VIDEO | Kindness of strangers strikes again in Tennessee

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August 6, 2021

August 2021 – Tiptonville, TN – Just when you think things aren’t working out… something like this happens.

Long story short: Late start out of Ripley, TN, crummy roads with narrow shoulder and rumble strip, missed a turn… again adding about 20 miles to my route, bad traffic, road construction… and by 4 p.m. I knew I wasn’t going to make Kentucky.

So I drop off the highway to a side road, waved at a guy, he waved back and I keep going.

Then after 10 feet, I turn around to go back to talk to the guy to see if he can help me wrap my head around my options.

Options: No. 1 is a place to stay and No. 2 is food/grocery.

John is an Air Force veteran and is currently in Tennessee visiting his son, JD.

JD calls his wife Elizabeth; he jokingly says she is the “Mayor” of the street.

Elizabeth watches houses while their owners are away for the summer and that just about tells you what happened next.

Fully furnished, WiFi, hot shower, cable, bed, and coffee in the morning.

Then JD and John came and took me out for supper and took me to the store for some groceries so I could take off in the morning.

I’m currently sitting on the back screened-in porch listening to the crickets sing and writing postcards.

The kindness of strangers strikes again.

Have I not commanded you? … Be strong and courageous. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The 2021 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s is raising money this year for music programming for seniors at Cedar Community, a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community. Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2021.” Click HERE to make a secure online donation.

Checks may be made payable to “Cedar Community Foundation” with “Judy Bike Ride” in the memo line and mailed to 113 Cedar Ridge Dr., West Bend, WI 53095

Be sure to include the Federal Tax ID Number for the Foundation: 39-1249432

You may also find a downloadable donation form HERE.

Cedar Community is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

VIDEO | Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s 2021 is Riding in Tribute to Al Steffes

By

Judy

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August 6, 2021

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August, 2021 – “The Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s 2021 is riding in tribute to my dad,” Al Steffes,” said Judy Steffes.

“My dad is the one who got me started riding bikes,” said Steffes. “I remember we would go out on the tandem on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and ride around to the parks collecting aluminum cans so I could recycle them for money. He also built a basket on my bike for my paper routes and he was always there to change a flat, fix a fork or straighten handlebars.”

Have I not commanded you? … Be strong and courageous. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The 2021 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s is raising money this year for music programming for seniors at Cedar Community, a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community. Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2021.” Click HERE to make a secure online donation.

Checks may be made payable to “Cedar Community Foundation” with “Judy Bike Ride” in the memo line and mailed to 113 Cedar Ridge Dr., West Bend, WI 53095

Be sure to include the Federal Tax ID Number for the Foundation: 39-1249432

You may also find a downloadable donation form HERE.

Cedar Community is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

VIDEO | Pedaling 3 states in one day; Plan B went into effect

By

Judy

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August 5, 2021

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August, 2021 – Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee – Got an early start Monday to make it 78 miles from Helena, AR to Memphis, TN, and a decent bike shop.

I swapped out my front tire before I left and figured, in typical thrifty/Steffes fashion, I could roll a couple more miles out of the rear.

After pedaling Louisiana and Arkansas and rough timber-logging roads, it definitely needed to be replaced. I had worn 7 long gashes into the rubber and Memphis was the closest true bike store.

But Memphis came with a lot of safety warnings, especially for a girl on a bike. I started out with a dread, cautious optimism, and definitely some red flags warning me I was making a bad decision.

Fonzi was my first bright spot on the day. He offered to take my photo for the Arkansas postcard.

His reaction was cute when he realized I was making my way back to Wisconsin.

”Gotta do it. Gotta live your life, Miss Judy,” said Fonzi. “Be careful. Be careful, Judy. You’re going in the right direction.”

Fonzi was so encouraging and hopeful but all that positivity didn’t help because once I crossed from Arkansas over the Mississippi River…

…the roads got even worse. For a car they were fine but there was absolutely no shoulder and with 55 mph traffic that spelled doom for bikers.

I opted for a Plan B … and within 5 miles ran into this warning.

Could that series of signs cast any more blatant warning to 1) turn around and 2) you’re seriously going the wrong way?

