Beiers wrap up cross-country bicycle adventure

The father-and-son duo of Rick and Andrew Beier have completed their epic journey across the United States on bicycles, and even did it ahead of schedule. The trip, Rick Beier said, was an exciting adventure, coupled with a time of bonding the two will never forget.

“It was just fantastic,” Rick said. “It was just him and I on the road.”

With Andrew given the task of maintaining a journal of their trip via an online blog, the elder Beier said he was amazed by his son’s organizational skills and attention to detail.

After Rick Beier retired from his managerial position at Newton Hy-Vee last September, and with Andrew recently graduated from University of Northern Iowa, the two figured the time was right for a cross-country trip by bike. Andrew made most of the scheduling for the trip, mapping out their route to take advantage of the hotels, and averaging about 65 miles per day. Although the two carried their own camping gear, they never had to use it.

“Our goal was no camping out, just hotels, and we never had to break out the tents once,” Rick said. Still, the bikers had plenty of excitement along the way.

The Beiers left Astoria, Ore. on June 7, and traveled through Washington and Idaho into Montana where they had the excitement of encountering a grizzly bear along the road. Then through North and South Dakota and into Iowa, where they took a week off from riding, long enough to compete in the Iowa Games, winning medals in racquetball.

After resuming their ride, Andrew hit a pothole near North Liberty and took a header over his handlebars, jamming his front tire. Luckily, the nearest bike store, although closed when they arrived, had what they needed to make repairs.

“A friend of the owner saw us outside and called an employee who opened the shop for us,” Rick said. “That’s the kind of people we ran into again and again.”

Further east, the Beiers were dreading riding through Kentucky, because of the dogs.

“Our biggest fear going into the ride was the dogs, particularly in Kentucky,” Beier said. “In Kentucky, the houses are right next to the road, and everybody has a dog. We only encountered about a dozen dogs, though.”

At one point in Virginia, the bikers found themselves in backwoods with the road quickly running out and no people around. Beier said he was thinking about the movie Deliverance, and wanted to get back to some civilization quickly. Back on the Blue Ridge Parkway, they had to contend with the logging trucks, and Beier said those truckers don’t slow down much for cyclists, making for a few scary moments.

The Beiers wrapped up their odyssey 10 days earlier than scheduled in Yorktown, Virginia on August 11.

“Originally, we planned on riding five of every seven days, then we decided to just ride,” Rick said. “From Iowa on, we rode every day.”

Except for the day of his son’s accident and some possible rerouting off the heavily-traveled roads near the end of the ride, Rick said he wouldn’t change much about the cross-country ride. He is thinking about two or three other possible adventures in the future, but he doesn’t want to elaborate on that just yet. He’s still soaking in his last endeavor.

“The accomplishment didn’t sink in right away,” he said. “It took about a week to understand what we just did.”

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For a detailed, day-by-day account of the Beiers' cross-country bike ride, visit the website www.c2cride.com.

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John Jennings can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 425 or via e-mail at jjennings@newtondailynews.com.