Friday, June 12, 2009

Bike Across Kansas

I'd missed this nice story in yesterday's Eagle which interviewed some riders as they passed through Towanda on Wednesday.

Nice passage, in keeping with your correspondent's constant linkage between cycling and the fomenting of community (as opposed to cars' insulating, isolating effects):
"The great thing about BAK (Bike Across Kansas) is you get to stop at places like this," Jim Hadley, another cyclist, said pointing at the cafe. "Yesterday, we stopped in Stafford and had pie and coffee for breakfast at 9 o'clock, but I don't care because we did 75 miles yesterday."

Eric Massanari, a bicyclist from Newton participating in his first BAK, said biking across the state provides a different experience than driving across.

"It slows me down. I tend to notice things that I don't normally," he said. "For instance this morning, the smell of a wheat field on a dewy morning, it's something in a car you don't think about."

3 comments:

E.L. Robinson said...

My wife sent me a link to this news story while I was on BAK. Nice to have some media coverage of the event.

John B. said...

Eddie, a belated thanks for commenting here. And to my readers: Eddie is a modest man--he himself attempted to do BAK but simply wasn't able to finish the route. He DID blog about what he accomplished, though, and you should have a look: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. His post-mortem of the trip is here. The man can write. His blog's not a cycling blog per se, but I'll be adding it to the cycling blog list because that activity is one of its chief foci.

Anonymous said...

Nice story you got here. It would be great to read more about that matter.
By the way check the design I've made myself A level escort