By By GREG KATSKI
Community Edito
Washington resident Durwood Moore’s longest, most-daunting bike trip likely will be his last.
Moore, 71, is in the midst of a cross-country journey along the Southern Tier Route, which is mapped out by the Adventure Cycling Association. The route stretches from San Diego, along the U.S.-Mexican border, to Florida’s Atlantic coastline. Hundreds of cycling enthusiasts take the 3,000-mile-plus trip every year. At the end of the route, Moore will turn north and travel through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina to Washington.
“I’ve been reading for four or five years about people taking this trip. At my age, I figured I better do it now,” Moore said via cell phone Tuesday evening. At that time, Moore said, he was between El Paso and Del Rio, Texas, about 1,000 miles into his trip.
Besides the magnificent beauty of the Arizona mountains, Moore said, the generosity of the American people has stood out most to him, so far, during his trip.
“I could talk all day about that,” he said.
Moore spoke of two helpful, young Mexican-Americans busy fixing a flat tire along the lonely desert highway. The men noticed Moore plodding along and offered not one bottle of water, but six bottles.
“I was afraid I was going to run out of water,” Moore said, adding that the men threw in a root beer, as well.
At a campground in Arizona, Moore met a couple from British Columbia. The friendly Canadians noticed Moore was traveling alone and invited him for supper at their camper. As Moore was packing up the next morning, the couple asked him back for breakfast.
“Everybody is just as nice as can be; you just have to talk to them,” Moore said.
Moore has had a tougher time dealing with the elements and highway traffic.
During the day, he said, temperatures have been in the 80s, before dropping down into the 40s at night. Moore said he has a thermal sleeping bag that provides plenty of warmth, and a two-person tent that gives him ample shelter. He’s spent all but three nights in his tent, so far.
To combat the scorching desert sun, he applies sunscreen every morning. Something he’s done since his legs were badly sunburned the second day of his cross-country trek.
The first leg of the southern route takes cyclists on highways through the mountains west of San Diego, through the foothills of Arizona and into the desert of New Mexico and west Texas.
Moore said he’s been having problems with tire debris from trucks traveling the highways.
“I try to avoid them as much as I can, but the wires (from the debris) stick in my tires and cause flats,” he said.
The truckers have been more mindful of Moore, and he tries to be just as courteous to them.
“As far as traffic, I stay as far to the edge (of the highway) as I can get. I give them all the room I can,” Moore said.
Moore expects to complete the trip by late April. Until then, he said, he tries to call his wife, Joan, every night to fill her in on the interesting people he’s met and spectacular sites he’s seen.
“I’m blessed with a wife that doesn’t complain about me doing it,” Moore said.
Moore’s wife said she’s learned not to worry about her husband, but concerned friends and family members still ask about his well-being.
“He keeps saying, ‘I don’t know why everyone worries about me,’” she said.
Durwood Moore’s children and grandchildren also are excited to hear about his travels.
His daughter, Monica Davis, and daughter-in-law, Mary Martin-Moore, both teachers at Eastern Elementary School, have brought maps of his itinerary into their classrooms. Before Durwood Moore embarked on his trip, he spoke to students in each of their classes.
“It’s funny how people are so interested,” Moore said, noting that an enterprising journalist from El Paso that took a photo of him and wrote a short blurb that ran in the local paper.
Moore was born in Greene County, but he was raised in Washington. He retired from the Navy in 1980 and worked for PCS Phosphate (now PotashCorp) as a welder until 2000.
While Moore will continue to ride, he said his current trip will probably be the last one that takes longer than a day or week.
“It’s the last one, I’m afraid,” he said.
Moore took a 3,000-mile, two-month trip from North Carolina through Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina in June 2006.
He rides his bike 30 to 40 miles three to four times a week, and he has been on day trips to the Outer Banks and week-long rides through Florida and Canada.