Bicyclists travel the world
By Diana Denner
Latham Life
Tim Travis talking about his trips with his wife
Cindie at the Sanford Library (Nate Whitchurch)
Colonie—While everyone else is wondering whether they’ve
build up enough time to take off from work, Cindie and Tim Travis have been
bicycling around the world for the past seven and a half years. The married
couple came to William K. Sanford Town Library on Wednesday evening to talk
about their travels.
They’ve been to Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica, Thailand, Singapore,
Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, just to name a few places and they
have no plans of slowing down.
“We’re past the point of no return,” Tim Travis, 43, said during an
interview with Darren Alf of
Bicycletouringpro.com. “Quitting is not an option.”
The couple met in Flagstaff Arizona. Their first date was a mountain bike
ride up Mount Elden in Flagstaff. It was after Cindie wanted to buy a tandem
bike that everything changed, Travis said on the couple’s website. “I knew,
as a lifelong cyclist, that this was the ultimate sign of commitment.
Wedding rings are liquid. They can be bought and sold easily. Tandem
bicycles are individual machines that fit two specific people in terms of
two sizes, style and color.”
They were married in a Las Vegas drive-thru called ‘The Tunnel of Love,’
riding up on single bikes. After the Justice of the peace spoke, the couple
switched to their tandem bike for two and rode away, Tim wrote. “We have
been joined in this symbolic way every since. We don’t have to be on the
same bike to be connected.”
Prior to becoming expert travelers, Cindie had been a geologist, working on
water development, sanitation and environmental clean-up projects. Tim was a
special education teacher who worked in a residential treatment school for
girls 12-18 years old with developmental disabilities.
“After many years of saving and planning we sold everything and rented out
our house in Prescott Arizona,” Tim wrote. “On March 30, 2002, we rolled out
the door and down the road.” And down the road they went, traveling
thousands and thousands of miles to unknown lands equipped with nothing but
a bike, clothes and camping gear.
“We ride four to five hours a day,” Cindie had said while interviewed by
Alf. “We actually spend more time talking and meeting with people. We don’t
have the schedule that most people have.” The Travis’ ride less miles than
other touring cyclists. They have no deadline or real destination as Tim had
explained. “There’s no rush to get there because there’s no there,” he said.
Besides the rent they collect from their house, the other source of income
that keeps them on the road is the books, The Road That Has No End: How we
traded our ordinary lives for a global bicycle touring adventure and Down
The Road in South America: A bicycle tour through poverty, paradise, and the
places in between. They wrote about their travels and their website that Tim
maintains.
In October 6, 2005 in Tibet (Sichuan, China), the Travis’ stopped to rest at
the Yak camp. “It started to rain so we decided to make camp off to the side
of the road. While we were setting up I realized it was going to be another
cold night without a shower and I just cried, why didn’t I get on the bus,”
wrote Cindie on their blog. “Tim on the other hand, said, look how beautiful
it is here and as I looked up the valley I saw a herd of Yaks coming our
way. Yaks, oh boy, I have not seen many up close and personal, that would
change quickly…”
Both in their forties, touring cyclists are not for the faint of heart. They
not only have to be prepared for equipment failure – flat tires, broken
cables, broken chains and chain links – they have to watch for roadside
robbers.
“We carry a dummy wallet. It only has today’s money in it. The rest of our
debt and credit cards we keep in a safe place,” Cindie said. “We were robbed
in Vietnam from a maid who took our travelers checks; but we contacted
American Express that had sent over an investigator and we were able to get
our money back.”
They have to endure the natural elements and the tough terrain. “When we get
back on the road after a few weeks, it takes time to build up on endurance,”
Cindie said. “Sore back, sore legs, sore everything; it takes four weeks to
get back into the grind of things.”
Their last event this season is in late October in Indiana. Afterwards, they
will spend some down time with family and pick up their bikes again only
this time they will travel to India and neighboring countries for three
years.
For more information, please visit
www.downtheroad.org
