[bright music] - [Male Announcer] "Shadow of a Wheel" is made possible in part by Explore Asheville.

- [Female Announcer] Here in Asheville, we're a mix of genres, a hybrid of styles, settling for nothing, hungry for everything.

All drawn together to stand out.

You are welcome.

Always Asheville.

- [Male Announcer] Additional support is made possible by The Charles Engelhard Foundation and by these contributors: - [Narrator] In Vegas, the riders took on the worst of the desert.

- It was horrible.

- Stifling.

- Hard.

- [Narrator] Then the Grand Canyon and the Navajo Nation led to revelations.

- We're actually not in the United States right now.

Why didn't I know that?

- [Narrator] They faced the challenges of the Rocky Mountains.

- Let's all have some beer.

- [Narrator] And then the leader, Chuck, begins to become a challenge himself.

- It was such an impact in my life.

- [Narrator] And another rider returned to finish the desert ride 40 years later.

♪ [pensive music] [stream babbling] - A trout stream is where I put myself back together again.

It was time alone in nature, where I could focus on one thing at a time, one cast at a time.

It brought me peace and hope when I needed it most.

When we talk about what the ride did for us, it's very personal, revealing itself at different moments in life.

Out on the ride, there were moments of joy and bliss, but also painful moments, loneliness, where we had to push through.

When I hear some of the Spokesmen reflect on how it instilled in them a clarity on how each day of the trip we simply had to get up and ride, I think about Maggie.

She was our firstborn, our daughter who came into the world in 1998, with all the hopes and dreams parents have for a child.

But her time with us would be less than nine months as she was born with a fatal neuromuscular disease called spinal muscular atrophy.

There were a number of forces that brought us through that experience, individually and as a couple, but in a very real way, I drew upon the strength I knew I had in me to embrace the beauty of the moment and push on.

The ride did not make any of us Superman.

Over the years, it has boosted me with some form of confidence, some accessible degree of faith and courage that I can continue, because always, in my mind, in my heart, is the ride.

[pensive music continues] ["Avalon" by Roxy Music plays] ♪ Especially in June, certain smells, just the time of year, different things cue you in, will set off a little memory like, "Oh, yeah, that's when I was on the bike trip," and you're right there.

♪ much communication and emotion ♪ - I was on the beach a few years ago.

[waves crashing] ♪ There was lightning storm out on the water, ♪ Avalon ♪ and there was like bolts hitting on the ocean.

One of those moments where you're just like, "Wow, nature is just so powerful."

♪ When the samba takes you, out of nowhere ♪ In a split second, I was in western Kansas, ♪ and we were trying to outrun a thunderstorm.

♪ every moment ♪ [thunder booms] Those bolts of lightning were behind me by 10 miles, and me and the guys I was riding with, I mean, we were just flying, and we could just smell the electricity, and we could smell the rain coming.

We were being chased by this storm, and we outran it, and some of our biking companions weren't so lucky.

♪ We moved through Dodge City, and into the heart of Kansas, and the ever-present headwind, and we were always pushing to keep ahead of the thunderstorms.

We stopped at one point to see wagon tracks still on the prairie from the wagon trains that headed west 100 years earlier.

["Eye in the Sky" by Alan Parsons Project plays] Chuck set us up with a tour of the Cessna airplane factory.

He was a pilot, and had started flying a few years before, and often talked about his love of being in the air.

- He got his pilot's license not long after I graduated from college, not long after 1978.

And so he loved to fly.

He took me up on the plane a lot, so I enjoyed flying with him.

And Chuck even commented, he said, "Pete, I love flying with you, because you get excited when we're flying in situations like this.

A lot of the people I've flown up here, they would duck their head and wanna look out the window, but you're like looking out here, looking down there."

I was not at all concerned about his piloting of the plane.

Again, he knew what he was doing.

- I actually joined him on several recruiting trips throughout the state of North Carolina.

Some of the first times I've ever been in an airplane was with him flying to different parts of the state.

♪ - It's funny how much I picked up my journal and wrote, even during the middle of the day.

I guess it was helping me kill time or, you know, remember things, or whatever.

"I'm in Greensburg, Kansas.

We rode 45 miles this morning before breakfast, and now I'm outside the restaurant, waiting for Chuck and some people to come back from a church they went to.

A guy I talked to out here said, 'In Kansas, the wind blows.

It don't blow any direction, it just blows.'

[Paul laughs] That's the truth.

It never blows the direction we're heading, and especially not to help us."

