Pedaling Past Limits

Tahverlee [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Bike Life podcast by Warmshowers Foundation, where we will be sharing knowledge, experience, tools, and stories of touring cyclists and hosts from around the world. I'm Tahverlee, the woman behind the scenes at Warmshowers Foundation, the leading platform for cyclists looking for hosts and to connect with a passionate international community. Find out more by visiting us at warmshowers.org. Now, on to the show.

Jerry Kopack [00:00:40]:
Hey, everyone. This is Jerry Kopack, the host of Bike Life, coming to you from the Rocky Mountains of Breckenridge, Colorado. Today, I'm chatting with author and adventurer, Ken Reinke, who has cycled more than 9,000 miles since his 60 birthday as an insulin dependent polio survivor. Wow. Now if that wasn't incredible enough, Ken also recently published a book chronicling his journey titled The Road Spoke. So if you're looking for some inspiration today, grab a cup of tea and settle in. Hey, Ken. Welcome to Bike Life.

Ken Reinke [00:01:13]:
Thank you very much.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:14]:
Wow. So where do I start? You're a diabetic and also a polio survivor, and I think the polio vaccine was somewhere around 1955. Does that sound right to you?

Ken Reinke [00:01:27]:
It was, yes. Around, early fifties sometime, and I was born in '51. So Okay.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:35]:
I'm just out on I think. Right? Yeah. So how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Ken Reinke [00:01:41]:
Nine months. Nine months?

Jerry Kopack [00:01:44]:
Yeah. Wow. So even before you had learned to walk, you were essentially learning to walk with with polio.

Ken Reinke [00:01:51]:
Exactly. No. It's, it it yeah. I mean, that's exactly it. And, one of one of the things I credit is that I've always had this. It's not like I just came down with something, you know, and I wasn't used to it. It's just always been. Wow.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:12]:
So what do you remember about that time and your process with this?

Ken Reinke [00:02:17]:
Well, yeah. Nothing. I mean, I had to be told anything within a few years of that, but, I don't know. It's, it's it's normal for me. Right.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:33]:
Because I I I I understand that it's sometimes afflicts mostly children on the age of five. So to your point, like, that's essentially all you've ever known. Right?

Ken Reinke [00:02:42]:
Exactly. Yes. That makes it That's the way to go.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:48]:
I, I I appreciate that perspective. And then so when were you diagnosed with diabetes?

Ken Reinke [00:02:55]:
Oh, not in my forties.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:57]:
Your forties.

Ken Reinke [00:02:57]:
And it's a it's a type two situation. So it, you know, it's different from type one.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:05]:
Mhmm.

Ken Reinke [00:03:06]:
But I still I graduated through the medicines that they offer, and now it's just insulin for me.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:14]:
Okay. So you you mentioned type one and type two. For people who aren't intimately familiar with the two, can you give us a little intro about the differences between the two?

Ken Reinke [00:03:23]:
Well, type one, is often sudden onset, and it's it's not caused like type two can be by living a ill lifestyle.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:37]:
Okay.

Ken Reinke [00:03:38]:
You know, you pound a lot of sugar throughout your youth, and, it's more likely than if you didn't do that.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:47]:
Got it. So did you, to use your words, did you pound a lot of sugar in your youth?

Ken Reinke [00:03:52]:
I did indeed. I did indeed. Completely ignorant of anything because, surprisingly, there's there's no diabetes in either my mother or father's line. Okay. So I'm a first. But, yeah, it's do you have And it came on kind of on suddenly, and I I had no idea what was going on. But, boy, there's a learning curve for you.

Jerry Kopack [00:04:21]:
Now do you have any siblings?

Ken Reinke [00:04:24]:
Yeah. I have two brothers and a sister.

Jerry Kopack [00:04:26]:
Okay. And either of them afflicted with with either with polio or No. Diabetes? No. No. Okay. Interesting.

