A cyclist from the U.K. is riding across the U.S. on a bicycle with three goals in mind: To travel. To share. To inspire.
But Dominic Gill isn't making the journey alone. He's riding from the rear seat of a tandem bicycle that's outfitted so the captain sits in back and the stoker rides and pedals out front.
Gill's passengers are all people whose physical impairments would make it impossible for them to make the trip on their own.
Keith Rogers at the Las Vegas Review Journal writes about one of those passengers, Carlos Terrazas, 22, who has been blind since birth.
Blind cyclist
Terrazas started the journey from the Blind Center of Nevada and rode with Gill all the way to Salt Lake City over the next week or so. Terrazas, who can only see some shapes and shades of color, was thrilled by the speed of going downhill.
“When we went downhill at top speeds, the wind is just hitting you right in the face. I loved it. You just pretty much relax and enjoy.”
As for the entire trip from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City:
“I've loved every minute of it. Every day, a new town, meeting new people, new surprises around every corner. Just the whole spontaneousness of it. I've loved it.”
For Gill, a filmmaker, the journey is about interacting with the people who share his tandem bicycle.
“You learn about your differences. You learn about the kind of people you gel with. You learn about your faults, your strengths and just how to get along with people.”
Take a Seat
An earlier bicycle journey by Gill resulted in a film, “Take a Seat,” and a book. In that adventure, Gill rode a tandem from Alaska to Argentina; he'd offer his spare seat to anyone who wanted to ride with him.
Some 270 people rode part of the way with Gill on that trip in 2006. One of them was cancer patient Ernie Greenwald.
Gill and Greenwald had prepared to make the cross-country bicycle tour across America, hence the name of the current adventure, “The Dom and Ernie Project, A Lifelong Dream Across America.” Unfortunately, Greenwald became too sick to make the trip.
Links
You can follow Gill's adventures at The Dom and Ernie Project website, or Wilderness.com, which is helping to sponsor the project.
Money raised along the way will go to the Livestrong Foundation.
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