["Dust in the Wind" by Kansas plays] - That was when you were fighting wind, and then you stopped and turned the bike around and turned the other way, and you were still getting wind.

Then you started to question reality.

The physics of air in motion.

♪ - We thought Kansas was flat.

It is if you're in our car, maybe, but it's not flat.

Just those long inclines, you know, and then you get a little bit of downhill.

♪ - Kansas in particular seemed hot and smelly.

♪ I don't know if you remember all the cattle feedlots, but it seemed like you could smell those from miles away, coming and going.

- There were feedlots the whole way.

Oh my God, the aroma.

- Mountains of cow poo on the side of the road.

I mean, that comes to mind.

I was like, "That's a lot of poo."

But at least the scenery was nice.

♪ And all your money won't another minute buy ♪ ♪ Dust in the wind ♪ - I love riding mountains.

I'm a good hill climber.

And when I got down to there, I just thought, "This is not nearly as entertaining."

Although, the grasshoppers as you rolled, and they were going [imitates crunching], crunch, [imitates crunching] guts flying everywhere.

♪ - Every morning, it was point A to point B.

♪ Get up, 75 more miles, go to sleep, get up, 75 more miles.

So there were lots of days, lots of days, I was riding by myself, [pensive music] and that's when I started feeling real homesick.

"I don't think I should be doing this.

I don't think I'm gonna make it."

- I was loving being out there, but I had my friends at home who I knew were just, like, having a fun summer and going to the lake and drinking beer, and I missed them, you know.

And there was this girl.

I was like, "Oh, who's she dating now?"

- I was homesick for the things that I really liked, but, you know, homesick for some good food and a shower.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

- George Rudisill was very homesick, and he's the only one that I have a note about wanting to go home, wanting to quit.

- [Paul] George had not bonded with many of the other riders yet.

- I was homesick and crying and wanted to be left alone and trying to figure out how to get home without having to ride my bike.

- [Paul] Chuck was not kind when George talked about quitting, and their relationship would never recover.

- And I don't think he liked the fact that I wanted to quit, and I don't think he knew how to handle that very well, which is unfortunate for everybody involved, because, as the old saying went, on our trip, there were 36 of us, and there 36 spokes on a bicycle wheel.

If one breaks, the wheel's not true anymore.

- It's almost like, if someone disappointed him in any way, he was really tough on people.

But also I know, I mean, this was a huge responsibility.

- I talked to my parents on telephone.

They're like, "Well, the closest airport's 100 miles away.

I guess you can ride your bike.

But if you're gonna ride your bike to the airport, you might as well ride another 100 miles and get closer to home."

That was their answer, which was a great answer.

I didn't wanna hear it, but it was a great answer.

And I thought about it.

Either way, I'm getting home.

Either way, I'm gonna get home.

You might as well do what you said you were gonna do.

You might as well ride your bike across.

- Bikers just taking a breather here in Wichita before riding on.

TV10's Terry Atherton explains what's motivating them to ride from one coast to the other.

- [Terry] In a nutshell, they're biking to help solve the mystery of multiple sclerosis.

Each raised over $5,000, half of which goes directly to MS, and the other half is to help pay for expenses on the trip, such as meals, motels, and new bike tires.

Boy, have they gone through the tires.

- That sucker is bad.

- Definitely a highlight was going into Wichita, Kansas after a very long ride, arriving, and just flat out going into this motel, and exhausted.

["Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles plays] But somebody turned on the TV and said, "Check this out.

What is this?"

"Oh, I don't know.

What is this?"

Something called MTV, and we were transfixed.

♪ Video killed the radio star ♪ ♪ Video killed the radio star ♪ [MTV Theme plays] ♪ - I can remember MTV.

People are going in and out of everybody's rooms.

That kind of thing.

- Come into a motel room, and everybody's sitting around watching MTV, and hey, I'm sitting to it, too.

I wanna watch it, too.

[MTV Theme plays] -The same six songs every hour that would play.

It's all they had.

It's all the videos they had.

- You just wanted to eat, and you wanted to get to the hotel and watch music videos.

And it's so fascinating that you would spend hours watching music videos, like essentially watching the radio.

- That helped a little bit of homesickness, okay?

You know, that was like, "Ah, yeah, I need this.

This my fix."

["Video Killed the Radio Star" continues] - [Paul] We had a lot of fun as the TV news did a story on us, Chuck telling the story of the trip, and about multiple sclerosis.

- Multiple sclerosis is something altogether different.

It's the young people's disease.

It's yours and mine.

It strikes between the ages of 16 and 50, and you could be perfectly fit today, go to bed tonight, and wake up in the morning with paralysis in half your body.

