[bright music] - [Male Announcer] "Shadow of a Wheel" is made possible in part by Explore Asheville.

- [Female Announcer] Here in Asheville, we're a mix of genres, a hybrid of styles, settling for nothing, hungry for everything.

All drawn together to stand out.

You are welcome.

Always Asheville.

- [Male Announcer] Additional support is made possible by The Charles Engelhard Foundation and by these contributors: [VCR clicking] [static hisses] [birds chirping] [camera whirring] - [Speaker] 'Kay, let's get up.

Let's roll.

[people murmuring] [birds chirping] - [Speaker] Oh hey.

[speaks faintly] [dog barking] - Oh, man.

[chuckling] - [Paul] For more than 30 years, no one had seen the video.

No one knew where the VHS tapes were.

But when they were found, they opened a door into a story of this remarkable experience and the powerful shadow it cast through many of the riders' lives.

["Take the Long Way Home" by Supertramp plays] It was the summer of 1982.

31 teenagers, five adults embarked on a 3,600-mile bike ride across the United States to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

- [Speaker] I wanna get in it.

- [Speaker] Go ahead.

- [Paul] Most of the kids had never ridden more than 25 miles at a time.

Most had never been far from home.

And most had no idea what they'd gotten themselves into, including me.

♪ Long way home ♪ How do our experiences as kids change us?

What meaning does it have now?

[image whooshes] [whoosh] Hey.

Sittin' in the chair.

I'm in the chair.

I'm Paul, and I'm the director of this film.

Well, we're getting ready to do interviews.

Some of these people I haven't seen in 40 years.

Some of these people I don't really know much about.

I hope that I learn something while making this film about myself and about the people I rode with and where they are now and what their lives have been and how maybe it changed us.

That's the supposition.

That's the theory at this point.

So thanks for jumpin' in on the ride.

["Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads plays] ♪ ♪ And you may find yourself ♪ 36 people with 36 stories to tell, ♪ And you may find yourself in another part of the world ♪ 3,600 miles of highway, all 40 years ago.

So where do you start?

♪ And you may find yourself in a beautiful house ♪ Tell me your name, your age, and what you did in the summer of 1982.

Did I get it?

♪ Letting the days go by ♪ ♪ Let the water hold me down ♪ ♪ Letting the days go by ♪ Judy, do me a favor and clap for me, if you don't mind.

[hands clap] Perfect.

- I've always said, in my next life, I wanna be a rockstar and wear black leather and be hot.

[laughs] In the summer of 82, I was... Oh Lord, I think I was 28 years old.

No, 29.

I was working for the Multiple Sclerosis Society as their director of development.

[light music] [static hissing] - [PSA Narrator] I never thought my world could begin to look like this.

- [Paul] Multiple sclerosis was getting a lot of attention in the late 1970s and early 80s.

- I am no longer the greatest.

Ridge is.

He's fighting multiple sclerosis, a disease that comes out of nowhere.

- Many of us have seen public service announcements on TV about how the disease was an almost untreatable mystery that affected young people.

- It may attack your arms, your legs.

- The mysterious crippler of young adults.

- Sometimes your speech, your eyes, or even worse.

- [PSA Narrator] The impulses which activate my nerves are short circuited.

No one has a cure.

- Gotta find a cure for Ridge and hundreds of thousands of others.

- It's the young people's disease.

It strikes between ages of 16 and 50.

And you could be perfectly fit today, go to bed tonight, and wake up in the morning with paralysis in half your body.

And it's a frightening and terrible disorder.

["I Can't Go for That" by Hall & Oates plays] - What I think I'll recall is we were sittin' in the office one day, and a young man named Chuck Williford walked in to present a proposal.

- "Let me invite you to participate "in one of the most exciting projects "that you'll hear of in 1982, "the Coast to Coast Freedom Ride "for the benefit of Multiple Sclerosis Society.

"Having made this trip before, "I'm very excited about having this opportunity "to lead this prestigious group of young men and women "and share with them the adventures and misadventures "that a project like this can provide."

- He saw a trip like this as a way to do some good, get some publicity, and propel perhaps himself into creating a bicycle touring company.

♪ Over time ♪ Chuck and his energy and his passion and the way he orchestrated it and thought it through, we just took it and ran with it to see where it could go.

- I was an afternoon paper boy.

["Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash plays] There's an article in the paper, "U.S. by Bike."

- My mom saw a thing in the paper about, "Hey, "do you wanna ride your bike across the country?

"We're lookin' for kids that wanna do that."

And I was like, "Yeah."

♪ Say that you are mine ♪ - Seemed like couldn't be real to be able to do somethin' like that.

What an accomplishment it would be to take somethin' like that on.

♪ So you've got to let me know ♪ - I said, "Mom, I would like to do this."

She said, "Okay, ask your dad."

[chuckles] - I've always wanted to be out and see and travel and do things.

You know, it just suddenly became a dream.

