Mother and Son Bicycle

‘From Tenn. to Texas’

By Martha Slater

The mother and son biking team of Ginny and Montana Bowman returned a few weeks ago from their second successful long-distance bicycle trip to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

During the summer of 2006, they completed an awe-inspiring coast-to-coast trek, biking 3,000 miles from California to Connecticut. This time, they pedaled from Tennessee to Texas, raising over $750 for the JDRF. They left Rochester April 11, flew to Nashville, Tenn., and began their ride from there on April 13.

Ginny, who has had diabetes for 39 years, has worked hard to manage her condition with diet and exercise, and biking is an important part of that routine.

"Everywhere we went, we met such interesting people!" Ginny said. "Like the man we met when we were on a back road, skirting Denton, Texas. We stopped at a fork in the road, and there was a man zipping along toward us in an electric wheelchair, who told us stories about when he worked in a brick factory. We also met a man who showed us the hot rod he was restoring."

In Aubrey, Texas ("the horse capitol of the U.S.") the Bowmans sampled some great Texas barbecue and stayed at a B & B found for them by a helpful municipal clerk.

"Whenever we stopped to take a break, people were so curious about us," she continued. "Our coast-to-coast trip was an introduction to this for me. So many people were moved by our signs and asked to make a donation. One lady stopped and dumped all the change out of her purse and gave it to us. I felt so privileged to be able to give them a chance to donate."

The Bowmans covered roughly 600 miles and the most they did in one day was 72 miles. They camped along the way, and also stayed in motels, at a church, and at the homes of people they met who invited them to stay. The spring weather in that area of the country can sometimes be wild, and this year has been a particularly active one for violent storms.

"We were basically threading a needle between various kinds of things," Montana explained. "All around us there had been flooding, baseball-sized hail, heavy rain…a tornado had gone through Fort Smith, Ark., the week before we got there."

They also encountered pea sized hail and bad headwinds in Missouri, which can be a problem when you’re hauling a big load.

"In Texas and Oklahoma we saw a lot of dead snakes, armadillos, turtles by the road, and one time a very large (live) snapping turtle," Ginny recalled. "Another time, I got off my bike and saved a box turtle by taking it across the road."

One thing they didn’t see was a lot of other bicyclists.

"I was surprised by the small number of other people biking," Montana said. He also noted that, "When we met people, none of the stereotypes we had heard about seemed to be true. We just met a lot of incredibly nice people!"

As he did on the previous trip, Montana, who is a freshman at Rochester High School, added to his extensive license plate collection, enlarging it by 43. He found a lot of them at salvage yards, and also met a man in Texas who gave him a special Purple Heart license plate he was entitled to use since he had been awarded a Purple Heart in Vietnam. He was also the thrilled recipient of a special native American license plate from the Muskogee Creek nation, given to him by Ed and Pat Tiger, whom he met in Oklahoma.

"On the last day of our trip, we were riding along and a man who saw our signs that said ‘From Tennessee to Texas,’ rolled down his window and hollered, ‘You’re in Texas now—you can stop!’"

The Bowmans finally did stop when they reached their destination in Arlington, Texas April 25, where they stayed with a former co-worker of Ginny’s, who met them at the end of his driveway with a "Finish Line" sign.

The Bowmans expect to give a photo and story presentation about their trip sometime soon (watch the Rochester section of The Herald for the details). Anyone who would like to add a donation to their effort is urged to send a check (made out to the JDRF) to them at PO Box 179, Rochester, Vt. 05767.

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