#acscan

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Behind Closed Doors: The Influence of Major Health Advocacy Groups

The Advocacy Waltz in Montana’s Public Health Policy Here, you will see exactly how advocacy groups in Montana worked to shape narrate, and manipulate Gallatin City-County Health Department’s public health policy, particularly through the amendment of Montana’s Clean Indoor Air Laws (CIAA) to regulate e-cigarettes in 2018. With groups like Tobacco Free Kids, Pave, and Truth Initiative powering…

Behind Closed Doors: The Influence of Major Health Advocacy Groups

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 24,2024 72° to 88°, Thursday, cloudy to sunny.

Final day of biking! 🚴💖🚴

Well, we did it⭐️😎⭐️‼️

The day started in Rocksprings and 42 miles later we were in Del Rio. It was a far warmer day than when we started this trip in Antler, North Dakota back on September 30.

As has been true with every day we have been in Texas, we had either a headwind, or a crosswind, or both! 😵

Maria led off again today and we alternated every 10 miles. About 25 miles north of Del Rio was a border patrol station. I was riding the bike while Maria was behind me in the car. I waved at the agents and they waved back and we continued towards Del Rio. Maria biked us in to Del Rio, and we stopped there to take pictures in front of the city limit sign. This was such a HUGE moment for both of us‼️ I think that moment was a combination of joy and relief that we had made it. 😃

We then journeyed to the United States/Mexican border for some additional pictures.

After that, we loaded the bike onto the car and headed north for the long trip back to Iowa.

As required, we stopped at the border patrol stop 25 miles north of Del Rio where we visited with Officer Hightower. He asked if we were out for a bike ride, and we told him, “Kinda.” 😁 We then told him it was a bike ride from Canada to Mexico and he congratulated us. He asked us if we had peddled past their station an hour or so ago, and we told him yes that was us. He said he had been in the building at the time and did a double take because he doesn’t see too many bikers come through this station. Maria wanted to take his picture but for security reasons he declined. She did not press the issue as being in the back of a police car once this trip was enough.🤣

We then headed to our overnight stop of Waco, Texas, which was a drive of approximately six hours. 🥱 It’s our plan to spend some time here Friday doing some sightseeing and then finishing our trip back to Iowa where we hope to be home sometime Saturday. As always, thanks for following along and for being so supportive of us (and so generous) on this border to border trip. ☺️



[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 23,2024, Wednesday

62° to 88° , mostly sunny ☀️

Our ride today started in the Ghost Town of Telegraph. Today, Pat led off as I was nervous about the terrain to start the day. The first 10 miles of today’s ride was treacherous as we had the steepest hills and sharpest curves of the entire ride. (but I was just as nervous watching him go around the steep curves without a shoulder… 😵) We BOTH were greatly relieved when he put those 10 miles in the rearview mirror. 🙏🏻 One of the benefits of this highway was that it is much less traveled, nevertheless, it was a relief to have it over with. 

Along the route today we had a scenic view overlook, and when we stopped there, we met a veteran of the Navy, Steve, who was taking a leisurely trip through Texas Hill country. It was a nice conversation and so glad we stopped, not only to view the scenery, but also visit with Steve.

One of the very good things that the state of Texas does is provide several historical markers along its highways. These markers often talk about former schools, cemeteries, first settlers, old trails, the beginnings of communities and counties, etc.

The town of Rocksprings, where we are spending the night, also has a number of historical markers around the community. One of the more interesting ones is the jail that is still on the courthouse grounds. It is no longer used as a jail, but had a unique feature in that it had a hanging room in the upper level with a trap door where executions were carried out.

Our dinner tonight was at the Jailhouse Grill & Bar. As you can see from the pictures, I took a picture of Pat standing and reading the information about the town, and in particular the jail so, if you’d like, you can read more from that picture. 

One of the things we have noticed the last couple of days is the number of monarch butterflies flying by. I’m guessing they are heading to their winter home in Mexico, and it is quite a sight to witness. Other sites included the fact that they raise prize goats here in the section of the country. However, the main industries here are ranching and hunting. In fact, the Historic Hotel of Rocksprings, where we are staying, has several full bodies of & animal heads that are from around this area, to include bobcats, waterfowl, different different types of deer and some exotic animals from other parts of the country.  I also took a video today while I was riding to give you a brief idea of what it’s like as we ride our bicycles. Also, Pat took a video of me at the end of our day, to again give you an idea of our life on the road as seen from a bicycle. 

