http://www.tcnewsleader.com/mnlnews.htm#biker
Biker rides for water
By R.M. GLOVER
MNL Editor
MARATHON -- On a good day Dan Altenburg can average 16 miles per hour but last Monday he slowed to 11 mph as he climbed the 1,300-foot elevation rise on the long stretch from Sanderson.
“I’m glad I left early,” Altenburg said, sipping a Tecate during lunch at the Oasis Bar and Restaurant.
He rides a disc-brake-fitted, stiff-leather saddled Giant OCR Touring bike, weighing in at 30 pounds.
Then add 60 pounds of gear and you can understand why his calves are the size of watermelons.
He left Saint Augustine, FL, almost two months ago.
“I’ll be in San Diego before you know it,” he said. His short-cut hair was graying but he didn’t look over 32.
He was sturdy built, not too tall and there was a certain alertness in his blue eyes.
Altenburg is raising money for a charity that drills water wells in Ethiopia and Uganda. For $5,000, he can buy one well.
“Mothers have to decide whether to give their babies a cup of dirty water or none at all.” Altenburg said. “Not an easy choice.”
Altenburg had been selling cell-phone circuitry for Tectronix.
“My boss was in the middle of giving me a raise when I told him I can’t do it anymore,” he said. “I knew what they expected from me and I wasn’t prepared to give ’em 100 percent. So instead of a raise I gave them my resignation.”
He went to Alaska and got involved in the Iditorod dog-sled race, becoming “by chance” the lead dog trainer for the first sled out of Anchorage on race day.
“There must have been 100 film crews out that day from all over the world and there I was leading the lead sled to the starting line,” Altenburg said.
He has one of those TV happy determined faces.
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