It's a frightening and terrible disorder.

- [Paul] we turned the TV from MTV long enough to actually watch it on the air, and we all loved it.

["Let's Go" by The Cars plays] ♪ As we rode from silo to silo, most days the group would break up into many smaller groups or individuals, and we get strung out over miles and miles.

It was like this all the way across, really.

But we were always craving food, water, and a place to sleep.

- It was about getting up each day, getting where we were going, getting food, and getting sleep.

It was about the raw basics.

♪ She never waits too long ♪ - Sometimes we would get up and have to ride maybe 20, 25 miles before we even ate.

♪ - Feeding that kind of group, I mean, was complicated.

- [Craig] It was hard to find a place to put your bicycle.

We had 'em leaned up against the building, against the bushes, you know, anywhere we could put our bicycles.

And then, getting into the restaurant and getting seated and ordering, we took over.

♪ I don't want to hold her down Don't want to break her crown ♪ - [Peter] I remember going into McDonald's, and just breakfast, lunch, dinner.

- That was actually one of my biggest struggles, was being a vegetarian.

what's gonna be there?

Will I be able to eat it?

Will it be all fatty stuff?

You know, will it be just more cheese and cheese?

- There was some deal with McDonald's, right?

- Yeah.

- Chuck had some deal.

- Yeah, he did have some deal.

'Cause I was remembering eating there a whole lot, but I thought it was just by convenience.

But there was, we had some arrangement.

- I didn't realize that.

- So we had to eat there.

But I just thought, I'll just get some bread and some cheese, and I'll have a cheese sandwich.

So I go up to the lady.

"Could you just basically make me the cheese and the buns?"

She says, "No, I can't do that.

It's not in the register.

I say, "What do you mean?"

She says, "Can't do that."

"Oh, can you ask the manager?"

"No, we can't do that."

I said, "Okay, I'll tell you what."

I said, "So what if you gave me a double cheeseburger, no meat?"

And she says, "Oh, I can do that."

♪ So get out and get away to McDonald's ♪ ♪ We do it all for you ♪ [staff laughing] - $2 For breakfast, $3 for lunch, and $5 for dinner.

- You remember that?

- Yes.

- Back when a dollar was a dollar.

- A dollar was a dollar.

[group laughing] - I remember keeping our gloves on.

We had our biking gloves, and they just became a part of us.

And we'd be eating burgers, and you'd look at the table, and everyone still had...

It was gross!

We'd still have our biking gloves, eating our... And then we'd just, you know, wipe off.

- I just remember eating a lot of food, laughing a lot, and then being asleep on the floor in the restaurant.

And it still is bizarre to me to think that they would let people do that.

- [Paul] And then people would just lay down on the floor and sleep, you know, right under the table.

- Get on a bench, or on the floor itself.

We did not care.

Can we get some more sleep around here?

- And everybody just spread out asleep somewhere.

Dead bodies all over the place.

[whimsical music] - I can't imagine what that was like for employees and waitresses.

- It was a restaurant in Kansas, and I can't remember the exact time when we went.

It was almost like a house, and the guy just didn't expect 36 people, 'cause it was a little teeny town, and there was only like 10 seats or something in the place, 12 seats.

And so I remember looking at the guy, going, "Do you need help?

I grew up in a restaurant."

"He looks at me and goes, "Really?"

I'm like, "Yeah."

So I remember helping the guy cook breakfast for us.

- I mean this was a day in the life of the ride.

Every day was an adventure.

["Whatever We Remember" by Alsever Lake plays] - We stopped at this little roadside diner late.

It's late in the afternoon, and we realized, there's no way we're gonna make our destination today.

And so while the adults were trying to figure out what we're gonna do, how we're gonna handle this, there was a lady in the diner, and she overheard the conversation, and she said, "I live just about a mile down the road here.

You're more than welcome to camp out in the yard."

So that's what we did.

We camped out in her front yard.

That was just such an experience.

♪ - [Diane] No doubt, every state that you came into was just like another world.

The terrain, the culture, and just very real people.

♪ - It was Americana at its best.

Those small towns, people were just there.

They're like, "Look at these kids."

And they would welcome you.

They'd welcome you, you know, with open arms.

It really taught us, you know, a lot about our country and what people were willing to do for pure strangers.

♪ - It is probably about then that I realized, like, what we were doing and that we were doing it.

We're like, you know, halfway there.

This is real.

["Whatever We Remember" continues] ♪ [VCR whirring] - [Paul] These VHS tapes were the very early seeds of making a film about this ride.

