SPOKES FOLKS

PALMER — It took more than 11 months and 6,600 miles, but 7-year-old Cheyenne Harrison finally saw her first moose Monday.

“I’ve seen eagles and moose and bears,” she said, describing some memorable moments along her family’s epic bicycle ride. It’s an effort that’s taken the family of five from Kentucky to Palmer en route to Fairbanks.

“I saw eagles, well, I don’t know when I saw the eagles,” Cheyenne said. “But we saw a moose today, about three miles down the road. We also saw a bear at a town, well, I forgot which town. He was a good bear, just on the side of the road. He was just playing around.”

Cheyenne is the caboose on the Harrison’s custom-made five-seat bicycle. Bill, the patriarch of the family, rides lead with 5-year-old Jasmine behind him. In the middle is 3-year-old Robin, followed by mom Amarins, then Cheyenne.

While setting up camp Monday evening at Homestead RV Park in Palmer, the family reflected on a journey that began Aug. 1, 2009, at their home in Mount Vernon, Ky. When they finish in Fairbanks on or about Aug. 14, they’ll have pedaled 7,000 miles.

One question they get a lot is why, Amarins said.

“Well, because we can,” is her simple answer. “Also because we want to show the kids the country. It’s a great way to bond and see things as a family.”

Bill has spent the past decade remodeling and building homes, but isn’t independently wealthy. The decision to take more than a year to make the journey was a calculated decision and a leap of faith.

They own their home outright, so don’t have a monthly mortgage payment. Still, they left with about $300 in their pockets.

“I am a blue-collar redneck from the mountains of Kentucky,” Bill said. “We left on a certain amount of faith that the universe would provide and that there are enough people out there that would believe in our story for the pure pleasure of it that would help us.”

What the Harrisons have discovered is America isn’t as jaded as place as some make it out to be.

“America is an incredible place of hardworking, giving people,” he said. “Just meeting people at the human level, without all the trappings and labels we put on people, has been amazing. I’ve always had an optimistic view of America. After traveling through it, I realize we are far better than the media makes us out to be.”

From Polk County, Tenn., where Bill and Amarins were nearly arrested because the kids were in the rain, to Juneau, where they were part of a rainy Fourth of July parade, the Harrisons have seen grassroots America at a grassroots level. As they near Fairbanks and the end of the road, it isn’t the 21 flat tires, 20-some outer tire replacements or the nine cracked rims that seem like challenges, Bill said. Instead, it’s the little ones that have themselves become bigger challenges. The weight of the two-wheel conveyance has increased as the family picks up items along the way and the children keep doing what kids do.

“We’ve been over every mountain range there is between here and there, and the little thing I miscalculated on is that my kids are going to grow,” he said. “We started out at 650 pounds (overall) and now we’re up to 800 pounds of weight.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

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Follow the progress of the Harrison family on their 7,000-mile bicycle journey from Kentucky to Fairbanks at pedouins.com.