Local achieves bicycling goal

Virginia Blaine, a member of the Captain Henry Whitener Chapter NSDAR, recently presented a program at her chapter’s regular monthly meeting. Several years earlier Virginia had set a goal of riding a bicycle in all 50 states before she was 70. She started riding in 1999 and after 12 years and a lot of planning achieved her goal in the fall of 2011 just before her 70th birthday.

Virginia believes she accumulated about 12,000 miles on her bicycle with 3,000 to 4,000 of those miles in Missouri. In most states she would ride 10-15 miles, but in others she rode hundreds of miles. She found riding in Wisconsin particularly enjoyable. She also stated that she had to rent a bicycle in several states. This was to her disadvantage since she wasn’t familiar with the bicycle. Virginia celebrated the ending of her last trip at Mount Rushmore with two of her daughters and a grandchild joining her there. She had previously asked them to join her, but they had declined. They had ideas of their own.

Virginia estimates that around 45 people have helped her achieve her goal by either encouraging and cheering her on, bicycling with her, or by driving her from place to place. Two people she mentioned in particular were her husband Ted and her brother John.