Cyclist Joe Bowen makes it home for Thanksgiving

The retired contractor is recreating a 14,000-mile bicycle tour he started in 1967 from Lompoc, California, to his home and reporting his experiences back to school kids in eastern Kentucky.

After meeting former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in south Georgia, Bowen commented: “I'm out here riding my bicycle, but Someone else is writing the script.”

Bowen has covered 10,000 miles since leaving Lompoc in April, passing through 23 states and British Columbia. He started out with another cyclist, Cliff Cantrell, but rode most of the way on his own. He plans to continue the rest of the trip in the spring.

In making a pitch to The Appalachian Heritage Alliance, one of the bike trip's sponsors, Bowen said that bicycle tours can teach children lessons in geography, social studies, arts and humanities, history, math, and science. Bowen also acts as a cycling ambassador for the vacationing possibilities of eastern Kentucky.

As part of the program, the heritage center kept a trip log, updated daily, called Where's Joe? Within the past month, school children got to read and learn how debris from Hurricane Katrina littered the roadsides through Mississippi and refugees from the storms filled many motels along the route. Bowen also visited museums and sites commemorating the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s.

In Georgia, Bowen took a bike tour of Plains, Georgia, with a National Park Service tour guide. Here's ow “Where's Joe?” described events:

“As they rode along, a black SUV pulled up and stopped them. Rosalynn Carter got out, walked over to Joe, and gave him a hug. President Carter got out of the other side of the vehicle and came over to meet Joe. They talked for about ten minutes.”

In reading over the journal entries on the website, I can see how Bowen gets the most out of his bicycle touring. Although it's not unusual for him to plow ahead for 80 to 90 miles a day, day after day, he also takes time to stop and talk with people along the route, be they curious bystanders or former presidents. He did it on his first bike tour, and he's doing it again.

For instance, Bowen talks about his first visit to the hometown of Will Rogers with a reporter from the Claremore Progress.  

Bowen will spend the winter talking with kids in his area's schools. Then he climbs back in the saddle in the spring.