- I was ready.

[chuckles] It was that quick.

Anything to get in trouble.

♪♪ One day it's fine and next it's black ♪ - We had a family friend who had multiple sclerosis.

I was game.

You know, why not?

Do somethin' wild.

And I loved wild and different.

- I remember on the front cover was Zack Lyon.

And I was like, "I wanna do that," you know?

I remember seeing Zack in school, and I wanted to be like Zack.

- Wow, that sounds like a fantastic trip.

- First of all, how many people can say they've ridden a bicycle across the United States?

And then how many 14-year-olds have done that?

- We've always been a pretty adventurous family, you know, backpack and go all over Europe.

And everyone was just talkin' about graduating high school and going, hanging out at the beach.

And I thought, "Oh my gosh, that's so boring."

Like, I just... [chuckling] And they couldn't understand me.

They was like, "What are you gonna do?

"You're gonna ride across the country?

"Why would you do that?"

You know?

And I'm like, "Well, why wouldn't I?"

- Went to my parents first time, second time, my father and mother kinda laughed it off.

Third time, my dad yelled at me.

I went to my siblings.

They talked my parents into it.

Fortunately I was raised with parents who, albeit they had a limited education, would not limit their children.

Dad, just turn to me.

"If you really wanna do this, you have our blessing.

"We'll make it happen."

- My dad and I got into the typical, "What the heck are you gonna do this summer, kid?"

And there was an article.

Said, "I could do something like that."

He says, "Okay, you do it.

"Every dollar you make for the trip, "I will match your donors, "'cause that's gonna be the hard part."

I said, "Fine, I'll do that."

And that's exactly how it happened.

- He was very good at that.

Very good.

And he was convincing.

I mean, you know, can you imagine sittin' down with parents and their 14-year-old and sayin' to the parents, "Trust me, "this is gonna be an experience of a lifetime "for your little boy or little girl.

"And I'm gonna be sure they get through it."

I mean... And the parents going, "You know what?

"I do trust you."

Which was amazing.

- [Paul] And that's exactly how it happened.

Our parents needed to be sold.

[energetic rock music] - The first time I met Chuck Williford, kind of thought he was crazy.

Who wants to take 31 teenagers [chuckling] across the country?

- He had a mustache, and he had a kind of blondish-red hair, and he was, you know, a very charismatic guy.

- Honestly, I just thought he was not for real.

He was a big dreamer and a big talker and kinda full of it in a way, in a nice way, if I can say that, in a nice way.

- He was cool and humble, talkin' about riding for a cause, raisin' money, and then havin' the summer of your life.

- Chuck was the energy and the motivation, the can-do attitude that kinda brought it all together.

- Very passionate, very confident for a young man.

He was very confident about what he wanted to do.

He had a goal and a dream.

- [Paul] Looking back on it, we knew very little about him.

But Chuck Williford's dream started when he was in high school.

He'd grown up in Fort Myers, Florida and was a standout football player, but he wanted to ride a bike to Washington D.C. for a cause.

And then a friend was struck with multiple sclerosis, and he found his inspiration.

He went to work in a bike shop to learn bike maintenance.

And after graduation in 1972 he did that ride, raising $2,500 and meeting his congressman.

After moving to North Carolina to go to college, in the summer of 1976, Chuck rode coast to coast with a group of his college friends, again raising money for multiple sclerosis.

Chuck was briefly married after college, moved to Florida, and worked for the same orange processing company that had given him a job in high school.

But his summers on a bike inspired him to quit that job and start a one-man company, Spokesmen of America, to make bicycle touring both his mission and his business.

One of Chuck's best friends in college, Pete Josselyn, was not surprised when Chuck told him about this bold idea.

- Yeah, there's me and Chuck.

Number one, he loved travelin' on the bike.

And he loved kids.

He loved young people.

And he loved to inspire people.

And he knew he could.

I didn't voice my concerns, but I did have concerns about what he was doin'.

It's the same picture.

It's a very high-risk undertakin'.

The possibility that you could have a major accident kinda popped in my mind.

I mean, Chuck wouldn't think of it, but, you know, it kinda popped in my mind.

- [Paul] So with a plan in place, press releases went out.

And in the winter of 1982, he traversed the state of North Carolina looking for kids who would get excited about riding a bike coast to coast as he had.

"Thank you for helping us make our dream a reality.

"Strong legs pedal so weak legs can walk.

"Sincerely, C.A.

Williford Jr., "Spokesmen of America, president and tour director."

That is Chuck Williford, or Charles, a.k.a.

Chuck.

Sadly he's not a storyteller here.

He would not live to see the end of 1982.

- [Reporter] This cross-country trip has special meaning for 19-year-old Mike Ulrich.

His great-grandfather was a victim of MS. Mike thinks the journey is the least he can do since he can ride and others cannot.

Two months of summer vacation and a lot of physical stress, each cyclist had to raise almost $6,000 apiece for the trip.

