Family bikes to Florida for a one-night stay

Photo: AP Photo/The Pantagraph, Myron Oesch
The Oesch family, from Illiopolis, Ill., are seen cycling in Mississippi during a three-week bike trip from their home in Illiopolis to Pensacola, Fla. in June 2006. Taking part in the trip were Myron Oesch, his wife, Barb and their three children.

ILLIOPOLIS, Ill. (AP) -- Myron Oesch had an interesting tale to tell his students at Riverton Elementary School in Illiopolis when the topic turned to ``How I spent My Summer Vacation.''

Oesch, his wife, Barb, and their three children spent theirs riding their bicycles from Illiopolis to Pensacola, Fla.

After the three-week trip, Oesch wasn't the big wheel around his house anymore. His 11-year-old son, Breton, literally rode rings around his dad, who was handicapped by towing the family's camping gear in the old infant hauler the kids used to occupy.

As a result, the younger cyclist logged 20 miles more than his dad, whose odometer read about 1,000 miles when the ride was done.

Oesch, 48, and his wife have cycled together since they met through a church youth group. After their marriage ceremony in May 1980, they left on bicycles bearing ``Just Married'' signs to ride round-trip to the Grand Canyon. The trip of 4,200 miles lasted 68 days.

The very next year, they did a 4,000-mile bike tour through the East Coast and Ontario.

While working for the (Bloomington) Pantagraph's community services department, Oesch launched an annual three-day bike ride through the Pantagraph circulation area.

Erin, their oldest daughter, now 17, was born four days after Barb Oesch completed the 220-mile ride one year.

In 1984, the couple rode more than 7,000 miles from just north of San Francisco Bay to Alaska and eastward through Canada.

Erin, Breton and daughter Claren, 14, all first joined their parents on rides as infants. In the 1990s, Breton rode in the baby hauler and the girls pedaled along when the family biked to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana from Illiopolis, where Myron Oesch teaches youngsters computer and visual arts skills.

So, Myron and Barb Oesch weren't too surprised when they heard Erin say, ``Can we do a longer ride?''

``Yeah, to Florida or something?'' added Claren.

On Father's Day, they packed gear into the baby hauler and onto their new road bikes and started off. The route took them through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. For the most part, they stuck to lightly traveled roads where they felt close to the landscape and the people.

They did 30 miles the first day. Some days stretched to 70 miles, but most days saw 50 to 60 miles roll by. They cooked breakfasts and dinners and lunched on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

They carried water and knocked on doors to refill water bottles.

The Oeschs planned to stay in 13 state parks. But they wound up staying in only five because of offers from strangers for places to stay in homes and the opportunity to stay in churchyards, city parks and on the grounds of fire stations and police departments.

``If you want to dialogue with people, buy a bike and ride across country,'' Oesch said. ``The least populated places, people seem to me more outreaching and kind, rich or poor.''

Some people along the way thought the Oeschs were crazy for riding 1,000 miles in three weeks just to stay one night in Pensacola.

But Myron Oesch pointed out a trip on bikes is not about the destination at all.

``I'd say, 'It's not about being in Florida. It's about being with you right now.' The journey is a story, a whole lot of stories all coming together,'' he said.

``When you do it, you think this is a trip of the lifetime. But, I don't think it will be our last. I don't want it to be our last.''