In 2012, after 30 years, a lot of riders started to reach out and find each other.

- Spokesmen!

- [Paul] And I searched for Chuck's father, finding him in Florida, and I asked him about the tapes.

He found a box in a closet, and kindly sent them to me, along with appreciation that we were remembering the ride and his son.

["Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis plays] [group chattering] I look at the footage and I see that Chuck, he was a filmmaker.

He was thinking about how to tell this story, what to capture, ["Chariots of Fire" continues] and even using the music on the radio as a soundtrack.

We don't have nearly all the footage, but what we do have is a gift.

♪ [static] On quiet stretches of road, Chuck began finding moments where he could ask riders for their thoughts about the trip, [upbeat music] and for whatever reason, this is the only one that we have on tape.

[upbeat music continues] - [Chuck] Get right up in front of him, and then stop.

Turn the radio off.

That's perfect.

Talk to me, Tracey.

- Hey, Chuck.

- [Chuck] What's biking cross country meant to you this summer, Tracey?

- A lot.

Getting to see the country.

Talk to people on the trip.

Relationships we're building.

And just, it's been a lot of fun, really.

- [Chuck] Has it?

[bright music] - [Paul] I can't say Tracey and I became great friends on the ride.

We seldom rode together.

But he was almost always smiling and laughing.

When the Spokesmen began to find each other in 2012 for the 30th anniversary of the ride, that's when we heard a sketch of Tracey's life after the ride from his sister.

And Tracey's story was something that none of us Spokesmen knew anything about.

So here I am in the front yard of Tracey's house.

His bike is on display on the front steps, and a flag waves in Tracey's memory.

[bright music continues] - This is Tracey's bike that he rode across the country, and I'm going to restore it.

It's been packed up in our basement, which was not a good place for it, so Tracey wouldn't be too happy with us.

[laughs] But I will restore it.

[melancholy music] - Tracey was this pudgy, you know, teenage kid, and I remember the look on his mom's face when they came to pick him up, and just kinda like, "Whoa!

", 'cause the kid lost 40 pounds, and you know, he got into really good shape.

- I didn't recognize him when he was riding up on the bike.

I said, "Oh my goodness, that's Tracey!

He has changed so much!"

I was just so proud of him, and I was so happy.

- [Paul] Tracey's transformation that summer was more visible than many others, and rode as diligently and joyfully as anyone.

But somewhere in Kansas he'd had enough, and told Chuck he was going home.

- The only thing that worried me was when Tracey halfway, you know, wanted to turn in and go home, and he was gonna join the Marines.

We all encouraged him, and Chuck had a nice talk with him, and he finished it.

No one dropped out, and we had a sag wagon for that very reason.

- He went from a boy to a man, and he didn't look the same.

I mean, he didn't act the same.

It changed him.

You know, his whole life changed after that.

He was more confident.

He did a lotta stuff for other people.

He really tried to encourage other people to be the best they could be also.

So it really changed his life.

- [Paul] Tracey joined the Navy right out of high school, and was quickly trained in Spanish linguistics at a specialized unit in California.

He gained high security clearance, and was then stationed in Panama, listening in to the US government's surveillance of dictator Manuel Noriega, which ultimately brought him to justice.

And somewhere on that path, he came to understand himself more clearly.

- We didn't know he was gay or bisexual.

And he said he was bisexual.

That's what he was.

We didn't know that until he came back from the Navy.

He had gone to Panama, and he was supposed to stay there for three years, and it had not been three years.

I asked him, I said, "Tracey, are you gonna tell me what's wrong, or are you gonna worry me to death?"

He told me, he said, "Mom, I'm HIV positive."

And I said, "Oh my God, you're gonna die."

He said, "No, Mom, I'm not dying.

I'm gonna live with it."

He said, "I'm gonna speak out about AIDS.

I'm going to join the local Alliance.

We're gonna put it together."

I told my kids and my family, "I'm standing with Tracey.

Whatever he needs to do, I'm gonna be right there with him."

He spoke at all the schools.

He went into churches and he put a face with it.

The last place he went was his high school, and I went with him.

And they ask him, the kids ask him, "Are you gay?"

And he said, "I am bisexual."

And a lot of people would say that's gay.

And he said, "The reason I'm telling you this, if I don't tell you the truth about this, will you believe me that AIDS is killing people?"

And they tested a bunch of kids at that school, and there was a bunch that had AIDS after that.

They never would let anybody else come back and talk about AIDS.

[melancholy music continues] They said, "Are you not afraid?"

