vernon, dipping our front tires in the river and looking across to Kentucky. We had biked 347 miles, crossed 7 states, pedaled without sleeping for 33 hours 32 minutes………
We completed the route, but we haven’t completely finished the Challenge. We also had a goal of $50,000 we wanted to raise for the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund (FARF). Our friends and family have been great supporters and the folks at FARF tell us they have received almost $40,000. We would still like to hit our goal and if you have been thinking about donating, then please go to https://secure.qgiv.com/for/teabra or just (Click Here).
Fanconi anemia is a rare disease but you never know where you will make a connection. Cairo, Illinois has got to be one of the poorest communities that we biked through. Quite frankly, I have been there before and was dreading going through again. But we needed water badly and had to stop at a small store that most travelers would not take a chance on. But as soon as the counter guy found out that we were biking to raise funds for a genetic blood disease, he hugged me and told me his niece had died of Sickle cell anemia. He then insisted in filling all of our water bottles himself while we sampled some of his very tasty fried chicken. We were his guests! There were similar experiences along the trip as we encountered curious folks, and every one is a good story.
But it is hard to get the word out and we still need your help. If you thought we did something interesting for a good cause, then please pass the word and ask your friends to donate. Share this blog or send them to our website at GoTeamBrAvery.com or the Facebook page (Click Here).
Thanks for all the support, your contributions, the funny emails and texts – they really did inspire us to keep pushing on!
Buzz, for Team BrAvery (Orion, Zar, Curtis & All Our Families)
We had wanted to stop there on our arrival but it closed at 3am and we missed it by an hour. After one of the best fried baloney and bacon sandwiches in the world, we headed off for BBQ at the Hawg ‘N Sauce. We finally got filled up!
1911 Replica of New Orleans
Team BrAvery 