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.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Boron to Calico

55 miles today (Monday, March 24, 2008). Lets see. Bakersfield to Tehachapi 38 miles, Tehachapi to Boron, 50 miles. Total so far 143, 'bout half way there. Rode with the "Speedy Boys" again today, but I'm trying to change the name to "Los Rapidos". I'm to old to be a "boy" and Tess, well she's just not a boy. So maybe Los Rapidos will stick, but who knows. I don't think I can keep up with them much longer any how.

I promised a picture of Tim and me so here ya go:Notice Kyle's mug in between us.



Pretty much down hill today except for a couple of stretches. The tough parts were a narrow bridge to get into Bakersfield and then climbing within the town itself. I was just beat. We jumped onto Interstate 40 and the pace line was going 30 mph. It was all I could do to hang on. A sign on the freeway directed us to get off, as in No Bicycles, so we got onto Route 66 parallel to the freeway. Travis got a flat on Route 66:Then Tess wanted a picture of her riding on Route 66:


Route 66 was a bit rolling and could use some repaving, but nothing compared to what was ahead for the next day. We did have to climb the last mile or two into Calico Ghost Town. I couldn't have gone another 100 yards. I finished with Luke and Tess, but it was all I had. The SAG crew provided hot dogs and beans for dinner and of course beer, for rehydration purposes.


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