Scot King (holding bike) poses with Chris Spence, chairman of the Elks Lodge Vets Committee; Ellis Tilman, Vets Committee member; and Steve Ulmer, Elks Lodge 125 Exhaulted Ruler, on July 22. Photo by Randy Kirby, Sedalia News Journal.
By Randy Kirby
Managing editor
Scot King is a man on a mission.
His mission is to peddle his Fuji-Cross 18-speed bicycle to the capitals of the lower 48 states to raise awareness and support for combat-wounded veterans and their families. The trek will take two years to complete with the first leg (May through October 2011) covering approximately 8,165 miles and the second trek (May through October 2012) adding an additional 12,000 miles.
He left the Oregon state capital steps on May 7 and is currently enroute through the northern-most states averaging 50 to 60 miles per day.
“I’m the founder and president of Remember the Wounded Ride, a 501-3C non-profit,” King said in an interview at the Elks Lodge, Fourth and Osage, last Friday.
The idea behind the ride is to “help make life better for our combat wounded men and women and their families; educate the public as to the effects of war on the American family; and hold events to promote patriotic education and honor the injured and their families from America’s wars, most recently Operation Iraqi Freedom l & 2.”
King has a fiance` Jeanean, her daughter Kayla, his son Kalib, 11, and two dogs back home in Oregon.
Missouri is King’s 13th state so far on the journey, racking up 2,400 miles in the process. By the time he is finished in 2012, he will have traveled about 20,000 miles, all on the same bike (so far).
“I pull a trailer and I’m self contained,” he said. “And I’m an Elk, and the Elks lodges are huge; they’re supporters of mine all throughout the entire country.”
King is a member of Elks Local 2411. He joined in April. His grandfather was an Elk for 51 years.
“I wear his tooth, right here,” King said, displaying an elk tooth made into a pendant hanging around his neck.
Scot King
“I grew up with the Elks going there with my grandfather as a kid,” said the former Marine corporal who served active duty from 1986 to 1990.
This year, King will end up at “The Wall” in Washington, DC, after traveling through 31 states. “Then I fly back to Portland,” King noted, adding that he will ship his heavily-used bike back home at that point.
AAA of Oregon and Idaho helped King create a specific route for him on his very scenic journey throughout the USA.
But bicycling across America has its hazards, as King found out.
“I had a few close calls, and the rudest people I ran into were in one little town in Kansas in Johnson County. I got flipped off. They’re in air-conditioned cars and here I am in 100-degree heat on the side of the road and they give you the bird,” he recalled.
“I had one really close call with a truck. Don’t get me wrong, truck drivers are the best. But this guy came around the corner too fast, and his whole truck was on two wheels. He was carrying an oversized brick outhouse, the kind the government uses, and he came about 10 feet into my lane, and I had nowhere to go, because there was a wall next to me,” King said.
“I though the whole thing was going to flip over, and I thought I was done,” King stated.
“But he got control of it and I rode off, so thank God for that. That was a scary moment in Idaho,” he said.
We have a host family program on our website (www.rememberthewoundedride.com) so if I ride through their town and they see it, they can fill out a form and host me in their home,” King said.
“I’m getting stories of combat-wounded veterans and we’re going to do a documentary,” King noted.
“I keep a journal and audio tape everything. Our first book will be out on Veteran’s Day this year. And we’re going to dedicate that book to the Elks Lodge. That’s pretty exciting stuff, because the majority of the veterans I’m talking with are Elks Lodge members,” King concluded.
