Customer Reviews for Our Book: The Road That Has No End: How we traded our ordinary lives for a global bicycle touring adventure
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Customer Reviews for Our Book: The Road That Has No End: How we traded our ordinary lives for a global bicycle touring adventure |
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Mark Redmond "The Book Bandit" (Winston-Salem, NC) August 11, 2007
The Road That Has No End is a great travelogue about adventure cycling at its best: selling everything and traveling the globe on two wheels. What Tim and Cindie Travis have accomplished, and continue at this very moment, is an extraordinary feat by ordinary folks. If you want to know what it is really like, and learn what it really takes to accomplish a goal such as theirs, I can think of no volume more essential than this first installment in their globe-trekking adventure. And the fun doesn't have to end there! They also maintain an active web presence with regular photo and journal updates. I have been following their adventures for years. I am looking forward to volume two. I'm sure it will be as entertaining and informative as The Road That Has No End.
Chris Kinley August 10, 2007
Think of quitting your job, selling all your stuff and heading down the road on your bike for seven or more years. Now multiply that by two and you have the Travises. Tim and Cindie Travis, a couple from Arizona, USA have done just that and continue to do it. Along the way they have maintained a comprehensive website, taken hundreds of digital images, interviewed for radio and fed a growing online community (www.downtheroad.org) with newsletters, emails and daily journals. To add to the list of achievements, Tim has now penned a book - The Road That Has No End covering the first year ('02-'03) of their journey. This first instalment in a series takes the reader through the genesis and preparation of this grand adventure, then the ride itself from their home down through Central America. This volume under Tim's name is in travelogue format with dates, places, and many digital photos. The experiences are often contrasting and in the world of the cycling traveller - unavoidable. Travis tells of robbery attempts, corrupt officials, vicious dog packs, vindictive crop dusters, hail storms and the enigmatic `melon bombers'. Their travels however, are not all dire. The people from Arizona to Panama are found most often to be friendly, helpful and hospitable. The scenery, from deserts to beaches, lakes to volcanoes, crowded cities to lonely canyons - a treat for their eyes - at 20km per hour. With a plethora of travel books in print, Travis gives us the reader an offering that most do not. When we read 'The Road That Has No End', whether it be now or next month or next year, we know they're still out there, asking directions, sampling the local delicacies, dodging iguanas and grinding their way from country to country; always heading - down the road.
Brick Thomas "Brick" (Indiana) August 10, 2007
This book is a first hand account of a fantastic adventure by "ordinary people". The writing style is friendly and informative and by the end you will find it inspiring. "Professional editing" may have made the book easier to read but I found it refreshing to know that the person telling the tale was the actual adventurer and not a suit in New York City. If you have bicycle toured or plan to cycle into mexico, central or south american you will probably find this book very interestng and helpful.
Bruce E. Layne (Lexington, KY United States) August 10, 2007
Many people dream of taking an extended bike touring vacation. Others dream of chucking the trappings of the modern world, getting on their bikes, and riding wherever they want, whenever they want. Tim and Cindie are living the dream. This is not a How-To book with a lot of details to help the reader plan an international bike tour, although there is a lot of practical information that can be learned from their extensive experience traveling abroad. Instead, this is a book to entertain and inspire. Even if you don't sell everything and start a new globe-pedaling bike nomadic lifestyle, The Road That Has No End still contains much to motivate you to achieve whatever dream is important to you. It can broaden your horizons and correct the myopia that most of us have concerning our own lives. If Tim and Cindie can bike around the world and experience all the geography and culture the world has to offer, what can you do?
The writing style is conversational and easy to read. I felt as if I met Tim and Cindie by accident while touring and asked where they had been, and they spent the next three hours telling me. This is the sort of book that could only be written after such an intense and consuming personal experience as theirs, spending years on the road, bicycling through country after country, and overcoming hills, headwinds, cultural differences, language barriers, and corrupt border guards.
I bought the audio book version and I loved it. I'm anxiously awaiting their second book. I also enjoy their emails from the road. They're like getting a vacation postcard from a friend, with interesting news and usually some audio or video documenting their recent travels.
S R (Minnesota) August 10, 2007
I love reading books about other people's travels by bicycle. I only wish I had the presence of mind to put down my own trip to Russia ten years ago, while it was still fresh in my mind. This book was totally enjoyable for me, except for one minor point; The road my not have an end, but the book did! I want to know what happened next! Of course I check the website, and get the newsletter but I wish the book had gone on, or that there was a second book, or more. I found it very readable, enjoyable and relaxing. Having some experience with Latino culture, particularly Colombian and Mexican, I found the comparisons between countries fascinating.