We are now 45 miles from Del Rio and today we saw our first border patrol agents. It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be our final day of biking, and we should be at the border patrol station in Del Rio early afternoon. Thanks again for all your support and comments. We really do read each and every one of them and they have given us a huge amount of encouragement, thanks again! ☺️⭐️‼️



[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 22,2024, Tuesday

61° to 88° mostly sunny.

Eden to Telegraph, Texas☀️

We started our 70 mile ride today in Eden, which has its own Garden of Eden. 😃Maria offered me an apple from the Garden of Eden, but I declined, unlike Adam.

Our first pass through town was Menard and as we often do, we charged the battery in the lical library, while we had an early lunch. Across the street from the library was a beautiful butterfly garden, which today was also visited by hummingbirds. We assume the hummingbirds are on their migration to Central and South America, but certainly they were enjoying the flowers in this lovely garden in Menard.

Sandy is the librarian and was very welcoming to us both. I noted the sign with the dairy cows and its advice to “live like someone left the gate open!” it reminded me that we should all live with joy, sometimes unexpected! ☺️ With regards to Sandy, the librarian, we found that she had run several marathons, but now was training for her first ”ultramarathon.” She will be running that 100 mile race on Saturday. 😵👍🏼That is impressive at any age, but she is 63 and doing her first one. She has been training over a year.⭐️

We are now in Texas Hill country, a region we have been in before when we went across country east to west in 2015. When we reached Junction this afternoon, we left Highway 83 and began our southwest trek to Del Rio, our endpoint to this border to border ride.😎‼️ We have been on Highway 83 since North Dakota and could have taken Highway 83 all the way to the Mexican border at Laredo. Instead we opted to head south west towards Del Rio, as it is a smaller city and a little easier to navigate on a bicycle than Laredo. 🚴🚴

Our final stop today was in the ghost town of Telegraph. At one time, it had a population of 66, but the population now is three. The old post office is still standing and someone decorated it for Halloween, as you can see from the picture. The town got its name because trees were cut there to support communication lines to army forts east of town. It has been fascinating to read all of the historical markers along the roadways. We included a picture saying that there were rockslides. This was indeed, the case, as during a portion of the ride, the shoulder was littered with rocks of all sizes! Thankfully, nothing came tumbling down as I was riding along! I also stopped and took a picture of the road sign showing that Del Rio is only 122 miles away! That is hard to believe! Leslie, there’s a short video of me while I was awaiting that to catch up to me. Seeing a river with clear water was definitely picture worthy to me! 🤩Tomorrow morning we will start our ride in Telegraph and pedal 31 miles to Rocksprings, which is 76 miles from Del Rio. If all goes as planned, we should arrive in Del Rio Thursday afternoon. 😎 We are spending tonight and tomorrow night at the Historic Hotel in Rocksprings. We will take some pictures tomorrow to share with you. 

And one last thing, yes, we did have headwinds again today, 9-14 mph from the south.🙃

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct.21,2024 Monday, 61° to 85°

Abilene to Eden, Texas

Maria got it started again today and of course another day of headwinds. 🙃This section of Highway 83 is part of the Texas Fort Trail, as you can see from the sign/pictured, a 650 mile scenic byway that provides a glimpse into the many forts and outposts that were once situated in central Texas. Although we did not come across any of them along highway 83, we felt the history was interesting. From 1848 to 1900 the US Army built 44 major posts or temporary camps in Texas. Today these sites range from ruins to historically accurate reconstruction and in some cases nothing but an historical marker identifies their location.

The highlight of our day was our lunch stop and bike charging at the Carnegie Library in Ballinger, TX👍🏼 as we soon found out, this was one of several Carnegie libraries built in the early 20th century. The one in Ballinger was constructed in 1908 and is one of the few Carnegie libraries built back then that is still functioning as a library. We received a tour of the library from Beth and she and Erlinda, the head librarian, were kind enough to let us charge our bike and eat lunch in the library. Perhaps the most impressive part was the auditorium on the second floor, (Maria took a short video) which was used for plays and other events many years ago, and is still utilized today .