It sounds like a great deal of sacrifice.

- [Paul] Yeah, what is your fundraising story?

What was your trick?

[Mike chuckles] ["Money Changes Everything" by Cyndi Lauper plays] - That's almost $16,000 now.

- My father in his great way said, "Your trip, you raise the money."

- Raising the money was the big deal for me.

- Half went to MS, half went to the trip.

How are we gonna do this?

- I didn't realize what a challenge it was gonna be.

- That was probably more difficult than the ride.

- It was a struggle.

- How are we gonna raise this kinda money?

- I didn't know what to do.

- "Paul, a junior at Hendersonville High School, "and Randy, a ninth grader at Rugby Junior High.

"The prospect of raising more than $5,000 "in three months seems daunting, "but both boys have decided to give it a shot."

Chuck and Judy set us up and pushed us to use local newspapers and radio.

Many of us wrote personal letters and went door to door.

The attention did bring in donations, and it also created in us the obligation to do the ride.

We had a story to finish.

- I dreaded knockin' on doors.

And I mean, I was very shy.

And I kept tellin' myself, "It's not for me.

"It's not for me."

[chuckling] - My strategy was to go to every Greek restaurant in the city, man.

It doesn't matter who it was, we went there.

- I had to convince my brother Gino to do it with me.

But he got on board and started knocking doors with me.

Every day, you know, knocking on doors.

And I think there was just enough drive in me, that I really wanted this to happen, that we kept going.

- I did radio spots.

Kids in school would look at you and go, "Yeah, I heard you on the radio "and thought that was really great."

Two days later, after they've heard it 50 times, they're like, "Yeah, I heard ya on the radio again."

- I got my first job at 15 workin' at a seafood restaurant.

Raised money to fund my portion of it and to get to get the bike.

- My family friend have a little Christmas tree farm.

He's like, "I'll give you $500 for this trip "if you and your buddies "spend a couple of days planting Christmas trees."

That was like the final $500 that I needed.

- Dad would get home from work.

The first thing he'd say, "How much did you raise today?"

"Oh, I don't wanna do it today, Dad."

- There's a lady, lived two doors down from us.

She come up to me one day, "Our church is gonna have a bake sale "to raise money for your bike trip."

Cool.

[chuckles] It was just amazing to see how the community came together.

♪ Ya think you know what you're doin' ♪ - We got the priest from our church to write a letter to the community, and they put it in the church bulletin.

Obviously it worked.

♪ It's all in the past now ♪ - It was challenging.

It was fun, a growth experience.

- That ultimately came together.

It went down to the wire.

It was a little sketchy.

I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it.

- It was tough it.

It was not easy, but worth it.

[chuckles] - It was a very happy moment when that phone rang and he gave me permission to come along the trip.

[bright rhythmic pop music] - [Paul] Somehow 31 kids raised the money.

And along with Chuck and Judy, the closest thing we'd have to supervision that summer, would be Rick Foster, Mike Miller, and Darlene Drumm.

- Grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the suburbs, and kind of a white-bread existence, and went off to work in newspapers in North Carolina.

I'd already crossed the country once.

Two years early, I rode the Bikecentennial TransAmerica Trail.

I was in the biking community in Hickory, and somebody there knew I was a photographer or knew I was in the biking and said, "Oh, have you heard about this Chuck Williford guy?"

I saw an opportunity to be with people and documenting them and getting to know them.

- I had done long-distance bike rides, and I knew, you know, the logistics.

I wasn't afraid, that's for sure.

And I thought, "What a wonderful way to spend the summer."

So I applied, talked to Chuck.

He said, "Okay, let's go."

[chuckles] There I am, part of the group.

- Previously I'd worked as a social worker and had worked with kids about the age that you folks were back then.

Chuck is coming to town.

He's lookin' for people to do a cross-country bicycle ride.

I don't know a lot about bicycling, but I know a good bit about kids.

So I called him up.

- [Paul] Before any of us could go anywhere, Chuck had us all come to where he was livin' in Hickory, North Carolina a couple of times to be schooled in the ways of riding a bike across the country.

["Destination Unknown" by Missing Persons plays] - For Chuck, the multiple sclerosis part was important.

♪ Where do we go from here ♪ But even more so was the impact that this ride was gonna have on our lives.

♪ Just as far beyond as I can see ♪ - I didn't know how to shift gears.

That's how fast.

[chuckling] I just remember him riding next to me and teaching me how to go up, how to go down.

- I think we did a 25 mile-er and then maybe one a little bit longer.

So those are the two longest rides [chuckling] I'd ever been on at that point in time.

- Yeah, I think the longest I had ridden before, maybe 10, 15 miles.

I wasn't much of a cyclist before at all.

♪ I guess it doesn't matter anyway ♪ It gave you a very small taste of what you were about to experience, let's just put it that way.

♪ When you don't know ♪ - It was eye-opening to do the training rounds.

