A Bicycle Journey to the Bottom of the Americas

Book excerpt: Remember when you were a kid and you got your first bicycle? After a few weeks of mastering the dynamics of balancing, steering, and pedaling, all at the same time hopefully, your father released his protective, steadying grip on the seat and you went wobbling off on your own. It was probably your very first taste of independence and freedom and you knew you liked that feeling very much. Few things in life have ever compared to that first solo ride. Almost 40 years after my first solo bike ride, I was able to recapture the excitement and passion of that momentous occasion when I pedaled out of Anchorage, Alaska bound for Tierra del Fuego-the very tip of South America. No matter that it was 17,500 miles distant and would take 3½ years to get there I vowed I would achieve that goal if it took the rest of my life.