Ken Reinke [00:04:33]:
Even any cousins or anything. So

Jerry Kopack [00:04:36]:
Okay. Interesting. So last year, I had the opportunity to chat with a couple of guys who are also diabetic, and they were cycling. And they were sharing some of their solutions for bike traveling with insulin. Neither, however, were affected with polio. So what does a day look like of of cycling or or or just life look like for you?

Ken Reinke [00:04:58]:
Well, I mean, you know, I I've made it this far, and, I wasn't I was I played most sports in school, not competitive sports, but, you know, in the school itself and, chosen last for all of them because I'm not very fast. That's part of my cycling thing too. I'm always ecstatic not to be in a race.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:31]:
Okay. So when you are traveling, what does that look like? Do you have to, I'm assuming, carry insulin with you? Does that affect, how you cycle, any of your balance, or how long you can ride for in a day?

Ken Reinke [00:05:43]:
Well, that that's pretty cool. The, yeah, I I can do whatever I want, but there's that balance. If I get too much insulin, I can go into a low blood sugar event. Really, the same with any any diabetics, types one or two. So you want to avoid that. Like, pounding too much sugar at this stage is not gonna put me out unconscious, but going too low can. And so I had to make a little regime to make sure that doesn't happen. Because the other thing is sitting around the house, if I'm not bike riding and so forth, I need a lot more insulin than if I'm out on the road riding.

Ken Reinke [00:06:33]:
I need a lot less, very little, in fact. And so, the exercise takes place of the insulin getting into the cells.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:46]:
Interesting. And so is it only insulin that that helps kind of kick you out of these out of those troughs, out of those lows, or can you have a candy bar or or a juice or something?

Ken Reinke [00:06:56]:
Yeah. No. Insulin is what puts you in the lows. Okay. And then you need any kind of sugar. And, oh, of course, I don't have any laying around, but I carry goo packs. Yeah. You see in these gel goo packs? And, I mean, you can chunk a bunch of those in your swimming suit, so you can take them anywhere.

Ken Reinke [00:07:18]:
And those provided that I know that I'm going low, that's a whole another story.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:24]:
Okay.

Ken Reinke [00:07:24]:
Those get me right out right back on track.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:28]:
When's the last time or have you ever just had a blackout? Yeah. Didn't catch it.

Ken Reinke [00:07:33]:
I've managed I've managed a few. One of the things is I am fortunate in that if I'm going low, I can usually tell. And then if any kind of difference happens, I just need to take a goo packet. The first line of defense is getting some sugar in there to make sure that I haven't overdone the insulin. It's always the first thing. But on one of my when I was training for my first bike trip, that happened to me. I felt it coming on. I took a GU packet, but then I stopped at a rest stop and laid down and went to sleep and and found out the hard way that the GU packet wasn't enough.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:24]:
Okay.

Ken Reinke [00:08:25]:
And, actually, I kinda know that, but I thought I'm gonna lay here and rest. And then there's a store about two miles down the road, and I can get a banana or something. But instead, I fell asleep. So, yeah, that I was very careful about that not happening when I was on, you know, my road trips.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:47]:
Yeah. I guess you, you you you live and learn. Right?

Ken Reinke [00:08:51]:
Yes. Because once you go there, then you need, help, inter intervention and, because somebody's gotta get some sugar in there some way. So

Jerry Kopack [00:09:06]:
Yeah. Sort of like, when when athletes, they call it bonking. Right? When their sugar level crash is so low, you don't come back real quickly. Right? And so I'm guessing that's what you're implying.

Ken Reinke [00:09:18]:
That you know, that's the case, and it's it is true of athletes, but they might bunk out and have a little nap, but they're coming back on their own

Jerry Kopack [00:09:27]:
Okay.

Ken Reinke [00:09:27]:
You know, if they're not diabetics. That's the unfortunate difference that, I can't get back on my own.

