Kentucky Trail

Joe's Stories from the Road

for the month of November '05

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Nov 3 

Voting Rights, George Wallace, Rosa Parks

As I approached Selma I knew I had to visit the bridge where the Voting Rights marches had begun in 1965.  The African American community had tried several times within a span of a week to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to tell George Wallace’s state government that it demanded the same rights to vote that the rest of America had at the time.  After several failed starts, it finally went on.  Before the marchers got to Montgomery more than 25,000 people had joined them.  A lot of whites had joined in the march, also.  The State Police beat many people but the march was a success.  Shortly afterward, President Lyndon Johnson got the Voting Rights Act passed in Congress.  Rocinante and I rode to the Edmund Pettus Bridge as soon as we arrived in Selma and visited the Voting Rights Museum.  I bought some books and old newspaper clippings of that time to share with the children in Eastern Kentucky.

My next stop was Prattville, Alabama, where I visited with my good friend, Mable Ward and her daughter Wanda.  The visit was short since I was behind on my schedule but I did have a great visit and they bought me a wonderful southern lunch.  Mable’s husband, Everett, who was a Chief Master Sergeant when I was at Vandenberg, taught me how to water-ski.  If it had not been for him I would not have been able to ski behind the flying airplane with Tex McClatchy at Lake Powell in 67.  We took some photographs and then I was on my way again. 

This time it was the capitol building in Montgomery.  In 1967, as I was approaching the Capitol Building, a TV news reporter stopped me for an interview.  He became so interested in what I was doing he asked me if I would like to meet Governor George Wallace.  Of course I would.  He took me down to the cafeteria where the Governor was having lunch with some workers.  We were introduced and then the Governor got up and walked me down to a door at the end of the hallway.  After unlocking the door we walked upstairs and came out into the beautiful Governor’s office.  We talked about the bicycle trip and his bid for running for President.  All the time I was calling him Governor- thinking that he was the Governor.  When I looked down at the sign on the huge desk, it read  “LURLENE WALLACE  GOVERNOR  OF ALABAMA.”  I then realized that his wife was actually the elected Governor.  But he was really the governor.

A week after I left the Capitol my mother in Kentucky received an autographed photo of George and another of Governor Lurlene Wallace.  There was a nice letter from Mrs. Wallace saying that George had told her of my visit and that she was sorry that she did not get to meet me.  Three to four weeks later I learned by newspaper article that Mrs. Wallace had died of cancer.

This time, I was going to visit the Capitol Building again.  As I was approaching the Montgomery area I learned that Civil Rights Leader Rosa Parks had died.  In 1986 I had the privilege of meeting and talking to Mrs. Rosa in New York City when she and I received the first Ellis Island Medals of Honor.  She was a shy but very gracious and classy lady.   

Progress.

At the Capitol Building this time I photographed the bronze star on the front steps where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America.  Then I photographed a bronze statue of Jefferson Davis with the flags atop the Capitol Building flying in the background above Davis’s head.  Very ironic.  The United States flag and the Alabama flag were flying at half-staff in honor of Rosa Parks.  

Honor Guard and casket of Mrs. Parks.

No one could have planned what happened to me the next morning.  I rode Rocinante down through the city toward highway 231 where I would turn to go on to Dothan and Tallahassee.  My next stop was the St Pauls AME Church where Rosa Parks would soon lie in state for two days and nights.  I rode to the church and leaned Rocinante against a shade tree and waited for the funeral procession.  It is incredible that I could be at that place in this great country after over 8,000 miles on a bicycle- on that day.  I stood with several hundred others who had come to pay their respects to a great American.  Soon the horse drawn hearse came into view up the street.  A drum beat softly and several hundred people walked behind the hearse.  I took a lot of photographs as the hearse turned into the church lot.  I was observing and participating in an incredible piece of American History.  As the horses came to a stop, I watched the military men and women quietly remove the casket from the glassed-in hearse.  A restored Cleveland Street city bus that Rosa had sat in when she refused to get up and give her seat to a white man sat in the background to remind us all what had taken place in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.   Awesome my friends, Awesome. What a blessing that I could be there for Rosa Parks’ memorial service and see her taken to her people.

Restored Cleveland Ave. bus. Symbol of the Civil Rights movement.

Nov 11

People on the Trip

On this bicycle trip, as on any trip, one sees a lot of interesting and unusual places.  Most are beautiful and awesome.  But the real joy is the people that show up in your life.  Let me tell you about some people that have shown up again in my life and also about some new folks.

