I sent this to the TOSRV.org webmaster and he suggested I post it
here.

I rode the 1974 TOSRV. I was 28 years old at the time. At the end we
were given a nice certificate made in calligraphy. I put it away
until I could frame it, but lost track of where it was. In 1995 I
found it again. We were about to move from Tennessee to Idaho. I put
it into the front of one particular box so I could easily retrieve it
after the move.

Another family's belongings were on the same truck. Our load was
unloaded last. Somehow that box was unloaded at the other family's
home. I do not have their name or address. Once again I am without my
certificate. With the advent of the Internet, I keep hoping someone
will open that box and find me through a people search site. Oh, well.

On the way down to Portsmouth some driver cut off a cyclist. When we
arrived in Portsmouth for our evening meal, someone had tacked a note
to the doorframe on the way into the dining area asking if anyone got
the license number of the red Mustang that had cut off the cyclist.
Someone had already written a license number onto the note.

We awoke early in Portsmouth and were eating doughnuts for breakfast
while standing in the rain. The rain was beginning to wash the icing
off of the doughnuts. I was wearing Hush Puppies for shoes. I had
doused them in leather treatment oil to protect against rainwater.
Still, after less than ten miles my toes were going "squish, squish"
inside my soaked shoes. We rode under a high tension power line. I
could hear the electricity crackling in the air as I rode below the
lines. Still, by early afternoon my shoes and socks were dry, except
for a little perspiration.

After sending this to the webmaster I have been thinking I would like
to ride in the 2024 TOSRV. It would be 50 years after my ride in the
1974 TOSRV. I may try the 2014 TOSRV, just in case my health would
not allow me to ride in 2024. I would be 78 years old in 2024.

I still ride the same bicycle. It is a Dunelt ten-speed road bike
with Reynolds 531 straight gauge tubing in the three main frame
tubes. The wheels and the derailleurs are no longer original. All
else is, even the Brooks B17 leather saddle and the paint.

Rev. Phil Bohlken
Grace Lutheran Church
Caldwell, Idhao