Thomas Stevens (Cyclist)

"...since he always had something to show them as interesting as anything that they could show him, he made his way among all nations."

Reminds me of a piece of advice I read when researching one-bag packing for a long trip: learn how to make balloon animals and pack balloons. Then, you can entertain children & endear yourself to their families. [1]

I think both the silly-looking bicycle and the balloon animals create some sort of surprise and delight that set the tone for a good interaction when you are a stranger doing something objectively weird.

[1] https://www.onebag.com/packing-list-specialty.html

The book he wrote is interesting: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5136/pg5136-images.html

I loved this bit of writing at the beginning:

"Beyond all this the lower coast-range, where, toward San Francisco, Mount Diablo and Mount Tamalpais - grim sentinels of the Golden Gate - rear their shaggy heads skyward, and seem to look down with a patronizing air upon the less pretentious hills that border the coast and reflect their shadows in the blue water of San Francisco Bay."

There's also Frank Lenz who made it as far as Turkey in his attempt to circumnavigate the globe on a two-wheeled safety bicycle in the 1890s before disappearing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lenz_(cyclist)#:~:text=F....

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-unsolved-case-of-...

I really think that the subject of solo circumnavigation should be a natural part of the study of history.

To expand on this, also see:

- Joshua Slocum _Sailing Alone Around The World_ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6317/6317-h/6317-h.htm

- Half-Safe: The Story of the Jeep/Boat That Drove Around the World https://gearjunkie.com/motors/half-safe-jeep-boat-overland-a...

- The First Human Powered Circumnavigation of the Globe https://wildbounds.com/blogs/culture-and-pioneers/jason-lewi...

- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/er...

(though I think that the latter two are not quite as impressive in that gear was staged/transported --- I want to see someone do this "bikerafting" using a folding bike and a folding kayak)

and there's some Victorian guy who did it using commercial transport with nothing but his visiting cards and a letter of credit from his bank to facilitate the voyage.

Another person who attempted a similar thing, only walking backwards [0]. He didn't complete the around-the-world journey but he did go about 8000 miles of it.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo

I wonder whether he might have been an inspiration behind Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men on The Bummel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_on_the_Bummel

I encountered a Steve Stevens in Golden, CO who hacked two magnets on his ordinary to read accurate speeds on his cyclocomputer.