Aside from vowing to frame this photo when I got home, I pressed on, and when I felt lost and a little scared on the lonely road along came Jimmy Boyd who waved me in when I asked for water.

Jimmy, 88, filled up my water bottles from the hose in his yard. When you are in these circumstances hose water is the best water…

A retired cotton and soybean farmer. He went into the military and when he came out, returned to farming.

Jimmy was a John Deere man; he had farmed 3,000 acres. Jimmy lost his wife to cancer on Christmas Day about 15 years ago.

“Been by myself ever since,” he said. “You don’t get over it… You just have to learn to live with it.”

Jimmy was a peach and then he said, “You be careful there in Memphis. I even hate to drive there…”

I was about 25 miles out of Memphis and pedaling north on the old Hwy 61. I had the road to myself lined with cotton fields and soybeans and noisy generators pumping water through the irrigation systems.

Ran into Mike outside of Tunica, Mississippi and he gave me the oldest license plate he could find.

By 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I was still 16 miles out of Memphis. The bike shop closed at 6 p.m. and I was never going to make it.

Worse yet, I was entering what locals said was the worst part of Memphis with high crime and drive-by shootings. Maybe this was TV news talk… but the locals know.

I took a break and, during a procrastination conversation with a bottle of water, in steps Albert. “I’m off work for the day and I’m not going that direction but I’ll take you there because then you’ll get there safe.”

Oh my gosh, I loved Albert. He was a retired trucker who was still hauling.
He had three kids. “They’re all grown—and I have three grandkids… they’re grown, too,” he said.

Albert’s wife had died in 2019. “Cancer got her quick… “ Albert had plans to go to Detroit as soon as his daughter got getting married.

As Albert drove through South Memphis I gauged my safety level had I been on the bike. I thought I could have done it but the traffic was swift and I saw nobody else on a bike.

Albert must have been reading my mind. “God put me in your path for a reason…” And that’s all he said.

The FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, became interested in Barrow and his paramour late in December 1932 through a singular bit of evidence. A Ford automobile, which had been stolen in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, was found abandoned near Jackson, Michigan in September of that year. At Pawhuska, it was learned another Ford car had been abandoned there which had been stolen in Illinois. A search of this car revealed it had been occupied by a man and a woman, indicated by abandoned articles therein. In this car was found a prescription bottle, which led special agents to a drug store in Nacogdoches, Texas, where investigation disclosed the woman for whom the prescription had been filled was Clyde Barrow’s aunt.

Further investigation revealed that the woman who obtained the prescription had been visited recently by Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and Clyde’s brother, L. C. Barrow. It also was learned that these three were driving a Ford car, identified as the one stolen in Illinois. It was further shown that L. C. Barrow had secured the empty prescription bottle from a son of the woman who had originally obtained it.

On May 20, 1933, the United States Commissioner at Dallas, Texas, issued a warrant against Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, charging them with the interstate transportation, from Dallas to Oklahoma, of the automobile stolen in Illinois. The FBI then started its hunt for this elusive pair. (Courtesy: FBI.gov)

Have I not commanded you? … Be strong and courageous. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The 2021 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s is raising money this year for music programming for seniors at Cedar Community, a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community. Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2021.” Click HERE to make a secure online donation.

Checks may be made payable to “Cedar Community Foundation” with “Judy Bike Ride” in the memo line and mailed to 113 Cedar Ridge Dr., West Bend, WI 53095

Be sure to include the Federal Tax ID Number for the Foundation: 39-1249432

You may also find a downloadable donation form HERE.

Cedar Community is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

VIDEO | A bloody mess at the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum

By

Judy

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August 5, 2021

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August, 2021 – Gibsland, LA Gibsland, LA is now in my rearview mirror But there’s one more video to share of the famed Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum.

If you’re a fan of outlaw history it is worth the stop. Perry Carter has a fantastic collection of memorabilia and documentation and he has a good eye for marketing as he’s combined the romantic history of bandits on the run with graphic art and he claims the former cafe—now home to his museum—is haunted. So he’s covered all the bases.

All he needs is to throw in one Elvis reference … but he already gets great reviews, plenty of media coverage and people from around the world come to visit.

The video shows two displays that were a little over the top with trying to relay the carnage that followed the ambush.

The newspaper clippings detailed the number of rounds fired and the arsenal of weapons in the vehicle.

