We're Linda and Andy Johnson, from Cazenovia, New York. What began as a blog about a bike ride has become a story about our ride through life, trying to overcome a disease that has had a huge impact on us and on many of our friends.

Our journey began in 2007, when Kyle Bryant originated the idea of Ride Ataxia - riding his three-wheeled cycle from San Diego to the annual National Ataxia Foundation meeting in Memphis. It took two months to get there, and in the process he raised $40,000 to fund Ataxia research and he raised awareness of the disease like no one has before. Well he rode to the annual meeting again in 2008 and we joined him! We left from Sacramento and arrived in Las Vegas two weeks and 650 miles later.

You see Linda also has Friedreich's Ataxia. This inherited disease causes the nerves of the body to deteriorate. Linda (and Kyle) can still walk at this point, but it's getting much more difficult. In addition, speech gets slurred, finger dexterity suffers, and other serious complications can develop as time goes on.

The good thing is that research is more promising than ever! Several drugs are going through trials at this time, with other significant research taking place as you read this. There has never been a better time to contribute to this research! Let's cure this disease - for Linda, for the rest of the Ride Ataxia team, and for all of the others afflicted with this disease!

Enjoy our blog! Feel free to write to us any time. Check out the links in the right column below to read more about the disease and our adventures. And if nothing else, be sure to take the seven minutes to watch FARA's video - we couldn't say it better ourselves.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Day 5 - Fresno to Hanford, CA

Linda writes:

Unbelievable ... we made it another day! Woke up this morning after sleeping on the floor of the church auditorium. Took a couple Advil, ate delicious homemade oatmeal (not the instant stuff!) and yummy banana bread, and we were good to go.

MOTS ... More Of The Same today ... sunny skies, 80 degrees, a friendly breeze, flat roads, beautiful views ... no problems ... another wonderful day!

Here we are for our lunch break. Looks like Linda is the only one soaking up the California sun! Tomorrow we'll switch from SPF 8 to SPF 30.


The lunch buffet was set up under the canopy ... make your own sandwiches, cheese sticks, fruit, nacho chips, and cookies ... food never tasted so good as on this bike ride!


Statistics:
Ride times: 8:44AM to 3:00PM
Mileage: 50 miles
Average speed: 10.3 MPH
Total trip miles: 260
Roadkill count: ZERO!
Number of people that fell off their bikes: 1 (and it wasn't Andy!) ... Poor Travis turned around to check on Sean who dropped off from the drafting pattern, and Mike, the leader in the drafting pattern slammed on his brakes to check on Sean ... and Travis slammed into Mike. Ouch!
A couple of notes from Andy about the statistics ... The "Average speed" is the moving average, only counting the period when we're not stopped. The "Roadkill count" only counts fresh roadkill - anything totally smooshed isn't counted.

Posted at 8:01 PM

10 comments:

  1. Advil is my friend
    Spinner
    And I didn't even sleep on the floor!?;)
    ReplyDelete
  2. mom why is your bike seat yellow i thought it was black.

    -Brian-
    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay, I am a little jealous, of the weather! We have snow here and no school due to a bomb threat! Nice way to celebrate the 1st day of spring! We are so proud of you both. Just remember when it gets tough, all your friends and family are behind you pushing you on! You both are doing great. We love reading the blog! Best of luck on the hill climbs! Love, Barb C.
    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like you guys are doing great, and having a lot of fun!
    ReplyDelete
  5. Love reading the blog! I feel like we are there!. You are both doing a great job and all of you are doing a great thing!
    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm following along on Kyle's blog but find myself drawn over here partially because of the roadkill statistics. :) You are all superstars.
    ReplyDelete
  7. You guys are doing awesome - especially love the road kill count...keep up the great job! Perriello's
    ReplyDelete
  8. Andy How are your crank bearings holding up?

    Have you found any nice microbrews or vino along the way?

    Keep on Truckin'

    Linda you look hot on that bike (still at spf8?)

    Rob Buck
    ReplyDelete
  9. Linda you look great in that outfit. I WOULD ASSUME THAT aNDY LOOKS GREAT TOO...
    Yes there was no school to-day. Another day of quality time with the kids.
    The wind is howling like heck, never heard it so loud in our out of the house.
    All you people are doing so great, just hard to believe,
    The pictures are wondeful and so much fun to watch your progress, on all the maps.

    Our prayers are with all of you,

    Mom and Dad J
    ReplyDelete
  10. MOTS - and prayers, all good/GREAT things that kept us keeping on!
    Spinner
    ReplyDelete

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