While we were there, we met Martha and Mary, two retired women from the Dallas area. Interestingly, they shared that they were doing geocaching, and we learned all about that hobby! We ended up exchanging emails and their “geocaching names.”😃They told us that national parks and trails were really good spots for tracking down the geocaching items. And it made me wonder if there were any in the Adel area. I think we might need to look into that when we get back. There is a picture of them showing us how the website works. Have any of you reading this ever done this hobby? Please fill us in if you have! 😃Also, while waiting for Pat to catch up, I stopped and explored the pull off area. I had seen pink flowers in the distance before, but never really knew what they were and was able to take a few pictures. This is called “ Upland cotton” but I did not see any of the white cottony puffs as I did in other cotton fields. 🤷🏻‍♀️

What I did see, for the first time were two different types of roadkill: of course I did not take a picture, but there was an armadillo and 2 feral/wild pigs! A bit creepy, and smelly, but unusual nonetheless! 😵We also came across an old courthouse that was built in the 1800s (see picture). It never ceases to amaze me how they constructed these huge buildings without the modern conveniences and equipment that we have today. 

We biked 81 miles today and tonight are in Eden, Texas. Though we have been in Texas for a week now, today is the first time we have seen any police officer. He was on the side of the road, probably looking for speeders. As I biked past him, I looked in the backseat and did not see Maria so went ahead and kept going. 🤣 We ended our ride at the Trail North Ranch, established in 1881. Quite a long time to be in one family, that’s for sure! If all goes well, we should be in Del Rio on Thursday. Hard to believe that our border to border ride is quickly coming to an end. But thanks for following along and to all of you who have donated to the cause.🥰‼️

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 20,2024, 61° to 83°,

sunny Sunday ☀️😎

As we were loading up the bike to start our day, a couple of fellow guests at the motel were curious about our E-bike and our journey across the country. One of them was a retired copper miner from Arizona. They were very friendly and we enjoyed our chat.

We needed to load up our bike because we had gone past our last overnight town and started midway at a rest stop along Highway 83 and learned a couple things. First we learned that Highway 83 is officially known as the Vietnam War Memorial highway, and second, where we stopped was the home of a town called Rath City. It grew pretty rapidly due to the international popularity of buffalo skins. But as so often happened in the west, as the buffalo herds were decimated , the hunters left to go elsewhere, and Rath City disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.

Maria was the leadoff rider today and did the first 10 miles of the trip. We had lunch in a town called Anson. Our lunch consisted again of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and vegetables. We used the courthouse steps as our eating spot as it was shady and quiet. 

It was a light wind this morning, that gradually increased as the day wore on and the temperatures rose as well, climbing into the 80’s.

As you can see from one of the pictures, we noticed some pear cactus today, along with some solar panels, which makes sense given the number of sunny days in this part of Texas. 😎☀️

Navigating a bicycle around a big city, such as Abilene, population 125,000, is always a challenge. We completed our 53 mile ride today south of Abilene. Though it was not one of our longest rides, the heat and heavy traffic took its toll on us and we were certainly glad when the ride was over. I know many of you have noted that we are always smiling. Obviously, Maria was not in a smiling mood, but she asked me to take a picture because this was her reality today as she finished up. 😃🤪

We then checked into our hotel, cleaned up from the day and ordered dinner online. Pat graciously drove to get it and we ate it in our room. Then we left to attend mass in Abilene, which was a bilingual mass at St. Vincent’s parish. We were impressed by the number of people there and how warm and friendly they were.

Tomorrow our goal is Bellinger after a good night’s rest, which is what we need tonight! 🥱

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 19, 2024, Saturday, 60° to 84° cloudy with sunshine later. 

Our evening last night was uneventful at the Hunters Lodge: there were no ghosts or haunted, creaky sounds noted and we had a great night sleep! 😌 it was cloudy and warmer today than other mornings, but the familiar headwind continued… 💨💨

The surface also improved after the first 12 miles and it was smooth sailing at least from a shoulder perspective,until we pedaled into Aspermont this evening. We again alternated biking and riding in the car with each of us doing a 10 to 15 mile stretch. Since I know many of you following along are “foodies,” you’ll be happy to know that we are still having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost daily for our lunch.😄 I will admit, I do miss riding both of our bikes along the same route with Pat, as we were able to experience the landscape and other interesting sites together, I feel we continue to make the best of the situation since my bike was sent home last week. 😎 I continue to be amazed and humbled by the number of donations to the American Cancer Society Cancer action Network, that we continue to receive. Our total is nearly $7,000‼️🤩🤩

A few nights ago, my cousin Ed, from Kansas, was having trouble with the link & messaged me. I then sent him a copy of the QR code to use and he said that works great. So I am including that in our pictures today if you have had difficulty with the link that I’ve shared previously.

