Anchorage Daily News

John Hall has seen the green countryside of Mississippi, the mountainous Arcadia National Park in Maine and the bright blue Clark Fork River in Idaho -- all from his silver titanium road bike.

The 62-year-old Providence Alaska Medical Center ER doctor has traveled through 32 states in four months to spread awareness of early cancer detection and to raise money for the Susan Butcher Family Center and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

By the time he finishes this week, he will have pedaled for 120 days.

On April 1, John and his wife, Jane, started their 12,000 mile journey -- him by bike and her by SUV -- around the periphery of the country.

They left from the cemetery where John's parents were buried in Lompoc, Calif.

"And that's where we're going to finish up," John said. Their ride ends Thursday.

His wife, Jane, was diagnosed with breast cancer in March of 2007, and had surgery, chemotherapy and 36 rounds of radiation before receiving a clean bill of health this spring.

The Halls planned to take the tour in September of 2007, but postponed it until this year because of Jane's illness.

Most days, John bikes about 100 miles.

There were a few days early in the trip when he had to cut down to 70 or 80 miles a day because of fatigue, which he chalked up to weight gain from a trip to Europe before the bike ride.

But his biking burns 6,000 to 8,000 calories a day, which cured that problem.

He went from 210 pounds to 188.

John starts riding between 7 and 8 a.m. each morning and finishes up between 4:30 and 6 p.m., depending on the terrain.

They settle into a motel room in a different town every night, eat dinner, and spend about an hour writing up a blog post before going to bed around 9 p.m.

John's only taken one day off -- to visit an aunt in Georgia.

"I'm pretty much amazed every day he gets back on that bike and mentally, he's just so strong, and even with huge mountains and 30 mile-an-hour winds in his face," Jane said. "He doesn't complain, he just does it."

"I think that I would find a reason to get off the bike if it was a very bad day, but he doesn't."

Looming dark clouds and tornado warnings haven't stopped the show, John said.

"We've been so lucky with the weather that everywhere we've been, there's been some (bad) weather right before or right after," John said.

He's had 14 flat tires and two wrecks. One of the wrecks -- just outside Naples, Florida -- involved a U-shaped clamp in the road that latched onto his tire and led to a sudden painful stop.

"It stopped the bike and I kept going (over the handlebars)," John said. He separated his shoulder, bloodied his hands and landed at the ER.

"My wife made me," he said. "I was going to keep riding."

Jane drives a GMC Yukon stocked with spare tires and decorated with magnets that advertise Bike Ride Around America, Providence's Susan Butcher Family Center and the Lance Armstrong Foundation to passers-by.

She is usually 10 to 15 miles ahead or behind her husband and checks up on him every so often via cell phone, while also taking in the scenery.

"I'm kind of a Pollyanna," she said. "Every new place we go, I say, 'Isn't this a wonderful place, we could live here."

Every time they have a chance to stop and talk to people, John and Jane tell them about the purpose of the bike ride.

"We have not met one person yet that did not have a family member or close friend that had cancer," John said.

They've seen first-hand how cancer is pervasive, crossing generational, gender, socioeconomic and racial lines, Jane said.

"It's very interesting how many people are affected -- it's not just the cancer patient that's affected, it's the entire family," she said.

John reminds people to get routine mammograms, Prostate-Specific Antigen tests and colonoscopies.

"Everywhere we've gone in this country, they're all praising us and just really friendly," he said. "All the big trucks go out of their way to pull over or toot their horns."

As much fun as he's had biking through the back roads all around the country, John is looking forward to making it back to Anchorage, where he's worked at Providence for 29 years.

"I've never talked to a horse going back to the barn, but I think it's got to feel something like that," he said.

Find Monique Newton online at adn.com/contact/mnewton or call 907-257-4469.

READ Hall's bike-trip blog:

www.bikeridearound america.org/blog

DONATE to the charities:

www.bikeridearound america.org/donate.php

BIKE RIDE AROUND AMERICA DONATIONS:

• Susan Butcher Family Center: $99,000

• Lance Armstrong Foundation: $4,000

• Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation: $12,000

TOTAL: $115,000

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