And I think it was the reality, that this is gonna be somethin' else.

Wasn't gonna be a walk in the park.

- [Paul] We were typical teenagers, a bit awkward, but athletic and motivated.

Tracey Marshall came from a small town, but brought along a big personality.

- As a mother, and I'm sure your mom felt the same way, I was a little bit concerned about his health and a lot of stuff.

He was heavy, a little heavier.

And he was really passionate, because he really, really wanted to do it.

- [Paul] And Mike Semon showed up to the pre-ride events in Hickory with fancy sew-up tires, was a total nerd about Campagnolo bike parts.

What we didn't know was that he had been born with cystic fibrosis and had lived every day of his life working to stay physically active in order to extend a life expectancy that he'd already exceeded at age 15.

- When Mike was born, life expectancy for CF kids was six.

I was gonna keep this boy alive, period.

He was on lots of drugs.

And they put him on one called Sulfamethoxazole.

And I said, "Michael, your mother can't pronounce this.

"You're now in charge of ordering your own medications."

So he was 12.

I just put my faith in Michael making good decisions.

Chuck seemed to be okay with that.

He understood this is a kid who's gonna take care of himself and he's gonna do what has to be done.

I was very excited for Michael.

["Abacab" by Genesis plays] ♪ - We left Charlotte really late at night, maybe 11 o'clock.

- You get at the airport, and my only time ever at an airport was to wave bye to people, you know?

And all of a sudden, it's like, "Holy cow, I'm on a plane "for the first time in my life."

- Piled those bikes into a jet at Charlotte.

Parents were all there, cryin'.

[chuckles] - That was an emotional day.

Excited emotional.

♪ There on the floor ♪ - I remember that energy, just that buzz that happens when you get kids at age together that are just social and ready to connect with other kids.

♪ There's a crack in the mirror ♪ - I know I was excited, nervous.

- I do remember thinking, "What I gotten myself into?"

[chuckling] - [Paul] We were all issued three shirts, red, white, and blue, that would unite us as a team, all with a typo that would make us laugh for 3,600 miles, "SpokesmEn of Amercia."

- I was tryin' to pack as lightly as I could.

Just the bare essentials, maybe one pair of pants and one nice shirt.

And then the tracksuit came out, the red tracksuit.

♪ When they turn on the pillow ♪ Where am I gonna put that thing?

- It was just a big adventure for me.

I was a few years older, but it was still a big adventure.

- Parents were like, "I know you're gonna take good care of my kids."

[chuckling] Chuck gave a nice speech at the airport, and off we went.

- A coast-to-coast bicycle trip with 31 teenagers.

I looked everybody's parents in the eye and said, "I will take care of your child this summer."

What were your parents thinking?

[laughs] ["We Got the Beat" by The Go-Go's plays] - [Paul] Up until this moment, the ride had only been a dream.

But as we stepped onto the Eastern Airlines Flight 523, we hit the real game start button, and our coast-to-coast adventure truly began.

♪ See the people walkin' down the street ♪ - [John Ballas] We landed about four o'clock in the morning.

Getting our bicycles that were in boxes and putting 'em on that bus.

- We had to put 'em all back together again, 'cause wheels had been taken off and handlebars had been turned sideways and stuff like that.

- You know, you're sitting here trying to figure out whose bike is whose.

And by the time we put our bicycles together, the sun's coming up.

- I wish somebody had told me to let the air out of my tires, because while we were standing in the parkin' lot, we hear, "Pow!"

And I ended up changing my tire before I even left.

- And I'm lookin' at the bikes that the other riders have.

They paid more of these bikes than I did for my first car.

So yeah, I was really intimidated now.

- I remember looking up, and I said, "What's that big boat over there?"

"That's the Queen Mary."

"You're kiddin' me.

"Holy.

"My mom was sick on that ship for nine days, ""'cause that's the ship "my mom came to the United States on."

Things don't just happen as a coincidence.

Why did we pick Long Beach, California?

Why were we in that parking lot?

I don't know.

But I'm like, "My grandparents, "my uncle, aunt and everybody, "they came to this country on that boat.

"Why could I not do this?

"This is nothing."

[rhythmic pop music] - That ride was horrible.

We were trying to stay together in a group, city block after city block and stoplight after stoplight.

And it was smoggy.

I was anxious to get out of the city.

[chuckles] - We'd run into people, and, "Yeah, there's 36 people here, "and we're gonna ride cross country."

And you get these looks, like, "Sure you are, guys."

[chuckles] [image whooshes] - [Paul] Then we rode, stayed for a whole day at Disneyland.

[frenetic string music] - [Peter] Tryin' to figure out where do ya fit in and who are you connectin' with.

- So I didn't know anybody on this trip.

But I thought it was gonna be really cool, because here we have a level playing field.

We all like cycling.

- So you're kind of feeling each other out 'cause you just don't know each other.

None of us really knew each other.

