Rider: Carroll Webber, Greenville, NC

My bikes were one-speeds through grade school and high school in a Jersey suburb and in Florida, and again as an undergraduate in southern California. Thanks for visiting! Please support my fundraising ride on the ECG. Please read the rest of this page, and click the "pledge" button to give online with a credit card.

My proudest college ride was a 150-mile mountain-desert circuit of the San Gabriel Mountains, climbing Cajon Pass by switching back and forth between left and right shoulders -- there was little traffic, what with gas rationing and the rubber shortage. I didn't understand those funny gadgets hanging on the chain by the back wheel of a few bikes that would swoosh by me. Well, one-speeds provided more exercise! Not until 1968 did I ride a bike with a derailleur. Before then, Edie and I mostly walked or drove as we raised our two daughters. Since then weve taken slow steps away from the I.C.E. until for the past 15 years we haven't owned an automobile. The summer of 1968 was a Giant Step, when we bought three bicycles in Madrid and, with 11-year old Eleanor, climbed the hill to Escorial and then launched ourselves without reservations, mostly staying at youth hostels and camping: Bilbao, Bordeaux, Tulle, Angers, St. Malo, Southampton, London, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Loch Lomond, Perth, Edinburgh, the Lake District, York, Dover, Bruges, Rotterdam, and the Hague (where we sold the bikes), pedaled except for the ferries, one long train carry (Newark-Dover), and five shorter carries. Total cost of the 88-day vacation was $435 each (including train from Amsterdam to Barcelona with Paris layover, then rental car Barcelona-Madrid), not including $235 airfare, and busfare NC to JFK.

In 1978 Edie and I discovered the Tandem Way. Since then, besides tours in N.C., we've tandemed from Missoula to Indianapolis, Greenville to and from New York City (twice), Montpelier to Norfolk, Greenville to Mobile and back, Lake Charles LA to Reynosa Mexico, and Boise to Corvallis. In 1985, on a comfortable used Jungherz we should've shipped home (not sold in Vienna), we pedaled about 1200 miles (with bus and train carries through the Alps) including Stuttgart, Geneva, Milan, Venice (hate those step-bridges!), Ljubljana, Zagreb, Budapest, and Vienna. I've done a lot of solo bicycling too. I hope you're not tired of reading and I'll sign off with three anecdotes and a summing up. In April 1997, cycling from New Orleans to Greenville, I slept in the rough by an Augusta National Golf Club fairway near my bike hidden in the woods; the next day Tiger Woods teed off toward his 12-shot first major win. In 1979 I bought a $50 bike at Sears in Chicago, assembled it with phone advice from Phyllis Harmon, and rode to Pittsburgh, selling it there for $25. In 1993, an hour after leaving a week's cross-England tour, our venerable tandem's frame broke in two; next day Alpha Welders in Suffolk responded to "If we ask you to braze it, how much would it cost?" with "We won't hurt ya!" and four hours later answered that question "It's on the house!" and wouldn't budge at my protest.

Walking/hiking is wonderful, especially in the Sierra Nevada (I need to renew my membership in the Pacific Crest Trail Association); climbing Grand Teton behind Norman Clyde was unforgettable; my short hikes on the A.T. and Long Trail have been big pleasures; a 5-week group walk from Aachen past Nuremberg was a high point of our lives. And cycling has enabled us to cover America's vast distances, during which we've made many new friends -- rescuing us from mosquitoes (SC), sharing their warm homemade bread (Italy) and pancakes (NC, MA), relaying the house key to us when out of town (Galveston -- we've not met her face-to-face yet!), leaving us as sole overnight custodian of his church (TX), on and on -- proving It's a Small World After All.

I'm 78, member of the League of American Bicyclists/Wheelmen since 1968, life member of American Youth Hostels, and member of NRDC and other environmental organizations.

The East Coast Greenway will offer millions of cyclists, old and new, their own unique adventures in a healthy, economical, and ecological way that is safe. Open to nonmotorized people of all ages and abilities, including walkers, skaters, skiers, wheelchair users, and equestrians, it will connect town to city, and homes to schools and workplaces. It will contribute mightily to community, arguably the greatest need of our troubled world today.

Please support this great trail with your tax-deductible donation (in my name) to ECGA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. You can donate online, by phone, or by sending a check directly to the ECGA.

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