From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2003 - 11:10:16 MST
Sorry, Correction on that second link, it should be this:
"Adventure Cycling Companions Wanted"
http://www.adv-cycling.org/companions/index.cfm
An Example of Willie Weir's writing from the pages of the
Adventure Cyclist, here is a portion from his story:
_Center of Attention_
--------------
If you are looking to get your ego stroked,you need to avoid
gatherings of cyclists. Sure you'll find comradeship and common
interests. But when you mention your latest trip over the Rockies,
it will not be met with awe, but with "You think the Rockies are
hard? Try the highlands of Ubetchastan. "
Early on in my travel career, I discovered that youth hostels or
"backpackers" were great places to raise my self-esteem to dizzying
heights. Here were establishments filled with adventurous English-
speaking (albeit, mostly as a second language) travelers and each
and every one had arrived by train, car or bus. I would always
relish the moment in the kitchen or at the dinner table when someone
would ask how long I'd been on the road and from where and then
discover I'd pedaled. Instant celebrity.
It was with this knowledge and experience that I entered a hostel
in Costa Rica. A small inn, packed with world travelers in the
lush rain forests of Montevideo. No one saw me check in, so my mode
of transportation was not known. At the dinner table were seated a
couple from New Zealand. Four Germans. Three Italians. A South
African. A Canadian and two beautiful coeds from Basel, Switzerland.
I cooked up rice and beans and joined the group in the eating area.
They were talking politics and music. Almost 30 minutes had gone by
and no one had asked me the correct leading question. So I decided
to initiate the topic myself. I turned to the Canadian, a skinny,
bearded man in his 20s and asked him where he'd come from.
"I started up around the Arctic Circle."
The two attractive Swiss women perked up their ears. This was not
the way it was supposed to play out. He was supposed to say,
"Vancouver" or "Took the bus out of Cleveland" and then ask, "How
about you?"
He went back to eating his pasta.
Not much of a conversationalist.
I prodded him again with, "How long have you been on the road?"
"About 14 months. "
Now the entire room had his attention. Now I just had to swing the
conversation to me and the stage would be mine. "Did you travel by
bus or train or did you mostly hitchhike?"
No matter what his answer was, I could counter with, "I find
pedaling to be the best way to see the world. "
He looked up from his bowl and matter-of-factly stated.
"No. I walked. How about you?"
There was a long, long pause, during which a seven-year-old boy
climbed down the ladder of a diving board and with his head hung low
shuffled into the locker room.
"Never mind. "
---- Willie Weir is a columnist for Adventure Cyclist and the author of "Spokesongs: Bicycle Adventures on Three Continents. " He has cycled over Šnever mind. -- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." -- H. G. Wells
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