reCyclist & Julie on Lake Harriet in March.

I cycled from Amery, WI to Saint Paul, MN on Friday, 20/Mar/2009. I chose to depart on the Spring Equinox, 125 seasons after I finished Cycling the World on the Winter Solstice, 22/Dec/1977.
Ted Zinn arranged an interview on Amery’s cable TV with Mayor Harvey Stower and Jerry Sondreal from the Amery Free Press. Jerry reminisced about interviewing me before I left in 1975. There were over a dozen old friends present and offering me good wishes on my journey.
The day was heavily overcast with a light dusting of snow on the ground; wind SSE at 15-30 kph and temps 1-5 C in the morning and up to 8 C in the afternoon. I rode through a cold rain for the last hour and a half; stopping under Hwy 36 on the Gateway trail to put on my rain gear. I stayed warm and comfy. My toes and fingertips got a little cold. I think I need a wind barrier for my wool gloves.
My new VDO MC1.0+ wireless cycle computer did not work. It registered only 8 km of the 100 km ride. I’ve cycled this route over a dozen times so I know the distance. I thought it might need a new battery until we visited Calhoun Cycles and found that some wireless units don’t work on recumbents. The handlebars are a little higher than on regular bikes. The company doesn’t seem to be aware of this problem. I may have to switch cycle computers with Julie.
I have a few loose ends to tie up before I can cycle south from Saint Paul… do my taxes, clean the garage, sell a house… It was so much easier to take off at age 18.

I’ve reversed the blog posts, so the blog entries are now in chronological order. When you get to the bottom of the page, though, click on “older entries” to get to the newer entries.

The Archives sidebar (on the right) can take you to the blog entries for each month without scrolling through the whole trip (they appear end of the month first). Check our itinerary above to see when we entered each country.

Click on the 2009 arrow on the map on the homepage to see our route.  By clicking on a map point (or town listed on the right) and zooming in you can see incredible detail if the map is set to hybrid.

We have become pretty good at playing this game. The world is our playing field and we moved our game pieces around it at 90k per turn. Traveling without reservations (subtitle of our journey) meant that we started the day not knowing where we’d spend the night. Though every day had it’s challenges, we were not roughing it. We conquered whatever terrain and climate that lay ahead of us; and at the end of a strenuous day found some kind of lodging, showered, and enjoyed a beer with dinner. I’d wake up in the morning thinking how lucky I am…”I don’t have to go to work today. I get to ride a bike someplace I’ve never been before.” This Great Adventure became almost like a job; traveling about four-and-a-half days a week, taking time off to see the sights and do chores. I enjoyed living a purpose-driven life, being fully engaged in the logistics: navigating through foreign countries, crossing borders, learning a new currency and the national language (and often greeting folks in a different local language), solving mechanical problems, taking photos, and updating this blog.

We might have gotten burnt-out, losing interest on this journey of over two years.  Crossing the Western Sahara could have been the place to call it quits.  The bleakness of that month of unrelenting headwinds and long distances between towns was perhaps our biggest challenge. But we were at the top of our game and inertia kept us going (the tendency of an object in motion to remain in motion). Deadlines to meet as we neared Europe left us fewer days of rest. Reaching Morocco meant that the end was near.

Final stats:
48,069 km cycled in 533 days of travel (in 844 days, or 28 months, overall). That is not counting another 2,500k cycled on days of rest, which would bring the total to over 50,000 km (31,000 miles). Julie joined me in Panama and biked over 40,000 km, which is the circumference of the world. So, technically, does she still have to bike from Minnesota to Panama to say that she’s biked around the world?

Country, date of entry, km cycled/time, $ lodging (average cost/night)

1. USA 08/Apr/2009, 3000k/4wks $45/nt
2. Mexico 08/May/2009, 2000k/3wks $23
3. Guatemala 29/May/2009, 400k/4d $15
4. El Salvador 02/Jun/2009, 400k/4d $17
5. Honduras 06/Jun/2009, 100k/6hr $0
6. Nicaragua 06/Jun/2009, 450k/5d $16
7. Costa Rica 11/Jun/2009, 700k/6d $17
8. Panama 17/Jun/2009, 700k/3wks $20  Central America total: 2750k in 5 wks $17
9. Colombia 07/Jul/2009, 1650k/1m $13
10. Ecuador 07/Aug/2009, 1500k/1m $19
11. Péru 06/Sep/2009, 3500k/2m $14
12. Bolivia 08/Nov/2009, 1000k/17d $13
13. Chile 25/Nov/2009, 3720k/2m $28 (4 entries to Chile)
14. Argentina 04/Dec/2009, 3340k/2m $29 (4 entries to Argentina)   Saint Paul to Ushuaia (21/Mar/2010) 22,171 km in 11­ 1/2 months; 244 days of travel.
15. South Africa 15/Apr/2010, 2500k/1.5m $39
16. Swaziland 02/Jun/2010, 400 km/9d $38
17. Mozambique 11/Jun/2010, 2000k/1m $23
18. Malawi 10/Jul/2010, 1100k/18d $22
19. Tanzania 28/Jul/2010, 3300k/2m $14
20. Kenya 27/Sep/2010, 1400k/7wks $15
21. Liberia 08/Nov/2010, 375k/10d $10
22. Côte d’Ivoire 18/Nov/2010, 700k/16d $33
23. Ghana 30/Nov/2010, 1100k/15d $18
24. Burkina Faso 15/Dec/2010, 750k/13d $22
25. Mali 28/Dec/2010, 900k/17d $22
26. Senegal 14/Jan/2011, 1100k/14d $28
27. Mauritania 28/Jan/2011, 650km/9d $13
28. Western Sahara 06/Feb/11, 1000k/16d $15
29. Maroc 22/Feb/2011, 1800k/1m $21  Africa total: 18,500 km in 11 months(+2000km on rest days); 206 days of travel
30. España 20/Mar/2011, 1250k/19d $38
31. France 08/Apr/2011, 1800k/1m $48
32. Luxembourg 06/May/2011, 10km/1hr $0
33. Deutschland 06/May/2011, 1350k/17d $63  World total: 44,444 km in 25 months, 494 days of travel.
34. Canada     10/Jun/2011, 2500k/5wks $86
#1. USA         14/Jul/2011, 1000k/2wks $68

David’s Cruzbike went through 19 tires and 14 chains. 172 flat tires (total for both bikes). That averages one flat tire every three days.