The family, who traveled from Kentucky, arrived in Malibu last week. They plan to go as far as Alaska.
By McKenzie Jackson / Special to The Malibu Times
From sea to shining sea, that is the journey which brought the pioneering Harrison family to Malibu for five days on their five-seat, custom built bicycle.
The Eastern Kentucky family-parents Bill, 48, and Amarins, 34, and their daughters Cheyenne, 7, Jasmine, 5, and Robin, 3-laid eyes on the Pacific Ocean during their stop in Malibu, six months after they saw the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Charleston, S.C.
Now, the family from Mt. Vernon, Ky. is peddling their big, yellow bicycle up Pacific Coast Highway toward Fairbanks, Alaska.
Bill, who sits in the front seat of the 14-foot, 27-speed bicycle, said the family is living the American dream.
“We are doing what a lot of people wished they could do, but they ain’t got the nerve to do because of fear,” he said during the family’s stay in Malibu. “Sometimes you gotta’ jump.”
Since leaving Kentucky on August 1, the family has peddled on state and secondary roadways across 12 states in the southern and western portions of America.
The family has seen historic sites such as Fort Sumter National Monument in South Carolina and the Mississippi River, while pulling 745 pounds of cargo that includes themselves and a small trailer containing a laptop, camping equipment, food, clothes and a cell phone.
The idea for the cross-country trek sprang from Amarins’ desire to travel across the U.S. to Alaska. The family left their home with only $300, and has been able to continue the trip thanks to the generosity of friends and strangers, who have given shelter, food and money.
Bill, a home remodeler, said the support his family has received has been amazing.
“Americans are some of the most giving people on the entire planet,” he said. “You look at the news and think everyone is bad, but it is the opposite.”
In South Carolina, they ate for free twice at the restaurant Applebee’s, and a Kentucky company once paid for bike repairs. In one Mississippi city they received a police escort and a town tour, and in Ocean City they stayed at the home of a family friend.
Bill said a man in China gave the family $3.90 through their Web site, www.pedouins.org, and a monk from Burma e-mailed them his well wishes. (The family uses the nickname “Pedouins,” which they wrote, is derived from the word Bedouin-a member of a desert tribe that traditionally lives in tents-signifying a member of an adventurous family traveling on a tandem bicycle across the continent using a tent as their humble abode.”)
Eric Hinds, CEO of Estrin and Hinds Construction Co., Inc. in Malibu, paid for the Harrisons to spend one night at Malibu Beach RV Park and four nights at Leo Carrillo State Park once they stopped in Malibu due to the threat of rain.
Hinds, a friend of the Harrisons’ Ocean City friend, also provided the family with a camper to sleep in while at Leo Carrillo.
Hinds said the Harrisons amaze him.
“I am very inspired by their sense of adventure and courage to live an alternative lifestyle, even if it is for just a year,” he said.
Throughout their journey, Bill and Amarins have been home schooling their three children. (The Harrisons have three older children, who stayed home. Bill wrote on the family’s Web site: “They think we are absolutely crazy, but so have half the people in my life so far in my life’s journey.”)
Amarins, a native of the Netherlands, said the girls have been enjoying the trip. “Our kids are just full of life and they live life to the fullest,” she said. “They will treasure this for the rest of their lives.”
The ride hasn’t been all smooth though. Bill said the bicycle has had a great deal of maintenance issues, including five broken rims and 20 flat tires.
However, he said the chance to see America in a new way is worth the bike breakdowns and being away from home.
“It’s been kind of cool just to meet people and share stories, and hear their stories,” Bill said.
The Harrisons arrived in California on Jan. 13, and went through cities such as San Diego, Venice Beach and Santa Monica. They left Malibu on Tuesday of this week.
Bill described California as paradise and said Malibu and Mt. Vernon have similarities. “Malibu is just a piece of mountain, just like home except it is touching the water,” he said.
The family biked more than 4,000 miles to reach Malibu, and hopes to conclude their 7,000-mile journey by reaching Alaska by the end of August.
Bill said once in Alaska the family will do volunteer work, then head back to Kentucky and possibly write a book about their odyssey.
“We are just a family that wanted to live a dream,” he said, “that didn’t give into the fear of not having the money or [worrying about] what are people going to think.”
Amarins said the trip has made the family more tight-knit.
“All of the working together, on the same bike, the pedaling,” she said. “It has brought the family together. But, we have never really been apart.”