[workbike] Re: hog hauling

Howdy--

I pulled this story from the Salt Lake Tribune Archive.  You should see
this picture of this guy's trailer--foget hogs, he could haul cattle
(check his website at www.800hungry2.org). Sorry for the length and the
formatting, but I pulled this from an archive search, and the web
address is almost as long.

 > Cyclist Hauls Heavy Load Through Utah as He Trains for Olympics and
Helps Fill Food
> Banks
> Cyclist Hauling Heavy Load to Help the Hungry
> BY MARK HAVNES    THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

>    To bicyclist David Michael Anthony, the heavier the trailer he pulls, the better he likes it.
>    The 33-year-old resident of Newport Beach, Calif., is a cycling fanatic, riding across the country raising money for food banks while training to
> compete in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia in his favorite sport -- bicycling.
>    He says hauling the 1,200-pound trailer -- hooked to his bike with a ball hitch -- will give him the strength he needs to compete in the races to
> qualify for the Olympics.
>    Anthony rolled into Salt Lake City earlier this week with handle bars sticking up from his bicycle frame like crutches -- a modified design he
> concocted with plenty of duct tape after crashing last week on the shoulder of northbound Interstate 15 just south of Scipio.  He suffered a small
> shoulder separation and a case of road rash, but it was not enough to force him stop riding.
>    "I was coming down a hill at about 55 mph and trying to slow down when the front tire heated up and roasted the inner tube," says Anthony,
> holding up the blown-out tire of blistered rubber. "I managed to slow down to 30 mph in about 8 seconds, but knew I was going to crash when I hit
> some gravel."
>    Anthony says he flew over the handle bars and his bike ended up under his 1,200-pound trailer. He was able to get into Scipio, where Sam's Auto
> Repair fixed a broken piece of the trailer, allowing Anthony to get to Salt Lake City. In Provo he was given the name of Dennis Powell, manager of
> Custom Stainless in Salt Lake City. 
>    Not only did Powell offer to do the work for free, but he picked up Anthony and his bikes in Sandy and drove him and his gear to the company's
> shop.
>    "It takes a special breed to do what he is doing, like [Lance Armstrong], who won the Tour de France," says Powell. "We're glad to help out.
> He is raising money for a good cause, and I'd like to see him in the Olympics someday."
>    Anthony says his trailer has evolved along his trip from a simple 400-pound box, built by a Florida aerospace engineering firm, to the latest
> version that looks like an oversize hot-dog vending cart with several bicycles lashed to the top.
>    On Tuesday, sparks flew from grinding stones in the work area of Custom Stainless as workers prepared a new storage box and area to hold his
> water jugs.
>    From Salt Lake City, Anthony, whose legs stick out from his Spandex biking shorts like a pair of small tree trunks, says he plans to zigzag across
> the country for a second time to Key West, Fla., then north to New York City, which he hopes to reach in November.
>    Anthony, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic State University at Pomona, left Los Angeles on the first leg of
> his trip on Feb. 14, 1998, with just his bicycle, bound for Key West, stopping in Jacksonville, Fla., to pick up the trailer. It was in Florida he
> came across a branch of the Harry Chapin Food Bank, which helps hunger victims around the country. It inspired him to combine fund raising for
> the hungry with his training program.
>    He said he has since raised $2.75 million in pledges, and that people can pledge at their area food banks or through his Web page, which is updated
> regularly by a Southern California business.  His trailer has his Web address  --  www.800hungry2.org  --  prominently displayed.
>    Anthony says the problems of homelessness and hunger are with us all the time, not just during the Christmas holidays when people feel most
> generous. He said if people took a bag filled with canned goods to their area food bank once a month, it would make a significant dent in the hunger
> problem.
>    Consuming about 9,000 calories a day himself, Anthony says he started out at a scrawny 185 pounds and has grown to 215 pounds, all muscle.
> Along with camping gear and extra clothes, he hauls 100 pounds of freeze dried food in his trailer and 100 pounds of canned tuna fish.
>    After he reached Key West, Anthony turned northward to Portland, Maine, then across the northern part of the country to Seattle and on up to
> Alaska, where he spent the winter. After the spring thaw he pedaled south to Los Angeles to see his family. While they support his efforts, his
> mother wonders jokingly sometimes if he had "been dropped on his head as a baby," he says.
>    After a brief time in Los Angeles, Anthony began his second push for Key West via Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City he heads to Colorado,
> where he gets excited at the prospect of pulling his half-ton trailer over 15 mountain passes ranging in elevation from 9,500 feet above sea level to
> 12,225-foot Independence Pass. By the time he is finished, he says he will have ridden a bike about 30,000 miles and have traveled through every
> state but Hawaii.
>    So far, he has worn out nine bicycles and has been in one other accident. It occurred in Lynden Station, Wis., when an 80-year-old woman
> returning from her bingo game ran a stop sign and slammed into him. He says he injured the same shoulder he hurt in Utah and had to wear a sling
> for a while, but it hardly affected his schedule.
>    In Washington, D.C., Anthony tells of parking his bike in front of the White House to use the restroom in the park across the street.
>    "In 20 seconds I was surrounded by about 30 armed Secret Service agents, dressed in black and wearing yellow-tinted shooting glasses wondering
> who I was and what was in the box," he says.
>    They relaxed once they searched the trailer's contents, according to Anthony, but not enough to let him camp on the White House lawn when he
> asked permission.
>    Once he finishes his trip, Anthony says he wants to start entering the races that will qualify him for a shot to represent the United States in
> cycling events in the 2000 Olympics. He has no doubt he will make it because of his rigorous training.
>    "At home there are too many distractions to fully concentrate on training," says Anthony. "On the road, I'm focused on two things, fighting
> hunger and the Olympics."
>    
>  
Happy Trails,
Ron Georg
Moab