CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, March 2, 1995
3A
Cyclist makes tour across the nation
Matt Flickner / KANSAN
Joe Spradlin, a retired KU scientist, rode his bike from San Diego. Calif., to St. Augustine. Fla. The trio took 35 days.
Ex KU scientist finishes 2,500 mile bicycle road trip
By Paul Todd Kansan staff writer
A Florida sheriff who looked like Jackie Gleason stopped Joe Spradlin for riding on the interstate toward the end of Spradlin's 35-day bicycle trip across the United States.
"Kansas."
"Where are you from?" the sheriff drawn.
"You rode all the way from Kansas?" The sheriff outed.
"Boy, what're you doing?" the sheriff asked.
stretched in California Pleasantly, the sheriff held his ground.
"More than that," Spradlin said. "I started in California."
"I'm riding to St. Augustine," said Spradlin, who is 65 years old.
"I admira that," he said. "But you still can't ride on the interstate."
The middle-aged Mexican man and a Native American girl who waited on
Spradlin left San Diego on Jan. 9 with his wife, Rita, close behind in the couple's blue Buick Park Avenue. His 65-minute-per-day trek took him through the New Mexico desert, Texas hill country, the Louisiana bayou and the Florida coast.
The round-faced young sherriff was the only person who stopped Spradlin, a retired University of Kansas Life Span Institute scientist, from riding on the interstate during his entire 2,500 mile bike-a-thon. Spradlin returned to Lawrence by car on Feb. 18, five days after he pedaled into St. Augustine, Florida.
"I was skeptical about why we would do this," said Rita Spradlin. "But I must be just as crazy as he is or I wouldn't have done it.
The time was right, Joe Spradlin said.
"Who knows?" he said. "In five or 10 years I may not be able to do it."
The first thing Spradlin did when he steered his multi-speed mountain and road bicycle into St. Augustine was to find some proof for his friends back home that he really made it.
decision, though.
"I hunted up a sign that said St. Augustine and took a picture by it," he said.
Making the trip was not a spontaneous
"I had to keep a pro said. "The more you think about it, the more you talk about it, the more real it becomes."
But the people and places across the country were just as much of a lure, he said.
Once during the trip, Joe and Rita stopped for dinner at a windowless wooden cafe in Boulevard, Calif. They were the only patrons in the cafe, we the bandmates.
"The more you think about it,the more you talk about it,the more real it becomes."
patrons in the cafe, which was just inside the border from Mexico.
Joe Spradlin
Former KU professor
Just outside of Ft. Stockton, Texas,
Rita Spadlin went ahead of Joe Spadlin
Mexican man and a girl who waited on them made the experience rememberable.
When Spraddl asked for guacamole for his chips, the girl ran across the street and bought an avocado to make fresh guacamole.
"Almost every time something that looked like an obstacle came up, we met people that made it worth while," Spradlin said.
"Are you having trouble with your horse?" one of the locals said.
to do laundry in town. Joe Spradlin's tire blew, and some Texans in a pick-up stopped to help.
Spradlin said the Texans wanted to know what kind of person would accompany a person on a bike trip like Joe's, so they took him into town to find Rita.
And although he probably won't make the trip again, he enjoyed it while it lasted.
"It's kind of pleasant to be out there," he said. "It's total escapism."
Joe Spradil said the trip became monotonous after about 10 days of riding, but he didn't mind the solitude of riding by himself.
"I have no regrets," Joe Spradlin said.
"No regrets about it at all."
Contestant learns at national contest
By Virginia Marghelm
Kansan staff writer
Competing for the title gave her a chance to find out where she was in life and how close to her goals, said Butler, Miss Black Kansas.
Anna Butler, Kansas City, Kan., senior, learned something about herself in the process of competing for the title of Miss Black USA.
"I think it's something everybody should get the chance to experience." she said.
Butler traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to compete for the national title. She was not selected as one of the 12 finalists, but received hon
Although Butler said the national pageant was an experience of a lifetime, it was not one she wanted to repeat. The state pageant was the first pageant Butler had entered, and she said she did not plan to enter any pageants in the future.
Anna Butler
orable mention in the presidential and academic scholarship competitions.
Miss Black Louisiana was crowned Miss Black U.S.A. Sundav.