In Arcadia, LA I even found the funeral home that had ties to helping prepare the bodies.

Valerie Carr is the current funeral home director.

Carr said the original funeral home where Bonnie & Clyde were taken was sold and demolished in the 1980s. “We do still have the tables. I’m not sure if those were the actual ones used but they are still pretty old,” she said.

Carr talked about the throngs of people that gathered at the funeral home even prior to the arrival of the bodies. “Everyone wanted to just catch a glimpse,” she said.

“The bodies were embalmed and then shipped to Texas for the services.”

According to Alan E. Hunter, “The Ford, with the bodies still inside, was towed to the Conger Furniture Store & funeral parlor located on Railroad Avenue downtown across from the Illinois Central train station (which is now a historical museum containing Bonnie and Clyde artifacts.) The crowds were so unruly, that the caretaker had to squirt embalming fluid on them to keep them back. Preliminary embalming was done by Bailey in a small preparation room in the back of the furniture store (it was common for furniture and undertakers to be together back then.)” Hunter-Irvington, Alan E. (2019, October 7), Bonnie & Clyde, Part I https://alanehunter.com/tag/conger-furniture-store-and-funeral-parlor/

Alan E. Hunter’s column, “Bumps in the Night”, has run on the front page of the Weekly View / Eastside Voice / Eastside Herald newspaper in Irvington on the east side of Indianapolis since 2007.

Their bullet-riddled “death car” is on display at a casino. Following the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde, a Louisiana sheriff who was a member of Hamer’s six-man posse claimed the pockmarked Ford V-8 sedan, still coated with the outlaws’ blood and tissue. A federal judge, however, ruled that the automobile stolen by Bonnie and Clyde should return to its former owner, Ruth Warren of Topeka, Kansas. Warren leased and eventually sold the car to Charles Stanley, an anti-crime lecturer who toured fairgrounds with the “death car” and the mothers of Bonnie and Clyde in tow as sideshow attractions. Still speckled with bullet holes, the “death car” is now an attraction in the lobby of Whiskey Pete’s Casino in Primm, Nevada, a small resort town on the California border 40 miles south of Las Vegas.

Have I not commanded you? … Be strong and courageous. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The 2021 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s is raising money this year for music programming for seniors at Cedar Community, a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community. Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2021.” Click HERE to make a secure online donation.

Checks may be made payable to “Cedar Community Foundation” with “Judy Bike Ride” in the memo line and mailed to 113 Cedar Ridge Dr., West Bend, WI 53095

Be sure to include the Federal Tax ID Number for the Foundation: 39-1249432

You may also find a downloadable donation form HERE.

Cedar Community is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

VIDEO | Shelby Forest General Store from 1934

By

Judy

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August 5, 2021

0

Shelby, TN – A sign at the side of Hwy 388 heading north about 10 miles outside Memphis, TN read “Shelby Forest General Store 2-miles Established 1934.”

I debated for less than two seconds and thought this is what is so great about bicycle touring.

The Shelby Forest General Store had a worn wooden porch with a standard wooden bench out front for sitting, making high-minded decisions, and monitoring traffic.

Owners Doug and Kristin Ammons saved the store from being razed.

The story is told out front on a sign designed to resemble an historic marker as follows:

Continue

VIDEO | Band camp in Memphis, TN

By

Judy

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August 5, 2021

0

August, 2021 – Memphis, TN – You could hear the drumming echoing down the street from about six blocks away as I made my way back to the youth hostel in Memphis after a quick spin down Beale Street.

I knew I was getting close when I hit Bellevue Avenue/Vinton Street and Bellevue Middle School. The following video picks it up from there:

One quick thought as I pedaled round to the front of the school… Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Are cement owls along the roofline the only thing missing?

Chime in with your thoughts

Have I not commanded you? … Be strong and courageous. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The 2021 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s is raising money this year for music programming for seniors at Cedar Community, a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community. Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2021.” Click HERE to make a secure online donation.

Checks may be made payable to “Cedar Community Foundation” with “Judy Bike Ride” in the memo line and mailed to 113 Cedar Ridge Dr., West Bend, WI 53095

Be sure to include the Federal Tax ID Number for the Foundation: 39-1249432

You may also find a downloadable donation form HERE.