You're like, "Who is this person?"

- Coming from an all boys boarding school, you do not have the same access to social situations.

Didn't know how to act around girls.

- It came at a time in my life that I just needed something.

- My parents got divorced, and I think there was just a lot of emotional weight that our family was carryin' and certainly I was feelin'.

- My dad was a pilot in the Air Force, so we moved around a lot.

I was a bit of a loner because, well, you never knew how long people were gonna be around.

- The summer before, parents had split up, and we had moved to this rental house, and there were a lot of different stressors at the time.

So I think for me it was a way to see the world and kind of escape.

- Yeah, there were times when I used the bike as an escape mechanism from other things goin' on, but that summer was the ultimate escape mechanism.

You know, like, there couldn't been a better time for me to be on my own sort of, and literally being able to get on the bike in the morning and ride as far as I wanted to or as fast as I wanted to.

- In my life, a real big event had just happened.

My 26-year-old husband had had a complete cardiac arrest.

He's only alive today because of CPR.

And when I look back, what I realize is man, oh man, this was an opportunity for me to run away from all that had just happened.

- [Paul] At the outset, the roles were clear.

Chuck was our leader, and Judy, our mom driving the sag wagon, a refuge for broken bikes or riders.

- Yeah, Disneyland's great and all.

When are we gonna start pedalin'?

["Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks plays] - [Judy] I remember the first few days being very difficult.

♪ Just like the white-winged dove ♪ - It may have taken us three or four days just to get outta L.A. ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ You're just pushin' and getting so tired.

We're laid down on the side of the road, ♪ Sounds like she's singin' ♪ just takin' a break and actually fallin' asleep with semis flying by you.

♪ In the web that is my own ♪ - And I remember us pushing our bikes up a gravel off-road.

No one could bike up it.

All of us were off of our bikes with all of our packs and pushing our bikes, and I thought, "Is this the way it's gonna be?"

[chuckling] - [Paul] When we hit the San Bernardino Mountains and Cajon Pass, it got hard.

Some of us were ready.

Others were struggling.

- I had this vision of the United States topographically, where it started in California, and it went like this.

And then you hit the Rockies, and then it went down again.

So in my mind I'm thinkin', "Well, we'll just gradually train, "and by the time we get the Rockies, we'll be in shape."

And then I was throwin' up beside the road.

[chuckles] ♪ Ooh, ooh ♪ [playful string music] - We get at the top of Cajon Pass, but I didn't know we were at the top.

And I just says, " I can't do this.

And I got in the sag wagon.

And the rest of the way was downhill.

It sucked.

And then you get down to the bottom, and everybody else who's already down there is going, "Oh my God, "that last part of the ride was amazing."

And I'm thinkin' to myself, "You kidding me?

"I did all this work not to reap the benefits, the rewards.

"Not again, man."

["Flying High Again" by Ozzy Osbourne plays] ♪ Oh no, oh no ♪ ♪ Here we go, here we go now ♪ ♪ Oh no, oh no ♪ ♪ Here we go now ♪ ♪ Got a crazy feeling I don't wanna understand ♪ - Everything here is pretty much the only stuff for me personally that survived the last 40 years from the bike trip.

[chuckling] My journal, which I call "The Diary of a Madman" thanks to Ozzy Osbourne, and newspaper clippings, some letters, and Rick's photographs.

♪ It's something that I enjoy ♪ I'm so glad I journaled, because there's so much detail that I would've forgotten.

♪ Can't see what my eyes see ♪ Other riders who kept journals are John Ballas.

- Oh, it's a little silly trip diary.

- [Paul] Mike Ulrich, Amy Hurka, Rick Foster, and Michael Semon.

And we all had different perspectives on the ride.

Is it over, right?

- Well, navy, you know.

- Great ride, you know.

Camped out for the first time in my life.

Ate Mexican for the first time in my life.

You know, I was 18 years old right then.

So that kinda stuff.

- "We had a hard ride, but the beauty made up for it.

"Randy got lost.

"Well, he went ahead when he shouldn't have, "and we had to call the highway patrol.

"Everything went wrong.

"We almost got arrested for riding on the interstate.

♪ A bad, bad boy ♪ "It was a pretty tough ride, but it wasn't bad."

That's the kind of some silliness that I threw out there at times.

- [Judy] We didn't have cell phones, did we?

- [Paul] No.

- We didn't?

Oh my gosh, how in the hell will we do that?

[laughs] ["Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles plays] - [Paul] We had no mobile phones, no computers, only collect calls home on landlines, and video games.

And from the first arcade in California all the way to North Carolina, they were always there to take us to another dimension one quarter at a time.

- I wanna rescue another guy.

[arcade game beeping] - [Both] Oh!

♪ The problems you could see ♪ [arcade game beeping] - Oh, he's played this game 40 years ago.

♪ Oh, a, oh ♪ - Yeah, I mean, it's literally like riding a bike.

