Ohio Veteran Won’t Let Injuries Stop Him from a 10,000-Mile Ride

Riding a Harley Davidson 10,000 miles cross-country on a route that organizers promise will be grueling at best is a challenge for anyone. But if you have a bad back, tricky shoulder and a reconstructed knee like 55-year-old Patrick Romeo, it might seem, well, a bit crazy.

Especially during a pandemic.

Still, Romeo, a U.S. Air Force veteran and former firefighter from Youngstown, Ohio, can’t wait to jump on his 2013 Ultra Classic on Aug. 9 to begin the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge.

“One, I want to do it to see if I can accomplish it,” says Romeo, a site inspector for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Two, I want to raise money for veterans.”

Most of the nearly 100 riders in the Hoka Hey raise money for a favorite charity as part of their participation. Romero hopes to collect at least $10,000 for the Resurrecting Lives Foundation, which helps veterans with traumatic brain injuries.

The foundation’s goals fit with those of the ride: to raise awareness of social issues, help others overcome obstacles and foster respect and harmony.

The ride, held periodically since 2010, begins and ends in Panama City Beach, Florida. Its demanding 10,000-mile route through states as diverse as Arkansas, New Mexico and Vermont, is revealed bit by bit at checkpoints throughout the race. Riders are given written directions at those checkpoints and are forbidden from using any electronic navigation such as a GPS.

“That’s part of the challenge,” says Romeo, who is rider No. 988 in the challenge. “If you get off course you’re going to have to backtrack and you’ll lose time.”

Riders also aren’t permitted to sleep in real beds during the ride; they’re required to sleep outside with their bikes. Family and friends, however, can monitor riders’ progress with a GPS tracker.

Romeo is no stranger to long bike rides.

When he turned 50 in 2015 he rode his motorcycle 14,000 miles through 48 states and hopped planes for quick trips to Hawaii and Alaska so he could boast he’d been to all 50 states in 50 days.

That was a year after he was seriously injured while fighting a fire when the floor he was standing on collapsed, hurtling him 10 feet below. Surgeons had to put one of Romeo’s knees and one of his shoulder’s back together following the accident; he also injured two discs in his back and had to be off work for more than two years.

That’s when he became familiar with the Reconstructing Lives Foundation. Foundation founder Dr. Chrisanne Gordon is a friend of Romeo’s wife, Rochelle, and helped Romeo negotiate his way through Worker’s Compensation after his injuries.

“We salute Patrick Romeo for his service in our military, as a first responder and now as a champion for our cause and the thousands of heroic veterans we serve,” says Dr. Chrisanne Gordon, founder of the Dublin, Ohio-based Resurrecting Lives Foundation. “If unrecognized and left untreated, the inner scars of traumatic brain injuries – whether sustained in military combat or from sports injuries and accidents – can have devastating consequences for victims and their families,” she says.

Despite his injuries and his inability to sit comfortably in a car for a long stretch of time, he finds riding his motorcycle largely doable. He hopes he can finish the Hoka Hey in 20 days or less.

“I’m not looking at doing it in 10 days (the minimum allowed per the rules), but 20 days is very doable,” Romeo says. “I’m not out to impress anyone. My goal is just to be a finisher.”

All the money pledged for Romeo’s ride will go directly to Resurrecting Lives. To donate, visit ResurrectingLives.org.