The Story Behind “Cycling for a Cause” | S5 E7

SPEAKER_03 0:00

The next day I get up and I go to put weight on, I forget which one it was, the right or the left leg, and I couldn't, I almost fell to the ground. I run a few marathons, I did an iron man, I played hockey, I skied. I go take a look at the other knee, and sure enough, they said the other knee looked worse than the knee that was giving me trouble. Telling them I'm trying to bike across the country and all looking at me crazy because they knew my knees were fairly new. And the doctor was like, your bike adventures over, your collarbone's broken. I was in the book, it was a couple of times I was packing it in. And I tell these guys, listen, I'm gonna, you know, quit my job and I'm gonna ride my bicycle across the country. And every everybody says you're out of your mind.

Voiceover 0:45

Welcome to Responder Resilience, along with my co-host, Bonnie Rumoli, LCSW EMTB, and Dr. Stacy Raymond. I'm David Dashinger. This episode we'll be speaking with our guest, Joe Matthews. He's a retired captain of the New York City Fire Department. We'll be talking about his FDNY career, his epic cycling journey from coast to coast, and that was for charitable causes. And we'll be talking about his book, Cycling for a Cause: a Cross Country Adventure. Remember to like and subscribe, YouTube, Respond Resilience, Facebook, Responder Wellness Inc. and Responder TV, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, go to our website, respondertv.com for past episodes and guest information. This episode is made possible by the First Responder Center for Excellence. Discover more at FirstresponderCenter.org and connect with us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. We'll be right back to speak with Joe after this. In this family, more of us die by our own hands and by the hazards of the job.

SPEAKER_08 1:44

In this family, up to a quarter of 911 telecommunicators have symptoms of post-traumatic stress. In this family, our mental health and wellness are in crisis, while responders are quietly suffering.

Voiceover 1:56

In this family, many struggle with job-related stress, burnout, injury, sleep disruption, substance abuse, and relationship problems. In this family, we can't help the helpers. With vital information and resources, resilience strategies, and success stories of overcoming the obstacles. Welcome to Responder Resilience. We co-host retired Lieutenant David Gatchinger, Dr. Stacey Raymond, and Bonnie Rimley, LCSW EMTV. Our guest today is Joe Matthews. He's lived his entire life on Long Island, and uh we came to find out that he uh he went to a high school that was our crosstown rivals uh where I grew up. So um I know the area well, and uh Joe uh Joe and I traded a few stories back when we first met. Um Joe's a New York City firefighter for 22 and a half years and rose to the rank of captain before retiring in December of 2012. He's got two children and he's a proud grandfather. And now semi-retired, Joe enjoys playing guitar, and we can see some of them back behind you there. Um volunteering, cooking, and staying fit. Over the past two years, he's fulfilled two long-held dreams. 2022, he rode his bicycle across the country, and in 2023, he finished writing his book. We'll talk about that. Joe, warm welcome to Respond to Resilience. Thanks, thanks, Dave.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Great to be here.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

So, Joe, I'd like to start by asking you to talk a little bit about your career with FDNY and how it shaped who you are today.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Oh, that's a good question, Stacey. Um, so believe it or not, like most New York City firemen, either uh, you know, their father was a fireman, uh, their uncle, their grandfather. It's it's a very traditional uh organization. Um I became a fireman because friends of mine that I grew up, I mean, I grew up on Long Island where uh um fireman, it wasn't a paid, it was a volunteer um fire department in the town I grew up in. So I never even knew that you could get paid to do the job. And even growing up, I I I always thought you could never pay me enough money to run into a burning building. So so um I I went to college and after college I had a couple of uh you know unrewarding jobs or whatever, or yeah, they were okay, but but it wasn't um fulfilling. And my friends who were firemen were like, you know, whistling and just like loving life and doing all sorts of things. So uh um I I got on the job a little a little a little bit later on life. I I I took the entrance exam, I think, in uh um back in 87, and and it's a long process, even though I was in the top one percentile, I didn't get on the job until 1990. So at that time I was 31 years old. And um I really I didn't really know that much about what I was getting into, but I was uh excited about it. Uh and it just sounded like it would be it would be a great career.

Bonnie Rumilly 5:05

So talk a little bit about how you rose through the ranks uh to captain eventually.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

So um I started my career in Ladder 152, which is in uh fresh meadows, Queens. And I was there about about uh five years. It was it was a great firehouse. I mean, I learned a lot there. Um, but I was uh getting more more interested in in rising to the ranks and studying. And it's a very competitive exam, and there's a lot of uh time you have to put into it. I mean, I studied for two and a half years for for Lieutenant Harder than I ever studied for any class in college or anything.

SPEAKER_05 5:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

Um and I got on in August of 1990, and in in uh May of '96, I transferred to Brooklyn, to Brownsville, Brooklyn. It was like a busier neighborhood. Um it was a ghetto area, and it was just like, you know, more fires, more action. And I transferred to engine 227 in Brownsville, which was definitely my favorite firehouse. That I I worked in four firehouses throughout my career. And 227, it was a single engine, but it was um what a great group of guys. It was really a great and in the interim I'm studying, and um uh so I eventually get promoted in after 9-11. That's a that's a whole nother story. Um, so I got promoted after 9-11, and I um spent four years up in the Bronx. Um, they they call it bouncing when you first get promoted. You have to you have to leave the the borough that you were a fireman in when you get promoted. And then until you get assigned to a firehouse, you cover like vacations, sick days. And that can be a little intimidating. You know, you're walking in as a boss into a firehouse where you don't know anybody, and uh they're trying to size you up as you're trying to size them up. Um so it it it was that was uh an interesting part of my career. But again, the Bronx the Bronx was was was quite a burrow to work in, it really was.