I said, "You know what, I'm more afraid of ignorance, that I might catch that."

I'm not afraid to stand for what I believe in.

- [Paul] Through his connections with the Navy, Tracey volunteered to be on the highly-experimental antiviral treatments that were in development during the early 1990s, but they would not prove effective for him, not soon enough, and he died in 1994, surrounded by his friends and family.

[melancholy music continues] - He never gave up till his body just shut down on him.

And it was a hard death.

People have no clue.

[melancholy music continues] But after that, after he crossed, my husband and my son both changed.

They started looking at people for who they were.

And my son said it his memorial, he took two bigot men and turned them into human beings.

- So, I think he came here to help change the way we looked at things and the way we did things, and that was his gift to us.

When I did his celebration of life, the whole area was filled with people.

We celebrated his life and what he stood for and what he did.

We were sad.

We were sad, and we're still sad.

But we know he lived every moment of his life.

[melancholy music continues] [melancholy music continues] - [Rider] Hi, Mom!

[group chattering] - [Rider] This gets very boring.

[group chattering] ♪ I love pain ♪ ♪ I love Greek music ♪ - We were riding in Missouri, and I always called it Misery, ["Tainted Love" by Soft Cell plays] because it seemed like most of the bad stuff that happened to us, as far as people being rude to us for some reason, happened in Missouri.

♪ Sometimes I feel I've got to run away ♪ Somebody threw an ice ball at, it was either Craig Wolfe or Rodney Harwood.

One of those two, somebody threw an ice ball at him and missed him.

It barely missed him.

Somebody else threw a tennis ball coming the other way, and it hit Craig Chiofalo right on the helmet.

And then, as we go through, getting close to St. Louis, somewhere around there, Doug Cornette's mirror got hit by a tuna fish sandwich.

All you could do is laugh.

I mean, you got mad, but for some reason, because it was a tuna fish sandwich, it was really funny.

- We got hit by everything on that trip, I'm sure.

We got a chicken bone, throwing beer at us, yelling, hitting us with their hands, the women flashing their breast at us.

- I can still picture the bridge and the pickup truck.

A young lady goes by, and she's hanging out of the truck.

- Drove by, and the shirt came up.

- And she says, "Look at these!"

- And she zipped by, and I'm like, "Whoo!

"Okay, that was the coolest thing ever!"

- We pedaled a little faster for at least a few miles that day.

- The only time that I ever felt threatened, me, George, Randall, and Scott were riding together, and somebody rode by and hit Randall in the back of the head with a shoe or a boot or something.

- I got hit with something, and I didn't like it.

- He let some words fly and some gestures, and the guy pulled off the road.

So there's three adults in the vehicle here not acting like adults.

And Randall still, he would not back down.

I mean, they were bumping chest and fussing and cussing.

Like, oh my gosh.

Randall took the pump off his bicycle, and he pointed at the guy.

The guy ripped it out of his hand and broke it over his knee.

- And as we sit there, "Okay, well, let's go now.

Bye."

[chuckles] Poor Randy.

But I don't know, Randy was making a stand.

I give him credit.

I didn't even make a stand.

- Well, I couldn't believe when he took the thing, and he just slammed it, like, he broke it.

And I was like, "Oh God.

Now what?"

♪ - That was the only time I got nervous, 'cause I didn't know where that was going.

- These guys threw a shoe at him, and they were in a pickup truck.

I wasn't gonna let that happen and then get away with it.

These guys were obviously not too intelligent, because you ride about seven or eight more miles, and there's their truck, and it was parked, and they'd gone fishing, or something like that.

Well, I promptly relieved myself in their truck.

I #*#*#*#*#*#* all over that seat, and I didn't care.

It's payback.

- [Paul] Specific places and things that stand out to you when you think about that summer?

["Run Like Hell by Pink Floyd plays] - The first one that comes to my mind that I've told my kids about a million times is the rope swing.

♪ I rode across the bridge, and then I heard shouting and yelling down to my right, and I saw that it was a group of us.

- I just remember that we were all just swinging on the rope swing.

Everyone was taking turns.

- Chuck says, "Okay, I'm gonna give this a go, too.

But he didn't follow the rules, and he didn't let go.

- I remember looking up at him when he swung out, and he had ♪ the most terrified look on his face.

Just made like he froze.

- He did the "George of the Jungle" thing and didn't let go of the rope.

- We kept saying, "Drop, drop!

Let go!"

And he didn't, and came slamming back into the tree.

He was a stout, strong guy, and man, he just bounced.

- I'll never forget that sound.

