VALDOSTA, Ga. — Sixty was the key number in south Georgia native Lee Allison’s bicycle ride across America to raise funds for civic efforts to eradicate polio.

Allison faced his 60th birthday.

He wanted to average 60 miles per day.

He wanted to complete the trip in less than 60 days.

He wanted to spend an average of $60 per day.

Essentially, Allison kept to the “60” rule, and being 60 didn’t keep him from completing his goal this month.

“I turned 60 in January and I wanted do something for my 60th,” Allison said. “I could afford to take the time off and I felt I was in good enough shape I could pull off something.”

Allison, a native of Valdosta, Georgia, lives in Bryson City, North Carolina, and works in the outdoor tourism industry of whitewater rafting. 

“I can’t say it’s been a driving desire to ride a bike across the country,” he said.

In the early 1980s, he rode a bicycle from Memphis, Tennessee, to Valdosta.

At 60, he said he could find “a lot more reasons why not to ride a bicycle across country.”

But he found a cause.

He rode cross-country under the banner of Lee Go / Stop Polio. A Rotary Club member, he raised a penny per mile for the organization’s campaign to end polio.

Polio, a disease linked to paralysis and muscle weakness, is considered contagious via person-to-person contact and presently has no cure.

He wanted to raise money and awareness for the organization’s efforts to stop the crippling and potentially fatal disease. The organization initiated the effort in the mid-1980s, Allison said, with the goal of internationally eradicating polio.

As for training for the ride, Allison laughed, and said, “There was not as much training as you might think.”

Starting March 8, Allison dipped his bicycle tires in the Pacific Ocean on the shore of San Diego, California.

He pedaled through El Niño storms during the earliest days of his ride. He faced hard winds but kept pedaling.

His wife, Carolyn, traveled to meet him during the journey. Allison said she was supportive of the ride from planning to finish.

Along the way, he said he met numerous friendly and supportive people.

Some nights, he’d camp. Some nights, he’d stay in a motel.

In a Louisiana town, he stayed in a police station that opens its doors as a shelter to traveling bicyclists. Allison signed the log book that shared similar cross-country adventures by bicyclists of various ages.

On a couple of days, he nearly doubled his daily goal of averaging 60 miles per hour by riding more than 100 miles.

He stayed within his personal budget most days.

He accomplished the trip in under 60 days.

Being 60 didn’t stop him.

Earlier this month on May 1, Lee Allison dipped the front tire of his bicycle into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in Fernandina Beach, Florida — marking the culmination of a challenge that means so much to him and the cause he’s rode for.

Poling writes for the Valdosta, Georgia Daily Times.