Voiceover 7:00

Yeah, yeah, Joe, I I want to just go a little further into that um because to me it's fascinating. So talk a bit about coming into a house, you know, as an officer uh where you may not know the crew, and how did you uh develop the rapport or kind of get you know get to the place where you could work well together, you just felt comfortable working together? Was there a process? Did you have any like tips or tricks you'd used to break the ice?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Yeah, so so again, I I kind of felt fortunate that um of course after 9-11 we l we lost so many, so many of the operations of the department and a lot of uh senior guys. But when I got promoted, I would still walk at the firehouses and my my chauffeur would have 20 years on the job, 25 years on. I at the time had 11 years on the job. You know, you have your role call at the beginning of the tour. You could also um climate always get to their shifts an hour early. So you would get there an hour early, and you can look at the bus, and you can look at your writing list, and you can look at who's working. And on on the desk in the office is you know, what kind when they got when the uh firefighter got assigned to the job, how long he's been in a company. So you get a little bit of a rough feel, okay, this guy's been here for 25 years, he you know, he's got to know the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Okay, and this guy's got 15 years, and this guy's got 10 years, yeah. This guy only has three years. And um I was fortunate there were still senior guys on the job when I got promoted. And um, I gotta admit they they looked out for me too, you know. Uh as a lieutenant, I was always like as a fireman, the only person I felt I could kill was myself. But when I'm an officer, I feel like I'm gonna kill the whole company. So I was always like, I you know, I want to make the right decisions, make the right calls.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

And um, yeah, so so that's uh you would have the roll call, and that's how you introduce yourself to the guys. And um again, sometimes it was uncomfortable, I have to admit, and other times it was it was great, and overall, definitely much more good days than bad days.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

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SPEAKER_04 10:16

So if you could just let us in on that a little bit, and I'm curious to know why you did it both at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Stacy, that's a great question. Even I could question myself on that one sometimes. So I'll try and make a long story short, which with Joe Matthews is sometimes a little bit tricky. Um, I I I was getting the oil change in my car, and I uh it was in January, and I'm walking to the bank to you know, withdraw a couple of dollars. Um and as I'm walking, it was a snowy day, and as I'm walking, my phone pings. That's why I just finally turned it off because I'm always getting like messages, and I pick up the phone and look at it, I step off a snowy curb and I fall down on my wrist, and I get up and uh yeah, I think the wrist is okay. I'm putting circular, you know, running a different direction. I had full motion, I go, adds just sort of be okay. Withdraw money from the bank, go pick up my car from the dealership, and I drive home, not even thinking anything about my knees. I'm just thinking about my hand. The next yeah, the next day I get up and I go to put weight on, I forget which one it was, the right or the left leg, and I couldn't, I could I I I almost fell to the ground. So um um I lipped around for like two weeks. I was going to a chiropractor, he was doing a stimulus, uh electronic stimulus, which relieved the pain, but the next day the pain returned. Um so so my girlfriend at the time says to me, uh, you know, Joe, you should go see an orthopedist. It's like say two months later, and I'm still like looking around. And I go to the orthopedist and he comes out and he says to me, I we I was shocked. I'm thinking, oh, maybe he has to you know drain some fluid or snip something. I I'm not I never had knee surgery, you know. I I fell skiing, I've hurt when he's playing hockey or as a fine man for 22 years. So I I I've had my you know um knee injuries, but nothing that nothing ever serious and nothing ever. So when he comes, they took an extra and he comes back, he goes, Well, the bad news, there's really nothing we could do for you. I I um I almost I almost fell over. I was like, He goes, You're bone on bone, there's no cartilage, absolutely none. Wow. This is he's just he just looked at one knee. So he goes, we could give you, he goes, this is what we can do. We'll put you on um uh I was taking Tylenol and Advil before. So um he gave me, oh gosh, an anti-inflammatory, and I was doing some physical therapy and getting some relief, but not much. So um a month later I come back to him, I said, you know, it's not not really too much. She goes, we'll give you a gel shot. So then they gave me a gel shot, which did give me relief, but he says this is a temporary fix. You'll probably go back to me in nine months, anywhere from six months to a year, you'll come back. And almost like clockwork, seven months, I'm like, back to the same old thing. I go back to the orthopedis, and um he says we would give you another gel shot. I'm like, I'm just gonna be kicking this can down the road. He goes, Yeah. I said, do me a favor, take a look at the other knee because it's been through the same, you know, I've run a few marathons, I did an Iron Man, I played hockey, I skied. I go, take a look at the other knee. And sure enough, they said the other knee looked worse than the knee that was giving me trouble. So I was like, oh my god. So now I'm forced with making the decision of doing one at a time or doing them both together. Yeah. So and it was towards the end of COVID too, which was kind of interesting. So just getting the surgery scheduled the first time took a little while. And so so again, I I this is a Joe Matthews thing. I I don't research things too much. The orthopedic says only about 10% of people do both at the same time. You know, you're you you you're young enough, you're fit enough, you're telling me you're gonna take the therapies, you know, the therapies serious. So I said, all right, then let's schedule both so I don't have to schedule two different ones, take more time off from work, not realizing what I was gonna have to go through after it was done. So I just kind of kind of did it like that.

Bonnie Rumilly 14:15

Can you talk a little bit about the recovery process for you, especially given you chose to be one of the 10% special ones?

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Yeah, so so so again, uh you know, um I'm going into the hospital December 20th of uh 2021. Yeah, it's 2021. And my son's flying in from California. He lives in San Francisco, my son's Stephen. And he comes in on like the 19th. I said, Listen, Steve, Dr. Felix I'm gonna be his best, his first pick patient in the morning. Maybe you can pick me up in the afternoon and take me home because I don't want to be in, I want to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. And he goes, Dad, you're nuts. There's no way he's gonna let you out of the hospital after a bilateral knee surgery. Like he knew more about it than I did. All my friends are looking up what I'm doing, and I'm like, ah, you know, I'll be uh I'll be okay, I'll be okay. So uh, you know, I checked into the hospital Monday morning at nine o'clock. And uh next thing I, you know, the nurse to the nurse, and then Dr. Feely comes in and checks on me. And they, you know, I went to the hospital for special surgery, and all the paperwork was kind of done, so I was kind of streamlined.

