I have been totally out of touch while I was in New Orleans, and for that I apologize. I wasn’t sure how to update the website, but I suppose I should have at least written some sort of update once a week or so. I will try to get back into daily writing now that I am going to be on the move again. Yes! I have left New Orleans and am back on the road! As I’m sure you can imagine, much has happened since I arrived in New Orleans on the last day of November more than 5 months ago.
While both Phil and I are still planning to circumnavigate the globe, we are no longer traveling together right now. Phil went back home to RI in February to sort out some personal issues (he may elaborate in a future post if he wishes) and is postponing his trip until further notice. I opted to remain in New Orleans, where I was able to save money pedicabbing. I truly enjoy New Orleans, and it was difficult to tear myself away from such a wonderful and eclectic city. I now plan on returning in the fall to work during football season and Mardi Gras again, since the Super Bowl will be in town, and I really can’t pass up the opportunity to pedicab during such a high profile event.
Me and Dallas, my new partner in crime
In the meantime, I am heading back to Rhode Island for the summer, to spend time with family while I am still in the country and to escape the heat of the south about which so many people have warned me. I also have a new travel partner! His name is Dallas, and he also rode his bicycle to New Orleans, albeit from the opposite coast in Portland, Oregon. I met Dallas when he started pedicabbing for the yellow company, Bike Taxi Unlimited, shortly after I started working for Need A Ride. When we first met, all I learned was that he had bicycled from Portland. For a few weeks we didn’t see much of each other, but I knew I wanted to get to know him better. In the last month or so we have become close friends and partners, and are hoping to travel together around the world. To read about Dallas’s bicycle touring experiences, check out his blog at http://www.dallasandhisbicycle.blogspot.com.
Both Dallas and I will be pedicabbing in Newport this summer. We also signed up to run in the Portland marathon together in October before returning to New Orleans to save more money. From New Orleans, we think we will head south towards Patagonia after Mardi Gras next year.
I want everyone to know that I have not abandoned my causes. I am still trying to raise money for the MS Society, and will do so through my fundraising page for the MS bike tour for now. I expect to be back in RI by the beginning of June, with plenty of time to participate in the Ride the Rhode bike tour, which conveniently leaves from Newport this year. I have regrettably not been very active about fundraising. I also am still committed to promoting cycling as an environmental and economical mode of transportation, and have been trying to do that through pedicabbing. One of the most rewarding rides I have given while pedicabbing was to a guy in Austin during SXSW who told me that I inspired him to buy a bicycle and start riding. Other people have told me that I’ve inspired them to ride, and I hope I can reach out to more people around the world through my future bicycle travels and this website.
Like this:
Like Loading...
About Sarah
Sarah grew up in Cranston - just south of Providence, Rhode Island - and developed a love for sailing, music, and sports at an early age. She decided to study biology at McGill University, where she would also be able to continue sailing, playing lacrosse, and playing in a band. While in Montreal, she joined a co-op called Right-to-Move, a volunteer-run organization that collects forgotten bicycles and parts from vandalized bikes, where members can go to work on their bike or build a bicycle from recycled bike parts. There is a similar organization in Providence called Recycle-A-Bike. After a few weeks of riding her self-built bicycle around Montreal, she fell in love with bicycling as a form of transportation as well as a good way to exercise. She had started bicycling long distances when she was 12, as part of a 150-mile bike tour to raise money for the MS Society, but her main form of exercise had always been running, and she didn't really ride a bike much outside of training for the MS bike tour.
After graduating from McGill and moving back to Providence, Sarah started working at Brown University's office of Environmental Health & Safety as the Biological Safety Specialist. She was living 4 miles away at the time, and for the first few weeks was driving to work. She made the switch from driving to bicycling when she realized that she could get to work faster, avoid parking tickets, and integrate a few miles of training into her day. Bicycling was better for the environment and better for her own health and mood. She found that she had more energy and felt much happier once she started biking to work. When her car broke down several months later, she never bothered replacing it.
One of the great benefits of working at Brown University is free classes. Sarah decided to work on her master's in Public Health. Since she could only take one class at a time while working, it was going to take a while. The first class requirement that she took was an Environmental Health class, which actually inspired her to go in a different direction and get her master's in Environmental Studies instead. She become very interested in sustainable transportation, and decided to focus on bicycling in particular as a way to solve both environmental and public health problems, as well as economic problems. Sarah became involved in transportation and bicycle advocacy organizations including the Sierra Club Rhode Island Chapter, the RI Bicycle Coalition, RI Coalition for Transportation Choices, US Open Cycling Foundation, and League of American Bicyclists. She started working closely with Richard Durishin, the director of the US Open Cycling Foundation, and became trained as a League Certified Instructor (LCI) by the League of American Bicyclists so she could teach cycling classes and promote bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation.
After receiving her master's from Brown, Sarah quit her job and moved to Newport to drive a pedicab for the summer. She really loved this job, and now feels that she could never go back to working in an office environment. Unfortunately, pedicabbing in Newport is a seasonal position, and in October, it starts to get too cold. It is, however, the perfect time to leave for a life-changing journey around the world.
After McGill, Sarah became increasingly involved in running races and triathlons. One of her remaining goals is to run a marathon in each state by the age of 50. She started thinking about the possibility of bicycling around the world while she was stuck in my cubicle at Brown. To cross the oceans, she hopes to crew on sailboats. Sarah grew up sailing, and has been racing small sailboats since she was in middle school. She wants to continue to bicycle and sail around the world to raise awareness for sustainable transportation and to demonstrate that it is possible to use the bicycle as an efficient and economical form of transportation (and exercise), anywhere in the world.
pkerr2
Sarah