Jerry Kopack [00:09:36]:
Interesting. Somebody has to intervene. So talking about all the cycling trips that you've done, you've done over 9,000 miles since your 60 birthday. That's probably more miles than most people have ridden in their lives. So where have you been?

Ken Reinke [00:09:54]:
Well, I'm you know, I made, two trips cross cross country. I live in North Florida, and I rode from here to San Diego on my first cross country trip and then, became addicted right away. And I came back, and I thought I was gonna chill out for the winter, but, no, I rode down to Key West, and that's 900 mile round trip from my house. And then COVID hit, and I took that year off because they were making it kind of a pain in the butt to get water even anywhere. And so, but then as soon as things slackened a little bit, I being an addict, I'm a bike addict, I had to get out and go again, and that's when I rode to Seattle.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:45]:
Wow. So instead of I don't know. I mean, make a pun here. Instead of pounding sugar, you got addicted to pounding pedals maybe. Right?

Ken Reinke [00:10:54]:
Yes. Indeed. And, I still enjoy it. I I still right now, I'm not doing any distance biking or even overnight biking, but I bike about 400 miles a month.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:07]:
Good for you. And you've got the the sugar all figured out. Has the, has the polio affected you, or how has that affected you?

Ken Reinke [00:11:16]:
So there's there is something called post polio syndrome.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:21]:
Okay.

Ken Reinke [00:11:22]:
And if you get polio and then you live long enough, there's latent deteriorations that are possible, and I might be suffering a little bit from that. You know? But, also, I'm not getting any younger, so the hills are naturally getting harder.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:41]:
I, I I read somewhere that the hills don't get, harder. They just get faster, something like that. Meaning, I guess, even though if you get in better shape, you just kind of ride those hills faster. But I don't know. What a sorry. Digression there.

Ken Reinke [00:11:59]:
So curious.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:59]:
Have you always been a cyclist, or is this something you got into later in life?

Ken Reinke [00:12:03]:
No. I I've always most of the times, if I've lived somewhere, I've had a bicycle. So, yeah, I never distances though ever. You know, 20 miles would have been a big ride before this cross country stuff happened. And, so, yeah, I've always enjoyed biking that that I don't know. That freedom, you know, of going places under your own power, albeit a little bit slower for me, but, I just I just really love that. And cross country cycling, there's a whole new level of freedom there, which I tell people it's it's hard to describe. It's a freedom like no other because you don't know where you're gonna end up.

Ken Reinke [00:12:56]:
You know? You're just going, and you're, you know, you have this long distance goal, but I I always say don't don't let the goal get in the way because that's what happens to people. So, oh, I got off track there.

Jerry Kopack [00:13:13]:
No. You're doing great. What was, what was your motivation for, for becoming a long distance cyclist?

Ken Reinke [00:13:21]:
Well, frankly, I have always thought that riding my bike across the country would be a cool thing to do. But then finally, I decided, well, now's the time, retired. You don't have all the time, in the world, and I thought I don't I don't have to make it, but I've gotta give it a go. So that was the attitude with the trip first trip to San Diego. It's just like, let's give it a go.

Jerry Kopack [00:13:57]:
And tell me through some of your experiences. Like, how did you plan which states you wanted to go see? Did you have some some places on your bucket list that you wanted to to check out?

Ken Reinke [00:14:07]:
No. The the bicycle trip was and evidently still is my bucket list. Oh. Just to do it, I I'm not. I've been fortunate in my life to have been to a way lot of all the national parks, mostly by car, but, you know, I've gotten to see those things. And now it was just a matter of just riding the bike, see if I can make it to San Diego, see if I can make it to Seattle. And you you weren't a

Jerry Kopack [00:14:37]:
long distance cyclist. You said you just did some shorter trips, and all of a sudden, you just decided to go ride your bike across the country. Like, was there any concern, planning, trepidation?

Ken Reinke [00:14:48]:
Like, what what

Jerry Kopack [00:14:49]:
take me through your mindset.

