KINSEE MORLAN: At the San Juan Regional Rehabilitation Hospital yesterday morning, the Amputee Across America cycling team stood behind a podium and addressed those who'd come out in the rain to see the crew. For the handful of hospital patients wrapped tightly in white blankets to keep out the cold, the message was pretty straight forward - don't let a disability get you down. Here's cyclist Abel Cruz.

ABEL CRUZ: I read a quote one time that said courage doesn't always roar like a lion, sometimes it's just getting up and trying again.

KINSEE MORLAN: Cruz introduced the 2009 riders. The nicknamed "princess" of the crew A.J. Johnson, who stands on two prosthetic legs complete with colorfully painted toenails, had plenty of stories to share.

A.J. JOHNSON: I teach third grade, so I like to tell people, you know what, you're body may be disabled but the handicap is in your head. Because I'm not handicap, I don't have time to be handicap, I've got to chase third graders around all day. They don't care if I'm there or not. Well, they would like it better if I wasn't. They don't care whether I have feet or have crutches or am in a wheel chair. They're going to do what they want to do anyway. So, I really don't have time to be handicap.

Kinsee: The Amputee Across America team assembles every year to ride across the U.S. making 27 stops at rehabilitation centers along the way to talk to patients. This year, the cyclists started in Henderson California, just outside of Long Beach, and they'll end in Vineland, New Jersey - that's a 3,700-mile trip, which takes them about two months to complete.

Both A.J. and the oldest member of the triple-A crew, Doc Milligan, shared their bike-wreck war stories yesterday. Each tale ended with them picking themselves up and eventually getting back on the bikes. Doc was in a pretty bad accident just outside of Farmington during last year's ride, but he says while the crash was pretty painful, he got something pretty great out of it in the end.

DOC MILLIGAN: I know they told you it was a big dog that attacked me last year, but it was just a little, little dog ..He put his head in my lap, and he laid with me for 20 minutes before a car came by to pick me up. And when they did, he took off. Well, three weeks later when I got out of the hospital I went back to the people who had my bike and I talked to them and they said the dog had been abandoned and they'd been trying to catch him for weeks. About that same time, here he come, walking down the street again, so I named him left turn and I called him and he came walking up the driveway. And I started petting him said you want to go home? He looked at me and his little tail started wiggling, I put him in the truck and now he lives with me. I don't get mad but I do get even; I had him neutered. (laughter).

KINSEE MORLAN: Clifford Clark, a Farmington doctor and cyclist who did the Amputee Across America ride in 2007, hosts the bike crew every year. He rode around with A.J., Doc and the others yesterday and recalled his most memorable experience during his nearly 4,000-mile trip.

CLIFFORD CLARKE: It is really cool. I witnessed a lady who had lost her legs in 9/11 and she was 78 years old and had just had a hip replacement and they got her standing and trying to walk for the first time when I was there that day. That's pretty amazing.

KINSEE MORLAN: And as Doc explained, that's what the whole ride is all about. DOC: The message is, life doesn't stop because of an illness or the loss of a limp. Accept your loss and continue on with your life.

KINSEE MORLAN: To keep up with the Amputee Across America crew, find their online journals at www.amputeeacrossmerica.com. For KSUT Public Radio in Farmington, I'm Kinsee Morlan. © Copyright 2009, ksut