Cedar Community is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

The 5 Corners Team remembers their first bike

By

Judy

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August 5, 2021

0

Cedarburg, WI – The team at 5 Corners Dodge Chrysler Ram Jeep and 5 Corners Isuzu Truck & Auto jumped into the bicycling theme of the Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s and remembered stories about their first bike.

VIDEO | Band camp in Memphis, TN

By

Judy

-

August 4, 2021

0

August 4, 2021 – Memphis, TN – You could hear the drumming echoing down the street from about six blocks away as I made my way back to the youth hostel in Memphis after a quick spin down Beale Street.

I knew I was getting close when I hit Bellevue Avenue/Vinton Street and Bellevue Middle School. The following video picks it up from there:

One quick thought as I pedaled round to the front of the school… Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Are cement owls along the roofline the only thing missing?

Chime in with your thoughts

Have I not commanded you? … Be strong and courageous. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The 2021 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s is raising money this year for music programming for seniors at Cedar Community, a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community. Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2021.” Click HERE to make a secure online donation.

Checks may be made payable to “Cedar Community Foundation” with “Judy Bike Ride” in the memo line and mailed to 113 Cedar Ridge Dr., West Bend, WI 53095

Be sure to include the Federal Tax ID Number for the Foundation: 39-1249432

You may also find a downloadable donation form HERE.

Cedar Community is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

5-star review for Memphis bicycle shop

By

Judy

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August 4, 2021

0

August 4, 2021 – Memphis, TN – One of the best discoveries on the 2021 tour so far has to be the TREK bicycle shop, 517 N. Main Street in downtown Memphis, TN.

I badly needed a new rear tire and Will Gratz and Saul Torres made me a priority. They also made me feel at home. “Do you want a chair? How about a snack?” said Saul as Will wheeled my bike in the back.

The store had an open concept so you could watch the mechanics at work. I always felt that helped build trust and pretty soon I was back in the shop watching and learning.

“I love the Centurion model,” said Will. He admired the light blue color and never chided me for riding a steel-frame bike cross country.

Even though Saul hailed from Texas he was familiar with Wisconsin and TREK Corporate, which was offering him tons of opportunity to grow the store.

After swapping out the tire Will said he was just going to tighten a couple of spokes and while truing the wheel he also gleaned the gears. Next thing I knew the chain was off.

It had been a while … and when I saw him measuring the old and the new I had to snap a photo.

With all the touring my chain had stretched about two inches; I consider it quite an accomplishment.

Tough to see in the photo. And you can’t just remove a link because it won’t match up with the teeth in the sprocket.

Will loved biking and working on bikes.

Will then tightened some nut upfront and took the wiggle out of my handlebars.

I started pedaling down the street; man, that bike rode tight. I knew it needed some TLC and I was ready to be hit with the damages.

”That’ll be $10,” said Will.

There is just simply no way all that work and parts and tire and chain and cleaning and truing came to $10.

The kindness of strangers strikes again!

As a boy born into the family of a poor farmer, Clyde “Bud” Barrow’s great love was music. Bud loved to sing and play an old guitar on the farm. He taught himself how to play the saxophone, and it seemed as if he might pursue a career in music. Influenced negatively by his older brother Buck as well as a shady friend of the family, however, it wasn’t long before young Bud’s interests turned from playing songs to stealing cars. (biography.com)

Have I not commanded you? … Be strong and courageous. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

The 2021 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s is raising money this year for music programming for seniors at Cedar Community, a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Donate via the secure website through Cedar Community. Donations should be marked “Amazing Ride 2021.” Click HERE to make a secure online donation.

Checks may be made payable to “Cedar Community Foundation” with “Judy Bike Ride” in the memo line and mailed to 113 Cedar Ridge Dr., West Bend, WI 53095

Be sure to include the Federal Tax ID Number for the Foundation: 39-1249432

You may also find a downloadable donation form HERE.

Cedar Community is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

VIDEO | Pedaling 3 states in one day; rocky road takes on whole new meaning

By

Judy

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August 3, 2021

0

August 3, 2021 – Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee – Got an early start Monday to make it 78 miles from Helena, AR to Memphis, TN, and a decent bike shop.