This is a web page for Pilgrim 2001, also called Pacific Eastward, being the traveling by Avram and Elijah Brown on bicycles from Oregon to Maine in the summer of 2001.
The interviewer is their father Dwite Brown.
Dad interviewed Avram this evening after a steak dinner celebrating their
birthdays. (Dad was sixty on
Dad: Are you glad you did it?
Avram: (laughs lightly) Uh, I don't think that there was any better way I could've spent the summer. I saw in my journal today, I was reading notes from last year from when we were first thinking about the trip. It seems Elijah and I were perfectly prepared by past experience for a trip like this -- the time spent outdoors, camping, bike rides, traveling to other countries in less than ideal conditions. I think we really were poised for a trip like this, and that it really was the call for us.
Dad: What did it teach you?
Avram: Always eat plenty of food when burning lots of calories. Um, I guess how to, or that you need to, enjoy yourself wherever you happen to be, because you aren't necessarily going to get to a different or a better place any time soon -- that you can't be totally independent in the sense of isolated from other people, because like on this trip we really benefited from the kindness and hospitality of other people.
Dad: What lasting impression do you carry with you, from the ride?
Avram: I guess the sense of the huge expanse of wilderness that stretches across the US. There were just so many incredible moments of encountering just this amazing scenery, I don't think we could have experienced any other way. There's something about having ridden yourself into that wilderness that makes the beauty of it more astonishing.
Dad: Would you recommend it to others, and what kind of people?
Avram: I think a lot of people assume that a ride like this is restricted to
There's definitely a lot of risks, and you go far outside of your comfort zone, but I would definitely recommend the ride to anyone who wanted to see the country.
Dad: What would you have done differently, knowing what you know now?
Avram: I probably would have made an effort to go swimming more often, because at the end of the trip we had a couple of days to relax on a lake, and it was a great complement to bicycling.
Dad: What advice do you have for others who are contemplating a ride?
Avram: Just do it.
Um, read stories of people who have done expeditions similar in form or in intention I guess, because the road is more about your character than about your technical knowhow or physical ability.
Dad: Anything else?
Avram: Yes, I'd like to thank my parents, my family, our sponsors -- I guess we didn't have any sponsors -- all the people who prayed for us, all the people who contributed or donated, all the people who were kind and hospitable, ending last but not least with Aunt Meg and her wonderful Maine clan.
Avram later: We should interview Aryae about the days he rode with us, for his perspective and advice before, and reflections after the ride or after the summer was over.
We should take a highlights retour. In Oregon and Wyoming there were several really nice days. We could go back and ride them, and go by car to drive to the next place. Each ride was a hundred miles long and over brutal passes, but beautiful. It would not be worth doing the whole ride over again, because there's so much middle space that's not really dramatic.
What was the hardest thing? The urgency, going so fast. We were probably mentally more rushed than needed to be. An extra three weeks then -- that would have been real nice. Our personalities both were not for doing the sight-seeing tour, but we are both challenge-oriented. We went for the challenge.
The author and web master is their father Dwite Brown.
The URL of this page is case sensitive: http://www.psln.com/brown/pilgrim5.html