Ken Reinke [00:14:51]:
Okay. Well, there was plenty, but one of the things was I only had two mountain bikes. And I, a little bit, tried to outfit my mountain bikes. And by the way, I didn't know anything about serious biking like this. But what I found out right away is that, I didn't wanna do it on a mountain bike, and I I had to drop a dime on a touring bicycle. And because my thought there was, if I'm going to make it and that first trip, I was 67. If I'm gonna make it, I need to put the odds in my favor and have the bike that will make it, you know, without having to fuss. And, and I one one of the things I found out right away is, bicycle efficiency.

Ken Reinke [00:15:46]:
Because where I would where it would take me an hour and ten minutes to get on my mountain bike, I could do it in about forty five minutes on my touring bike. You know? And it's just so much faster, so much made for a trip like that. I have a long haul trucker.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:04]:
Oh. The Surly. I'm a big Surly fan, so you're, you're you're tugging at my heartstrings there. Yes. But you're right. Skinnier tires, more of a different kind of profile for the bike. It's just it's meant to just gobble up those miles.

Ken Reinke [00:16:20]:
Yeah. And yeah. Well and it has 30 speeds, which I needed. You know, I'm just not very good on hills even back when I was only 67. You know, but the trucker the long haul trucker has 30 speeds. So you've got some really good low granny years for getting my 50 pounds of gear up these hills.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:43]:
Did you, did you make it through any of the Rocky Mountains where I'm at?

Ken Reinke [00:16:48]:
No. I did not. Okay. The, when I went to San Diego, the southern tier goes up through the mountains, but I skipped that, and I actually went down through the desert. So I saved myself some elevation. And where I crossed the Rockies on my Seattle trip was, I 90, and it's a it's one of the lower elevations for crossing the Rockies, you know, and it's quite a bit north. But no. No.

Ken Reinke [00:17:22]:
I wasn't gonna tackle Denver.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:26]:
It's the the elevation here is real for sure.

Ken Reinke [00:17:29]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:31]:
How long did you spend any trip? Like, how many days? How many months?

Ken Reinke [00:17:35]:
How many weeks? Yeah. The the trip to San Diego was thirty days. I mean, I'm sorry. Sixty days, two months. And the trip to port towns in Washington, some little past Seattle, was seventy seven days, two and a half months.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:55]:
Okay. You're making some good time there. That's a long way to go. That's 3,000 plus miles. Yeah?

Ken Reinke [00:18:01]:
Yeah. 3,700. Whew. But but, I know I tell people, well, I did it in young person time, but, I have the ability to just stay in that saddle in part just because I love riding the bike.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:17]:
Yeah. Right. And look at the things you get to see and the people you get to meet.

Ken Reinke [00:18:21]:
Right? Yes. Yes.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:24]:
So I know it's

Ken Reinke [00:18:25]:
oh, I'm sorry.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:26]:
No. Go ahead, Ken.

Ken Reinke [00:18:27]:
Well, I just I always tell people, you know, you cross Kansas in a car, you're gonna stop maybe twice and talk to a counter person for one minute each. And I took, I don't know, six, seven, eight days to cross Kansas. It's so awesome. And the people I wanted to call the state kindness. You know, it was just awesome talking to people in that along the way that you just can't ever meet in the car.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:58]:
What a what a great promo for Kansas tourism right there. So if you're thinking about traveling to Kansas by bike, here's your opportunity. Go to Kansas. People there are kind.

Ken Reinke [00:19:08]:
They are. So But you know what? They're they're kind most places.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:13]:
I agree with that, but it's good to hear that about Kansas. I don't think they get enough recognition in the cycling world because Iowa has RAGBRAI, which is that right across Iowa. Yeah. People kinda forget about Kansas. So it's good to know there's there's there's good stuff happening over there.

