For those that attended our AK 2 FL presentation at the Northwest Tandem Rally, thanks for your interest in our story!  We had approximately 200 on hand to view our slideshow which doubled our previous attendance record of 100.

We regret that we ran out of the tandem touring checklists.  The list is now available in PDF format by clicking The Bike & Gear button on our home page.

For a 200 photo slideshow of the NWTR, click here

Happy trails,

Randall & Barb Angell

P.S.  During our question and answer phase of our presentation, we related one our funny stories from our travelogue.  For those who missed the story, we have inserted it below:

A few miles later, the water tower for Lamont, FL came into view.  This small town of about 500 had three, convenience store type businesses to pick from.  It was almost 1 PM so we paused to consider which store to buy lunch from.  The store across the street was advertising Disney T-shirts and souvenirs (and we were still 200 miles from the Magic Kingdom).  Not being Mickey Mouse fans, we dropped that station from consideration.  The remaining two stores were unremarkable so we just parked our rig at the one we were closest to.  After stepping inside, we could see that the selection for snacks and refreshments were limited.  Seeing no restroom inside, Barb asked if there was one outside.  The clerk indicated that there was and handed her a key for access.

Randall then strolled down the three aisles to check out the lunch options.  He spotted some tuna and egg salad sandwiches but chose not to make a selection until Barb returned.  As he stood waiting near the store’s entrance, Randall noticed that a man sitting at a desk on his left had been studying him over.  The well-worn desk and the elderly gentleman seemed out of place.  In the opposite corner, the store had a sales counter that was manned by a young clerk.  Although the older man wasn’t doing anything, perhaps he was the owner of the establishment and needed the desk to appear busy and in control.

As Randall stared out the window, this curious man popped the question, “Where ya’all biking from and to?”  Randall answered, “We rode our bicycle down from Alaska.”  The man asked again, “Where?”  Randall repeated with, “Alaska!”  With a contentious face, the man again asked, “Where?”  With a raised voice, Randall replied, “Alaska – we have ridden over 6,000 miles so far.”  The man then nodded as he repeated the word, Alaska.  He then followed with, “So where ya’all biking to?”  Randall responded in a soft voice, “Key West.”  The man tipped his chair back and proclaimed, “BOOOY, do you know how fur it is down there?  That there is a long ways away!  How many miles is that?”  Randall countered that it was about 700 miles as we were close to finishing.  The man just shook his head and said, “Well, I hoped ya’all make it okay.”

Upon Barb’s return, we made our lunch selections and then sat outside in the shade.  Randall then related to Barb about the humorous exchange that occurred inside the store.  We theorized that this guy had driven to Key West at least once in his life.  With that experience, he could relate to how far we had to travel.  As we learned in Georgia, those in the rural South had difficulty grasping the extent of our trip.  They had enough trouble visualizing the distance to California let alone Alaska.