First Rider of 2010

This year's First Rider of the season arrived on Wednesday, April 14, one day earlier than last year's First Rider. David Lawson began his journey with a train ride from Santa Cruz, California, to Portland, Oregon, where he set out on his bike on the Lewis & Clark Bicycle Route. The final destination of his tour will be Boston, Massachusetts, via Atlanta, Georgia. I never did find out why the rather more circuitous route to Boston but I'm sure it was a good one. While he was riding solo when he came into the Adventure Cycling offices, his brother will be meeting him somewhere in South Dakota, "then we will be two," he remarked.

At the completion of his journey, David will return to California and enter graduate school. His ultimate goal is to become an English teacher to non-native speakers. He grew up in a multi-lingual family and now wants to help the expanding population of people for whom English is not their first language.

Something I found particularly interesting about David is the lime green notebook he carried with him. The notebook contained messages and drawings from people he's met along the way. "I won't remember all the details of this trip in ten years but I'll have this to help me." I think this is a great kind of reverse journaling. Before he starts that reminiscing though, he is occupying himself with Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose while on the road. Of his choice of reading material, he cites the themes of pioneering maturity and family growth as "fitting ... for journeys across America."

The prize package for being the First Rider of 2010 included a map (rumor has it he picked up a Great Rivers Route map), one night at the new Hutchins Hostel, a t-shirt of his choice, a Headsweats mid-cap, a 2-year Adventure Cycling membership, a Big Dipper Ice Cream gift certificate, $20 parts or labor at Hellgate Cyclery, an 8 x 10 print of his gallery photo, a James Bar gift card and the city of Missoula will fill a pothole in his honor! This was the biggest bounty of prizes to date and includes donated items from organizations outside of Adventure Cycling.

Congrats to David! We wish you well on your journey and hope you keep us informed on how it goes.

in this photo: David shows Jenn the route he took when traveling with his brother down the California coast in the summer of 2008
photo by Greg Siple



--

GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures and persons from Adventure Cycling's Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.