DERIDDER, La. (AP) - For her 70th birthday, Mary Ruth Corley decided to step out of her comfort zone and celebrate her life with what she considered a “pretty neat experience” by bicycling to DeRidder from Austin, Texas, with three friends, all over the age of 55.
“The hardest part was not preparing my body for the trip. The hardest part was convincing my husband to let me do it and that I wasn’t crazy,” Corley said from her father’s front yard just moments after finishing the 330-mile trip.
The women accomplished their goal in only six days. Having set out their course weeks in advance to end at the home of Corley’s father, 95 year-old World War II veteran Clifford Bradley, the cyclists set out early Sunday morning and averaged 55 miles a day. At the end of each day they lodged at a hotel for the night before setting out the next morning.
“It really was an adventure, and it was so much fun for us,” Corley said.
While the women had become friends through competing in triathlons together, it was a first for all of them to cycle so far in such a small group. But they all agreed the journey was a pleasant one.
“I can’t recall one instance of anyone being rude to any of us,” said Karen Wilcox. “We definitely got some curious stares and questions about what we were doing though.”
Wilcox had a small inconvenience at around the midway point when a clip broke off her bike and momentarily halted the trip, but then, Corley said, they met an angel in the form of a biker.
“He stopped and helped us by putting on one of his own bike clips,” she said. “We were so appreciative of him; he really helped us out.”
The best day of their journey, they said, was the final day, and Karen Gonsoulin said the DeRidder police made them all feel like returning heroes.
“We have never had such a welcome in this whole trip,” Gonsoulin said. “A police officer met us about five miles outside of the city limits and escorted us in and then a second one joined him - that just made us feel amazing. They even took pictures with us.”
As the women looked back on the trip, Corley said the trip itself was not only what was important, rather it was the emotional investment that they all made together in it.
“I think that the real amazing part is that four women made this trip and shared a hotel room together each night and we are all still friends after it,” she said.
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