Before this blog, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, I explored the world with a backpack. I worked in some foreign lands and simply passed through others.
I lived in Europe right out of high school. I went over on a one-way ticket and $200 cash in my pocket. I survived on odd jobs and the kindness of strangers. I traveled over-land through Latin America for one year in the time of dictatorships, revolutionaries, para-military groups and extreme poverty. I lived and worked in Mexico for two years. One year as an education promoter in Mayan pueblos in the Yucatan Peninsula and another year in a Guatemalan refugee camp running a house for special needs children. I volunteered for Pro-literacy Worldwide for three months in Cuzco, Peru working with indigenous women entrepreneurs. In addition, I hiked the Annapurna circuit in Nepal and traveled through India for three months. I have also biked through Spain, Portugal, Cuba, the Rocky Mt’s and the Selkirk loop along with lots of shorter rides, road trips and vacations here and there.
In 2015, I decided I needed a new adventure. A big one. Something that would stretch me into someone different. I needed to jump the chasm from old me to new me from limited and small to big and expansive. That jump turned into a bike trip from Bolivia to the very southern tip of Argentina in Tierra del Fuego and then back up the Atlantic coast of Argentina to Uruguay and Buenos Aires.
I had such a blast during the 2016/2017 ride that I went back in 2018 and rode through the Seven Lakes district of Argentina and the Carretera Austral in Patagonia, Chile a second time with a friend whom I met on the first trip.
In 2019, I had a 3 month break from teaching at Renton Technical College. Once more, I loaded up my bike. This time I left from home (Seattle/Bremerton) and rode straight up through Canada to the Dempster Highway and on to the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk, Canada.
So blessed to have taken the opportunity to venture out into the world. Who knew that 2020 would change everything at least for a couple of years. Thankfully, I was able to “social distance” during a ride across Washington State during our lockdown and then again on a very isolated and remote route in 2021 ride from Canada to the border of Mexico along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR).
Since all borders opened back up in 2022, I took a very not social distancing route through Europe visiting friends and family and riding up and down gorgeous paths through the German, Austrian, Swiss and Italian Alps. In 2023, I started riding from the most northern tip of Europe – North Cap, Norway – and rode down the coast of Norway to Bergen, then over to Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.
And so, I pivot and adjust. Another adventure is always brewing in my head. I’m grateful to have this blog to share with you whatever may come next and to keep a record of life on a bike during this point in our evolution on this constantly changing awesome planet.
I pedal; therefore, I am.
Love,
Denise
June 2024