"Life on the Road" BY NIEL SANDLER Twelve years and nearly 50,000 miles ago, 36 year old Dave Boyd of West Covina, Caifornia, fell asleep while on lunch break from his job making 2 liter plasic bottles used to bottle soda. When he didn't wake up in time to return to work, he, shall we say, mutually agreed with his employer to leave the job But he already knew what he was going to do next. He went to the house that he was sharing with some others, packed his few belongings into paniers, loaded them onto his mountain bike and headed to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). He bought a one way ticket to the Hawaian Island of Oahu, which he'd once visited while in the Navy. When he arrived there, Boyd loaded up his bike, rode to the world famous Waikiki Beach, all while repeating to himself, "I'm a free man" "Everywhere I've been over the pasr 12 years, I run into folks who tell me: You're living every cyclist dream. To pick up and just head off. Oh sure, I worry every day about where I am going to sleep that night. But I try not to worry because it is bad for your health." Boyd, who has spent most of the past 2 years in the Baltimore/Washington area, has gained notoriety as the guy who rides around on a fully loaded recumbent weighing about 150 pounds, pulling a 350 pound bike trailer equipped with solar panels to power his many electronic devices, including a link to satellite radio. "It's a welcome addition. I can listen to the same channel(on the radio) all the way from here to California and the reception is always perfect", he told SPOKES On a short ride in Frederick, Boyd, now 48, pedaled his way along the flat roads around 8 miles per hour, laboring uo hills at less than 1 mile per hour. "Going up the hills is the hardest thing I do. But I haven't yet met a hill I couldn't conquer", he boasted W ith his custon recumbent set up with 2 sets of cassettes, and multiple chainrings, it has a total of 192 gear combinations, compared to todays typical 24 or 27 speed bike. The slowest I can ride and still remain upright is about three-quarters of a mile per hour. With my really low gearing, I might be pedaling 100 revolutions per minute but still going less than one mile per hour. It's still easier to pedal at this speed than it is to push the bike and trailer. The fastest Boyd has sped down hill was on a hill on Rt 1 south of Fredericksburg, VA where he exceeded 51 miles per hour. Going up in California in the late 1950 and early 1960, Boyd knew early on that hos life would revolve around travel. My folks had an International Travelall and we'd take long trips across country in it to visit relatives in Illinois", he fondly recalls. Sadly at age 7, he and his sister were in his mother's car when she careened off the carriageway in California and was killed. Both children survived and eventually grew up with his father and his second wife and her six children. But even then Boyd enjoyed escaping on his bicycle to the local Safeway store without anyone knowing. After high school, he worked for the Los Angeles Time as a compositor for 5 years, then a stint in the Navy. But by the age of 36, Boyd was ready to escape from what he calls "the rat race". In Hawaii, Boyd had what he described as a fun job pedaling a rickshaw type bike(pedicab) around Waikiki providing siteseeing tours for tourists. Paid $1.00 per minute, he'd do 7 or 8, 20 minute tours a day, and call it quits. After a year and a half, he'd stashed enough money away to head back to California and begin his adventure to bicycle all 50 states. H eading north at first, Boyd spent his first six months riding his fully loaded mountain bike up the Pacific Coast highway to the state of Washington.Then slowly working his way back south and east, he eventually ended up in Key West. From there to Maryland to buy a trailer to tow his growing collection of gear. On the East Coast, he's spent time riding and working at odd jobs from Florida to Maine. In Florida. the mountain bike began to wear out. He gave it to a kid and got a tricycle to pull the trailer, which by now had included a solar panel, a deep cycle marine battery, lots of tools and clothing. The bottom of the trailer is lined with dozens of cans of food. He subsequently has replaced the tricycle with a recumbent(lounge chair style) bike which he still rides. W. "I never really get lonely because I am always meeting people". On a brief ride, we observed how motorists would pull up to the pedaling Boyd, roll down their window and start up a conversation with him. "Not a day goes by that someone doesn't tell me that I'm doing what they dream of doing, if it wasn't the house, the spouse, the kids, the cars, and the cats and dogs... you get the picture". Boyd's adventure is not without peril. Diagnosed as a diabetic in 1990, who lost vision in one eye as a result, and gives himself insulin injections twice a day, Boyd must always stay fairly close to Veterans Administration hospitals "just in case of an emergency. He's made several trips to the VA in Baltimore, MD. While Boyd continues to dream of his adventure in Europe, particularly bicycle friendly Holland, he recognizes that he'd be at a loss if something happend to him medically. So for now, Boyd dreams and plans to complete his goal of biking in all 50 states. With 37 under his belt(the remaining 13 are mostly in the upper midwest), he knows it's time to leave the mid-atlantic area soon. He's planning to ride the TransAmerica Trail to Oregon, which should get him closer to his goal. But there is no hurry. Ten years from now, he figures he'll still be riding around, looking around the corner for a new adventure... new folks to meet and new places to visit. Boyd maintains a website in which he describes his travels. The address is https://bicyclenomad.tripod.com/. Boyd can aalso be reached via email at .http://bicyclenomad@hotmail.com/ 1997-2002 Bicyclenomad ©