SPEAKER_05 15:20

And Dr.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Philly comes in and says, How you feeling, Joe? I said, I'm doing fine if Dr. Philly, I hope you're doing okay. He's like, Yeah, no, yeah, we'll be okay, you know. And um, and then they, you know, next thing I'm wheeled into the operating room and and I pass out. So I wake wake up, I don't know, a couple hours later. I'm I'm not sure how long I was in there for. I'm like, boy, that wasn't so bad. You know, I can move your legs, I can move my legs. I'm going, oh, all right, maybe maybe Steve can pick me up and you know, we'll make dinner together. Yeah, well, I'll treat them for dinner tonight. This will be great. And then the anesthesia starts wearing off, and oh my god. I I've never felt pain like that in my life. I was like, you know, like screaming, you know. So the nurse comes in and goes, like, anything you give me, and I had an intravenous intravenous thing in my arm, so I could push a button for um, I think it was Oxycotton. I'm not sure. It was something. Push a button. Oh wow. Right, I would push a button, and it it would all it would only give you something. Like I'd be pushing the thing like feverishly. I might push it like this, you know, but it would only give you however much. So the nerve is so no matter how much you're pushing, you can only get and it can only be done every couple hours or whatever it was, you know. So uh so anyway, I spent four days in the hospital, and it would it was brutal. Um but I always say to myself, there are people that are in the hospital a lot longer than I am. And for me to be whining about, you know, four days when you know I got new knees and everything is is ridiculous, you know. So um uh so I I so I left the hospital on Christmas Eve. My my daughter Kelly and my son Stephen picked me up um from the hospital and took me home.

Voiceover 16:58

Let's take this journey forward. Um, because at some point you the the seeds were planted about doing some cycling adventures, and uh and uh I just wanted to underscore that uh once you attempted this, it wasn't really one time, right? To to cycle cross-country. No. So talk a little bit about like you know how the seeds got planted for this idea to do a cross-country cycling, especially like when you were just had you know, recently had a double knee replacement, and uh what was going on? Like, what was the thought process?

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Uh so so when I get home, um, they gave me this machine called a CPM machine, it's constant passive motion disease uh machine that you would you could lay on your couch and put the TV on, and your legs go like in a kind of a bicycle position on your back. And and that that wasn't painful. That was, you know, you would just sit there and but you'd have to do it like two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon. In between that, you'd have to do your exercising, and the exercising was tough, but I was taking it very seriously. So the first three weeks the therapist came to my house, and then I would go to therapy every day, you know, five miles from me, take get in the car and go. So one day I'm at home, you know, laying on the couch, and sure enough, Russia invades Ukraine. I think it was February 24th of 2022. I maybe all on the date. And I'm sitting at home and I'm going, my God, I can't believe in this day and age that this stuff still goes on. I mean, it's been going on ever since you know humans have been around probably. But I was just, it took me back to like nine, I was working on 9-11, and I remember like nurses and doctors. I I was down at the Trade Center on the pile, and you know, we were down there for like we probably got there around 11 o'clock, both buildings were down. But around 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night, they would take us into One Liberty Plaza and they had like a triage setter set up, and there were nurses rinsing our eyes out. There were people making us like ham and cheese sandwiches. Um, and I was like, I can't believe these people are coming. You know, it was like a war zone. I go, these people are coming here to help us. It was it was really what's the word, like a touching thing. I remember like the world coming together after 9-11, everybody coming to help us. So when Russia invades Ukraine, I'm going, what must that feel like to be Ukrainian? It's gotta be, you know, I killed I couldn't think of anything worse. So I say to myself, geez, what can I do to help help? Do my, you know, people came and helped me. And at the time I was doing fire safety consulting in Manhattan four days a week. I took a leave of absence um for my my surgery, and I went back in uh the end of March, early April, back to work. And I tell these guys, listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna you know quit my job and I'm gonna ride my bicycle across the country. And every everybody says you're you're out of your mind. One, you're too old, two, you just had your knees replaced, three, it's dangerous. Like, what are you thinking? And when I think about it, I I don't know what I was thinking either, but I just wanted to help people. So um there's another. Funny thing. Originally I'm going to write across the country, set up a fundraising page. Whatever money I get, I'm going to go to Ukraine and give it out where it's needed, you know, because I you know my kids go, Dad, you're crazy. Find an organization that knows where to spend the money. You're not going to know what to do. Right. So again, a funny thing. Um, so um I don't know if I'm going too far into this question. So anyway, uh I did some research on like six different organizations, and the World Central Kitchen came up as the because they fed people, they fed refugees. And I couldn't think of anything worse than being hungry and not having food, you know. Um, so I set up a fundraising page for the World Central Kitchen. And in the room, so so this is like from say February 24th when Russia's invaded. I'm planning on do doing the bike ride in May. So that gave me March, it gave me like three months um to kind of get ready for this thing. I and I had no idea, no, no, no idea what I was in for. Not not the I mean, I was a bike rider, of course, but I don't think you ever rode two days in a row where I slept over and then got up the road again, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

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Voiceover 21:35

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SPEAKER_03 22:45

Yeah, so well, well, yeah, I kind of walk it just like I do everything. I Google how do you ride your bike across the country, you know? Google that. Wow. Yeah, okay. So it's kind of kind of how I found my doctor, but I found a great doctor, Dr. Foundation. So anyway, uh, adventure the American Adventures and Cycling Association always comes up as number one. And um, I see they it's easy to bike from west to east because the prevailing winds blow west to east. So I see a route from San Francisco to New York. It was actually two routes, and it was called the Western Express and a Trans-America thing. Oh, that's perfect. I'll send my bike out to California. Steve lives in San Francisco, and he'll either see me off or maybe he could do the first couple of days with me, you know. So I ordered the maps from uh from the Adventures and Cycling Association, and I got like 80 maps, 50 maps for the Western Express, 30 maps for the Western Express, and 50 for the Trans map. And I'm like, oh my god, this is a big country.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

Joe, what year was this? What year was it?

