Cycling across the US
My wife, Betsy, recently showed me an article in our local newspaper, the Boulder Daily Camera. The story featured Bill Wallace, a chap who lives in the nearby town of Berthoud, Colorado. Bill now holds the World Record as the oldest person to cycle across the US. At age 74, Bill pedaled 3,200 miles across the country last summer. He wanted to break the previous world record set by a 70-year old. The newspaper story didn’t specify Bill’s route, but did mention that he experienced hardships during and after his adventure.
The article got me to thinking about the 4,168-mile long cycling trip that Betsy and I took across the US on the Northern Tier Route in 2019 when I was 72. That means that I set a new age-adjusted world record for cycling across the US, although it never dawned on me that someone as young as age 72 would be the oldest person to accomplish this feat. The picture shows Betsy and me on the last day of our journey in Bar Harbor, Maine.
These days, I’m attempting to convince Betsy to embark on what I call the North American Traverse in the summer of 2024 when I’ll be 77. We’ll (hopefully) ride about 6,000 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, to Key West, Florida, which I think would qualify as cycling across the US. Assuming that we complete our trip, should I apply to Guinness and supplant Bill’s record?
