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Amazing Ride for Alzheimers 2021 is Riding in Tribute to Al Steffes

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Judy
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steffes

 

August, 2021 – “The Amazing Ride for Alzheimers 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 | A bloody mess at the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum

By
Judy
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0
August 2, 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.

clyde

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.”

fun factAccording 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.

fun factTheir 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.

The 5 Corners Team remembers their first bike

By
Judy
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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 | Louisiana adventure – Kindness of strangers

By
Judy
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0
August 1, 2021 – Left Louisiana late Friday afternoon in the sweltering heat.
LouisianaLots of great memories as people made me feel welcome or gave me a safe space to stay.

Met new friends and was thankful when people like Barbara and Kevin Coleman and Antonio Allen stepped up to help during a challenging day.

The kindness of strangers has been phenomenal, including Lue at a quick stop in Gibsland who was adamant I try pickled pigs’ feet.

She cut off a small chunk with a plastic knife… at least she tried to.

Stored in a pink vinegar it was not as bad as I thought. It had a firm texture but I had a hard time thinking about the fact that I was eating a hoof. Check that off my bucket list.

A big thanks to Mitch who came out of nowhere on my 78-mile day from Ruston, LA to Crossett, AR.  The road was flat, well-paved, and had an ample shoulder. With the heat index over 100 degrees, I felt like I was pedaling in a furnace.

“You want some water,” said Mitch. Climbing out of his work truck Mitch shoved around a couple of metal boxes and emerged with two cold bottles of water and two freeze pops. “They’re not frozen.. but they’re cold,” he said.

I stowed the water and the minute Mitch was out of sight I shoved one freeze pop down my sports bra and wrapped the other round the back of my neck… in a very lady-like fashion, of course.

That Mitch was a lifesaver.

fun factSouvenir hunters tried to cut off parts of Bonnie and Clyde at the scene of their deaths. On May 23, 1934, a six-man posse led by former Texas Ranger captain Frank Hamer ambushed Bonnie and Clyde and pumped more than 130 rounds of steel-jacketed bullets into their stolen Ford V-8 outside Sailes, Louisiana. After dozens of robberies and 13 murders in their name, Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree had finally come to an end. With acrid gunsmoke still lingering in the air, gawkers descended upon the ambush site and attempted to leave with macabre souvenirs from the bodies of the outlaws still slumped in the front seat. According to Jeff Guinn’s book Go Down Together, one man tried to cut off Clyde’s ear with a pocket knife and another attempted to sever his trigger finger before the lawmen intervened. One person in the throng however managed to clip locks of Bonnie’s hair and swathes of her blood-soaked dress.  Klein, C. (2019, May 31) 10 Things You May Not Know About Bonnie and Clyde history.com https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-bonnie-and-clyde

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” 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 | Visiting the ambush site of Bonnie & Clyde

By
Judy
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0
Gibsland, LA – The self-guided tour of the famed Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum was bloody magical. Literally.

ambush

”It was an ambush and it was bloody,” said museum owner Perry Carter. “What did you expect?”

Perry worked his hardest to keep things at the museum fresh. He frequently updated his displays with a spray bottle of vampire blood to give everything a bit more of a red character.

Seven miles out of town on Highway 154 is the historical marker for the Bonnie & Clyde ambush site.

A defaced grey stone marker sits next to a bronze plated plaque haling the men who brought down the outlaws.

The stone has been replaced twice as tourists chip away trying to take a piece of the monument home.

fun factBonnie walked with a limp after a car accident. On the night of June 10, 1933, Clyde, with Bonnie in the passenger seat, was speeding along the rural roads of north Texas so quickly that he missed a detour sign warning of a bridge under construction. The duo’s Ford V-8 smashed through a barricade at 70 miles per hour and sailed through the air before landing in a dry riverbed. Scalding acid poured out of the smashed car battery and severely burned Bonnie’s right leg, eating away at her flesh down to the bone in some places. As a result of the third-degree burns, Bonnie, like Clyde, walked with a pronounced limp for the rest of her life, and she had such difficulty walking that at times she hopped or needed Clyde to carry her. Klein, C. (2019, May 31) 10 Things You May Not Know About Bonnie and Clyde history.com https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-bonnie-and-clyde

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 | Cicadas have hatched in Louisiana and it is deafening

By
Judy
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0
July 30, 2021 –  Shreveport, LA – The high-pitched din was noticeable the minute I left the airport in Shreveport. After checking out Elvis Presley Ave the sound was deafening.