SPEAKER_03 23:51

This is 2022. 2022.

SPEAKER_04 23:54

I'm just curious, why didn't you why didn't you do it on like Google Maps on a phone? So you wouldn't have to go.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

Stacy, I would again that's that's what ends up happening. So so I I I'm okay. All right. Yeah, I I bought my bike from brands, it's a it's a bicycle shop on Long Island. You probably know it, Dave.

Voiceover 24:15

Yeah, but bikes there for sure. Yeah, yeah. That was the go-to place.

SPEAKER_03 24:19

Yeah, I I Google bicycles for a cross-country ride, and Surley, Surlee is like a really good bicycle for cross-country chips, but there were still supply issues at the time. So, and all the surle dealerships were like three hours from where I lived, and nobody had the right size bike. So I call up brands, that's where I got my my parents got me their first bike for my communion. I got my kids my first bike. And I called up brands and go, you you're a luck. We got we got a food Fuji touring bike for you, and it's the right size. Hang up the phone, drive the brands, put the money down, buy the bike. So then I'm saying to my, so I'm talking to people of brands, like I'm gonna do this trip. And they're they're all saying I'm crazy too. Um, but they get like so. Now we're putting this list together of things I gotta get, you know. And I got this um this uh uh clear plastic map holder that would mount onto my handlebars, and I would put the maps for the you know, in the maps from like each day into it, you know. And I'm looking, I'm going, I I can't even read this thing. I've got to I gotta stop and put my reading glasses on, you know. So anyway, when we get to California and I got the maps mounted on the handlebars, Steve goes, Dad, Dad, I'll get you from San Francisco to Vallejo, I think was our first stop. And I'm just following him and I'm going, how is he doing it? He doesn't even have the map with him. He's making the turns and he gets there. And then the second day I follow him, goes, and I go, I go, Steve, man, I could use a cup of coffee. Oh, okay. And next thing you know, five minutes later, we pull up to a coffee shop. I'm like, I'm going, like, what are you doing? So he says what you told me, Stacey. Yeah, I'm using Google Maps for my iPhone. Right. Yeah, it's a lot easier. Well, where's your iPhone? He goes, it's mounted in my handlebars. I'm going, oh my God. So like day four, we pull it to Davis by uh the University of California. Okay. And we go to a bike shop and they got it, they get a map mount, and I put my phone on, and that I I would I don't know if I would have got out, I don't know how far I would have got with the with the with the paper map. So the iPhone, the iPhone was the same. Yeah.

Bonnie Rumilly 26:26

All of this to say, Joe, that you have this incredible view of perseverance, and I'm gonna get it done no matter what it is. It I'm hearing that theme here in every aspect that you've described to us so far, and I'm really intrigued by that. And obviously the therapist in me wants to know more about that, but I think it's pretty incredible that you can face any situation with that positive attitude, and not everyone can do that, Joe.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

I still to my this day uh never think of myself like that. And people always say, Joe, how do you like how do you where do you come up with these ideas? How do you do this stuff? And I I like I was always the kid that was picked on in school. I was a little guy. The only team I could get on in in high school was wrestling because it went by weight classes, too small for football, too uncoordinated for lacrosse. Baseball, I was okay at, but not good enough to get a big deal. But wrestling, they had no cuts, you just had to deal with Coach Burry, you know. I don't know if you remember that name, Dave, but oh my god. He was tough as he was tough as nails. He was that was tough as nails. But he actually um is is is one of the people I can say that taught me about like perseverance and that working hard will get you somewhere. So um, yeah, so so so I I don't know. I mean, it was just it was one of these things I wanted to do. Um and and you know there was three at three. Should I get into the three attempts or we'll get into that?

Voiceover 27:58

Yeah, maybe just like summarize them before summarizing because I think it's important to the to the story.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Yes. Okay, yeah. So I I get out to California and um Steve we we load up my bike with all this stuff. I I pull out a tent from my shed. I probably haven't been in that tent in 20 years. The sleeper bag, the sleep bag I've used, you know. Uh you know, I volunteer at a burn camp, so I've used the sleep bag. The tent I haven't opened in like 20 years. I I had like this air mattress, and I'm trying to get all this stuff on my bike, you know. So I get these saddlebags from brands, and I loaded the bike and go, oh my god, this freaking thing is the bike itself is heavier. A touring bike's much heavier than a racing bike. And then when you put all this stuff on it, it's like so so me and Steve, I I did maybe four or five test runs on Long Island before I went out to California, but really not enough. Not definitely, definitely not enough for what I was in for. And me and Steve, like we had we had we I was in Cal I was in San Francisco maybe for four or five days before we left just to get myself acclimated. We would have everything in Steve's apartment laid out. And I'd say, Steve, you think I need this? He'd go, Yeah, you need that dad. I said, No, I don't think I need that. And then we get something else. He goes, Dad, I don't I don't think you need that. I go, no, I need that, you know. So we windle this pile of stuff down to another another pile. Like we ended up like getting rid of like five things or something, you know. And we load on a bike, we do this run a practice running. Oh my I'm going, oh my god, this freaking thing is heavy. So anyway, we take off and we go to Vallejo and then we go up to uh Folsom and then Davis. And now we're getting into the Sierra Nevada Mountains and we're heading up to Tahoe, just like the fifth, the fifth of the sixth day. And I'm starting to run into anxiety issues. So I'm not I'm not sleeping that well. I'm all nervous. I'm like, I'm in over my head. In the interim, people are sending money to my fundraising page. So I'm like, holy moly! So raising all this money for for for for the World Central Kitchen was great. And we're doing this ride, me and Steve, and we had like a 5,000-foot climb, and we got like 1,800 feet behind us, but I got like 37 in front of me, and I'm like, Steve, I'm not fit enough. I was I I you know, I I I I had to recover from the knee surgery. I never got to the fitness level I was at before before the surgery, and we were on this climb. I said, I we gotta turn around. So now like I'm like, oh my god, what a loser. And we go back to the hotel. I open up my iPadle, they said another route to take from to go from California to New York. Steve had to get back to work, so he he he he he was going he was going back to San Francisco another day or two anyway. And sure enough, I see this other route that goes from uh Los Angeles to um New York along Route 66 for most, you know, like two-thirds of the ride, and Route 66 heads up to Chicago, and then you head off on this this other thing. So again, you look you look you look at the at your ride pan and Google Mash. Oh, here's this this should this should be a piece of cake. You know, it looks like it's nice and flat. So um nice. We get we we're in we're back in um uh oh god, Sacramento. We get back to Sacramento and we get on this line for uh uh uh a uh train ride. He's gonna go back to San Francisco. I'm gonna go to LA. So Steve's in front of me, he gets to the window. Yeah, there's a there's a train leaving for San Francisco in 10 minutes or 50 minutes. So Steve just grabs his ticket, grabs the bike, gives me okay. Love you, dad, love you too, Steve. And he goes home. I get to the window, I said, is there like a bus, a train I can get on to LA? They go, there's a bus, train, bus to LA, and it leaves in like 20 minutes. Oh my god, that's perfect. I go, can I put my bike on the bus? Because I'm saying, how am I gonna get the bike on the bus? I I forgot, like, you know, the way when you go skiing, you could you so you can put the bike on the underneath the bus. I had no idea. Oh, yeah, you can put your bike on the bus, it's not a problem. So that was I was kind of naive, too. So I get on this bus, train, bus to LA. I get to LA, it's like 9:30 at night, it's it's pitch black. I got a light on my on my um handle bus, but I got a bike like 10 miles to the hotel that I that I found like on the train ride. I'm like looking for a place to stay.

