Following The Bread Crumbs

Last night I was searching the internet looking for good places to photograph during our trip to Nagoya next month. That lead me to a Nagoya cycling museum, which lead me to the Japan Bicycle Historical Club site, which lead me to an article about the last Tokugawa shogun riding a bicycle, which mentioned that he might have seen Thomas Stevens when Stevens visited Japan while cycling around the world, which lead me to another page that mentioned that Stevens published a book around 1888 recounting his experiences, which lead me to another page that said the book had been republished, which lead me - naturally enough - to Amazon.com....

It turns out that Stevens started off by pedaling his way across the United States. That in itself is a major adventure even today. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been back in 1884 when Stevens managed the feat on a 41 pound "high wheeler" with a 50 inch front wheel. After having ridden all the way from San Francisco to Boston, he then decided that he might as well continue on and finish the job. In his travels he pedaled from England to the Balkans, down through the Middle East, over to India, across China, and then Japan before returning to the States.

 

Around The World On A Bicycle