Lexington, KY - When Anastassia Zikkos and Becky Campbell were telling Chad Walker about the experiences they had in Chicago last summer participating in the Breast Cancer 3-Day, a series of walks throughout the nation benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure, he almost felt swayed to get involved as well - until he found out the walk was 60 miles.
Instead of lumbering the 60 miles on foot, Walker decided he would tally thousands of miles - from San Francisco to Boston by way of New Orleans - on one of the most challenging of long distance conveyances - a 50cc scooter. For gusto, he painted it pink, the color commonly associated with Susan G. Komen's iconic ribbon and the organization's crusade to raise awareness for and fight against breast cancer.
"I was kind of griping, saying that guys can get breast cancer and it's a smidge of a disservice having this pink ribbon - maybe put a blue ribbon border around it," Walker said. "Jokingly, they said, 'Guys enjoy breasts as much as gals. So do something to support them.' So it kind of started as a joke."
Many jokes have a way of snowballing from their initial purpose, and Walker's charitable, coast-to-coast "Cannonball Run" has almost been enshrouded with a carnival-like atmosphere since the idea first revved up months ago. Prior to Walker's departure date on May 15 when he will fly to San Francisco (friends will haul the scooter in an RV to the West coast and follow Walker along the way), he and others will host local fundraisers. Naturally, none of them are very conventional: April 1 marks the start of the Mohawk Mission where local salons will compete to see which business can raise the most money. For gusto, Walker is allowing the winner to give him a pink Mohawk at the send off party to wear during his voyage. The kickoff party was held March 13 at downtown's Molly Brooke's Irish Bar; Walker wowed the crowd wearing a cape as he pulled up on the pink scooter.
This element of show is something Walker considers to be vital to fundraising efforts. "I've been a part of charities and fundraisers before, it's like pulling teeth sometimes trying to get people involved," he said. "If you can give people something cool to do to take their money, it works out. Not many people are going to fork over $500 for a plate of food, but I'll go get a beer at a bar, I'll go get a haircut; those are all things people are going to do anyway."
Events outside of Lexington, be it with a city's local Komen branch or scooter club, have been painstakingly littered across the country. One winery in the Finger Lake wine region in western New York state, which has blue and red scooter labels, is printing a special pink scooter label in conjunction with Walker's arrival. Other events include a stop and burn at the Reno-Fernley Raceway. For gusto, of course, Walker plans on breaking the Guinness World Record here for distance traveled in one day on a 50cc scooter - yes, there is a record: 732 miles, set by Jake Dolan in the annual Australian scooter race Le Minz.
Walker figures he won't have the same restraints as riders in Le Minz and should be able to achieve greater speeds, and speed is a concern for the record and for the itinerary as well. With hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles between fundraisers and events (many tightly scheduled), time could be of the essence. Walker concedes that there will be points in the trip when he will probably have to load the scooter up in the RV to cover greater distances. "If they've got a police escort and the media, I don't want to be a day late. That would be bad," he said.
To squeeze a little more juice out of his ride, an Aprilia SR50, which tops out at around 50 mph, Walker had a mechanic at Dave's CycleWerks give the scooter some modifications. "My mechanic almost shot me when I brought it in to do all the upgrades to it. Of course it's pink, he didn't like the idea of having it in his shop - a pink scooter next to all his Harleys."
Most of the work included getting as much weight off the scooter as possible. "In the meantime, I'm working out more, trying to do my own part. I've got to shed some pounds, that would be the quickest way to get some more horsepower out of it - get some weight off my own fat ass," Walker said.
Fortunately, for the scooter and clean-up crews along the highway, Walker isn't a stranger to long-distance rides on two-wheeled, motorized vehicles. A motorcycle aficionado, Walker has a fleet of rotating BMWs, Kawasakis and Yamahas, and he's made many lengthy trips - two years ago he rode from Lexington all the way to the Arctic Circle in Alaska and back on a motorcycle.
Nevertheless, Hooter Scooter, as the circuit has been dubbed, isn't without those who think the idea isn't, well, harebrained. "I keep hearing that this is the dumbest idea I've ever had, every time I talk about it," Walker said. "It's probably the most dangerous. With a motorcycle you can at least stay with the speed of traffic. With a scooter you can't really do that."
The mission hasn't come without any hang-ups, even before hitting the road - he's already wiped out on it. When he was first testing the vehicle, the back end locked up. Luckily, Walker was decked out in all his safety gear, but he was still flung through the air into somebody's yard, right in front of the property owner.
"Of course [the owner] is out there working in his lawn and he sees this big guy come crashing through his yard like he's been shot from a cannon," Walker recalls. "I pop up and he goes, 'What the hell are you doing?' That was his first response. 'I've wrecked my scooter.' 'What the hell are you riding a scooter for?' So I start telling him my whole story, and he said the same thing: 'Boy, that doesn't sound very bright.'"
And, due to a filing error involving a speeding ticket on the Alaskan trip, Walker was briefly jailed for driving on a suspended license in Atlanta when he went to pick up the scooter in late December. The whole issue was resolved quickly, but if you're into omens, many would take that as a bad one.
Undeterred, and getting a little mystical, Walker says that every journey is at the mercy of the unexpected, and it's the traveler's responsibility to surrender to the flow, to roll with the punches, to embrace the uncertainty. For gusto, Walker put the scooter's nickname on the vanity plate: Kiouni (all of his motorcycles have their six-letter names on the license plate). Kiouni is the name of the elephant in Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days," (which, symbolically, this traveler is reading for the first time) an animal Mr. Phileas Fogg purchases when his plans are altered due to unanticipated railroad construction. "You can't plan everything," Walker said. "And even if you could, would you really want to?"
The only thing Walker plans for the jaunt is to have a good time for the sake of a good cause and see large scenic, chunks of the country along the way. In fact, he has to: the scooter's maximum speed will restrict Walker to countless back roads far from the monotony of the Interstate system and into more uncharted territory.
"It's an adventure. It's cool. How many people can say they drove from sea to shining sea on a bright pink scooter. It just doesn't happen that often," he said. "It's become pretty whimsical: a fat guy riding a pink scooter across the country."
For more information on Walker's itinerary, as well as information on how to donate, visit www.hooterscooter.org.
Save 2nd Base
Save 2nd Base - that's the tongue-in-cheek Breast Cancer 3-Day team name for Lexingtonians Anastassia Zikkos, Rebecca Campbell and Sandy Brinegar. The 3-Day is a series of 60-mile walks throughout the nation to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust. If you don't get the ornery symbolism behind the monkier, your mind isn't in the gutter.
"It usually takes people a few seconds before it hits them," Zikkos said. "(Breast cancer) is such a serious thing, you have to be a little light-hearted about it."
Team names like this, as well as other playful hi jinx are now commonplace (maybe even encouraged) in and around the revelry associated with the 3-Day.
Each participant must raise a minimum of $2,300 per walk. Last year Save 2nd Base did the walk in Chicago and the participants raised over $5,000 combined. This year, the team plans on participating in the Boston on July 24 - 26, but because of the slowdown in the economy, they're fearful they might not be able to reach the expected goal.
To make an online donation to Save 2nd Base, visit www.the3day.org. By clicking on the 'Donate' button, the visitor is given an option to search for a single participant or a team name. Note: if you search for "Save 2nd Base (not Second), be sure to scroll through the listings to find the entry with Zikkos as the team captain (currently, there are 12 teams registered with the name).