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.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Day 6 - Hanford to Wasco, CA

Linda writes:

Same old, same old ... beautiful day, gorgeous scenery, nice tail wind, 57 miles, no problems.

One comment about the truckers ... they really give us so much space to ride on the shoulder. Really nice people around here!

Got to the motel at 3:00 ... record time for us non-record breakers! At 5:30 a very good samaratin hosted our entire group for a delicious BBQ dinner at the park down the road. Such a giving soul!



Tomorrow we head closer to the "hill." Check-out the elevation profile if you haven't already.

Statistics:
Miles: 57 miles
Moving Average Speed: 11.5 miles/hour
Riding hours: 8:38 - 3:02
Road kill count: 1 skunk; 1 unidentified varmit being devoured by a large turkey vulture
Snake count: 1 dead; 0 live (Note: Details on dead snake ... very flat, ~3 feet long, probably 1" in diameter)
Rating for day: 10

Posted at 11:34 PM

6 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to the change in ... fews!
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  2. The word is spreading, neighbors have seen you on the news and in the papers and are asking about you! We can't wait to hear about how you conquer the "hill"! The Perriello's
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  3. Sounds like things are going well and the weather has been in your favor! Once on the hill, just get in the zone and pedal!
    Keep up the positive attitude!
    Jackie and Ed
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  4. Clearly your truckers are not related to ours.....

    Glad to hear that your ride continues to go well. Your speed is tsyaing great - tell us about the drafting sometime ? We'll be thinking of you on the hills - just keep your head down and pedal.
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  5. Thanks for adding the pics. Linda, love that you make special note of the food & meals :-)
    You guys are awesome!!
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  6. That was some GREAT FEED!
    Spinner
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