When Nancy Sathre-Vogel left a comment on one of my articles in Pets, she had no idea how much she piqued my interest when she left a link to her website. But she did.
It prompted a request not only to interview her about her plans to take their family dog on their Pan-American bicycle trek from Alaska to Argentina, but I also interviewed her for Homeschool.
Now I’m here to present one parents might appreciate.
Courtney Mroch: Have you always been a biking family?
Nancy Sathre-Vogel: My husband and I have always been cyclists – in fact we met taking a one-year bicycle tour of the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh) in 1990. John and I used to bike in different countries every chance we got.
Once the kids were born, our cycling time drastically reduced – but we kept dreaming of getting out there. We bought trail-a-bikes to take the kids out when they were little, then upgraded to tandems in time. Our kids grew up around bikes and spent a fair amount of time out cycling, but it wasn’t until they were seven that they started touring.
CM: How did you come up with the idea to take a family bike ride from Alaska to Argentina?
NSV: As part of our 2006-07 journey, the four of us cycled through Baja California. Cyclist after cyclist zoomed past us (well, maybe not – but three or four did anyway) on their way to Argentina. “What about us?” we thought. “Why don’t we just keep heading south?”
As tempting as the thought was, we were forced to confront reality. We hadn’t prepared for a trip like that at all and we didn’t have the appropriate equipment. Our triple bike, as wonderful as it was for a North American adventure, just wasn’t the machine for a South American one. We reluctantly continued on with our journey as planned, and set our sights on another trip at another time.
To make a long story short, that time is now.
CM: When do you plan to start this adventure? Is it all the boys talk about?
NSV: We’re flying out of Boise on June 8 – less than six weeks away!! If all goes according to plan, everything should arrive in Prudhoe Bay on June 9 (4 people, 3 bikes, 2 trailers, 1 dog, and a whole mess of equipment!). It’ll take us a few hours to get everything put together, but we’re hoping to hit the road that same day.
The boys are funny – this whole trip just “is.” Yes, they are excited about it. Yes, they are looking forward to getting on the road. But you wouldn’t know it to talk with them. In their minds, this journey isn’t that big of a deal – after all, they’ve already cycled 9300 miles. What’s 20,000??
CM: Um, yeah. 20,000 is nothing. (If you could only see my face. I’m so impressed with you all!) So what kind of safety precautions do you have to keep in mind when riding with your boys and a dog on such a long trek?
NSV: The safety precautions for a long trek are really no different from the ones we use while riding around Boise. The boys need to know how to ride their bike on the road and follow basic traffic rules just like any cyclist. When we stop to take breaks by the side of the road, we will make sure to keep Dash on a leash so he doesn’t run into the road. Really, it’s all just common sense stuff.
One of the main concerns other people have is safety in foreign countries – what if we get robbed or kidnapped? We’ve traveled extensively in many different countries and feel comfortable in our knowledge that the risk is low – very low. Yes, there is a risk, but there is a risk here in the USA too. That being said, we will rely on local knowledge – if local people warn us to stay away from a particular region, we will avoid that area. We don’t feel that will happen, but we’ll keep our eyes and ears open.
CM: How do you handle disciplinary issues when you ride like this? (It’s not like you can send them to their room if they act up, right?)
NSV: If our upcoming journey is anything like our last one, that’s not something we need to worry about. There were times on our previous trip when the kids would start fighting on the bike – and John had to kick one of them off to walk for a while – but otherwise they were fine. This time, they will be on separate bikes so we expect those problems to be eliminated.
For our boys, not being allowed to play together is a huge punishment, so if we have to, we will simply send them to opposite sides of the campsite and make them play alone!
CM: What if the boys get tired of making the journey and want to go back to a “normal” life? Any plans for how you’ll deal with that?
NSV: Although we are planning to ride all the way to the tip of South America, we’ll call the entire journey off if there comes a point when we aren’t having fun anymore. Bicycle touring is all about seeing the world, meeting the people, and having fun. If any one of those three ceases to be of interest, we’ll move on to something else – whatever that may be!
Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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