Old timers first.  As I was crossing Mississippi I got a call from my nephew Steven Bowen and his wife Stephanie.  They informed me that they had been on vacation in Florida but were now on their way home.  They wanted to connect up with me.  They finally found me resting under the welcome sign for the city of Demopolis, Alabama.  They had gone from Florida to Mississippi and then back to Alabama to find me.  It was great seeing them and they took me out to dinner.  Steven is my nephew who wrote an article about me and the bicycle trip for The Kentucky Explorer magazine. Thanks Steven and Stephanie

When I was crossing Texas I got an email from a gentleman named Bill Carpenter.  He found my address in the article that my nephew had written for the Kentucky Explorer magazine.  In his email Mr. Carpenter said that the Kentucky Explorer was his other bible.  Let me explain.  Brother Bill Carpenter and his wife were our pastors at the Bowen Church when I was in high school.  So he kinda helped raise me in a good way.  His influence helped me stay straight.  While I was in the Air Force, Bill was called to work for a church in Florida.  I had not seen him in over forty years.  In his email he told me that my route on the website had me going through his new town, Perry, Florida, and that he wanted me to stop and stay the night with them.  I emailed him several times on my way across the South.  I did stop and stay the night.  We enjoyed talking about old times in Eastern Kentucky.  I also spoke to his church group. Bill and Omalene are wonderful people. Thank you, folks, for great food, family, and friendship. 

As I approached Florida I got an email from a fellow named Mel in Michigan.  He learned about the second bicycle trip in an article in the League of American Bicyclists magazine.  Mel told me that he and a friend, Dwight, now of St. Augustine, Florida, had met me in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the spring of ‘68 when I was on the first bicycle trip.  He remembered details.  He said that when we talked that I mentioned that I would like someday to become the Governor of Kentucky.  He also said that he and Dwight bought me a piece of pie with ice cream and coffee and that we talked for an hour or more about many things.  Dwight is one year younger than me and Mel is one year older.  Both men had gone on to become college professors.  When I arrived in St. Augustine I had a great visit with Dwight and his lovely wife.  This winter, I am meeting Mel in Berea, Kentucky, to talk old times.  When I go through Gatlinburg this spring on the bicycle both Professors are going to meet me there.  They have assured me that I can expect pie with ice cream and coffee again.  I was kinda thinking more in the line of a good steak dinner.  We will see.  Hey, men, it was great of you to befriend me way back then and then really special for you to be a part of the second bicycle trip as well.

Next I met three really great young men.  As I was eating lunch in a Folkston, Georgia, restaurant I looked out the window and saw three young men riding up on their packed bicycles.  They were obviously doing some real bicycling.  As they reined their steeds, smiles spread across their faces as they spotted Rocinante leaned against the wall.  Then they looked inside and saw this old guy smiling back at them.  We had a bicycle conversation of epic proportions.   These were great young men and I’m so proud of them.  They told me they were from Pennsylvania and had ridden 1200 miles so far.  They were going to southern Florida and then taking Amtrak back home.  The young men were Sam Fisher, Bennie King, Jr., and Daniel Beiler.  They were 16, 18 and 19 years old.  If these are the kind of young men that America is bringing up we are going to be in good hands.  It was refreshing to see these young men with incredible attitudes and wonderful spirits.  Their parents, who had been nervous about them taking such a trip, can be proud to call them their sons.  My hat’s off to the young men, their parents, and their communities.  It was great talking to you.  Ride on and do it more than once.  It is good for you. Please write us and tell of your adventures.

Nov 20

President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter

I was getting excited about getting home to my family in Kentucky.  I had one more special stop to make before going home.  Several times during the last two years I had written the Carter Center in Atlanta to see if maybe I could get just a few minutes with former President Jimmy Carter.  Each time I received a form letter informing me that it was impossible since they get so many such requests.  Both Janine and David Musser, from the AHA, had written a couple of times requesting the same thing and received the same results.

Even though I had been turned down I still wanted to ride to Plains, Georgia, and see where Jimmy Carter called home.  Nightfall came and I had made it to Americus so I stayed the night.  Plains was a short ten miles away.  In Americus, at supper, I picked up a copy of the local newspaper. There was a story saying the National Park Service was hosting a bicycle rally the next morning starting at the Plains High school where Jimmy and Rosalyn had gone to school.  At ten o’clock the next morning I was at the high school to attend the bicycle rally. 

