John Lewis, Tim Trickler and Brandon Fuller are putting away the bags they'd packed for their mammoth adventure. They have enough high-carb, high-energy snacks to stock a pantry — or to fuel three hungry guys over a 4,000-mile biking odyssey. But they're stowing those, too.
The Gatorade — lots and lots of it — is being parked temporarily.
The Web page designed to track their progress won't be updated for a while. And the 40 days they planned to have off work? Well, kitchen designer Trickler and real estate agent Fuller, at least, will be back on the job Monday.
The three men have for 18 months planned a 40-day fund-raising bike ride across America. They were going to leave on Pioneer Day from Oregon, the goal to raise money for research that might benefit two friends who are ill. One has Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia cancer, the other is a high school buddy's daughter who has juvenile diabetes. The per-mile pledges were to be divided between the two illnesses, to promote research.
Tuesday night, during a final impromptu "training" jaunt around Pineview Lake with Fuller and his brother Jim Lewis, who'd driven up with his family from California to see them off, John Lewis crashed and flew over a guard rail. The direct hit to his shoulder translated into a third-degree shoulder joint separation.
Just like that the bike trip blew up, though John Lewis had dreamed of it and planned for it most of his adult life.
He couldn't be happier. It's a dream delayed, not over, he says.
It's also a story of two brothers who adore each other and a promise they made long ago.
The idea for the ride was more than two decades in the making. When Jim was a freshman in college and John a freshman in high school, somewhat against the will of their trepidatious parents, the youths rode bikes from Oregon to Mexico, 1,200 miles in 12 days. John Lewis credits that journey with the success he's enjoyed professionally in his career as a developer.
He describes himself, circa 1981, as a young man with nothing going for him but big dreams and optimism. On that ride, he'd look way far in the distance along the coast and see a point and think he couldn't possibly make it there. But he did, one point at a time, time after time. Day after day.
"If you forget the big picture and look at the little picture, then you're at that point. Then the next one. It was burned into my brain that no matter how ridiculous the goal is, if you break it into little parts, you can eat an elephant."
The brothers promised that one day, they'd ride West Coast to East Coast, side by side. "We swore we would do it. But we never did, and the years go by and lead to other things. One day I woke up, not getting any younger," John Lewis said. "I weighed 200 pounds when it should be 175. I thought, I need to get back on track or I am never going to do it."
That's where 18 months ago and all that planning comes in. He started running and losing weight and even broke records from when he was younger. He completed some marathons. And he decided all that running would serve him well on his very long bike ride.
He knows he's old enough he doesn't recover as fast as that teenager did — he's 37 now — but he figures he's smarter, too. And it kind of evens out.
He decided to use his great bicycle adventure to raise awareness of and funds for the two diseases, in honor of two people he loves a lot. And he was planning on doing it alone, because his brother simply wasn't in shape to join him.
"But I've been baffled this entire time. Why was I about to do this without him?"
A few months ago, when he told Trickler and Fuller his plans, they said they'd go with him. He was relieved and excited. "Doing it alone is not near as fun and it's a lot harder."
They've been training, together and separately. Lewis and Fuller both live in Eden, Trickler in Hyde Park.
They had strength testing done and trained some more, Trickler said. And they pretty much packed — about four bags each that ride nicely on their bicycles.
They consulted a nutritionist to figure out how to fuel the ride without carrying 900 pounds of groceries. Nowhere does a support car figure in their plans. They opted not to ride four days and take a day off, but to ride straight through, counting on eating right to fuel the trip, which would burn about 8,000 calories a day each. That means finding edibles that are high-carb, high-glycemic items, followed after the ride each day by lots of protein to repair the muscles broken down by the workout.
Even Tuesday, riding around the lake with his brother and Fuller, though, John Lewis couldn't believe his brother wasn't going on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
Near Chris' Cove, someone waved and John Lewis waved back. When he looked back down, his tire was in front of his brother's back tire a couple of inches and he was going down. At 25 miles an hour, he flew over the handlebars, hit the guard rail and was rolling. The two bones at the tip of his shoulder are no longer connected as they should be by ligament. He can't lift his arm and will need some time for rehabilitation.
About as long, it seems, as he and Jim think it will take Jim to get in riding shape for a 4,000-mile journey. The dream is back on track and the threesome plans to be a foursome when the grand adventure begins in early spring. Meanwhile, they continue raising money for the cancer research fund and for juvenile diabetes research. Who knows? John Lewis said. "Maybe we can raise a quarter-million dollars," given the extra time.
For more information on the ride and the two friends who prompted the pledge drive, go online to www.becauseyoucan.org.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com