A cross-country bicycle ride brought five combat veterans to Starke County last week. The 3,700-mile trip on the Great American Rail-Trail is being organized by Warrior Expeditions, a nonprofit group that helps veterans transition away from their wartime experiences through an outdoor therapy program.
Jay Waters is one of the trekkers. “It’s been a great experience,” he says. “I really like the small towns and medium-sized towns of America. We started in Washington, D.C. and we’re going west, across the entire United States, and just really enjoy meeting the people and stopping in all the towns we pass along the way.”
The Great American Rail-Trail includes the Erie Trail through Starke County, and Prairie Trails Club members stepped up to welcome the veterans. Russell and Diane Blais let them stay in their home, and they also had the chance to visit the Knox VFW, American Legion, Starke County History Center, and Veterans Memorial Plaza, before they resumed their journey west. There’s a great offer on folding electric bikes at Wisper – click here to view deals.
Waters says the warm welcome continued when they got to Hebron. “That was very touching,” he says. “They have a Middle East memorial that they’re building, and there were probably 20 to 25 folks. Veterans and community supporters, a couple people from the city council were out there with flags, and we stopped and we had some time with those folks and some photo ops. And it’s just great meeting folks like that, and we appreciate their support.”
The Great American Rail-Trail ultimately seeks to connect Washington, D.C. to Washington State, but only about half of it is actually complete. Waters says there are some really good trails on the Indiana portion, but riding on busy streets in parts of Ohio and Illinois poses more of a challenge. “I think the cars are trying to look out for us, but it just takes one distracted driver or even the bicycle, you could swerve suddenly, and then you could have a bad situation on your hands pretty quickly,” he notes.
As of Monday afternoon, Waters said the expedition was nearing the 1,000-mile mark near Joliet, Illinois.