I felt like I heard his ribs breaking.

- I just remember how quickly it went from an incredible time to a, "Oh my God!"

♪ - I think that's the first point where I felt where he wasn't a military superhero looking guy.

- I think he broke a couple of ribs, and he didn't let it slow him down.

- He took a licking and kept on ticking.

He rode a little bit slower, but I remember him always just grinding it out.

- He told me that, "I don't know why I didn't let go, but I slammed in a tree, and I think I've cracked a couple of ribs, and I've been peeing blood."

And I said, "Chuck, that sounds really serious.

You might wanna go see, you know, see somebody about that and get checked out."

He said, "We can't.

I don't have time.

We gotta keep going."

♪ run, run, run, run ♪ - He was real, real tough and demanding about how things came out.

♪ Chuck, to me, was up on a pedestal.

I always felt like he kinda looked out for me.

It was almost to me like he was maybe sort of a father figure, which is kinda strange, 'cause I know he wasn't that much older than me.

But I just felt like he could do anything.

He could do anything.

So he hit that tree and I'm like, whew.

[pensive music] I was glad to have him in my life.

He was somebody that I thought would always be there.

[ominous music] ♪ - [Paul] The pain Chuck felt from his rib injury on the rope swing seemed to push him into seclusion at times.

And by now, many of us were seeing Chuck as a leader who was struggling to hold the group together, and we faced a much more complex network of roads and turns.

Did you hear Chuck talk about the trip?

He was pretty stressed out in a few places.

- Who wasn't?

I mean, organizing us, I mean, St. Louis.

You know, there were multiple occasions where, you know, you coulda lost a kid.

You coulda lost several kids.

I mean, every day was like that.

["The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats plays] ♪ I mean, we joked around, and we'll talk about how many 18-wheelers we could've touched with our elbows, or, you know, the close calls we had.

The ones we were talking about are minuscule compared to what we actually experienced, every one of us.

♪ It was not like we were all riding in one little neat pack where you can keep track of everybody.

You got kids strewn out over 30 miles, ♪ safety dance ♪ and he's responsible for that.

♪ It's not like we had GPS on us.

We're somewhere along this route, he's hoping.

♪ We can dance if we want to ♪ ♪ We can leave your friends behind ♪ ♪ 'Cause your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance ♪ ♪ Well, they're no friends of mine ♪ - I can remember coming into St. Louis, where two very large interstates kinda merged, and we were right there in the middle.

♪ and we can dance ♪ ♪ That scared me to death.

["The Safety Dance" continues] ♪ - 18-wheelers trying to get as close to us as they could.

Like, "Get outta my highway."

Somebody in a Corvette slamming their brakes on, and tires screeching, you know, right beside us just as scare us.

And they'd ride faster and do it to the next group ahead of us, you know, wherever we were.

♪ And I tell you what, that really made me aware of cyclists, and obviously, to this day, you know, keeping an eye on them, because I know what it's like, and you won't forget it when you've experienced it.

♪ - I was riding with George and Craig that day, ♪ and apparently someone had reported three bikers being out on the highway.

As we were coming into St. Louis, there was this police officer, and when he saw three teenagers on bicycles, you could see the disappointment in his eyes.

♪ S-A-F-E-T-Y ♪ We explained the trip, and we asked for directions to the hotel.

We told him where we're staying.

He wouldn't let us ride on our own.

He said, "No, I'm gonna have to escort you to town."

We show up in a police car, and everybody's looking at us.

"What have they done now?"

♪ - Imagine that today.

Okay, wait a second time out.

♪ Something in the planning here is not going perfect.

["Save It for Later" by the English Beat plays] - [Paul] July 27th, St. Louis.

I'm here.

It's great, too.

We rode about 75 miles today, and the last 40, you wouldn't believe it.

Me and Mike Uhrich, we were going, I have never gone that fast through a city before.

It was amazing.

Through traffic and everything, just flying.

It was fun.

♪ - There was different things that happened in St. Louis.

♪ Randall had gotten hold of some fireworks.

We were setting those off on the roof one night.

There were stories of somebody jumping out of the the second-floor window into the pool.

I wasn't involved in that one, but I was on the window ledge on the street side.

And it was just all fun and games at the time.

Again, you know, at that age, nobody thinks about the consequences, how dangerous it is.

You know, we're all invincible at 14.

♪ but what can you do?

♪ - I think we had a day off, didn't we?

St. Louis, we had a day off, so we did some sightseeing, went up to the, the Arc, Arch.

Arc, Arch?

Arch.

It's been a long time.

