This summer, 91探花staffers Maggie Williams and Eric Vigoren are taking a 3,500 mile trip. Not such a terribly long ways to go, except that they鈥檙e doing it by bicycle. The couple plans to leave Seattle June 14 and arrive some 10 weeks later at Mystic, Conn., on the Atlantic coast.
“A cross-country bike trip is something I鈥檝e had in the back of my mind for a long time,” Williams explains.
It won鈥檛 be the first long bicycle trip for either of them. Williams has done bike tours in England, Scotland, Ireland and New England. Vigoren has toured the maritime provinces of Canada and done several “double century” rides 鈥� that鈥檚 200 miles in one day. Together they did a tour of Alaska and the Yukon.
In fact, bicycling has been part of Williams鈥� and Vigoren鈥檚 relationship from day one, when they met at a bicycle club meeting. Or it would probably be more accurate to say non-meeting. Both showed up for a meeting of the Redmond Bicycle club to learn about a trip the club was sponsoring, only to find the meeting had been cancelled.
But no matter. The two ran into each other shortly thereafter in the cafeteria of the 91探花Medical Center, where both were working at the time. Each reported to the other a pending bicycle tour. Soon they were having coffee regularly, and last year they got married.
Five months into their relationship Williams was lured along on one of Vigoren鈥檚 double century rides, this time in Death Valley. “I鈥檓 not really interested in doing that again,” she says.
But traveling cross-country is different. The couple plans to average 50 to 60 miles per day and make a number of stops along the way. They plan to start at Rockport State Park on the North Cascades Highway, traveling through eastern Washington to Montana, where they鈥檒l visit a friend. From there they head to northern Minnesota, where Vigoren鈥檚 ancestors settled after emigrating from Norway.
“My grandparents are having a 90th birthday celebration in July, so we鈥檒l drop in for that,” Vigoren says. Williams, who has never met her husband鈥檚 grandparents, is particularly looking forward to the occasion.
Next they鈥檒l head across the upper peninsula of Michigan, crossing into Ontario and then dropping back down to Niagara Falls. They鈥檒l go through the Catskills in New York and then head to Connecticut.
“Then we鈥檙e supposed to dip our bike wheels in the Atlantic Ocean,” Williams says, explaining that custom calls for a photo of the bicyclist standing next to the ocean and holding the bike aloft.
For both, the trip will be a chance to see parts of the country they haven鈥檛 visited before. A native of Everett, Williams has seen little between Montana and New England. For Vigoren, the country between Chicago and New York is largely a blank. And both say that traveling by bicycle allows the maximum amount of sightseeing 鈥� not just of landscape but of wildlife.
“You鈥檙e quiet when you鈥檙e on a bike so you don鈥檛 scare them away,” Vigoren says. “I noticed that when we were in Alaska.”
“You tend to attract a lot of attention from people too,” Williams adds. “When I was in England I would roll into a village and park my bike at the local shop and invariably someone would come and speak to me.”
Williams and Vigoren are devoted bicyclists even when they鈥檙e home. They commute to their respective 91探花jobs 鈥� Williams as an editor for the Collaborative Health Studies Coordinating Center and Vigoren as a research analyst for the medical center鈥檚 Obstetrics/Gynecology Department 鈥� by bicycle, even though they live six miles outside Bremerton. In fact, in her single days, Williams lived for seven years without a vehicle when she sold hers to buy a better bike.
Still, bicycling is a little different when your bike and gear together weigh 70 to 80 pounds and you鈥檙e moving it all day almost every day for weeks. “It becomes your job,” Williams says.
The couple will probably be calling a friend every few days, who will in turn send out e-mail about their adventures to a list of interested friends and relatives. And after spending this year in Educational Outreach鈥檚 certificate program in photography, Williams plans to take a lot of photographs.
The two are taking leaves of absence from their jobs to do the trip, but plan to be back at their desks the day after Labor Day 鈥� after biking in from Bremerton, of course. But they鈥檒l take a week鈥檚 break from pedaling in Connecticut.
As for getting home, “We鈥檙e taking a plane,” Williams says.