RANTOUL – Brad Neal is going the distance for Cunningham Children's Home and Rantoul's First United Methodist Church.

The Rantoul resident plans to leave Saturday on a solitary 500-mile, seven-day bicycle ride to the southwest St. Louis suburbs in an effort to raise money for both organizations.

He will pack 35 to 40 pounds of gear on his Schwinn hybrid road bike and head off on country and state highways. His route will take him to Sangchris State Park near Springfield and Hawn State Park near Ste. Genevieve, Mo., where he will camp.

"It's a pretty Spartan lifestyle," Neal said. "It's backpacking with wheels is the way I look at it."

Neal plans to ride 53 miles the first day and average about 70 miles a day after that. He said that to make the full 500 miles, he will probably have to put on a few more miles after he reaches his destination: his daughter's home on Butler Hill Road off Interstate 55.

The trip was inspired by the sheer pleasure he gets from riding. Surely, he thought, there was a way to get some unselfish good out of all that pleasure.

He settled on raising money for the church because of "budget needs," and for the children's home because of the church's involvement with it. His decision was cemented after listening to a presentation about the children's home.

"That's an amazing place," he said.

Neal should be in good shape for the ride. He has ridden 2,125 miles since April, including a 100-mile ride to Effingham. He rides to work at JELD-WEN every day, taking a roundabout route about 5 miles long in the morning and 11 to 15 miles on the way home. On weekends, he rides longer distances.

Except for two years off after knee surgery, Neal can hardly remember not being on his bike.

"When my friends gave up their bikes for cars, I kept riding," he said.

Neal has participated in triathlons and tried one road race. He didn't care much for the way the pack pushed and shoved, or the big crash that he managed to avoid.

"(Racing) was just not for me," he said.

He would rather ride by himself in the country, watching for the unexpected.

Once it was a possum carrying 10 babies on her back – he stopped to get a photo. Another time it was a coyote tracking a pheasant – the pheasant got away and the coyote went without dinner. On a recent morning, he saw a dewy spider web glistening against the rising sun.

"There's so much to see that you don't see in a car," he said.

Neal hopes to raise at least $1,000. To make a donation, call 893-1823.