By Alex Paul
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Tuesday, October 9, 2007 12:00 am
Two men hit the Albany restaurant on a 4-day journey to all 39 restaurants
Paul LaFrance of Wasilla, Alaska, and Brent Krebsbach of Redmond, Wash., are adrenaline junkies. The two friends enjoy challenging themselves with sports like mountain climbing.
No one ever thought those challenges would include riding bicycles 500 miles over four days while visiting all 39 Burgervilles in Washington and Oregon nn but that's just what they did starting Saturday in Centralia, Wash., and ending tonight in The Dalles.
"We were eating at a Burgerville after climbing Mount Rainier in May 2006," Krebsbach said. "We started comparing how many Burgervilles we had eaten at over the years. At the time, we didn't know how many restaurants there are."
Their adventurous spirits led them to consider visiting each one by car, but that thought was soon supplanted by making it an adventure on bicycles.
LaFrance, 36, is a civil engineer in Anchorage and Krebsbach, 37, is a business analyst.
"We thought we'd tell Burgerville about our plans and they thought it was funny," LaFrance said. "They wanted to help and offered to provide us with free meals and shirts. They are also sponsoring a drawing for a stationery bicycle and other cycling gear."
LaFrance's wife and his mother-in-law are following the cyclists in a car and providing valuable directions and support. "I think it's cool," Julie LaFrance said. "It fits them to do something like this. It makes me laugh."
The men get up about 5:30 a.m. and try to be at their first restaurant by 7:30 a.m. each day. They planned to cycle 125 miles per day, but hadn't figured on having numerous flat tires along the way. They cycle about nine hours per day and spend three hours visiting staff and customers at each restaurant.
When they reached Albany on Monday, they had already stopped at the Burgerville in Monmouth and were headed to Canby and then on to The Dalles.
A sign on the Albany store's reader board welcomed the men to town. Manager Tisa Rae greeted them and signed a commemorative cycling jersey. Staff had their lunch order ready nn a chicken sandwich, a cheeseburger and two glasses of apple juice.
"One of the reasons we really like Burgerville is that although this company has been around for almost 50 years, it hasn't grown into a giant corporation," Krebsbach said. "They are committed to their employees and to their customers with things, like they use eggs from free-range chickens, renewable energy and providing affordable health insurance to their employees."