Ten Year Old Twin’s Plan To Set World Record Traveling The Pan-American Highway
Davy and Daryl Vogel, ten-year-old twin brothers from Boise, Idaho, will pedal away from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska starting in June 2008. Approximately thirty months later, they plan to arrive at the southern tip of South America and become the new Guinness World Record holders as the youngest people to cycle the Pan-American Highway. They will travel with their parents and pet dog.
Davy and Daryl are no strangers to long-distance bicycle touring. In June 2007, they arrived home to Idaho after spending twelve months pedaling 9300 miles through nineteen US states and four Mexican states with their parents. The family left their home and pedaled toward the northwest corner of the USA before cycling south to the tip of the Baja peninsula. After taking a ferry to Mazatlan, the four adventurers made their way back up to the USA, across their country, and finished their trek at the boys’ grandmother’s house in Connecticut.
Parents John Vogel and Nancy Sathre-Vogel have pedaled an estimated 100,000 miles through sixteen countries in the past thirty years. They met on an extended bicycle tour in the Indian subcontinent and have since cycled in countries as diverse as Israel, Yemen, and Mali. Both parents are long-time teachers and spent many years teaching in international schools.
The twins were born while John and Nancy were living in Ethiopia, and spent the first four years of their lives in that country. At age four they moved to Taiwan, then to Malaysia when they were six, and finally to the USA at age seven. Throughout their short lives they have had the opportunity to travel in numerous countries and have truly lived with the world as their back yard. Davy and Daryl are currently in fourth grade at a local elementary school in Boise.
Packed alongside their sleeping bags and cooking pots will be school books. The boys will be home schooled while on the road, something the entire family is looking forward to. As they make their way southward, they plan to stop at the many national parks and historical sites they will pass. Using all resources available, the boys and their parents will endeavor to share their academic pursuits with other children via their website.
The family also intends to use their educational background to bring the world to under-privileged children in New York City through Reach the World (RTW). Reach the World is an educational non-profit organization with the mission of linking students in under-funded schools to online, global expeditions. These expeditions have the power to expand learning beyond the four walls of the classroom. The cyclists will be linked to classrooms via an interactive website and live Internet chats.
The family will encounter their share of obstacles in the months to come, but they are excited about facing the challenges head on. Davy and Daryl are counting the days until they hit the road once again – ready to see their world with two wheels.
You can read more about the Vogel family and their adventures at www.familyonbikes.org
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I wish I had had the opportunity to do that kind of traveling when I was younger. You get to a certain age and you really have to fight for the free time to do anything you really want to do. Taking your kids at such a young age is probablyt a very wise thing to do. As they get older, they likely won’t have the time or the desire to spend month after month with their parents, cycling along one of the greatest bicycle routes in the world.