(editor’s note: It is worth noting that on Joe’s second day off since leaving Phoenix, AZ, he chooses to go on a bicycle rally.)

I was the only bicyclist that showed up.  I told the two Park Rangers that they didn’t have to escort me to all of the Jimmy and Rosalynn highlights.  I could bicycle it by myself.  But they insisted that they would ride with me.  So off we rode to visit the Carter’s hometown. 

We pedaled to the visitor’s pullover at the Carter home. As the Rangers described the area, a dark SUV pulled out of the driveway.  One of the Rangers said, “We know where he is going.”  “Well, take me there, if you don’t mind”. “Follow us,” one replied.

Down the street a short distance and around a couple of corners we stopped in front of the Boys and Girls Club of Plains.  A Secret Service man was walking toward us.  I asked him if I could go into the building if the President was in there.  He answered,  “Sure.  It is a free country. But the President is not in there. But he will be here in just a few minutes.”   “When he gets here, do you think he would take a minute to meet me?” I asked.  “We can probably make that happen.” He said while walking away. 

The Secret Service man was talking as he walked away.  It looked like he was talking to himself but I guess he had a hidden microphone. In just a few minutes another dark SUV pulled up and stopped just across the street from where we were standing with our bicycles.   Rosalynn got out on our side of the SUV and walked straight over to me. I reached out to hug her and she hugged me back.  President Carter, with a Secret Service man, walked around the SUV from the other side and came over and talked to me for several minutes.  They wanted to know where I had been. I showed them a small map of the US with my route on it that I keep with me.  I gave both of the Secret Service men my cameras and they walked around us and took several photos while we talked.

I have raised $60,000 to build a statue of former Kentucky Governor Bert T Combs.  Governor Combs had worked for President Carter as a legal council on the SALT talks. And, Governor Combs lived in my hometown and was the only governor in recent history that had ever done anything for Eastern Kentucky.  I asked President Carter if he would come to Kentucky after the bicycle trip was over to unveil Governor Combs’ statue.  President Carter told me that he tries to stay away from those types of events.  So even though I got a “NO,” I did get to ask him.  President Carter and Rosalynn went into the Boys and Girls Club while the Park Rangers and I continued our tour of Plains.

Later that afternoon the National Park Service people invited me to the annual dinner for the Plains preservation organization.  In the meantime, my brother in law, Jimmy Goodman, surprised me by coming to Plains to spend a couple of days with me. We rode our bicycles to downtown Plains to visit some of the shops and send all the Kentucky and Indiana families Peanuts from Plains.  A man from New York pulled up with a seven-passenger tricycle on his trailer.  He unloaded it and asked us if we would like to ride.  Sure. So we got on the contraption with him and four other people.  We rode around the block a few times. When we stopped, I tried to get other people to take a ride with us. Suddenly, the dark SUV pulled up in front of us and President Carter and Rosalynn got out and walked over to us.  The owner asked the president if he would like to ride with us and told him that he could drive.  So, President Carter and Rosalynn climbed on the seven-passenger tricycle and we rode around the block in Plains.  I can honestly say that the former President of the United States, along with the First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, rode with me on part of my 14,000-mile bicycle trip.

About an hour later I walked into the hall for the invitation-only dinner and to my surprise President Carter and Rosalynn were there, too.  I got in line behind President Carter.  I waited until he got down the line a few feet and then took a photo of the former President, dressed in jeans, pull-over shirt and work shoes, filling up his paper plate just like everyone else.

After we had finished eating, a lady with the National Parks Service walked to the podium and started talking.  “Tonight we have a distinguished guest with us.”  I am thinking, “We sure do, the President of the United States.”  The National Parks spokesman went on, “In October the parks service sponsored a bicycle rally and only two bicyclists showed up,  President and Mrs. Carter.  We had such a good turnout in October we decided we would have another bicycle rally in November.  So this morning we had our rally and only one bicyclist showed up and he had ridden almost 9,000 miles to get here.”  At that time she introduced me and asked me to stand up.  Wow! -being a distinguished guest when a former president and first lady is in the crowd.  That has got to be the ultimate compliment of all the bicycle trips that I will ever take.  Thanks to the great people at the Jimmy Carter National Park. 

