Bart's Ride

Welcome. I'm Bart Rupel, husband, father of two great kids, and to make ends meet an engineer.

My son, Matt, was diagnosed in 2004 with Friedreich's Ataxia, or FA for convienence. FA is a progressive neuro-muscular disease that robs a person’s ability to coordinate their movements. This eventually leads to full time wheelchair use and…

There is hope though. Some very hard working people have gotten us close to finding a cure for FA. This effort is spearheaded by FARA.

In 2007, Kyle Bryant, a young man with FA rode his recumbant bicycle 2,400 miles to the annual national ataxia conference in Memphis, TN. Along the way he raised $40,000 and generated a lot of publicity.

In 2008, Kyle is going to ride 600 miles to the conference in Las Vegas, NV. I’ve decided to join him for half the ride, starting in Bakersfield, CA.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Bike instead of Car

I went to the coffee shop this morning and I didn't drive the car, I rode my bike. Round trip was 5-1/2 miles, not much but it's more than I would have done if I drove.

Until I broke my ankle surfing last summer, that's another story, I was a regular at a Saturday morning basketball game. After playing hoops we'd head off to a local coffee shop to BS for an hour before heading off to do whatever needs doing on a Saturday. I've been doing this for at least 7 years, maybe longer. Needless to say a broken ankle changed my participation.

The basketball guys have been very generous in supporting my ride and I wanted to stop by and chat. I was right there they were.

No map this time, got a busy Saturday, but at least I got a little bit of riding in and a cup of coffee.
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