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Have Bike Will Pitch
Have horseshoes will travel, by bike.
As long as Chuck Carter has a serviceable bike expect to see him riding down the highways and byways of America heading to the Illinois State Horseshoe tournament or even the World Horseshoe Tournament. He was in Shelbyville at the state tournament on Labor Day Weekend, one of just many of his stops in his trek that stretches over 100’s of thousands of miles. Yes, he says he has 100’s of thousands of miles on a bicycle over the last 23 years.
“It feels like 230 years,” Carter says.
The bearded cyclist, age 57, from Cahokia, looks like Forest Gump on a bike, traversing the continental United States time an again. Ride Carter, Ride!
Carter has been to 48 states and half of Canada, even as far as White Horse, Yukon, 300 miles south of Anchorage. Not bad for a guy who doesn’t have all his original parts.
Carter lost all of his toes and both in-steps due to frostbite in 1976, before he ever started riding his bike. He was hunting out in the Oregon mountains on horseback with friends.
“I got turned around in a snowstorm,” Carter said. “My fellow hunters found me four days later and I had hypothermia.”
He lost his toes and in-steps and they were replaced with metal. Carter had been a over-the-road driver for 18-wheelers.
“I hauled cattle, flat steel and nitroglycerin for Tucker Bros. out of Idaho,” Carter said.
He couldn’t drive anymore. So he came home to Cahokia, but that didn’t stop him from picking up the sport of horseshoes and beginning an incredible journey on two wheels.
“I could get a drivers license, but I don’t want one,” Carter said.
Carter got a bike and started riding. He is actually more comfortable on a bike than he is walking, because of his feet. He gets really sore at tournaments where he has to be on his feet and pitch for hours at a time. But, even with that discomfort, the only pain killers he uses is ibuprofen.
Carter has ridden his 11 different bikes from Cahokia to four different World Horseshoe Tournaments. He rode to Syracuse, New York in 1994 where he won Class H-2, going 13-2 with a 35% ringer percentage.
The bad thing at Syracuse that year was that he had the date wrong and showed up two weeks early. So he rode his bike all over the state waiting for the tournament. After the World, he won an Illinois state title at Shelbyville that year, going 11-0 in S Class.
“1994 was a good year,” Carter said.
After winning the state title in Class D in 1995, Carter rode to Wyoming for the 1996 World. He rode to Ainsworth, Nebraska for the World in 1998 and to Bismarck, North Dakota for the World in 2000. He is also headed to the World tournament next summer (’09) in Springfield.
When Carter goes on those long trip he hauls a custom-built trailer behind his bike. Most of the time, he has to ride on 2-lane roads, because non-motorized bikes are illegal on inter-states. He travels about 45 miles a day on his trips, but when he came to Shelbyville recently he made about 60 miles a day.
“I was really into it,” Carter said.
He left Cahokia at 4 p.m. Sunday, and arrived in Shelbyville at 4 a.m., Tuesday.
For a “short trip” like that Carter doesn’t bring his trailer he carries everything (tent, stove, coffee pot) on his bike. He sleeps in a tent and cooks his own meals. He eats a lot of Ramen noodles.
“Sometimes, I’ll got to McDonalds, when accessible,” Carter said. “On one trip I was gone for about a year and ate nothing but beans, all kinds of bean. After that I didn’t eat beans again for about four years.”
He also carries his own repair kit: 1 spare tire, 1 spare tube, pump and tools.
“I get from 42-4500 miles to a set of tires,” Carter said.
While on the road, Carter does odd jobs to help support himself. He cleans up parking lots and has even put up hay. Normally he supports himself at home, detailing cars and trucks, mostly for their police department and mows yards.
Carter pitches regularly in the Cahokia/Dupo area across the river from St. Louis. He had nine other Cahokia pitchers at the recent state tourney in Shelbyville, where Carter won the Class C Mixed Doubles State Title. However, Carter’s fellow Cahokia pitchers drove.
“People get there a lot faster than I do,” Carter said as he shrugged his shoulders. “But, I get there.”
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