After 17 years the cicadas have hatched and mating is underway.

cicada

fun factClyde chopped off two of his toes in prison. While serving a 14-year sentence in Texas for robbery and automobile theft in January 1932, Clyde decided he could no longer endure the unforgiving work and brutal conditions at the notoriously tough Eastham Prison Farm. In the hopes of forcing a transfer to a less harsh facility, Clyde severed his left big toe and a portion of a second toe with an ax, although it is not known whether he or another prisoner wielded the sharp instrument. The self-mutilation, which permanently crippled his walking stride and prevented him from wearing shoes while driving, ultimately proved unnecessary as he was released on parole six days later.  Klein, C. (2019, May 31) 10 Things You May Not Know About Bonnie and Clyde history.com https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-bonnie-and-clyde

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 | Visiting the famous Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum

By
Judy
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0
July 30, 2021 – Gibsland, LA – It was about 17 miles from Minden, LA to Gibsland, LA and the famed Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum.

clyde

The museum is located in the building formerly home to Canfield’s Cafe. It’s where Bonnie & Clyde picked up their last meal; a fried baloney sandwich and BLT.

Perry and his cat Wallace are the curators. Perry reminded me of an old rock n roll star. He’s had his share of the media spotlight as the museum is known around the world… and his collection of artifacts is impressive… along with the generous amount of fake blood used to depict the death of Bonnie & Clyde.

“It’s vampire blood,” said Perry. “I buy it by the gallon at Party City.”

The display would get a 5-star rating from Slinger High School macabre makeup artist Griffyn Albers.

This was one of my favorites: a Bonnie & Clyde diarama constructed in an empty aquarium


It was unique the amount of blood splattered on various displays.

fun factDuring her school days, Bonnie excelled at creative writing and penning verses. While she was imprisoned in 1932 after a failed hardware store burglary, she penned a collection of 10 odes that she entitled “Poetry from Life’s Other Side,” which included “The Story of Suicide Sal,” a poem about an innocent country girl lured by her boyfriend into a life a crime. Two weeks before her death, Bonnie gave a prescient poem to her mother entitled “The Trail’s End” that finished with the verse (see photo above). Klein, C. (2019, May 31) 10 Things You May Not Know About Bonnie and Clyde history.com https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-bonnie-and-clyde

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.

Photos printed with permission from The Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum.

 

VIDEO | Everyone has stories about Bonnie & Clyde

By
Judy
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0
July, 2021 –  Minden, LA – Hot on the trail of the final days of Bonnie and Clyde as I pedal through northern Louisiana on this year’s Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s.

In Shreveport, LA there used to be a diner at 422 Milam Street. In 1934 it was called the Majestic Cafe.
bonnie clyde
Now the building’s interior has been gutted to the stud. The front door looks original to the building from the 1930s.

 

According to a post in LouisianaTravel.com Bonnie and Clyde met with one of their gang at the cafe in the spring of 1934.

The young outlaws left and Henry Methvin stayed behind. He apparently tried to dine and dash but got busted.

Police grilled Methvin and he apparently narked on Bonnie and Clyde’s hideout on his family farm.

That scenario was one of the key turning points to the demise of Bonnie and Clyde.

Pedaling closer to Gibsland and the area of the ambush more people have families that have some sort of tie to the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Another woman at the Dorcheat Historical Museum said the woman kidnapped by Bonnie and Clyde, Sophie Ston, was her mother’s home ec teacher.

Everl Adair said her grandmother was stopped by law enforcement as she traveled on the same road where the ambush was about to take place and another woman in Minden, LA said her grandparents spoke about how kind Bonnie and Clyde were.

