Greetings from MSP airport! I’m in! The bike is hopefully headed on a conveyor belt towards the right plane, and meanwhile, I’m in Delta sky lounge getting last minute things finished on my “”to do” list. I want to thank all of you who have gotten me and my bike this far. We are all…
In about ten days, my trusty Surly Straggler bicycle and I will be boarding a Delta flight to Korea, and then connecting to Hanoi, Vietnam, to begin a 30 day solo bike ride across that country. After five of these rides so far, I have to keep answering folks (and reminding myself) when they ask…
Listen to the latest segment of my adventure-podcast, Tales From a Bicycle Seat, with Canadian artist Pam Hall. Her work has been exhibited across the world and across Canada; from the National gallery to community halls, from fish wharves to ice-hockey arenas. Tales From A Bicycle Seat is a series of impromptu conversations with artists, community…
George Maurer is Riding for a Cure George rides once again in memory of Carolyn Held, a close friend who made her own bicycle ride across the country in 1988. She died in 2012 after a one-year battle with cancer, and George wanted to make a contribution in her honor. He embarked on his first…
There are two ways to move through the world; as a tourist, or as a traveler. The tourist seeks only to consume the world. The traveler is, instead, consumed by the world. Absorbed into it and by it. What we experience becomes a part of us. As the poet Rilke tells us “only when [memories]…
Day 16: Captain’s Log, Earth Date 7.22.2017 Beach encampment on the coast of Urumale, Talaimannar Village South, Mannar Island, Sri Lanka 4:30am Loudspeakers from the local Hindu temple erupt to life, waking me up from a restless slumber on a dark Sunday morning. A recording of a woman’s voice drifts out over the Indian Ocean…
Yesterday, we departed the “Cultural Triangle” region of Sri Lanka that we had been working our way through. Similar to Grant and my Icelandic bicycling adventures along last summer’s “Golden Circle” (an area where bus loads of tourists get ferried around to see the various waterfalls, geysers, glaciers, volcanos, and other natural attractions) before we…
First off, a huge THANK YOU to those who have contributed the $1180 you have helped raise towards my $8,000 goal towards a cure for cancer in my first week of riding on 51 Across Sri Lanka: the 4th Annual Carolyn Held Memorial BIke Ride. That puts the grand total, after four summers of rides,…
Day 6: So far we have pedaled our way 250km into the heart of Sri Lanka via bicycle. I’m starting to get used to recognizing subtle indicators of when we may or may not be entering or leaving a Sri Lankan town. Sometimes its difficult to tell because I’m so used to knowing the difference…
There’s a constant stream of sounds that fill the air at every moment here in the Central Province of Sri Lanka (in ALL of Sri Lanka, for that matter); so constant, that it’s hard to ascertain the hierarchy of sound to begin to start describing. For example, early in the morning, I’ve noticed the sound…