Ken Reinke [00:19:28]:
And I always tell people to Kansas does not flat. If you're in the car, you're going 70. It might feel flat, but it's very long, shallow hills. I enjoyed it. I was there, though, early enough that it wasn't hot yet. My hot days were mid sixties, and that was part of planning this trip because you go from Florida, you're classic passing a lot of climate situations as you go northwest, and, there's not a lot about that, although you can read about it in my book now. But there's, you know, it can be a furnace in Kansas if you're there too late in the summer. And you can get dumped on by snow even in the lower elevations of Colorado and Montana, you know, almost anytime a year, but planning for that is hard.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:26]:
Yeah. I live in Breckenridge, and I've seen snow in July and August up here. So crazy things happen for sure.

Tahverlee [00:20:37]:
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Jerry Kopack [00:21:24]:
So I know when you were traveling, you probably did a bit of camping, and I read somewhere that you are a master stealth camper. So for those of us who don't know what a stealth camper is, give us a little insight.

Ken Reinke [00:21:36]:
Okay. Yes. Stealth camping, is just you ride along, and then in the evening, you start looking for places to camp. So there's no there's no planning ahead. I don't look for campgrounds. I don't look for anything except for a decent place to hide. And in the eastern half of the country, it's pretty easy. You go through a lot of wooded area, and you can sneak off into the woods, and, I mean, I love camping like that.

Ken Reinke [00:22:09]:
It's usually quiet, and it, you know, I like to watch the mosquitoes bouncing off the screen of the tent at night and stuff like that. But, but then you get out west, and it's a little more wide open, but I think people care even less. You know? So you can just get off the road a little ways. Nobody cares.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:33]:
Yeah. There's a lot of end and space.

Ken Reinke [00:22:36]:
Yes. If you're but I've been stuck. So I have some I like, I'll hide out behind a church if there's no houses behind that church. So you go through small towns. I look for churches and, volunteer fire departments are usually not manned, and no I don't think anybody cares. I did get kicked out from behind one church once, so somebody cared, but a lot of stealth camping, just hiding out.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:10]:
Who, who kicked you out from behind the church?

Ken Reinke [00:23:13]:
Well, so you don't really wanna go camp out of the church on a Saturday night because on Sunday morning, people can start showing up pretty early. But this was a Friday night, and some guy was just checking the grounds. And, there was a lot of discussion, but, the person he had to call on the phone suggested I move on.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:43]:
Suggested. I like that. Yeah. So if you don't mind, I wanna talk about your book, The Road Spoke, Trepidation and Tranquility on a Bicycle Odyssey. What a great title, and I love the cover on your book. There's great artwork. So give me a little insight about your story.

Ken Reinke [00:24:02]:
Well, so when I got back from my Seattle trip, a friend of mine, a good longtime friend, who's a little bit younger than me, but he thinks that trip is superhuman. And he goes, how did you do it, you know, while the rest of us are sitting on our couches watching television? And so I had no intention of writing a book, but when he said that, I thought, okay. I'm gonna write a book because I am the best indicator that it's more attitude and mind than it is muscle. And so, so I was trying in my book is a discussion of how our minds run and sometimes ruin us and how that doesn't have to happen. And so, it's, it's actually a traveling memoir because I include anecdotes from my world travels, and it's so it's a good book. It's actually, I wrote it in the style of my favorite book, which is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:28]:
Of course.

Ken Reinke [00:25:29]:
That book is pure genius. I like to say mine is like that, but it's more accessible.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:35]:
Okay. That's that is a classic piece of writing for for all cyclists to read.

Ken Reinke [00:25:41]:
I think so. It's really something. So yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:46]:
Now this is something I love that I just read about you. You have a minor in philosophy, but philosophy of life is your true vocation. Talk to me about that.

Ken Reinke [00:25:56]:
Well, okay. So that is what I was addressing in this book.

Jerry Kopack [00:26:00]:
I thought so.