Clyde’s first arrest came from failing to return a rental car. The notorious criminal fun factwas first arrested in 1926 for automobile theft after failing to return a car he had rented in Dallas to visit an estranged high school girlfriend. The rental car agency dropped the charges, but the incident remained on Clyde’s arrest record. Just three weeks later, he was arrested again alongside his older brother Ivan “Buck” Barrow for an even more farcical crime—possession of a truckload of stolen turkeys.  Klein, C. (2019, May 31) 10 Things You May Not Know About Bonnie and Clyde history.com https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-bonnie-and-clyde

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.

Amazing Ride for Alzheimers | Pedaling into Louisiana Downs

By
Judy
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0

July 28, 2021 – Bossier City, LA – Left Shreveport about 9 a.m., and within about 10 miles I was standing in front of Harrah’s Louisiana Downs. The entrance was open so I drifted in.

Louisiana Downs

Grandstand at Washington County Fair
The grandstand was majestic and empty. It reminded me of how the grandstand at the old, old Washington County Fair Park looked.

The neatest thing at Louisiana Downs was the vintage starting gate that sat in a field in the back.

Louisiana downs

It too had a look like the old buildings at the Slinger Fairgrounds.

Louisiana Downs horse racing track officially opened in 1974. It’s a 1-mile dirt track; there’s also a turf course.

Sitting behind the vintage starting gate was the new start gate. Much more schnazzy.


There was also a Raceway gas station. $2.69 for a gallon of regular unleaded. It was $2.99 in West Bend when I left Tuesday and $3.09 in Hartford.

 

The Navy rejected Clyde. As a teenager, Clyde tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy, but lingering effects from a serious boyhood illness, possibly malaria or yellow fever, resulted in his medical rejection. It was a hard blow for Clyde, who had already tattooed “USN” on his left arm. Klein, C. (2019, May 31) 10 Things You May Not Know About Bonnie and Clyde history.com https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-bonnie-and-clyde

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 | Frescoes and dioramas at Louisiana State Exhibit Museum

By
Judy
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0
July 28, 2021 – Shreveport, LA – It was the brown Historic Site sign that made me pull over.
LouisianaWhat looked like a boring government building held a fascinating story of history once through the entryway. And that story was told simply through beeswax.

It was the Louisiana State Museum Building constructed in 1937. The sign said there were frescoes over the main entrance and the place was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

The four-panel fresco at the entry was composed by Conrad Albrizio and it represented south and north Louisiana and the respective industries during the late 1930s.

The painting measured about 710 ft.; the size and scale match the style of the architecture.

According to information from the museum, “the mural is a true fresco. it’s a technique rare in the United States and one of the things the mural does is introduce people to the natural resources of the state. Inside it is enhanced by 22 dioramas that were designed by a team of artists between 1939 and 1942.

What’s really fascinating about the dioramas, aside from each showing the industry of the state which included agriculture, farming and mining − each figure was constructed out of beeswax.

The artist behind the figures is Henry B. Wright or H.B. Wright and the figures he made are 1/8 scale and just accurate in every detail.

It includes individual stalks of corn in a field, men straining under heavy sacks of potatoes, minute details on farm tractors and horse halters, and ladies in the kitchen packing salt or strawberries.

Each figure has a unique face; the women are wearing lipstick and the men straw hats. There are frowns on the faces from fatigue and working in the sun.

Atop the window to the dioramas are a series of black-and-white photos depicting related scenes from the era.

Weariness and exhaustion are evident in the masterpiece that highlights the industry and strong work ethic of the fabric that is Louisiana.

Bonnie died wearing a wedding ring−but it wasn’t Clyde’s. Six days before turning 16, Bonnie married high school classmate Roy Thornton. The marriage disintegrated within months, and Bonnie never again saw her husband after he was imprisoned for robbery in 1929. Soon after, Bonnie met Clyde, and although the pair fell in love, she never divorced Thornton. On the day Bonnie and Clyde were killed in 1934, she was still wearing Thornton’s wedding ring and had a tattoo on the inside of her right thigh with two interconnected hearts labeled “Bonnie” and “Roy.” Klein, C. (2019, May 31) 10 Things You May Not Know About Bonnie and Clyde history.com https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-bonnie-and-clyde

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.

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