Gary McKindree got back home to Butler Aug. 5 after a nearly 3,700-mile bicycle ride across the United States starting in Oregon and ending in New Hampshire.

That’s not too shabby for a 70-year-old who only took up cycling six years ago and just began to ride long distances three years ago.

“I get into things, and I get crazy over them. I get passionate about them,” said McKindree, president of Alpin Surgical Specialties, 105 Lincoln Ave., a distributor and repairer of surgical instruments and equipment.

McKindree was part of a group of 35 bicyclists participating in the Cross Country America North Tour offered by America By Bicycle of Plaistow, New Hampshire.

Bill Lannon, assistant director of America by Bicycle, described the business as “a full-supported long-distance bicycle touring company.”

“We are very unique at what we do,” said Lannon. “We offer two touring pace coast-to-coast rides per season.”

Lannon said, “It’s not a race. They average anywhere from 12 to 16 mph on average. They bike 80 miles a day on average.”

“They are cyclists. They like to be out on their bike. This is the next level: to go coast-to-coast. We support them with meals and hotels, no camping,” said Lannon.

He said the company does everything for its customers except peddle their bicycles. It plans the routes, books the hotels the customers stay in each night, and it plans water and snack stops every 25 miles.

“We have a mechanic that’s in a basically rolling bike shop that can help them with mechanical problems,” said Lannon, adding company employees bike along the route with the clients.

McKindree said his group of cyclists included retirees, mountain climbers and trekkers hailing from the Netherlands, Israel and Taiwan, as well as the United States.

McKindree said the group would start each day with a 6 a.m. group breakfast at whatever hotel they were staying at, then they would load the luggage on support trucks by 7 a.m. and start off in groups after that.

“You’d find a group that was traveling at roughly the same speed as you, or that you liked or wanted to travel with,” he said.

“I didn’t know a soul,” said McKindree. “On the first day in Astoria, the tradition is you put your rear tire in the Pacific. I chatted up Terry Manning of Guelph, Ontario.”

Others in his riding group were Ann and Gail, two women from Delaware, and Yuval, an Israeli.

“Ann was an incredible cyclist. She was 60 years old and she could beat 90 percent of the men,” McKindree said.

McKindree said they were accompanied by three support vehicles and three support bicyclists.

“One of the vehicles also served as SAG stops. They supplied snacks and water. On days we did over 100 miles we would normally have three stops,” he said.

McKindree said while the group generally kept to back roads, there were a few times when, under special permits, the bicyclists would ride along interstates.

“We probably did at least 100 miles or more on interstates in Oregon and Idaho,” McKindree said.

“It was an interesting experience. Flat tires would go up when we were on the interstate. Tiny wires would be in the retreads of 18-wheelers along the road. We’d pick up the wires in our tires and get flats,” he said.

“We spent a lot of time on Route 30 with huge lumber trucks four feet away from you,” he said.

“But, especially in the West,” McKindree said. “People respected the cyclists and would give as wide a berth as they could. There was just a fraction of people with attitudes.”

“You would ride eight or nine days and then you would have a day off to do laundry get the body rested for a day,” he said.

“I was one of these weird guys. I just loved every second of it, even on the bad days,” McKindree said.

“I signed up for an adventure. Good days, bad days, it was all part of the adventure,” he said.

“The hardest day was Pierre to Chamberlain in South Dakota. We faced 30-mph headwinds the entire day. We had done 120 miles the previous day. We had to do 85 this day with the 30-mph winds. It took us 40 minutes less to do the 85 miles than it did to do the 120 miles. It was a tough, tough day,” he said. “Then you laugh about it and get up and do it again the next day.”

His wife, Judy; daughter, Beth Gillan; and son-in-law, Andrew Gillan visited McKindree in Birch Run, Mich., where Beth and Andrew accompanied him on the 88-mile leg of the tour to Port Huron, Mich.

McKindree said he wasn’t worried about not being able to complete the tour.

“I had all the confidence in the world. I work on my fitness. I rode 3,000 miles between January and June in preparation for this trip,” he said. He rode a Trek road bicycle.

McKindree said he experienced some typical aches and pains the first couple of nights on the tour, but the biggest change was at the dinner table.

“One thing you do is turn into an eating machine. You burn a lot of calories every day. I still lost seven pounds. You get down to a lean weight that is probably right for you,” he said.

“You are eating in a lot of buffets in the evenings,” he said. “You need the calories, carbs and proteins, and it prevented us from taking over a sit-down restaurant. We called our tour ‘Buffet Across America,’” he said.

On deciding to go on this tour, McKindree said, “The primary reason was to take on an large challenge, physical and mental. and I enjoyed the preparation, reading books and studying nutrition.”

“At 70, I wanted to celebrate the good things that happened in my life, my family,” he said. “A lot of people my age can’t do what I can. I’ve been given a gift. You have to use the gift of good health.

“Several people thought I was the most improved cyclist. I was pretty proud of that,” said McKindree.

He said he will reunite with Gail, Ann and meet their husbands when he rides in the Seagull Century ride on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in October.

And that might not be all.

“I have to. I’ve got the bug. I’m thinking of taking a West Coast trip from Astoria down to Marina del Rey,” he said.