SPEAKER_08 32:15

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SPEAKER_03 33:18

So anyway, start from the Santa Monica Pier, start heading east. And on day five, I'm in I'm in um uh Las Vegas, and I'm on a four uh a four-lane road, two lanes in each direction, that's going into one because of construction.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

And I'm going around this road construction sign, and the legs that extend out extended much further than I thought. So I thought just going around the sign, and I hit the leg and over the handlebars I go. Oh no. So it's on the second attempt. Meanwhile, more money's pouring into the into the front. Wow. And I'm like, oh my god, you know, I'm on the like day day five of the second attempt. Right. And uh over the handlebars I go, and I get up and I'm like, uh, first I'm looking at the knees. That's like my first concern. Yeah. Yeah. All right, the knees aren't scraped up because infection, you get infection, you you know, you gotta go through the whole process again, Pop. So I'm like scared, stiff of getting infected, you know. So the knees look okay, but I get up and I'm like, uh-oh. My elbow's all scraped up, and I got road rash from like my wrist to my elbow. And I'm going, I got a range of motion, but I'm gonna ask something's not right. I pick up the bike and the front wheel won't go through the fork, it's bent like a pretzel. So I would have to like push every revolution to get the thing through. And like you see, Las Vegas, Las Vegas strip, it looked like you could throw a rock and hit it, you know. And I'm going like 15 minutes, and the shoulders throbbing more and more. And a guy passes me, and I go, like, how how far is that strip? It was all over, it's probably another half-hour walk. So another half hour. I'm watching him, he's walking at least three times as fast as I am. So I'm like, I'm probably here for an hour and a half before I get to Vegas. And I get to this McDonald's, and I sit on a bench, and again, I'm going, man, what am I gonna do? The bike is wrecked, my shoulders throbbing. I call 911. I call 911, and you know, two of me, two Yambus pull, you know, they say Navy's will be there within you know 10 minutes. And sure if they pull up, and um I'm saying to myself, I know what's gonna happen, they're gonna take me to the hospital, everything's gonna be fine. I'll be back on the bike tomorrow, you know. And um, you know, they they do take all my vitals and everything, and they go, you know, my bone was like kind of popping out. They go, we gotta get it, gotta get you. We're gonna take you to an urgent care, though. We go take you to the emergency room at this hour, you'll be there all night. So you took me to an urgent care. And while they come in and the doctor sees me, and then they send in an x-ray tech, the x-ray takes me in and they take a picture of it. I'm waiting for the diagnosis, and I'm calling up bike shops in the area to find a wheel for the bike. And I I like I you would think, oh, you just need a front wheel for a bike. No, each bike is a little bit different, it's a touring bike, it's a Fuji. So I I I got in touch with six bike shops. You're out of luck. And and um, you know, getting one will take us at least two weeks with the supply issue. So, uh two weeks, two weeks in Vegas, I'll be broke and uh drunk and drunk for two weeks. Yeah, you'll be in no shape. Still thinking, still thinking that you know they're gonna come back and it's you're gonna you know, put some ice on the shoulder, take some advil, and two days later, you'll be better. The doctor comes in, I got now. They all know the story because they put the bike in the ambulance and the bike's in a hospital, and they're all asking me what I'm doing. I'm trying to bike across the country and all looking at me crazy because they knew my knees were fairly new. And the doctor was like, your bike adventure's over. You you your collarbone's broken. The good news is it's a good break. It's a good break. The bad news is it's yeah, like it was because you can get these breaks that you need. A friend of mine broke and had to put screws in. This one I didn't need screws. So that's like what a good break is. Um that was something I learned too. I was so so it was it was a it was a good break. So um uh they told me I gotta wear a sling for like six or seven weeks, and uh the the bike trips over. You're not gonna be able to get it back on the bike for eight, eight to twelve weeks. So now again I feel like a loser. I go there. Luckily, there was a um uh uh uh like a casino resort, literally three blocks from the urgent care, and and the nurses there told me where it was. So uh this male nurse and this female nurse helped me wheel the bike out to the street. They hold it down, I'm jumping on the front wheel so that at least we get through the fork. And then I got my arm in a sling, I got my bike with all the stuff on it, and I'm walking to the uh casino, this casino resort, and I check in, and uh the ranges were on, so I went downstairs, had a beer and a burger, and I'm saying to myself, oh my god. So a couple a couple of my buddies, you met Frank Leto is one of them, Dave. You you met Frank, a guy who's also a fight. Oh, oh, you guys all know Frank. He calls me up and goes, I'll come out and I'll get you. But I'm like, Frank, uh listen, my my pride's hurt, my my pride's hurt more than my my shoulder right now. The last thing I need is for you to come out and get me. I'll get home by myself. Um, but I had I had to get the bike to a bike shop to ship the bike home. So next day I had like an hour and an hour and a half walk to the bike shop with with my arm in a sling. Yeah, yeah. And uh I send the bike home and I'm like uh I'm like, oh my god, like really like down on myself, you know. I have a question. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 38:41

Did you like update or or do posts on social media about your progress or your calamity?

