“He gets on a bicycle, takes the bike, which is 30 years old, it has no leather, no special helmet. He left Florida on one ocean and rode to our ocean here. He rode 100 miles a day with no sponsors, no raising money, no one greeting him at corners, he just goes.
“He amazes me. I am still shocked. Every surfer I talk to – and I hang around with some extreme people – they all say, ‘that’s so gnarly’.”
— Jinx Varona of Huntington Beach, California, talking about his brother, Hank, who completed a cross-country bicycle tour in 25 days this fall.
Massachusetts resident Hank Varona, who turns 54 on Saturday, pedaled a 1978 10-speed Peugeot on the 2,359-mile tour across the southern tier of states. Varona said he chose his Peugeot for the trip because of its Reynolds 531 steel tubing. He custom-built the wheels himself.
Varona took a sleeping bag with him, but was able to find hotel or motels rooms every night. That was difficult in desolate parts of Texas and Arizona where the dots on the map didn't represent towns of much significance.
“Across the country in 25 days,” Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, Dec. 27, 2007
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