- My bike was down by the Arch.

Somebody tried to steal it.

I had to go and run 'em off.

Crazy, crazy things you remember.

- They had a McDonald's that was on a riverboat right there by the Arch.

- We went up to the top, and it was swaying, and I'm thinking, "We're all gonna die here."

♪ Let me down ♪ ♪ Run away, run way ♪ ♪ Let me down ♪ - Something else that struck me in St. Louis was a day to kind of be by myself.

And I went to the Archway Museum.

Then, you know, it had a pretty strong Manifest Destiny, "This is the gateway to the West," right?

And it had the whole look and feel, and all of the American mythology of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

And it really struck me then, after my experience in the Navajo country, that every one of those states, every one of those Indian wars, every one of those battles, every acre, for the most part, [pensive music] was stolen.

These are the things that you do think about over time and even distance from that experience.

♪ You know, you wanna be a proud American, and somewhere like that, with the Arch, and the coolness of that monument, ♪ that was one of those bittersweet moments where you realize that kinda of the mythology that you've been hearing your whole life may not jive completely as heroically as it does for the American story.

["867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone plays] ♪ ♪ Hey!

♪ ♪ ♪ Jenny Jenny ♪ Darlene was one of our adult leaders, and she was a triathlete.

She went out for a run and, you know, like, she's not getting enough exercise on the bike.

[laughs] And so she's out running, and she meets some people with the St. Louis Cardinals.

- I think I had a Coast to Coast shirt on, and you know, I started chatting, and I said, "What do you do?

And, "Oh, I'm the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, and I'm the this, and I'm the that."

- And they invite all of us to a game.

["Star-Spangled Banner"] [crowd cheering] Awesome seats.

You know, good game.

Seven to five.

The Cardinals won.

[crowd cheering] ♪ - We were on the big, well, back then, the mini Jumbo.

"Welcome to the Coast to Coast '82 MS bike ride individuals."

And it was like, "Oh, well, look, and here we are.

I think I got a picture of it, too.

["867-5309/Jenny" continues] - As it played out, the Cardinals won the World Series that year, so we saw the World Series-winning St. Louis Cardinals in 1982 that night.

♪ "I'm really looking forward to getting home.

It's been great, but my mind is turning to more familiar things and people, girls."

At this point in the trip, I was really kinda homesick.

[bright music] And Chuck wanted to delay another day in St. Louis.

We had this fight in the elevator.

And I was like, "Chuck, why are we staying another day?"

He was like, "Well, we voted to stay another day."

I was like, "I know why, but I wanna get going home.

It's time to go home.

It's time to ride home."

He was just like, "Well, I'm in charge."

And I'm like, "Yeah, you suck."

And you know, that was me just being 16, being a jerk, and him, he was doing his job, and I was being a 16-year-old wanting to ride home.

And honestly, after that, I mean, Chuck and I didn't talk much the rest of the trip.

I would like to think that if we could sit down now and talk, that we'd laugh about that, and I would admit to being, you know, a homesick 16-year-old, kinda arrogant, I have to be first rider kinda guy, and he would say, "Yeah."

I would've liked to have made amends, I guess, with him.

I guess I wanted to tell him I was sorry, but that's not possible, and Chuck and I never had that conversation.

Something I didn't know then was that Mike Simone had checked himself into a hospital.

Chuck was probably buying him some time just to get better so he could ride.

When you're 16, you know, your whole world revolves around you.

I learned a lot about selfishness that summer.

- The phone rings, and it was, I think it was late at night.

And Chuck just said, you know, "Mike's not doing well.

We've had to stop.

He's been in the SAG wagon for a little bit, and now he's getting more meds," and things like that.

And I just said, "Well, these little things that happened.

It happens all the time with Mike.

He knows how to handle that, and so let him handle it, and it'll be okay."

That's what I did.

- [Paul] We left St. Louis with some renewed enthusiasm.

I got over my homesickness for the time being, and we blazed through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, finding ourselves deep in the heart of America.

["Jack & Diane" by John Mellencamp plays] ♪ ♪ ♪ Music and nostalgia and memories are all kinda wrapped into one, and that's a powerful combination.

♪ Two American kids ♪ John Cougar Mellencamp, I mean, he crystallized the poetry of our whole summer right there.

♪ "Hold on to 16 as long as long as you can.

Changes come around real soon, make us women and men."

I had been singing that song, at the top of my lungs, occasionally, while we were riding.

- Paul Bonesteel, no matter what, pedaling along in those red bicycle tights.