SPEAKER_03 38:49

Yeah, so people there were and I was also on this uh this app called Strava. Maybe you've heard of it, Dave. It's it's an app for like running and cycling where people can actually like follow, follow you. Oh, okay. It was it was good in a way where I had I had people following me, it was banned other ways where people want you know want to want to contact me like every day. And I'm like, you know, just just follow what I say on the Strava, but I can't I can't text or because you can see the way I talk. I get on a phone number with somebody for a half an hour, you know. I mean, you know, the book of rattlesnake passed me while I was, you know, like all these crazy things were happening. So uh the other thing that was issued, yeah. I live in Atlantic Beach. That's why I forgot the water in the background, you know. Um, so I live in Atlantic Beach, but I rented my house for the summer because I was doing this adventure. Uh so coming home, I don't even have a place, I don't have a place to live. You know, I'm like, what a what a loser. I'm 62 years old. I I rode 400 and I think 30 miles at the time of something like that was gonna be a 3600 trip, 600, 3600 mile trip. In the interim, I got like $16,000 in my Fundraising page.

SPEAKER_04 40:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

And I'm like, yeah, great, but I feel like a loser. I feel like I let these people down. Everybody's like, don't you enjoy? You came here, Joe. You gave me your best. You tried. Bye bye bye. You got the new knees. So, so so um, you know, I I get home. I go have to go to my daughter's house. I got to live, I'm 62 years old. I can live with my daughter because I got no place to live, you know. Um, but I I I volunteered at the Arthur C Love Burn Camp up in Connecticut. I was in Union, Connecticut. So I knew I was going there for a week. And then I was planning on going to Poland and Ukraine to do um a two-week volunteer with the uh World Central Kitchen. That was part of the fundraising page. I said, I'll bike across the country. When I get done, I'm gonna go and and um work in the kitchen. So I get home, I said, uh yeah, I'm telling you, talk about like really like like feeling like down the dumps. I said, you know, a couple of good things I got going for me is the barn camp. And I also got this trip to Poland. I'd never been to Poland before. And even when I was going there, I was telling don't worry, I'm not gonna step foot in Ukraine, I'm just gonna go to Poland because Ukraine's at war. So I go home, get home, and you know, feeling sorry for myself, kicking myself around. I could do, I I got I couldn't go to the gym, I couldn't ride my bike, really couldn't do anything. But my daughter's house. Otto isn't born yet, so I don't got the grandkid around. So I got my arm in a sling, and all I could do is kind of like, you know, walk around a little bit around town or whatever. Um, but I said, you know what? I know it's I know what's definitely gonna make me feel better is the volunteer work at the Arthur C. Lough burn camp. It's a camp that's been around for about 35 years. Arthur Lough was a fine man, I think. In I in Stan, you know, I get the Connecticut towns all mixed up. I think he was in Stanford. He found this camp 35 years ago. And they fly kids in from all over the world who are severely burned, and they just get a week to feel like a normal kid. Because one kid burns worse than the other. It all looks the same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have a good time.

unknown 41:51

Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

And I said that that'll definitely make me feel better, you know. So when I get to the camp, they're all laughing. You know, I got my arm in a sling still, and you know, some of them knew the story, some of them didn't. Um, but that we did could pick up my spirits, you know. I'm saying here I am feeling sorry for myself for myself, and these kids are all, you know, true heroes, true heroes, you know, and uh it really makes you appreciate things.