Ken Reinke [00:26:01]:
Yeah. I I mean, because we bring a lot of, we bring a lot of stuff on ourselves that we don't need. And, to me, a prime example in my own life, when I was first heading to San Diego, the goal got in the way. And so I thought I would be able to make x per day, day in and day out, and get to San Diego in two months. Well, that wasn't happening. And, you know, I was only making 35 or 40 miles a day at first, and I started to think about the dang goal, which I don't recommend ever, but and then I, I thought, well, I my knee started to hurt because I started pushing harder. So now, you know, within five or six days, my knee is starting to hurt, and I'm thinking my trip's gonna take another month longer than I expected, which frankly, though, really, what do I care? But I'd but I made myself care, and then I, was start talking harder about talking myself. What am I doing out here? You know? What is a 67 year old man doing on a dang bicycle trying to cross the dang whole country and so forth? So then that mental stuff starts, and you have to nip that in the bud, which I was lucky enough to do.

Ken Reinke [00:27:40]:
I called a friend who's a triathlete trainer, whined about my knee. She said, stop pushing. Use your gears. And from there, I realized, wait a minute. I don't I don't have to get to Louisiana. I don't have to get to Arizona. I only need to get to the top of this hill right here. That's it.

Ken Reinke [00:28:02]:
And so I basically finished the trip the whole rest of the trip that way, and I was still in Florida. You know, that this it's it's silly to push, but I have I listened to one a podcast on Bike Life, and, I remember them saying, well, they only had, you know, two months and two weeks or something like that. Well, dang. I mean and they did it, and I thought that was so cool. But I have I had no expectation, from I no one was expecting me anytime. I would get in touch with them a couple days out when I knew more.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:48]:
And do you think that sort of took some of the pressure off you? Like, hey. I I have plenty of time. I'm just gonna go until I wanna stop each day and then find a place to sleep and then start again fresh tomorrow.

Ken Reinke [00:29:01]:
Well, exactly. And what was really funny on that first trip, one of the things I learned is, yes, I only started out doing 35, 40, 40 five miles in a day, but by the end of that trip, you know, I was doing 75 miles a day routinely, and, again, that ability to stay in the saddle. But, so by the end of that trip, I did 58 miles per riding day. Wow. And so

Jerry Kopack [00:29:39]:
with no pressure. And that is commendable because not only are you doing 58 miles a day, you're what's this is your second trip, so you were not 67. You were older than 67?

Ken Reinke [00:29:51]:
Okay. So I was quoting stats from the first trip, but, yeah, the second trip, I'm not even sure I even calculated it. I actually didn't care anymore, and it was it was great to make it. In fact, I bet you can talk about this. When that trip ends, when you're at the goal, that's a remarkable, weird feeling of being both glad you made it, but now the trip's over. I'm not getting on the bike tomorrow and riding 60 miles. That's a weird feeling.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:30]:
I was just gonna ask you about that because I've had similar situations. Like, okay. Today is it. This is my last day. And were you happy to be done, or were you emotional? Like, oh, man. Like, this is this is it.

Ken Reinke [00:30:44]:
The well, both.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:46]:
Okay.

Ken Reinke [00:30:46]:
You know, both. And so, yeah. It's it's a weird feeling. You know? It's not just, oh, I made it. Oh, I made it. Because in a in a one respect, I didn't feel this is gonna sound weird, but I didn't feel really like I accomplished anything except that I got on my bike every day, you know, and kept going northwest ish. And I did not have it this great big congratulatory feeling. At least as strong was the feeling that, man, I just spent two and a half months doing this, and it's done.

Ken Reinke [00:31:30]:
Strange.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:31]:
It is and and so satisfying and gratifying. And to your point, it doesn't sound weird. I totally understand exactly what you mean by that. So there's something I've been thinking about since we've been talking, and it's easy for people to find reasons to not do things in life. You know? I'm too tired. I don't my my job, family, I'm injured. I'm too old, whatever. And you are absolutely an inspiring example of can do and how to live a big life approach.

