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June 13, 2006

Bowen completes 14,000 miles by bicycle

Joice Biazoto The Richmond Register Tue Jun 13, 2006, 10:43 PM EDT

By Joice Biazoto

Register News Writer

When Joe Bowen made a pit stop in Richmond in June of 1968, he was close to achieving a feat no other in America could claim — to become the first person to tour the country on a bicycle, riding an astounding 14,000 miles.

Almost 40 years later, Bowen returned to the city Monday, but, once again, he couldn’t stay long — he is on his way to completing a second 14,000-mile bicycle tour, this time at the age of 63.

Bowen, of Stanton, passed through Richmond on the last leg of his journey, which started in Lompoc, Calif., in April of last year and took him through Canada and 46 U.S. states as he returns to his hometown in Eastern Kentucky.

Bowen’s second tour, titled the Rediscovery Bicycle America Project, is an educational project to raise awareness about Eastern Kentucky throughout the country, as well as teach Eastern Kentucky students about the people and places visited during the tour.

Bowen’s journey will come to an end Friday in Stanton, where he will be greeted with the Pedals and Blooms Bicycle Races and Festival. The three-day celebration will include an 80-mile bicycle race, live music, food, arts and crafts.

Bowen, who studied regional city planning at Eastern Kentucky University for three years in the early 1970s, first decided to tour the country on a bike when he was 24, stationed at an Air Force base in Lompoc in 1967. Bowen had read John Steinbeck’s book, “Travels with Charley,” which tells the author’s story about traveling in a camper with his poodle Charley, and decided he wanted to see the country described in the story.

“I couldn’t afford a camper, but I knew I could afford a bicycle,” he said.

He left California with $43 in his pocket to see America, getting odd jobs from painting walls to splitting wood and being a janitor so he would have enough money to eat.

“After I did it the first time, it’s been a major part of my life,” Bowen said. “I knew I had to do it again at some point of my life.”

Bowen never quit his adventurous lifestyle, and he decided to use his adventures to help others. In 1980, he entered the Guiness Book of Records for walking 3,000 miles on stilts to raise money for muscular dystrophy research.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher presented Bowen with the first Kentucky “Unbridled Spirit” Award in March of 2005 and gave the official send-off for his ride across America. Carrying a computer, a camera and a phone, Bowen taught an online class to children in four Eastern Kentucky counties — Powell, Wolfe, Menifee and Lee — sharing more than 14,000 photographs which the students used in various projects, one of which earned Rogers Elementary School in Wolfe County a $70,000 grant from Hewlett-Packard for new computers. He also gave lectures to more than 2,000 students in schools across the country.

“In Steinbeck’s book he says, ‘We can never do anything without justifying it,’” he said. “I justify it by working with the kids.”

Bowen had as much energy for the journey the second time around as he did when he was 24, he said.

“At 63 years old, it’s no different,” he said. “I never stopped riding a bicycle.”

However, things changed quite a bit when he visited the same places 38 years later.

“The most profound change in America is ... in 38 years, we’ve added 98 million more souls to this country,” he said. “That is a huge number. ... The towns are not even recognizable.”

Even so, biking is the trend of the future, Bowen said. On his tour, he saw that many states are building bike paths, and more people are riding bikes to commute to work and maintain a healthier lifestyle.

Bowen hopes his efforts will encourage Kentucky to catch up with this growing trend.

“We have accepted the bicycle as part of our culture, (but) Kentucky is behind in the movement,” he said.

For those who like to ride bicycles and adventure, Bowen recommends the experience.

“Anyone can do it,” he said.

For more information on the Rediscovery Bicycle America Project and the Pedals and Blooms Bicycle Races and Festival, visit www.ridejoeride.com and www.cyclethegorge.com.

Joice Biazoto can be reached at jbiazoto@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.

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