By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Pamela Gregg of Dayton hugs a friend who came down to greet her on the Pony Express Relay, a ride that retraces the path of the old Pony Express. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Picking bugs out of her teeth for 10 days and 1,500 miles doesn't bother Pamela Gregg because it is all for a good cause.

At 1:30 p.m. Monday, 21 motorcycles of all shapes and sizes - including one driven by the 45-year-old Dayton, Ohio, woman - roared off Interstate 275 and rumbled north up Ohio 747 to the parking lot of the BMW Motorcycles of the Tri-State store.

After a two-hour pit stop, they continued on their 10-day journey from Orlando, Fla., to New York City as part of the 2003 Pony Express Relay to raise money for breast cancer research.

"I'd do this anyway; I just love to ride,'' Gregg said, surrounded by a group of friends and co-workers from the University of Dayton Research Institute who had come to cheer her on. "But what we are doing this time is important.''

Nearly 2,000 motorcyclists, most of them women, are expected to participate nationwide this month in all or part of the three trails across the country.

This year's event is expected to raise $600,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation through sponsorships for riders, collections at stops and sale of Pony Express gear.

Monday afternoon, Babe Parks of Xenia and eight other members of the Wright Lady Flyers Motorcycle Club waited at the parking lot with their motorcycles for the Pony Express cyclists to arrive.

They planned to join the ride as it headed out to Indianapolis.

"I've been riding since I was 14,'' Parks, 74, said. "I plan on riding forever.''

Some riders, like Parks, are doing only a leg or two of the Pony Express Relay; others, like Gregg, are riding it all the way.

Monday, Gregg was grateful for the nice weather.

"We've had some stretches where we went from just brutal heat straight into thunderstorm, where the rain was beating down on you and it was actually cold,'' Gregg said. "From heat exhaustion to hypothermia, just like that.''

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E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com