You don't forget the- - You sure about that?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

[Paul chuckling] - Well, you haven't died yet.

Oh, all right.

Takin' over.

♪ Pictures came and broke your heart ♪ - Ooh.

- All right.

- So Paul, did you play this a lot on the trip?

- [Paul] You know, being on the bike all day, we'd get to a hotel or whatever, and I would just look for video games.

'Cause this was home, this was friends, this was what I was used to at 16-years- old.

The games, like, made me feel like I wasn't 3,000 miles away with a bunch of strangers.

- Right.

[Paul chuckles] - "Me and Bonesteel rode all over town "looking for a 'Defender' game, and we found one."

♪ In my mind and in my heart ♪ - Ah!

I always used to scream when I died.

[Diane chuckles] - I was rooming with George.

I guess George either brought his saddlebags into the room or brought his bike into the room, and he opened up a saddlebag in front of me.

[arcade music] And I couldn't believe what he was carrying with him.

There was a hair dryer and these large bottles of things.

I looked at him like, "Why are you carrying all this?

"This is so much weight."

That was the inexperience of some of the people that were with us.

["Hurts So Good" plays] - If I could step back for just a minute.

I did try to do some research, you know.

I was talkin' to guys.

I knew I had to pedal on a seat that I didn't like on this 10-speed.

And I said, "What should I get?"

And I got all kinds of advice about bicycle seats.

Anybody that rides a road bike will identify with this.

"Get you a Brook saddle.

"You know, put some mink oil on it.

"It'll break in.

"It'll be like a glove.

"It'll be great."

That's the worst thing I ever did.

- My butt was sore as all get out.

I had bruises on my ass.

- I think I probably had scabs on my inner thighs after the first week.

- And the groans from the pain of saddle soreness, everybody getting on their bikes for the first time, you know, after having been on the road for two or three days.

And then everybody wanting to talk about, "Where can I get a sheepskin to put on my saddle?"

[laughs] - And I mean, I think I got two days into the trip, [arcade game beeping] ♪ Come on and make it ♪ and my bum was killin' me so bad, I went and bought a sheepskin seat.

♪ Make it hurt so good ♪ ♪ Sometimes love- ♪ Then the seat was so hard, I developed some personal, you know, basically some boils and stuff that were just killing me, man.

[chuckles] So I cut the foam off the handlebars and stuffed them under the seat.

[laughs] [arcade game beeping] But it worked.

I had a grandma seat.

There was nobody impressed out there 'cept rattlesnakes and truckers.

So anyway.

["A Million Miles Away" by the Plimsouls plays] - [Judy] The diversity, capabilities, and motivations for doing this.

- Most everyone was... What they lacked maybe in training, they made up for is enthusiasm and pure adrenaline.

- You just go with it.

You're young and your comfort zone is not so small that you're like, "I'm not doin' this."

You're just like, "This is what I signed up for."

And you do it.

- When you're in a great deal of pain 'cause your body's like, "What is going on, and why are you doing this to me?

"We could be at home sitting still."

[chuckling] But you start to find your groove to where getting on the bike seems more natural.

♪ Fallin' off the face of the world ♪ I began to realize a couple of important things.

Those red, white, blue shirts, like, made us a team.

And of course, we wore red, white, and blue.

We were like an American dream out there on the road.

♪ A million miles away ♪ - It would soon become just a normal way of life every day.

Just get on the bike, your legs going, you set a cadence to your breathing, and then you're on automatic.

♪ And there's nothin' left- ♪ - We were tired.

So basically it was riding or being tired.

- It was really physically taxing.

- I think we'd get, you know, energized by it.

And I liked, you know, biking, and so that was fun, and what you were seeing.

- The other thing I wasn't too happy about was the mandate that we had to have a flag on our bike.

And it was a little orange flag that would trail along, and so uncool.

But it didn't take 10 miles before I realized how important that flag was.

We have to be seen.

- And it was like, "Boy, this is tough."

But I knew it would be.

- The first couple days, first week maybe, I was real gung-ho.

And then I think after that reality set in, it was like, "This a long damn way across."

- [Paul] Our destination back in 1982 was Cape Hatteras, the historic lighthouse on the North Carolina coast.

In 2012, after 30 years, a group of us reconnected and then got together there on the Outer Banks to remember the ride.

[people speaking indistinctly] - Are we really gonna do this?

- Wait, wait.

- Spokesman.

- [Participant] Thank you, sir!

May I have another?

[participants laughing and chattering] [soft piano music] - [Paul] We'd found the VHS tape from that summer that none of us had ever seen.

- You filmin'?

- And watching that, reflecting together, we all realized in a new way how much this ride had affected us.

And photographer Rick Foster was one of the most enthusiastic.

- All right, here we go.

It's gonna be 10 seconds.

[camera timer beeps] - [Participant] 10, 9, 8.

[group exclaims] - [Participant] Whoa!