Voiceover 42:13

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SPEAKER_03 43:51

Yeah, so so um just before I'm leaving for the burn camp, my phone rings, and it's a number I don't recognize. And and normally I don't pick up my phone if I don't recognize the number, but I'm like, yeah, I set my daughters. I picked up hello, Joe Matthews, and one and only, you know, lose lose uh blah blah blah. He goes, Joe, it's John Rick. It's like hi John, how are you? I saw you got in the back because I was on um Facebook and LinkedIn was where I people were I was you know, I was posting my my uh trials and tribulations. He goes, I see you were biking across the country. Um I just retired. He was a uh battalion chief on the job. I just retired and I biked across the country after college, and I told my wife when I retire, I want to do it again. She goes, Well, you want to do it with me. So without much thought, I said, Yes, Roger, you know, what when do we want to leave? So we get together at his house. He originally wants to leave like in January. I couldn't wait that long. It was July, and I, you know, I I wouldn't be able to sit around for four or five months thinking about this thing, it would drive me crazy. So we end up deciding to leave September. That gave me, I went to Ukraine, I went to Poland, and I did go to Ukraine, which I sort of wouldn't do. I was so happy I visited that country. And then we come back in September 18th, me and John Ricketts leave from my house. We go down the block, put our ties in the Atlantic Ocean, and we start heading west. So you're going from uh from New York to I said I said to Ricketts, I said, John, you know, the winds blow the other. I want to do things the hard way. I'm like, oh boy. I got I got one of those guys as my partner, the guy that wants to do things enough. But but but nobody else stepped up to say, hey, I want to bike across the country with you. And um my my kids and my friends, everybody was so happy to have that I would have somebody with me. Not I I I was shocked at how danger it is. I was shocked about that. But um so that's where we are. So we leave we leave from here. So when we get back from Poland, we had about three weeks between me getting home and uh and us leaving. And in those three weeks, me and John got together like once a week, and we did like a 50-mile ride just to see what each other's fitness level was. John had been a um uh like like a track star back in his college days, and he was he was a cyclist. And um, but he he had put on you ever hear like the freshman 20 pounds in college? Yeah, there's a freshman 20 pounds in the firehouse because you can eat all you want. I always love it when a new guy in the firehouse comes in and he goes, I can eat as much ice cream as I want. Yeah, you can eat as much ice cream as you can. You can have the donuts, you can have whatever you want. Most most guys their first year put on put on 20 pounds, you know. I shouldn't say more. A lot of guys do, a lot of guys do. So Rick gets happened to put on over his, he was 37 years on the FDM live. So my hat's off to him than that. But he had gotten to the point where he said to uh his wife Pam, he says, Pam, if I don't go on this bike trip, there's no turning around. I'm just gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger. So, so so I was concerned about um, you know, he he weighed about 285 at the time. He was concerned about my knees. I said, Listen, if you don't worry about my knees, I won't worry about your weight, you know. And so we decided that because we our our our biking was pretty close, pretty close. I would say it might have been a little bit more fitter, and um, I would even say like half the trip when we would get on some of these climbs going on over the Blue Ridge Mountains and over the Allegheny Mountains, I was better than him. But but I I I could take a climb much better than I could take a steady headwind at us. Like, you know, if they we had days with 25 mile an hour winds at us the whole day, relentless. And John could just tough that stuff out. So I always said, like, up until Texas, I was probably the little bit of the stronger cyclist. And from Texas on, John by far, you know, one day we had this relentless headwind, and um, I I drafted off him. That's one, like you follow a cyclist, yeah, and it's it's it's much easier, you know. I mean, I you know, it's easier to follow somebody than that to have that in your face. Especially a big guy. Yeah, exactly. He he lost about 50 pounds on that bike, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Voiceover 48:02

And um uh Joe, I I wanted to talk about something uh before we forget, and that's you might think that to go to ride your bike cross-country that there are these pristine bike trails, you know, right, that are just made for bikes, bike lanes, or you know, places where you're not gonna be encroached by cars, you're gonna have a flat, you know, very nice surface to ride on. So tell us a little bit about it. Is it like that, or what did you experience on your no?

SPEAKER_03 48:28

That was that was another interesting thing. So what one one quick story I got to put in here, I'll try to make it really quick. Is just before me and Steve left for San Francisco, we were YouTube and certain tips, and we met this couple, it's called uh pack touring, or yeah, I think it's called pack touring, where you pack your stuff on your bike and you tour. And they said, anybody doing a long, long trip, you got to get Schwabby Marathon plus tires. Because for every 10 flats you normally get, you only get one with these because they got Kevlar in them. So when we were in San Francisco just before we left, it took us a while to find them, but we found them a pair that fit my bike in an REI store. So I only had one flat the whole time going across the country, plus the two other attempts, one flat. John must have had 50. At least 50. And you never get a flat like on a 70-degree day with the sun out, and it's uh you know, one in the afternoon, and you get you got all day, you only got 10 more miles to go. So we can sit down and you know, get ourselves a cold drink and fix the flat. You know, it's pouring out, you know, it's the end of the day, and you got a flat tire. So um, yeah, so so getting back to the roads, yeah. There were times, believe it or not, Google Maps would take us on these bike trails, and you would be like in heaven. No cars, it might be along a river or a creek. There were not there were there were a number of those, but there were other times we were on interstates and the cars would go by you at like 70 miles an hour. The shoulders, they got like, you know, nails and tacks and screws and pieces of mirrors and everything else. And you yeah, you know, and then we there's other parts of the country where it's either gravel roads, they're not even paved, or the interstate. And we'd like sometimes flip a coin, you know, a couple times we'd keep going, let's go on the interstate. Well, no, I'm not going on. John had no fear, he had no fear. I'm going, oh my god, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get squashed like a like a worm on one of these roads, a truck or me over. I go, I just hope it's quick. I hope if they run me over, it's you know, it's it's it's it's quick, you know. Um that's because you know too much. They were all there were all these uh crazy things, and um, that's the thing with a cross-country trip. You really don't, each day is another adventure. We got out west, and there were a couple of times there was nothing for 70 miles, not a 7-Eleven, not a gas station, not a water fountain, nothing. We would know that kind of the day before. We always like to look ahead a little bit and kind of try and figure our route. So we knew, all right, we got to bring extra water with us today. We got to pack our lunch today. I always had peanut butter and wassa bread. Uh, if you read the book, you know that I live peanut butter and wassa bread. I ate that yesterday for long. I love peanut butter and wassa bread with a banana on it. It's like to me, it's delicious. So, yeah, it was all all all kinds of logistics. Dogs was another funny thing. There was another guy on YouTube going, okay, you got to deal with the weather, the mountains, and dogs. Dogs? What are you talking about? There had to be a half a dozen times. Me and John were peddling for our life with some pack of dogs chasing us. It was crazy. This was a funny story. So, you know, my friends are following me, and a buddy of mine uh who lives in Mexico goes to me, Joe, you got to stop in to one of these uh tractor trailer places and get a can of uh I think it's mace or something like that. And if dog comes in, you spray it in his face, it'll take off, you know. So we get to a place and I end up buying a can of it, and I kept it like taped on my handlebar. And John goes, there's no way I'm spraying a dog with mace. He thought like, you know, we'd be getting a lawsuit and everything, you know. He didn't want to he didn't want to do it. A better idea I heard later on is like an air horn that you have on a boat. So for anybody else that's thinking about it, I recommend the air horn because you blow that air horn, it's gonna definitely scare the dog away. Okay. So um we get we get to this Indian reservation, me and John, we pulled to the Indian reservation, and there's a there's a there's a uh guard with the booth and the gates down. We pulled to the gate, we're there. But listen, we're just biking through the it was like a six-mile stretch. And it was either the six miles on the Indian reservation or the interstate. So I'm I'm going to Indian reservation. And the guy in the booth goes, sorry, I can't let you in. What do you mean you can't? Yeah, we're showing them our fire department ID, we're fireing in, which we're on our bikes, we're just biking through. Sorry, you're not allowed in. So this pickup truck pulls up, and it was a nice gentleman in the name was Jim. And we go, Jim, the guy won't let us in. Could you do it? Oh, yeah, no problem. No, no, no problem, no problem. So he speaks to the guy, he goes, These guys are my guests. We tell them, you know, we're just bike it through. He just no problem. So we get through the gate and he pulls over, we pull up behind him. So I just want to warn you guys, there's a lot of uh a lot of stray, strain, angry dogs on the interview. Uh my heart drops. I'm almost like, let's go back to the interstate. But anyway, we bite we we biked the six miles, maybe a little faster than usual because we're gonna get to that. And and we didn't we didn't run into a dog or anything like that, but it was just a funny story, you know. Wow.