The trip was stressful, Butler said. Contestants could not leave their hotel rooms without a chaperone or without wearing makeup and heels. They were not allowed to give autographs or to reveal their names or phone numbers without the consent of pageant officials.
"I felt like a celebrity." Butler said.
The contestants kept busy with activities such as visiting local high schools and meeting the pageant's board of directors, Butler said.
Butler said that she thought she did well for only having two weeks to prepare for the national competition. She was crowned Miss Black Kansas Feb. 4. Most of the contestants had been preparing for months. Butler said.
"I think I did well overall for the short amount of time I had to prepare." she said.
Gayla Robinson, Kansas City, Kan. senior, coordinated the Kansas state pageant. She said that Butler was a good choice to represent Kansas.
"She spoke very fluently and knows what she wants to say." Robinson said.
Now that the pageant is over, Butler can concentrate on her year-long reign as Miss Black Kansas.
Butler said that she hoped to visit many high schools in Kansas.
Internet junkies discover that downloading jokes, research is downright informative
By Brian Vandervliet
Kansan staff writer
Ryan Hartwich, Overland Park junior, is a believer in the Internet. Every day he uses the technology to find information about everything from engineering research to David Letterman's Top Ten List.
"Anything on the planet can be found," he said.
Like Hartwick, a growing number of Internet junkies are moving beyond e-mail and discovering an expanded library of information from around the world.
"It's more useful than a library," Hartwick said. "A library is limited to what they think is important."
Hartwich said he enjoyed reading humorous stories and jokes on the Internet.
He has discovered hundreds of jokes, including a file that contains 132 "Your mom" jokes such as, "Your妈妈's so hairy, Bigfoot
took a picture of her."
Mike Palazazzolo, Topeka junior, said the Internet had provided information that was not found easily elsewhere. He found an instruction manual on the Internet detailing how to build explosives.
"Every joke you've ever heard about usually originates on the Internet," he said.
"I was just curious, so I download it," he said. "I haven't tried any of it because of safety concerns."
Mike Fisher, Merriam junior, uses the Internet mostly for games and e-mail, but he has run across some not-so-innocent material on the information highway.
Fisher said one of the advantages of the Internet was that it was not regulated closely by the government yet.
"I used to download nude pictures for my friends because I was the only one who had access to the Internet," he said. "They wanted them, so I did it."
Doug Heacock, service coordinator for the Kansas Research and Education Network at the Computer Center, agreed.
"Clearly the Internet is an environment where anything can be found," he said. "But any time you introduce government control the possibility might exist of the baby getting tossed out with the bath water."
Howard said he had used NASA research found on the Internet for an astronomy class. He was able to print, at no cost, 27 pages of information which detailed the topography of Mars.
Jeremy Howard, Colby senior, has discovered the educational benefit of the Internet.
"I think it's a bargain," he said.
Speaker says sexual orientation ordinance might violate some rights
By Sarah Morison Kansan staff writer
If the Lawrence City Commission changes the human relations ordinance to expand anti-discrimination protection to people on the basis of sexual orientation, it will be violating individuals' rights of religious expression, said Kelly Shackelford, southwest regional coordinator of the Rutherford Institute.
In a speech yesterday sponsored by the Federalist Society, Shackelford told an audience at the KU School of Law that people should not be forced to violate their religious doctrines in order to conform to a city ordinance.
The Rutherford Institute is an organization that provides legal representation to people who believe their freedom of religious expression has been violated.
"There are individuals who feel that they ought to use their property in a way that is not in violation with
"... they out to use their property in a way that is not in violation with their... religion."
Ken Stoner KU director of student housing
their conscience or religion," he said.
If the city commission adds the words "sexual orientation" to the ordinance, it would be illegal for people in the city to deny individuals housing, employment or public accommodations on the basis of
Marion Raab, third-year law student and member of the National Lawyer's Guild, attended the speech and said discrimination should not be allowed under the guise of religious expression.
"It is grossly hypocritical to say that in the name of religion we have the right to discriminate against you on the basis of your sexual orientation," she said.
"There are some people who feel very strongly that they shouldn't rent or lease their facilities to someone who is engaging in conduct that would be violating their religious beliefs," he said.
"Religious freedom does not give you the right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, and to say so is a perversion of the Constitution."
The city commission has directed the city staff to conduct a study on the issue. The commission then will decide whether to put the proposed change to a vote.
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