- I don't think I realized how much it meant to me as it does today.

Being with all these people that did do it with me and seeing how much it meant to them, it brings back strong memories.

- Everybody in.

All kids up front.

- [Paul] Flash-forward almost another decade, and that's when the news spread about Rick having Parkinson's.

We got together in Asheville, and when Rick arrived, it was clear the effects of Parkinson's were advancing.

[participants speaking faintly] But his spirit was strong.

[participants laughing and chattering] - Yeah!

[Zack laughs] - All right, so Rick is on his way.

He's having a little more trouble, like, gettin' around, and his speech is a little different.

He's having some effects.

And it's part of what kicked this project into high gear, to get Rick's story, to celebrate his photography, and to just think about what it meant.

That's what we're doin', yeah.

All right.

[hands clap] Cut.

[rhythmic electronic music] There's that picture.

- Oh yeah, there it is, right.

I love that shot.

Everybody seems to like it.

It's a natural, you know?

[chuckles] That's mine.

[chuckles] [camera clicking] - [Paul] There's no one more passionate about telling the story of this ride than Rick.

Some of us had cheap cameras on the trip, but Rick was the pro, and his images have allowed all of us to stay connected to the ride throughout our lives.

[birds chirping] [Rick speaking faintly] [Rick chuckles] [Rick speaks faintly] - Here's everything I took, except for another camera I'm missing.

Daughter has it.

Here was the monster lens, the 300.

This is a 50 millimeter straight lens.

Also have a 100 millimeter.

This is my telephoto, believe it or not.

Here it is, like riding a bicycle.

It's a pretty long lens for a little camera.

["Freeze-Frame" by The J. Geils Band plays] - I took a bunch of Kodachrome film.

I think I took only Kodachrome film and 11 or 12 rolls or whatever they were of black and white.

[exuberant pop rock music] Bunches of rolls.

30 rolls easily.

I really feel like I captured all the different nuances, you know, the behind the scene, the people having glorious moments.

All the times of my life, that's what I wanted to capture.

♪ Her lipstick reflex got me wound ♪ Made me a better photographer for sure.

♪ There were no defects to be found ♪ - [Paul] So when you look at this group of photos as a body of work, like, what do you see?

- An amazing trip I took.

I see some technical problems that I didn't take care of back then, but that's okay.

It's just overwhelming sense of, "Well, what an adventure we had."

Incredible adventure.

♪ Her face still focused in my mind ♪ ♪ Test-strip, proof-sheet love is hard to find ♪ Everything about it.

♪ Friday night we'll dance the spotlight ♪ [uneasy music] This is a pump I found in the woods.

I stand up, and I try to move forward, sometimes I freeze.

C'mon, c'mon.

[bell rings] She's a dummy.

Kid's an old dummy.

- [Paul] Well, we'll come back to that, because obviously it's connected to just the idea of continuing to ride and the kind of perseverance that it takes to cross the country and just keep moving, you know.

- I think that's true, yeah, yeah.

It is perseverance.

[gentle piano music] - I rode a lot with Rick and Mike.

In fact, I rode a lot with the two of them.

I adored them, and I liked hanging out with them, and I liked riding with them.

They're very easygoing and cruisers.

You know, I was a cruiser.

Their outlook on life, you know, they had extremely positive outlook on life.

The things they had done were incredible.

I was in awe.

These guys just kinda took me under their wing.

They were just fantastic.

Big influences on me.

- [Paul] Rick said that you taught him that he could be a father.

Like, that got him thinking that maybe he actually could play that part in life, right?

[exhales] - Wow.

- [Paul] That was cool, that he said that?

- I rarely am speechless, but I am.

- Spending time with Rick at his home in Virginia and seeing what a disease like Parkinson's does to you was powerful.

Having your body and mind revolt against you, making things you've always done a new challenge, a new mountain to climb.

The effort and passion he still has for riding is a beautiful thing.

It's helping him persevere and stay positive.

It makes us look back on riding for multiple sclerosis differently.

Talking to this Spokesman about this ride, it comes up in every conversation.

This ride changed us.

This trip has and continues to help us through the struggles of life.

You don't wanna be that guy at 50, 60, 70-years-old who wished they'd have done that thing.

You should do that thing.

You should figure out how to do that thing.

And hopefully that thing is good for you and good for other people.

It's the old carpe diem business, you know?

[chuckles] And sometimes it's really hard to do that.

Sometimes there are a lot of forces that are not moving you in that direction.

Summer of 82, I knew that was a chance to do that, and everyone on that ride kinda knew this was that summer.

This was that chance to do that thing.

["I Ran (So Far Away)" by A Flock of Seagulls plays] ♪ - You never felt so insignificant as when you were on the flatlands.

You'd see mountains and go, "Yeah, I'll be there in an hour."

No, no.

Five hours later, you're still pedalin', and they don't look any closer than they did before.

- The desert was fascinating.

