These are the continuing stories of Scubatony as he travels across the continent for Ride the Americas. The 16 thousand mile journey is focused on raising awareness for the National Safety Council's anti-cellphone while driving initiative. Blog post are almost daily and include lots of pictures and stories and a funny video or two. Follow along and enjoy your ride!
What a wonderful day on the road! I can’t remember ever seeing so many wonderful vistas and amazing scenes. It’s the kind of stuff I used to see in jigsaw puzzles when I was a kid. The highlight has been the Casier Hwy 37. It starts just west of Watson Lake Yukon and goes about 700 miles South. It is not a fast road nor is it real well maintained. Some of it is actually still gravel but Little Mule loves gravel roads and I have actually been enjoying the bike a lot on this curvy fun little road. If all the roads were like this one no one would ever pay to go into a national park.
Today has been the day for travelers. I met a number of interesting people all traveling today.
The first one was Koko. He has been traveling alone by bicycle for over 4 years. Having ridden a bicycle across the US when I was young I knew what it was like to travel by bicycle. He is from Japan and has been all over Europe and Asia. He just started north America a few months ago and is planning to finish in about 2 years at the bottom tip of Argentina. He is writing for a couple Japanese magazines which partly fund his trip but not enough to keep going. He hopes the money will last til he gets to his destination.
I also met Fin and Alex. They are also on bicycles and started about 3 months ago in Anchorage. They are filming a documentary on their trip highlighting climate change along the way. They over estimated the distances and facilities available on Hwy 37 and could not buy any food when the planned to. This left them very hungry with more than a day to travel before any towns. Calories are way more important for them so I gave them all the food I had which will feed them tonight and into tomorrow. Check out their website at www.going-south.tv. They made me sign a waiver for their film as the talent. Unfortunately I did not have any battery in my camera when I met them and did not get any pix or video of them.
Also on a bike I met Steph. She had been on the road for 5 days and expected another 10 or so to get home to Victoria. She is the first solo woman traveler I have met on my journey.
I also ran across Bruce today. He and I were both considering the same campsite. He eventually decided to move on down the road a bit and let me have it. Very cool of him. He is on a vision quest to discover what life my offer him next. He is a computer programmer from Santa Barbara California. We knew a lot of the same places. He was not sure if he was going to move to Thailand or find a new focus in his project. He is working on bringing cultures and people closer together using the internet. He believes there is a spiritual side to everyone that needs to be tapped and nurtured to heal the world as we know it. I wish him all the best success in his endeavor.
The cream d la cream of meets had to be yesterday in Carcross Yukon where I met Chrissy and Jake. They have both worked in the dive industry and when I mentioned Cozumel they asked me if I knew scubawoman Sheila. I said of course I knew her and long conversation ensued. We took pictures and sent Sheila an email on the spot. They actually considered working in Cozumel and may still do it but are going to spend at least the winter in Yukon and see how it goes.
So as big as this planet is, the ride of Americas taking months to complete, I find the world getting smaller all around me. I have things in common with all these people. It is not such a strange thing to have a wanderlust for travel. It is not so strange to want to do it alone. We all document our journey so that the images and memories remain clear. These are the experiences that will one day make us interesting old people. Maybe I should find a way to do this more often? Hum..
I took video of Bruce and Koko so expect to see vids of them very soon
Let the adventure continue!!
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