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Department of Tourism
Bicyclist Joe Bowen Will Pay Thanksgiving Visit to Kentucky
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Nov. 4, 2005) – In 1968, a Kentuckian traveled 14,000 miles across the country on a bicycle, making big news for reporters. In 2005, after an estimated 5,000 people have made similar journeys, the story may not be as newsworthy – unless you’re Kentuckian Joe Bowen, currently pedaling through Arkansas on a roundabout trip back home to Kentucky for Thanksgiving.
Bowen’s story can be compared to the fictional characters Forrest Gump, Huck Finn or Gulliver. This time, at age 62, Bowen is documenting how the country has changed since his first journey across the nation 37 years ago. That trip came after he was discharged from the military with nothing but $40 in his pocket and a bicycle.
In his first journey, Bowen experienced adventures worthy of a fiction writer. He stumbled on a movie set and appeared in Elvis’ film Stay Away Joe. He dined with Gov. George Wallace of Alabama four years before Wallace was shot while campaigning for president.
While retracing his historic steps from that first trip, Bowen is promoting tourism in his home state and Eastern Kentucky, as well as spreading the word of Kentucky’s “Unbridled Spirit.” Already, Bowen has pedaled the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Wyoming and Colorado. He’s traversed the deserts of Arizona, crossed the vast state of Texas and toured Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. He’s pedaled across the Continental Divide 11 times.
One of Joe’s favorite parts of this trip is sharing the journey with hundreds of school children in Eastern Kentucky. Bowen communicates with the classrooms with his laptop computer, digital camera and Blackberry handheld computer. Nearly three times a week, Bowen logs his personal stories, anecdotes and encounters on the web address www.ridejoeride.
For Bowen, his second journey is as bittersweet as the first one. “It’s incredible that I get to do this for the second time in my life,” he explained. “I can write all the words that come into my head but there is no way that I am able to share totally with you the awesomeness of doing this.”
Bowen also points out that he considers this trip a visit with America, not just a trip. Doing it on bicycle is the best way, he says. At his current pace, he will have traveled nearly 10,000 miles by Thanksgiving, when he will return to Kentucky for a short break.
Bowen’s plans call for him to cycle about 6,000 more miles after Thanksgiving through spring 2006. A surprise route that Bowen will name later will bring him on his final trail back to his native Eastern Kentucky.
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