Jim DeCocco isn’t a big fan of the weather in Nebraska.
But the people? That’s another story.
DeCocco, 67, is a longtime California teacher who is on a summer-long quest to ride his bicycle from his home in Pismo Beach, Calif., to Washington, D.C. His seven-week journey included a few days riding through Nebraska, where he experienced some of the recent severe weather that has hit parts of the state.
It would be easy to assume, then, that when he had a nice, sunny afternoon to roll into South Sioux City and find a place to stay for the night, that it was a successful day’s journey as he completed a stage that started in Niobrara.
“We don’t get this type of weather in California,” he said, talking about being caught in the middle of a tornado watch as he and his riding partner, Tom, had set up camp for the night at a local park. “Greg and Cindy, who were the camp hosts, came out to us and said we had about five minutes before this storm blows up.”
The two bikers quickly broke down their tents and took advantage of the camp hosts’ offer to sleep in the hosts’ quarters, saving them from Mother Nature’s wrath.
But it was the way they were treated that stood out more than the stormy weather when he talked about his travel through Nebraska.
“Things like that made me more aware of just how good Middle America really is,” he said. “The people we’ve met have been so nice, it’s made the minor difficulties of trying to ride into a 40-mile per hour headwind that makes it all worth it.”
It took about three days for DeCocco to make his way along Highway 20 across the state as he continues his two-wheeled quest, and this trip is different than traveling from one end of the country to the other.
“I’ve driven across country 2-3 times and flown over it, and this is a lot different pace and it’s really a good opportunity to meet people along the way,” he said. “At 10 miles per hour, you get to see a lot more and you get to experience the people, and the people we’ve met here have just been so friendly.”
DeCocco has spent much of his life on two wheels, and his passion for bicycling led him to his involvement as a supporter of Project Hero, a non-profit that provides hope, recovery and resilience for veterans and first-reponders.
“It was around 2008 and I was traveling and had picked up a copy of a bicycling magazine that had a story about a group of injured veterans who were riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles in this thing that was called ‘Road to Recovery,’” DeRocco said. “I was always looking for things for my students and saw they were going to come down the coast right by our school and asked if we could walk my class two blocks to the highway where they’d be riding by.”
He went to his principal, Tom Butler, to get permission, and got more than he was asking for.
“I gave him the information and asked if it would be all right, and he said ‘Why would it be just your class that does it, and the next thing we know, we’ve got 400 students from our school meeting these veterans as they came through.”
In talking with one of the veteran cyclists that day, he found that the veterans looked at the cycling group as a way to rehabilitate, which inspired him to get involved with helping Project Hero. His riding jersey includes the group’s logo, and while he said the ride wasn’t a fundraising effort, he was happy to wear the group’s logo and talk about the program wherever he is on this journey.
After a night’s rest, DeCocco was getting ready to continue his journey into Iowa and further east. Averaging about 80-100 miles a day, he’s hoping to reach the east coast by the end of this month before returning to his native California to get ready for another year of teaching.
“It's a personal journey,” he said. “This allows me to go ahead and meet Americans along the way and see the goodness of the United States, as opposed to maybe some of the stuff that we get, you know, on a national basis. When I come to a town, I probably know that they don't vote the way that I do. And that's fine, because we all, we have other things in common that we talk about, and it just makes me a better person to go ahead and meet others and talk to them. And, you know, that way I can bring it back home and be a more complete person.”
It’s a trip that he says he is thoroughly enjoying — midwest weather notwithstanding.
