“USHUAIA!!!! THE END OF THE WORLD!!! WE”RE HERE!!!! WE DID IT!!! WE REALLY DID IT!!!”
With that, Nancy Sathre-Vogel announced by Twitter on Monday that her “family on bikes” had successfully completed a self-supported bicycle tour the entire length of North and South America — a distance of some 17,290 miles.
For parents John and Nancy Vogel of Boise, Idaho, it's the dream of a lifetime. For 13-year-old twins Davy and Daryl, it means they'll be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest to ride their bicycles the entire length of the two continents.
It also means that for the past 2-1/2 years, instead of attending school or watching TV, the boys were road-schooled by their parents and by the cultures and histories of the landscapes that they pedaled through.
Dream
“We had a dream, we made it happen. That's the most important thing you can do in life,” she wrote on Twitter.
The four Vogels and a small group of fellow bicycle travelers pulled into Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. It's touted as the southern-most city in the world. They posed at a sign that read: “Fin del mundo.” Even I can translate that as “end of the world.”
Their adventure started on the shores of Prudhoe Bay in June 2008 when the boys were just 11 years old. In between, they traveled through hell and high water to reach the ends of the Earth.
Homeward bound
The family adventure received lots of publicity over the past couple of years as the idea of parents and kids traveling together by bicycle over such long distances caught the attention of the press. Nancy even flew to New York City to appear on morning news programs.
Their next stop is to return directly to their home in Boise, Idaho. I hope they at least get a bicycle parade in their honor
You can read all about it at the website and blog. The mother is a writer who Tweets, updates the blog and has written some other articles along the way. Honestly, I don't know how she publishes and pushes the pedals at the same time.
Links
If you visit the website — A Wayward Journey — you can read the blog or research the resource articles about road-schooling children, what equipment to take, how to prepare for medical emergencies, and more.
There's also Nancy's Twitter feed – Family on Bikes, and a Facebook page – Family on Bikes. The Facebook page and Wayward Journey blog also feature amazing photos, including their arrival at the destination.
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