FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
After hundreds of question and answer sessions immediately following the multi-media presentation on our bicycling adventure, I have a pretty good handle on what people are curious about. Let’s start with the number one question that is always asked.
ARE YOU AND STEVE STILL GOOD FRIENDS?
Steve and I have maintained a very close and special friendship over the past 29 years. We’ve been told that our time on the road could be compared to going to war and doing foxhole time together. I have too much respect for our brave military to agree completely with that analogy, but by surviving significant adversity side by side, we have indeed bonded in a very unique and lifelong way.
For the first 11 years upon returning from our 48-state pedaling adventure, we lived within about a half-mile from each other and saw each other most every week. I was honored to be the best man at his wedding with Lori, and he is now the Godfather of my only daughter Amanda. Although he and Lori now live over a five-hour drive from me and we don’t see each other as much as we once did, we are still child-like and pumped whenever we get the chance to be together.
DID YOU AND STEVE EVER DO ANOTHER ADVENTURE TOGETHER?
I’m glad that you asked! As a matter of fact, we did. In 1994, Steve and I attempted to be the first to ever negotiate a man-powered watercraft UP the entire length of the Mississippi River. We actually hydrocycled on HYDROBIKES, a bicycle frame constructed on two pontoons that drove a propeller instead of wheels. It turned into a very dangerous and life-threatening trip and one that we did not complete our goals. We did, however, Steve at age 42 and me at 41, pedal over 1,000 miles up the Mississippi under enormous stress and odds. That book is scheduled to be released in late 2010. You can stay posted about how and when to order by going checking my upcoming media events calendar on this website.
We are now in the very early planning stages for our third and probably final adventure, tentatively scheduled for 2012. We will both be nearing 60, proving once again that being a "couch potato" is a choice that you do not have to make at any age.
WHERE IS STEVE NOW AND WHAT IS HE DOING?
Steve achieved another one of his life-long ambitions by moving to northern Minnesota where he and Lori bought a beautiful home on Lake Vermilion. After a long and distinguished career in sales, he is now involved in the hospitality industry with a good friend and has his own business selling Hydro-Bikes on the Internet. Hydro bikes were the unbelievable machines that propelled us up the mighty Mississippi River on our second adventure in 1994. Steve and Lori celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in 2007.
Steve can be reached at funwatercraft@yahoo.com and you can visit his website at www.hydrobikes.com
WHERE IS KEN NOW AND WHAT IS HE DOING?
I live in a little town just north of Rochester, Minnesota with my wife Robin, ten-year-old daughter, Amanda and seven-year-old Andrew (making a baby at 50 years-old as I did is an “adventure” all of its own!). We also have a 23-year-old son, David, who is a heavy equipment operator for the Army National Guard of Minnesota. After a very circuitous “career” path in sales, speaking and business ownership, I am now devoting all of my time to writing, creating information products and speaking around the world.
I can be reached at ken@pedalingonpurpose.com or by calling 507-202-7054.
IS EITHER ONE OF YOU STILL INVOLVED WITH MAKE-A-WISH?
Steve and I did not stay actively involved in Make-A-Wish. We were original board members in Minnesota back in 1982 during the early and brief grassroots days before we started pedaling, and did have the privilege of meeting all of the first wish recipients that we had helped with our fundraising adventure. We also contacted Make-A-Wish in 1994 with the hope of raising money for them again with our second trip up the Mississippi River. That did not work out because of logistical challenges at the time.
Our plan to bicycle all 48 states inspired and motivated a radio audience to pledge the very first dollar for special wishes on July 1, 1982. Since that day Make-A-Wish has experienced phenomenal growth in Minnesota, around the country and now internationally.
As a very exciting update, Ken as of Spring 2009 is now an official volunteer with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Minnesota. I have met many of the new staff, who continue with great care and compassion to grant the wishes of very special children. I am thrilled to once again be a part of this inspiring organization. We are always looking for help and resources! You can contact me at any time.
HOW MUCH MONEY DID YOU EVENTUALLY RAISE FOR MAKE-A-WISH WITH YOUR PEDALING OF ALL 48 STATES?
