In mid-June, Mark Junge from Cheyenne, Wyo., left on his summer vacation. Nothing unusual in that, except that on this trip, the 61-year-old is peddling

In mid-June, Mark Junge from Cheyenne, Wyo., left on his summer
vacation. Nothing unusual in that, except that on this trip, the
61-year-old is peddling his way across the country on a 3,400-mile
bicycle trek — with his portable oxygen system.

Junge is traveling the historic Lincoln Highway, which runs
through America's heartland. He began his ride June 12 from San
Francisco's Lincoln Park, the highway's western-most point, and
plans to end up in New York City at the route's eastern terminus in
Times Square.

“The idea of making a transcontinental bike ride across
America had been fermenting in my brain for at least the past
decade,” Junge writes in a journal he is keeping from the
road. Junge had been an avid cyclist all his life, but after being
weakened by blood clots that formed in his lungs nearly two years
ago, he thought he would have to give up his plans for such a
journey.

According to Junge, the clots may have resulted from previous
hip replacement or heart surgeries. “Regardless, the result
was that I was disabled, and at first it was discouraging. It was
hard to breathe during any form of exertion except sitting, and I
had to use oxygen to sleep at night,” he says.

Nevertheless, Junge says, once his pulmonologist prescribed
Coumadin (to prevent blood clotting) and portable liquid oxygen as
therapy, “within a very short time it dawned on me that I did
not have to give up my dreams, and that a bike trip really was not
out of the question.”

Junge is traveling with Puritan Bennett's Helios lightweight
personal oxygen system. The company, a business unit of
Mallinckrodt, part of Tyco Healthcare, is sponsoring his trip,
which has been dubbed the Helios Freedom Tour.

While the company has a stake in the outcome of the tour, Junge
says, “a major purpose [of the trip] is to encourage
oxygen-dependent people to insist upon access to portable oxygen
units and to educate and inform elected and appointed officials
about the necessity for government support for the use of liquid
oxygen.” Along the way, Junge hoped to meet with federal
legislators in their home districts.

“Mark's trip across the country will not only be a
personal best for him but it will also help raise awareness for
these systems so that more consumers can benefit from them,”
says Randy Whitfield, president of Puritan Bennett. “The
challenge is educating more physicians, patients and legislators
about these systems.”

Literally along for the ride, Junge's wife Ardath is making the
trip with him driving the Freedom Tour van, which is equipped with
an oxygen tank reservoir. The two communicate by cell phone or
walkie-talkies with a 10-mile range. Junge's bike is also fitted
with an oxygen tank holder above its rear wheel and with a water
reservoir to help with the suffocating summer heat.

Junge spent July 4th watching an Independence Day parade down
the main street of Ely, Nev., before heading across the sizzling
Bonneville Salt Flats, where temperatures on the asphalt can be in
the 90s. By July 15, he had made it to Rock Springs, Utah, and, at
press time, planned to complete his journey in early September.

“This trip is not only a personal goal but also an
opportunity for me to demonstrate to other oxygen-dependent
individuals that they, too, can stay active and independent,”
Junge says.

For more information or to read Junge's notes from the
Lincoln Highway, visit
www.heliosfreedomtour.com.