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.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Training

We hate to call it "training," but that's what all the real "cyclists" say.  We just think of it as a nice ride through the countryside.  So today we rode down the big hill into town, had breakfast at a nice diner, then rode back home (avoiding that big hill, but taking others instead).  A total of about ten miles, with no problems at all.  Well, Kelly thought the bacon should have been fattier, but other than that no complaints.  And Kelly went and found a geocache while we were in town, so that was a bonus for her!

Posted at 6:41 PM 3 comments

Friday, September 24, 2010

The Team

We're now up to twenty riders!  And that's just our team; never mind the hundreds of other riders that will be there.  Here's the rundown:

  • Andy, Linda, Brian, and Kelly Johnson
  • Kevin, Michelle, Matt, and Tara McGarry
  • Brad and Cheryl Post, with Kate cheering
  • Chris, Carolyn, Erica, Grant, and Gavin Radler
  • Jamie and Wendy Wright, and their son
  • Chris Schierer, with Kristin and the rest of the family cheering
  • Beverly Smith
It's starting to get exciting!

Posted at 8:30 AM 1 comments

Friday, September 10, 2010

Ride Ataxia Philly 2010

Well, we're doing it again!  This year we've even formed a team of riders - we've got about 18 riders signed up.  The ride will be October 10 this year.  Check out our fundraising page and stay tuned as we get closer to the big event.

Posted at 11:18 AM 2 comments

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