The next morning I attended the Sunday School Class that President Carter teaches.  And he is a good teacher. After the class and church service President Carter goes outside the church and permits anyone who wants to have their photo taken with him.  I had already had photos taken of me with him talking in the street and several photos of us riding on the seven-passenger tricycle.  Then at church I got in line to get a photo of us after church.  While I was standing with my hand on his shoulder he punched me slightly in the side and asked,  “Do you think you have enough photos yet?”  Mr. President Carter, you have been my hero since you ran for President and then you really became my hero when you and Mrs. Carter got out of the car and walked down the street hand in hand during your inaugural parade.  And President Carter, I read your new book on Endangered Values while I was in Plains.  Everyone in this country should read your book.  We all must be engaged in our communities and country.  And thank you for reminding us to not forget that. 

President Jimmy Carter

Nov 30

Butterflies, Home for the Winter

I left Plains, Georgia, feeling pretty good.  And I was excited about heading back home to be with my family.  As I was approaching Atlanta I realized that Atlanta was not a bicycle friendly city.  There was just no good way for me to get into downtown Atlanta on a bicycle.  All of the roads that I tried were miserable for a bicyclist.  Late afternoon, a car clipped my rear view mirror and broke it out.  It did not cause me to swerve but it made me very nervous.  I started looking again on the maps for a better highway.  I found a motel and bedded down for the night.  The next morning I was eating breakfast before daylight.  I wanted to see the Carter Library and Martin Luther King Center and then get on northward out of the big city.

I got on the highway as the sun was touching the tops of the large trees.  The temperature had dropped to 24 degrees during the night.  I knew I wouldn’t see any butterflies today.  If you have read back to when I started the trip, you know how important butterflies are to me- even when I was a young boy.  Butterflies showing up in my life are a reminder to me that God would watch out for me and that everything would be okay.  During the bicycle trip I have seen hundreds of butterflies. On the front bag of my bicycle, leading the way, are decals of three butterflies.  One was given to me by the Inn Keeper in Plains.  So, this particular morning I knew that I would not see a butterfly because it was below freezing.  And a butterfly can’t maneuver in freezing weather.

I had not been on the highway five minutes when I saw a huge billboard up the road.  It was one of those fancy billboards with lights and louvers. As the louvers change, the sign displays a new image.  When I first looked up I saw a new car model being advertised.  Slowly the louvers began to change.  There before me was a 24 foot long and 8 foot tall Monarch butterfly.  A tear rolled down my cheek.  God can show you a butterfly even when the temperature is to cold for them to fly.

A few more days and I was in Cleveland, Tennessee.  My wife, Barbara, and two of my grandsons, Caleb and Caden Crabtree, met me in Cleveland and we spent the weekend with Caleb and I riding over the mountain in Smoky Mountain National Park.  It was awesome being with Barbara again.  She and I had a lot a catching up to do.  When I was home we got our gardening caught up and planted some more shrubs around our getaway which is an old barn with 1100 feet of living space in it.  Barbara, thank you for being such an awesome woman and trying to understand why I have to do this 14,000 mile bicycle trip again.

I have enjoyed a great winter with my family and with David and Janine Musser visiting schools from Eastern Kentucky to Louisville.  It has been great being in the classroom with the school children that I have been talking to while on the trip.  And all the schools have been decorated with maps and photos of the big bicycle trip.  Hey kids and teachers- you don’t know how sweet it is to see all those posters and photos after being on the road so long.  It was great visiting with you and I look forward to taking you along for the rest of the trip.  Another 4,300 miles.

Gov. Bert T. Combs

The artist, Raymond Graf, had the artwork completed on the Bert T. Combs statue and Barbara, Sara Combs and several friends drove to Louisville to see it.  Later, we also took Governor Combs’ daughter, Lois, to see the artwork.  Everyone agreed that Raymond had captured the very spirit and soul of  our beloved Governor Combs in his clay art work.  It has now been sent to the foundry to be poured in bronze.  Shortly after the bicycle trip we will have a great unveiling ceremony.

Ross, Caleb, Caden, Kyle, Shelby, Avery, Annell, Yousef, and Marlena- I love each one of you as an awesome grandchild and I want you to know that Papa Joe loves each one of you very much.

The people of Powell, Wolfe, Menifee, and Lee counties invite each of you to Eastern Kentucky on June 17 to be with us when we celebrate the ending of this bicycle odyssey.  On the last day of the trip many bicyclist and motorist will meander down the 45 mile long Red River Gorge National Scenic Byway and end the bicycle trip with a festival and a major bicycle race in Stanton, Kentucky. Please come join us.