Advocacy & Safety - Think your commute is long?

On the way in this morning, I met these two guys at the top of the steps of the GWB on the New York side. Their bikes were all loaded up and they had a trailer. I asked them where they were from and the answer was PARIS!!!

They started from Paris ten months ago and went east to Beijing, up to Alaska, to New York. I'm not sure routes and countries visited. Their names were Jeff and John. They were riding to midtown, following Broadway, so I steered them to the Greenway from 158th Street and biked with them down to the path where it starts backup after 125th St.

They said they had a website, but I didn't get the URL.

Sounds about right. One of the Denver papers had a story about a man who was cycling around the world. Our club (DBTC) program director, Roger Owens, contacted him thru the paper and he agreed to give a slide show at the monthly meeting. Pictures of being chased by elephants in Siam (back then), camping in snow in Alaska, usual stuff. We passed the hat and he got over $50. He admitted he got by giving his slide show and acepting charity. I slipped him another $5 and expected others did too. Before the show he let me try to pick up his loaded bike. Urrgh! Later I loaded up my tourer to match and figured he was humping about 100 pounds down the road. He was headed back to Europe somewhere taking over 2 years in the process.
I understand that the Guiness Book of Records says that a bike trip around the world has to cover at least the distance of the Tropics of Cancer or Capricorn (~21000 miles) and hit at least 5 continents. Some 150 days at the moment.

Thats awesome.
I wish i could stand to roiugh it enough to do that. And have money and time.

In the '80's I did a tour down Baja, and earlier from San Francisco to San Diego... so I have biked from San Francisco to Cabo San Lucas. (if you join together my two separate trips)

But there was one guy that joined us (a group of 36) as we were leaving San Diego for points south, that had biked from Alaska... and who intended to continue south on the Pan American Hiway... Don't know how it turned out, but I was impressed just by his trip from Alaska.

This proves yet again that I am not a real man. Not at all. :o

Not a thing of manhood, but a thing of independence. Try it sometime... you get lots of time to think for yourself and see the world, at 12MPH.