I remember a highway crew letting us drink out of their Igloo cooler.

Water had never tasted so good.

You just couldn't get enough.

And they were just laughin' at us.

- And my biggest concern was feminine hygiene and what happens if I had to go to the bathroom.

How do you go to the bathroom in the desert?

I was drinking water all the time.

- It took a while for us to really understand what we were doing.

- I look back at that, and that is unbelievably frightening with really what were novice [laughs] riders.

- It got so bad.

We had to pedal at night 'cause it got so hot.

♪ Hypnotize me through ♪ ♪ And I ran, I ran so far away ♪ - I can remember not being able to see much and having to ride on top of the double-yellow just to know where I was in the road.

[playful arcade music] And that night I came across a coyote who was doin' the same thing, following the double-yellow down the road.

It scared me to death.

- You know, it's kinda like driving a car, and you doze off, and oh, you wake up.

I think I did that several times on the bike, you know, at two, three o'clock in the mornin'.

[chuckling] - It was a little creepy.

It was so dark, and you really couldn't see anything in front of you.

- You felt kind of alone because you couldn't see anybody.

You could hear people around you, but it was solitary.

Seeing lights of towns way off in the distance and just wondering if that was our next destination.

And most of the time, that light would just kinda go this way, and then it would be behind you at some point.

And so you'd think to yourself, "Okay, "well, I guess that's not where we're going."

[chuckling] ["Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran plays] - "June 24th.

"Today we rode from Barstow to Baker.

"This was in the heart of the desert.

"It was about 70 miles.

"It was a beautiful ride.

"We crossed so many different mountains.

"The desert is really incredible."

♪ Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do ♪ ♪ Woman, you want me ♪ Baker is where of this little oasis, I mean, it was like this little cheap hotel right in the middle of the desert with a pool.

And I think we only spent one night there, but it felt like a week.

[chuckles] - We would supposedly sleep during the day and then ride at night, but no one slept during the day.

We hung out at the pool.

- That was a big problem.

People were tired.

♪ I'm lost in a crowd ♪ - We wanted to go hike out back behind this little motel where we were.

And we come back, the owner was like, "There're rattlesnakes all over there."

And we were like, "Really?"

- We probably fed into Chuck's frustration, freely using white hotel towels to clean our bikes.

[chuckling] - It was just complicated getting everyone started.

Some people would ride fast, and some people would ride slow.

It was really stressin' out Chuck and the other counselors.

And I understand why.

♪ Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do ♪ - I remember the ride in to Las Vegas, 'cause everybody was excited about it.

I remember hittin' a couple of places, like gas stations, that sort of thing, and they had machines.

So that ride in to Las Vegas that night was really cool.

- It was probably two o'clock in the morning or so when we stop to eat sandwiches.

And, you know, you're getting tired, and you're just like, "Oh man," you know?

You're ridin', you're ridin', you're riding.

Finally you see those lights of Las Vegas, and you're like, "We're almost there."

Oh hell no.

Man, you're 50 miles away still.

- And wore on our brakes.

You can hear the brakes screechin'.

And there's a curb, and Bobby passes us on the right, not the left.

We're all like, "Bobby, no."

Just total disregard for safety.

I mean, there's a reason we're all hitting our brakes.

I see sparks, rims, fog.

[bike crashing] [cyclist screeching] ♪ I'm after you ♪ - We were a week into the ride, and we all now understood, this was a marathon and not a sprint across the country.

It was a lot of fun, but it also hurt every day.

The group was starting to split into cliques, and on the road, we'd get separated by long distances.

["Kids in America" by Kim Wilde plays] Chuck was showing signs that the wheels might be coming off this whole thing.

♪ And some kids were talking about going home.

♪ And then we hit a stretch of highway none of us were ready for.

♪ ♪ Friday night and everyone's moving ♪ ♪ I can feel the heat but it's soothing, heading down ♪ ♪ I search for the beat in this dirty town ♪ ♪ Downtown the young ones are going ♪ ♪ Downtown the young ones are growing ♪ ♪ We're the kids in America ♪ ♪ Whoa ♪ ♪ We're the kids in America ♪ ♪ Whoa ♪ ♪ Everybody live for the music-go-round ♪ ♪ Bright lights, the music gets faster ♪ ♪ Look, boy, don't check on your watch, not another glance ♪ ♪♪ I'm not leaving now, honey, not a chance ♪ ♪ Hot-shot, give me no problems ♪ ♪ Much later, baby, you'll be saying nevermind ♪ ♪ You know life is cruel, life is never ♪ - [Male Announcer] "Shadow of a Wheel" is made possible in part by Explore Asheville.

- [Female Announcer] Here in Asheville, we're a mix of genres, a hybrid of styles, settling for nothing, hungry for everything.

All drawn together to stand out.

You are welcome.

Always Asheville.

- [Male Announcer] Additional support is made possible by The Charles Engelhard Foundation and by these contributors: