ON ROUTE 66 ROMANIAN LEGEND TAKES ON THE MOTHER ROAD.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - As a young boy in communist Romania, Vasile Stoica was known as a ``crawler,'' the name given to paraplegics who, under the country's dictatorial rule, had no access to wheelchairs.

He was nearly 14 when he got his first chair, and his first few tentative strokes on those wheels began a journey that has taken the 32-year-old from the pyramids of sandy Egypt to the mile-high city of Denver.

Armed only with determination and his manual wheelchair, Stoica has his sights on a new adventure: a nearly 3,000-mile trek from Los Angeles to Chicago on famed Route 66, a solo feat he plans to complete in 66 days.

``Because I was all over the world, it's not too much to go from here to there,'' said Stoica, who plans to embark on the trip from Santa Monica on March 22. ``It's almost the same distance from Romania to France, (which I did) in 40 days.''

The fourth of seven children born to a poor family in Transylvania, Stoica was born with a congenital condition that rendered his legs useless. He had 13 surgeries and spent the first seven years of his life in hospitals.

But the Valencia resident sets off on such physical and mental quests not for individual glory, but for the Romanian friends who faced the same difficulties growing up with him in a special school for disabled children.

Stoica's round-the-world trip in 1998 and his 2001 attempt at breaking a world record for going the farthest distance in a wheelchair in 24 hours - he set a new record of 82 miles on the College of the Canyons athletic track - were aimed at raising funds to build a rehabilitation and recreation center for the disabled in his native country.

But a fire last December at the Association for the Physically Disabled of Lugoj destroyed the headquarters of the nonprofit organization that Stoica helped start in 1990, taking the life of a longtime friend who was sleeping in the building.

``Before the fire, I wanted to build a center,'' Stoica said. ``I bought some land in Romania between the mountains. There is a small river. But the fire, all my friends are there. It needs money to fix the building and the computers inside.''

In his homeland, Stoica is a celebrity, recognized wherever he goes as the man who has muscled himself across continents. But things are quite different in America.

``I go from town to town and show newspaper clippings,'' he said of his past travels through the United States. ``Some cannot believe it. They say, 'It's good what you do.' I always trying to find some support, from the newspapers, but nobody answers.''

Well, not nobody.

``I want that sometimes they come out with me, disabled people for some miles,'' said Stoica, a trained artist who supports himself with his paintings. ``Yes, sometimes people come for a little, and the police they sometimes help me with the cars and traffic.''

While he avoids the freeways, Stoica still manages to worry his wife of nearly two years, writer and documentary producer Sara Caldwell.

``I do get a little nervous sometimes,'' she said. ``There are people out there who can take advantage. And then there's the traffic and everything else.''

But the Valencia mother of two elementary school-age children can only worry so much - after all, she met her husband during his world tour.

``Some friends of mine in Chicago called and asked if Vasile could stay with me when he came through Los Angeles,'' Caldwell said. ``I was really reluctant at first; I didn't even know him. But now I'm really glad I did it.''

Caldwell plans to meet up with her husband in Chicago to welcome him after his cross-country journey, but, other than that, Stoica will travel alone, with all of his belongings strapped to his chair.

``I have with me two backpacks,'' he said. ``I bring water, camera, a mirror to see the cars behind me. I have some power bars, energy drinks. Sometimes I get a sandwich.''

As with past trips, Stoica has planned his journey so that he reaches a town, no matter how small, each night. He hopes to benefit from the kindness of strangers, but he will bring a small tent just in case.

And he will begin a new book, a ``gold book,'' as he calls it.

On each journey - across Australia, Europe, South America, Canada and beyond - Stoica has carried a gold book that people sign along the way. This, he said, is his memory of his journey, along with hundreds of photos.

``I want to meet people on the road. I've made the trip 66 days so I can have some time to stop and talk with people. This is nice for me.''

Stoica hopes people with and without disabilities will help support his cause. For more information or to make a donation, call [phone] or log on to www.geocities.com/vasile-stoica/66.htm

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Romanian-born Vasile Stoica, a paraplegic since birth, will leave his Valencia home on March 22 on a quest to cross the country on Route 66.

(2 -- 3 -- color) Stoica has roamed both the neighborhood around his home, left, and the world itself, here the Great Pyramids in Egypt, above.

(4) Stoica will need one of these, a guide of the Mother Road. ``I've made the trip 66 days so I can have some time to stop and talk with people,'' he said.

(5) Stoica was born with a condition that rendered his legs useless. With the funds he raises, he hopes to build a rehabilitation center in his native country.

David Crane/Staff Photographer