♪ Oh yeah, life goes on ♪ And everybody's like, "Shut up, Paul!"

So then he just sang it louder.

♪ Oh yeah ♪ And I'm like, "Dammit, Paul!

You got me singing that song!"

But it was an awesome song.

♪ They walk on ♪ - "July 21st.

Well, I've watched the music channel all day.

Today, it ended up 93 miles, incredibly hilly.

We rode about 75 miles.

Well, a 100 miles tomorrow.

All of a sudden, this deer jumped out of the road right in front of me.

I thought for a while I had taken a wrong turn.

I never thought I'd be here in some lady's yard in Collins, Missouri.

We rode about 65 miles today, and got really into the Ozarks.

We slept on a classroom floor at the college last night.

I drafted a tractor.

Two McChickens, a Big Mac, two large fries, and two pies.

The busiest road for trucks there is in the United States.

Chuck, our, quote, 'leader,' had an accident when he hit a tree.

I melted my retainers this morning by accident.

Randy will pick up anything, and has his whole bike full of junk.

We're going to a ballgame tonight.

I ate four hot dogs, and a Coke.

The maid came to the door and knocked, and John Patterson yelled, "Go away or I'll kill you!

", and she ran away.

I'll write more tomorrow.

I hope so.

Bye."

♪ ♪ Gonna let it rock ♪ ♪ Let it roll ♪ ♪ Let the Bible Belt come and save my soul ♪ ♪ Hold on to 16 as long as you can ♪ ♪ Change is coming 'round real soon ♪ ♪ Make us women and men ♪ - I just remember it being the most wonderful experience I've ever had.

And that was my senior year, and it's influenced my whole life.

- That kinda traveling, it's not about the destination.

It's more about the journey itself.

♪ - It wasn't easy, but it was determination, I think, wanting to finish the task that we undertook.

♪ of living is gone ♪ - It's kind of unknown what happens next in life, but we know it's really valuable.

We know that it gives confidence to do other things in life.

- When I look at other people and what they're struggling with, they don't have what I have because of that trip.

I know you can do hard things, and you just keep going, you know, pedaling, no matter what is in front of you, whatever headwind or... You just keep on going.

♪ - [Paul] This was a moment to really just live life to the fullest, and we felt it.

You knew the trip was going to end at some point.

[music stops] ["Ride Like the Wind" by Christopher Cross plays] ♪ ♪ So I ride like the wind ♪ ♪ Ride like the wind ♪ ♪ I was born the son ♪ [music stops] [horn honking] - "We rode 97 miles from Seymour to Cincinnati, and I got here about five o'clock.

We came through town during rush hour, and it was insanity, and we almost died on the freeways around the city.

We finally got to the Best Western.

We ate Domino's pizza last night, and then we hit the sack."

[pensive music] - [Mike] "12:20 PM in a laundromat in Cincinnati.

August 3rd, 1982.

I'm writing now, and observing the habits and actions of others.

The kind of people you see in a laundromat varies.

There's a little black boy with his mother.

He's a nice kid, or so it seems.

I feel for him, living in such a big city, still naive of how the world is.

A little old lady is doing her wash. She is so quaint and sweet.

People look at me but an instant.

For every day in their life, they've seen nothing but strangers.

I'm just one in the passing.

A black lady sits on a bench inside dining on a bag of cherries.

I wish I could get into her mind, and all of those in here, but first I must look into my own.

Not too far to DC.

Mike."

[engine revving] - [Paul] In Cincinnati, we refueled on sleep, pizza, and video games.

The end of the trip was in sight, but we had 500 miles to go yet, and Chuck was pressing us to be in Washington, DC on schedule, where he had big plans.

So we left Ohio and entered West Virginia, and a new challenge, the Appalachian Mountains, where some of us would end up in police stations and hospitals.

♪ Gonna ride like the wind ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Accused and tried and told to hang ♪ ♪ I was nowhere in sight when the church bells rang ♪ ♪ Never was the kind to do as I was told ♪ ♪ Gonna ride like the wind before I get old ♪ ♪ It is the night ♪ ♪ My body's weak ♪ ♪ I'm on the run ♪ ♪ No time to sleep ♪ ♪ I've got to ride ♪ ♪ Ride like the wind ♪ ♪ To be free again ♪ ♪ And I've got such a long way to go ♪ ♪ Such a long way to go ♪ ♪ To make it to the border of Mexico ♪ ♪ So I'll ride like the wind ♪ ♪ Ride like the wind ♪ - [Male Announcer] "Shadow of a Wheel" is made possible in part by Explore Asheville.

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