Attention bicycle travelers: Remember to call home often this summer on your wide-ranging forays into back-roads America.
Poor Clive “Les” Ruddle of Aldbourne, England, didn't keep in touch on his way down the Pacific Coast and touched off a search by Oregon state police. One British paper says he “sparked an international manhunt.”
The Englishman had flown to Seattle in mid-April for a bike tour from Port Angeles, Washington, to San Diego. He last contacted home on April 30 via email from Tillamook County, in northwestern Oregon. When he didn't contact his wife from Eureka on Sunday, as promised, she contacted authorities.
State police issued descriptions to news outlets: He was riding a coffee-colored Novara Randonee bicycle with black panniers in back and yellow ones in front. His helmet was gray and he wore a yellow cycling jacket.
Wire services issued bulletins and two newspaper in the UK wrote stories about the English bicyclist who “went missing” (I never understood that term) in America.
On Wednesday, Oregon state police received the following e-mail from his wife:
“Les has just called me from Eureka where he has just arrived. We did not speak for long as he was on a pay phone—he has not been able to get a signal on his cell phone. Anyway, he is alive and well, and I am now feeling rather foolish for having alerted you all. I was extremely worried … believe me, my husband will now be contacting me at very regular intervals.”
So this is my personal request to California cyclists: Be on the lookout for an Englishman pedaling a touring bicycle down the Pacific Coast on Highway 101. If you see him, remind him to phone home.
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