West Chester man takes love of cycling to all 50 states

Al Emma admits he's crazy.

But maybe we should all be so crazy.

The 69-year-old planned to shower at 4 a.m. today and then begin driving 2,136 miles from his home in West Chester to Montana.

He figures 15 hours a day of driving, 70 miles an hour. He hopes to roll into Helena by noon Friday, no problem.

His fun is just beginning.

At 8 a.m. Saturday, he expects to begin a 100-mile bike ride, a "century," along the Missouri River north of Helena. This will be the 50th state in which Emma will have completed a century - his goal.

Emma, who recently retired from his family's building firm, expects to finish the Montana century in about eight hours. Within 15 minutes, he'll be back in his 2003 Cadillac Seville - throwing his bicycle into the trunk - and driving 580 miles north to Saskatoon, in Canada's Saskatchewan province.

He hopes to arrive by 2 a.m. Sunday, get a shower, and maybe grab four hours' sleep if he's lucky.

Because he'll be back on his bike by 7 a.m., riding another century.

His next goal is to complete a century ride in all 10 Canadian provinces. Saskatchewan would be his third.

"My kids think I'm nuts," Emma said as he prepared for his juggernaut. "Well, I am. I take pride in being nuts. It's not logical. But I enjoy it."

He rides to stay fit, and to stay positive, and these century rides give him the challenge he needs.

Emma discovered the mental-health benefits of exercise in his mid-40s, when his first wife, Mimi, the mother of his four children, was sick with cancer. When she was in the hospital, and he couldn't sleep in the empty bed, he'd get up and run at 3 a.m. He ran so much that he figured he was in good enough shape to run a marathon. He completed four.

"Cardio is the greatest relaxation for your mind," says Emma, who recently turned Emma Builders & Developers over to a son. "It's not just physical. It's mental. It certainly helped me through with my first wife."

Emma also loves to travel. He and Mimi had been to every state together but one. In July 1992, when she was clearly dying from lymphoma, he told her, "I don't think we're going to make it to North Dakota. Maybe we could just fly in and fly out."

"I'm feeling pretty good," she told him. The doctor told them to go for it.

So two days later they were in the car, and drove to Fargo, N.D. Then they went on to Glacier National Park, her favorite place on earth, and then to Banff, in Canada, which her mother had loved and where Mimi had always wanted to go. Then they drove the Trans-Canadian highway all the way to Montreal. She was so sick by this point she had to lie in the backseat the whole way.

She died three weeks after they got home. "That was the send-off," he said.

Emma married his second wife, Teresa, two years later, in 1994, but she died in 2007 from bladder cancer.

"I've been incredibly lucky and unlucky," he says.

Since Teresa died, he's been to 174 movies. He keeps a list.

He now has a new girlfriend. "Life goes on," he says.

Emma discovered cycling in 1988, when a friend convinced him to ride in the Des Moines Register's Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. He did that many times, although he never got on a bicycle any other time during the year.

With his love of travel and exercise, riding a century in every state seemed a natural idea. As far as he knows, no other cyclist has attempted it.

In 2002, he did his first in Dublin, Ga., for a St. Patrick's Day Century. Five times he did two in one weekend. For instance, he left at midnight on Friday night, drove to Vermont, and cycled in a century on Saturday morning. Then he drove to New Hampshire, spent the night, rode in a century there on Sunday, and drove home - only one night in a motel.

He didn't ride at all in 2006 and 2007 because of his second wife's illness.

His favorite century was in Nevada, around Lake Tahoe. He got lost in Nebraska and was ticketed by a state trooper for riding on the interstate. He keeps that ticket in his scrapbook. He tackles the easiest centuries, avoiding mountains, and is never too proud to walk up a hill or two.

He had to repeat New Mexico. He dropped out the first time after 27 miles. He couldn't breathe. It was in Santa Fe, and he didn't give himself time to adjust to the altitude.

When he drives to a faraway state, he tries to keep his travel costs to a total of $1,000, but higher gas prices make it harder.

Incredibly, Emma rides his Greg LeMond road bike with 27 gears and skinny tires only on the centuries.

Otherwise, it stays in the trunk of his Caddy.

Six days a week he's at his gym in West Chester by 5 a.m., riding a recumbent stationary bike for an hour.

Emma, who is 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, has obesity in his family, so he does these rides to stay in shape. He doesn't mind driving alone, although later this summer, when he rides in centuries in New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, his new girlfriend, Carolee Norton, will go with him.

After he finishes his Canadian centuries, which he hopes to do this year, he plans to retire from cycling.

He'd like to resume running marathons - one in every state.