Voiceover 53:29

So, Joe, um this is this is the greatest storytelling ever, I think we've ever had on this uh this podcast. And uh unfortunately we we got a legend.

SPEAKER_03 53:39

Can we just talk real quick about the charities? Because that was all please do. I want you to touch on that. Okay, yeah, if that's okay, and then you can edit can edit all that other nonsense. So anyway, um when when when uh I'm writing a book, uh that was a whole nother thing. You know, the the me and John, it took us 90 days, but the book is about one year of my life from the day I got my legs, um uh my knees replaced, which was December 20th. I flew back to New York December 19th after arriving in Newport Beach, California. So it's one year of my life. And um when I I decided I kept the journal. I said, you know what, I'm gonna write a write a book, and I have no idea of writing a book or well how to do it. So how do you figure out how to do that? Google it. Google it. You Google it. So that's what I did. I Google it. I find a self-publishing company, they rip me off. You know, I'm I'm in a whole list that I'll never get out of. But that's but that's that's okay. So I'm saying to myself, like, I you know, I I I I'm I'm fortunate. I got a couple of guitars in the background, I live in my house on Land Beach. Uh you know, I'm financially comfortable, I live within my means. I said, you know what, I'll I'll I'll I'll give the the profits to some charities. So um I'm thinking about like well, I gotta give money to World Central Kitchen. That's who I rode the bike across country to. A good a good friend of mine um uh who had a cancer scam, metastatic melanoma, they they gave him four months to live four years ago when he's still alive. I said I got Memorial Song Kettering took care of him. I gotta give that. I gotta give money to the burn camp that I that I I I work at. Um, I gotta give to uh Tower the Tunnels Foundation. So so I picked these these six different St. Jude's Children's Hospital. I always give money to them. So I decided on these six charities. And and um again, so so if you if you're on defense about buying the book, they all go to a good cause. Yeah. Um I've gotten good reviews on Amazon. Oh, good. And um and the other thing, I you know, the book is 1999. I I haven't had one person say I wasted 20 bucks on the book. I mean, if somebody told me that I'd send them to I'd send them to $20, you know. Um I want it to kind of be an entertaining book, too. I think you might have found some humor in it, right, Dave?

Voiceover 55:52

You you it's like a diary, right? Once you get on that trip on that third trip, you are basically detailing everything about you know where you stayed, why you stayed there, what you ate, um, you know, the the the uh challenges you had on that particular day, how you overcame them. Um there's so much to it, and it it really it's almost like you're riding along with Joe.

SPEAKER_03 56:10

Might I give I give a little plug? Ah, so that's the book right there.

SPEAKER_04 56:15

Oh, with the colors of Ukraine on it, right?

SPEAKER_03 56:17

Yeah, right. And and it's also um it's available on Amazon, so Cycling for a Cause by Joe Matthews on Amazon. Um yeah.

Voiceover 56:26

I definitely encourage anybody to read the book that's uh that that listened to your interview today and that thinks it's uh it's an interesting story because it definitely is. Um I want to salute you for you know your tenacity, resilience, and uh, you know, and jumping into stuff, sometimes maybe you know, not not scoping it out in advance is better than you know, like over you know, overthinking it, right? Right, right, right. But you've accomplished a lot, and it's all that's right.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

That's what an adventure is all about. You never know what's around the next turn or the next over the next hill and stuff. So yeah. I I I don't have to thank you guys. I was it was it's my it's my pleasure, my honor to be able to um spend a little time with you guys.

Bonnie Rumilly 57:07

You know what? The humor part is really important for all of us, but also just that attitude of I'm gonna do it. And there's nothing that's gonna stop me. I'm gonna even if I have to try many times and have all this adversity, I'm gonna make it. And I I love that attitude and that joie de vie.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

Dave those in the book, there was a couple of times I was packing it in. I'm going as well. I wasn't sleeping, I was gonna send the bike home. You know, I I I I didn't know what got me through some of those days, but but I just I'll get on a bike and I'll pedal. See, see what happens, you know. Um, so yeah, thank thank you guys for your time. I I really appreciate it. Thank you. You're certainly an inspiration. Uh thanks, Stacey. Nice meeting you, Bonnie and Dave. You too. You know, we only know each other a short period of time, but I feel like I know you longer than you know. For sure, yeah.

Voiceover 57:56

Yeah, yeah, this was great. We appreciate you, Joe, and thanks for sharing your story and all the good work you're doing out there and all the money you've been raising for these uh really worthy charities. Try it.

SPEAKER_05 58:04

Try it.

Voiceover 58:05

So, all right. Well, continued luck, and uh hopefully we'll cross paths uh either New York or somewhere along the way. We'll get to hang out for a minute and have a coffee or beer. Um that would be awesome.

SPEAKER_03 58:16

That would be awesome.

Voiceover 58:18

Remember to like and subscribe, YouTube, Respond Resilience, Facebook, Responded Wellness, Inc., Responder TV, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, go to our website, respondertv.com for past episodes and guest information. Until the next time, stay safe, be kind to yourself. Take care.