🚴As I bike along, my thoughts often go to this cancer journey that I’ve been on with my amazing family & wonderful friends ☺️….. I have met so many amazing people and have been touched by the kindness, support and prayers of each and every one of you. It is appreciated more than you know. 🥰 so thanks everyone ‼️

We started our ride today at a church called Midway, a name it it got because it’s halfway between Paducah and Guthrie.

Paducah, Texas was named after the Paducah, Kentucky (where there happens to be a famous quilt shop ). An early settler told the town leaders he would give his land to them if they named it Paducah. They accepted his offer, perhaps the first naming rights deal in America. Professional sports teams now sell naming rights for their stadiums (stadia)and arenas so Paducah, Texas was way ahead of its time. 😉

Our first pass-through town was Guthrie, an unincorporated town of about 160 people. However, for such a small town, they had quite a school gymnasium complex. We were able to take a break and plug the bike in at an outdoor plug-in, which was helpful. Across the highway there was a championship calf roping contest, according to the website, but it did not start while we were waiting. Had it been a real Texas rodeo, I (Maria) would’ve had a hard time moving on as I would’ve found it fun to watch. 

Another unique aspect of Guthrie is that almost none of the residents own their houses . Rather it is a “company town” with two large ranches plus the school district providing the housing. Another interesting thing that we saw were the different “brands” that the rancher used to identify their cattle carved into an underpass, along with a small pond of water. This is the first water we’ve seen as most of the rivers have been dry. Today we also passed over the Salt Fork of the Brazos River which lived up to its name: as you can see from the picture, there’s nothing left of that river, other than salt deposits. 😵

Despite the headwinds, wehad a 59 mile ride today, putting us about 280 miles from Del Rio, our final destination. Hard to believe that we should be getting to the Mexican border in less than a week from now!!  thanks for following along and your support of ACSCAN 👍🏼☀️‼️

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 18,2024 Friday, 57° to 82° and cloudy all day.

A rinse and repeat day of hills, headwind, and rough road surface. Today was a bit unusual in that I decided I would start bicycling first thing in the morning. I biked about 15 miles and then turned it over to Pat.

After I had dropped him off, I noticed the TNT two for one deal off the side of the road. , as most of you know, most people sell “fireworks “however, apparently in Texas they do things big here and they sell TNT to blow up a mountain or something. 😱😄We exited the Texas Panhandle today, but the scenery did not change much as we moved into SE Texas. I agree with Pat in that perhaps there were more trees and little more cotton growing, but still lots of sagebrush , cattle grazing, and not much green. The ground is more red here in this part of the state as well.We also saw a lot of mesquite trees.

Another interesting thing we both noticed is that we have crossed over several rivers and creeks in Texas, and almost none of them have any water in them. It has been dry here, which is typical, and not much rain in the forecast.

Another interesting item was that they use natural materials (tree branches), to use for fencing, as the picture shows.

We had lunch today in Paducah at the Crossroads Café. As is typical when strangers enter a small town restaurant, we got plenty of stares and looks. One thing we have noticed the last couple days is that gravy seems to be served with most meals.

We biked 61 miles today and are now about 100 miles north of Abilene and should get there on Sunday.

As you can see from the video, we are staying in an older hotel, that I thought seemed like it could be haunted! 😵🫣Maybe it’s their decorations, or the time of season, but I’m hoping we have a quiet night tonight! As we were both quite tired from the headwind rides today, we thought we should have a little happy hour, which was great with Coronas and Doritos! We are living large here in Texas! 😂Since we had lunch on the road while we charged the battery, our evening meal consisted of famous peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some fruit and veggies , and cookies for dessert. We are so grateful for this time together and we are really working as a team ✅to make this Border to Border ride happen! Our route continues to take us mostly south, but in a few days, we will make a turn to the west to get to Del Rio, which is our endpoint. Thanks again for following along! 🚴😎🚴