This (left at hotel in Knoville, TN) is converted into what we ride (in a matter of hours, plus a few trips to the hardware store- right- Harlan County, KY)).So Jim and I are under taking another biking adventure, this time in the heart of Appalachia. This morning we flew to Knoxville, TN. It just so happens that Jim's best friend Lammot DuPont has meetings here in Knoxville and is letting us crash with him in his hotel room (not a small gesture since we are assembling our Bike Friday Tandem bicycle bike in his room). We will depart from Knoxville tomorrow and wind our way through Kentucky and West Virginia up to Washington DC. We'll visit family and friends for a couple of days in DC and then hop back on our tandem and head to Pittsburgh to visit Jim's parents via the Allegheny Trail.
To understand how we came here and really how we came to fuse as a couple, it is helpful to understand our biking history. Thirteen years ago a book on bicycle touring caught Jim's eye. He purchased it along with a 1970s used Panasonic bike, the bike he still uses today. He bought some used gear and proceeded to take his first long distance bike ride ever- Denver to Pittsburgh, PA. It be became a passion and Jim has done long distance tours most years since them, his grounding period after an intense year of teaching. Three years ago I entered the picture. I had a hybrid bike that got me to and from work and around town. After our relationship became serious, a pretty quick endeavour, Jim invited me on a bike tour. I had been pretty proud of myself because earlier that fateful summer, I had biked 60 miles during a weekend camping trip near Aspen (little did I know)! Well, this tour we concocted had us departing from Minneapolis and ending in Toronto- meeting my two week old twin nieces for the first time- 1000 miles in two weeks. Needless to say it had a big i
mpact on us as a couple (see piece Jim wrote in post below).
Since getting married three months after that first tour, we have had several others. Our honeymoon took us to Cuba where we biked across part of the amazing island. For that trip we borrowed our friends Mark and Val's two collapsible Bike Fridays, which inspired us to purchase a tandem Bike Friday for our Civil Rights bike tour from outside New Orleans to Montgomery, AL in March of 2008. Then in the summer of 2008 we took our tandem that collapses into tw
o Samsonite suitcases to Ireland. And here we are in Knoxville poised for a new adventure where life slows down, rather than going 50 miles an hour to get from place to place to accomplish the work we love and live our busy lives, we peddle together, breathing deeply, taking in the life and milieu that we encounter traveling 50 miles a day.
To understand how we came here and really how we came to fuse as a couple, it is helpful to understand our biking history. Thirteen years ago a book on bicycle touring caught Jim's eye. He purchased it along with a 1970s used Panasonic bike, the bike he still uses today. He bought some used gear and proceeded to take his first long distance bike ride ever- Denver to Pittsburgh, PA. It be became a passion and Jim has done long distance tours most years since them, his grounding period after an intense year of teaching. Three years ago I entered the picture. I had a hybrid bike that got me to and from work and around town. After our relationship became serious, a pretty quick endeavour, Jim invited me on a bike tour. I had been pretty proud of myself because earlier that fateful summer, I had biked 60 miles during a weekend camping trip near Aspen (little did I know)! Well, this tour we concocted had us departing from Minneapolis and ending in Toronto- meeting my two week old twin nieces for the first time- 1000 miles in two weeks. Needless to say it had a big i
mpact on us as a couple (see piece Jim wrote in post below).Since getting married three months after that first tour, we have had several others. Our honeymoon took us to Cuba where we biked across part of the amazing island. For that trip we borrowed our friends Mark and Val's two collapsible Bike Fridays, which inspired us to purchase a tandem Bike Friday for our Civil Rights bike tour from outside New Orleans to Montgomery, AL in March of 2008. Then in the summer of 2008 we took our tandem that collapses into tw
o Samsonite suitcases to Ireland. And here we are in Knoxville poised for a new adventure where life slows down, rather than going 50 miles an hour to get from place to place to accomplish the work we love and live our busy lives, we peddle together, breathing deeply, taking in the life and milieu that we encounter traveling 50 miles a day.
Upper right- honeymooning in Cuba,
L- at the Southern Poverty Law Center civil rights museum in Montgomery, AL. R- biking in Ireland.
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