Posted on 08/11/2006 4:01:31 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Robert Irving Burton Jr. didn't want to be like his father, always saying someday he'd do this or that. He decided to pursue a lifelong dream and died as a result in a Wisconsin traffic accident.
"I realized that talk with no action was getting me to the same place as my father - nowhere," Burton wrote on his blog. "What I had always wanted to do was ride my bicycle across the country."
Burton, 55, retired in September from a city of Tacoma computer networking job. He began training for the trip and persuaded his wife Anita to join him.
They sold their house, placed their possessions in storage and began pedaling in San Diego in May, visiting relatives here and there. They planned to reach Dover, Del., in October.
"Bob and I were having the time of our lives," his wife said.
But Burton was killed Tuesday when he was hit by a car on U.S. 10 in the central Wisconsin town of Milladore, according to the Wood County Sheriff's office. Milladore is about 15 miles north of Wisconsin Rapids.
An investigation is continuing, but deputies said Burton was wearing a helmet and that alcohol was not involved.
"He was living his dream and happy," said Jim Finnell, who knew Burton for 20 years. "When he left, and I saw him off, we were both crying. I said, 'I'm sad you're going, but I'm excited about your adventure.' "
On their journey, the Burtons spent three weeks with their son Jim and his family in Minnesota, then returned to the road six days before the fatal accident.
Anita Burton said he stepped off his bicycle and headed into a ditch to relieve himself, but she kept pedaling, joked that he was a slowpoke and then added that she'd let him catch up to her.
About three-quarters of a mile along, she didn't see him so she stopped and waited until a car stopped and the driver asked whether she had been with another bicyclist. When she answered yes, he gave her a ride back to the crash scene, saw her husband lying in the ditch and was told by an ambulance driver that he was dead.
"It was an instant thing," she said. "We had a beautiful road, two feet (of shoulder) and then the white line. The person who hit him did not see him."
Looks like he made it about half way.
How awful but that is the reason I gave up bike riding. Too many close calls.
Condolences to his wife and family, and mixed feelings about signing off doing something that most people just talk about.
how awesome to die doing what you always wanted to do.
Now I am lucky enough to live within a mile of the Katy Trail and ride it all the time, but I never ever ever "share the road" with cars.
Just because bicyclists the have a "right" to share the road with cars doesn't make it a smart thing to do.
This guy died happy, but his family will live with the tragedy for the rest of their lives.
RIP.
"I used to do triathlons but gave them up when I personally knew of too many triathletes ending up road kill."
Me, too. We live out in the country on a nice flat stretch of road that has some moderate hills; perfect training ground for racing cyclists. Why more aren't killed each year is beyond me.
And they DO NOT follow the rules of the road one iota. They ride side by side in packs of 4-6, and flip you off if you honk to let them know you're there and you're passing them. *Rolleyes* A guy up the road from me took a bike, cut it in half and mounted it so it looks like it's gone through one of his tree trunks. ;)
I use our farm lane to ride on, and I use the many, many Wisconsin bike trails that my tax dollars pay for. Much, much safer!
I've done the Elroy-Sparta Trail many times when stationed at Camp Douglas, WI, and the Military Ridge Trail is fun and very near my home and nice and flat for the most part. We ride out to Riley, WI which has a very nice pub (Riley Tavern) at the end of it.
What? You thought I bike for my health? LOL! :)
Hmmm...he died doing #1. What a way to...go.
Ultimately I think rails-to-trails is just a way to preserve the railroad rights-of-way. Trains are the second most efficient means of bulk transportation next to barges, and someday we are going to need the railroads, in some technologically advanced form, back.
I agree. The trains can come back as soon as we need them.
the joke's on me. I rarely get past the first paragraph anymore...
Damned swollen prostate.....takes forever to pee.
Uh...dying in bed with Salma Hayek is dying happy.
Dying in a bike accident or while peeing on the side of the road? Nope.
Try Zinc !
"Dying in a bike accident or while peeing on the side of the road? Nope."
I think they put the best possible spin on this death, too. I thought this thread would take a totally different "Darwin Award" tac, but it didn't. ;)
I was quoting the article. Take it up with the newspaper editor.
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