Jerry Kopack [00:32:07]:
So I'm going to steal another one of the words for the title of your book. Apologies. But what would you tell people who may have a little trepidation about setting off on an adventure?

Ken Reinke [00:32:21]:
Gosh. You know, I'm not I'm not a terrific advice giver, but the those things that I already said, you know, that you, do not let the goal get in the way. And, again, I set out on that first trip. And, truly, if I had to quit in Louisiana or something, I still did that much. It it's I don't know. I, you know, part of the thing about like, one of the things on the back of my book is I I've hitchhiked 16,000 miles in in The United States. Woah. And so and I've backpacked to 30 countries.

Ken Reinke [00:33:03]:
And, I'm a goer and doer. A therapist a physical therapist once said, polio people do what they want. I don't know if that's true or not. I've never met any other ones. I love that. So I don't know. I I don't like TV. I like riding my bike.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:32]:
That is a bumper sticker right there. I don't like TV. I like riding my bike. I love that. Have you ever, are you a since you're not really a TV person, you're maybe not a movie buff, but there was a film that came out, I don't know, twenty five years ago called Shawshank Redemption.

Ken Reinke [00:33:48]:
Uh-huh.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:49]:
It had Morgan Freeman in it. Yeah. Did you ever see that film?

Ken Reinke [00:33:52]:
Uh-huh. Okay.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:52]:
I saw

Ken Reinke [00:33:53]:
there's Robins.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:54]:
Yeah. Exactly. There's one line in that movie that has stuck with me for twenty five years since I've seen the movie, and it's get busy living or get busy dying.

Ken Reinke [00:34:05]:
There you go.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:07]:
Yeah.

Ken Reinke [00:34:08]:
So I might be doing both because I'm thinking about another cross country trip. Yes. We'll we'll see. I'd have to leave by March.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:22]:
Well, when you when you, get on board with that or get out there on the road, reach back out to us. I'd love to keep talking you more about that that next adventure.

Ken Reinke [00:34:30]:
Oh, sure.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:32]:
So Yeah. It's Speaking of adventures, tell me how people can follow along to find out what you're doing, or where can they get a copy of that book of yours?

Ken Reinke [00:34:43]:
So it the book is for sale on Amazon and IngramSpark. So it's available wherever books are sold, it can be ordered. Okay. And in the book, in the very last, after the epilogue, I have my book, email address. So it's right there in the book, and I can actually call it out. It's krrankyauthor@gmail.com. I'm not I'm not a social media guy. I've tried, but I I'm not too good at keeping that stuff up.

Jerry Kopack [00:35:34]:
That's okay. We will we'll post a link to that in our show notes for people to come find you and grab a copy of that book. Okay. I wanna thank you for taking the time. I love the fact that I get to talk with inspiring individuals like yourself and and share some stories.

Ken Reinke [00:35:50]:
Well, thank you for having me, and I've seen some of what you're you have done, so that's coming from high ground.

Jerry Kopack [00:36:00]:
That means a lot to me. I'm humbled by that, so thank you

Ken Reinke [00:36:02]:
very much for that. Sure. Certainly.

Jerry Kopack [00:36:05]:
Alright, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to my conversation with Ken Reinke. If you enjoy our show, give us a like, a share on your social channels, or just tell your friends. These stories will hopefully inspire you to set off on your own bicycle adventure and maybe make the world feel a little bit smaller, one pedal stroke at a time. My name is Jerry Kopack, and until next time, keep riding.

Tahverlee [00:36:28]:
Thank you for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed making it. Wherever you are listening, please leave us a rating and a review as it helps us reach more cyclists and hosts around the world. Visit us at warmshowers.org to become a part of our community, or on Instagram at warmshowers_org. If you would like to be a guest on the show or submit a question, please make sure to email us at podcast@warmshowers.org.