As strange is my answer will sound to you, I don’t know! After all of the concern, eventual focus, sometime frustration and overwhelming desire to “finish strong,” I don’t know what the final collected pledge total was. Once we hit the border of Minnesota we shifted priorities and got on with rebuilding our lives. My best guess is that the number was between $20,000 and $25,000. All I know for sure is that in retrospect, everybody connected with Make-A-Wish and our bicycling trip did all that they possibly could do to be successful. Make-A-Wish of Minnesota was brand new, the board members including Steve and I were volunteers and we all tried to follow our hearts and do the right thing. We learned a lot on the fly and would certainly have done an even better job with pledges and publicity if we had the opportunity to do it all over again. I will always be proud of everybody who was involved those first days, including Dick Pomerantz, his assistant Deborah Sturges and the management and support staff at KSTP-AM radio who helped make those first wishes come true for some very special children.
DURING THE FINAL STAGES OF YOUR ADVENTURE, PUBLICITY BECAME A MAJOR FOCUS OF YOUR EFFORTS. HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE YOUR SUCCESS?
Our success was mixed and inconclusive. On a negative side, very few national possibilities came to fruition. I will never know exactly why, but I believe to this day that we never gained momentum nationally and not enough people were involved in trying to gain the exposure. Some outlets needed “more time” and others seemed disinterested. I hate to say this but the truism that “bad news sells” is still true today. You have to also remember that cable news and Internet coverage were not even remote possibilities at the time so options were limited. On a positive note, we had a lot of local radio, television and newspaper coverage on our return. Also noted is that pledges doubled from $10,000 to $20,000 in a very short period of time, and so I believe that the word during our final push north was indeed spreading. Finally, years later someone told me that they found out about our trip from television news that they saw in…HAWAII! I said to them, “No way!” Because they knew too many accurate details, we determined that national affiliates picked up Pamela Hess’s story in Jackson, Tennessee and for all we know, it was broadcasted all over the United States! All it takes is a slow news day. And so ultimately, I don’t know exactly who covered our story.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE STATE?
Steve and I probably were asked this question more often than any other one. Interestingly enough we share the same answer. Our fondest memories were created in Nebraska. Thanks to the Pete Matthews' family that took us in and then created Steve’s 30th birthday bash, the John Tjadin family that reached out to us and nurtured Steve back to health, the beautiful rich farmland that we bicycled through all combined to make Nebraska an early favorite in our trip and was never unseated. Sometimes the question was worded slightly differently, as in what was the most beautiful state that we pedaled through. That was a much more difficult question. An early favorite was Oregon, in part because of the diversified terrain; high deserts, mountains and the ocean. As we continued to pedal the country, we also fell in love with New Hampshire for some of the same diverse topographical reasons. We ultimately determined that Minnesota, our beloved and beautiful home state, did not own the exclusive stock in beauty. Traveling at 10 miles per hour through all 48 states we surprisingly discovered incredible scenery and pristine countryside in every state that we traveled.
WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THIS TRIP THAT HAS MADE A MAJOR DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE?
It took several months to really understand the personal impact of our adventure. I can’t speak for Steve but I am confident that our answers would be similar. If I had to distill it down to only two things, I would say the following:
Create the time in your life to set a major goal in alignment with your values and strengths, take action and persevere to the end through every obstacle and your reward will be a lifetime surge of confidence and high self-esteem that you will have at your disposal forever.
I hope that doesn’t sound like a trite platitude or simplistic, generic motivational doubletalk. It happened to us and 27 years later we are still reaping the rewards of our adventure. Steve enthusiastically confirmed that this is still true for him today during a visit we shared at his home on Lake Vermilion in late August of 2007. We all underestimate what we are capable of doing. None of us come remotely close to realizing our full God-given potential. All I know for sure is that by creating a big goal or dream for worthwhile reasons and then persevering through to its achievement will pay huge, lifelong dividends.
The second insight that has stayed with both Steve and I for decades is how important it became that Make-A-Wish was a part of our adventure. Although we both decided on our 48-state-quest for primarily adventure and physical challenge reasons, pedaling to collect the dollars pledged to help dreams come true for children in often dire situations, grew every day to be our focus and our reason. It was a slow realization over the miles but it was firmly understood deep in our hearts and souls what we were doing and why. With that in mind:
When you decide on a major goal, challenge or dream in your life, make sure that you create a “WHY” that takes you outside of yourself and is larger than your own reasons or satisfaction. You will insure your success and completion by integrating this principle into your life.
I will be adding more answers to frequently asked questions in the ensuing weeks. Keep checking back!
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