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Members of the Norman Bicycle League escort six Seattle school students into Norman Monday. The six students are bicycling from Washington, D.C., to Seattle as part of an "Inconvenient Ride" campaign to focus attention on the environment. BY JACONNA AGUIRRE, THE OKLAHOMAN
When Norman Mayor Cindy Rosenthal announced there was "a whole bunch of food” waiting for them inside, 10-year-old Sydney Fuller flashed a grin and said: "Now you're talking my language.”
The 50-mile trek Monday was only a small part of the 5,400 miles the six students will travel before they reach Seattle. The group is en route from Alexandria, Va., to their hometown as part of an "Inconvenient Ride” campaign to focus attention on the environment.
"And it's a whole a lot of fun,” the exuberant Fuller added.
Fuller is the youngest of the six, which also includes Alexandria "Ally” Stariha, 15; Jacob Kenny, 15; Justin Marshall, 16, Tim Vincent, 17, and Tyrone Hall Deal, 18. Project coordinator is Arielle Washington, 15, who rides in a truck ahead of the bicyclists to pave the way for their rest stops and visits to local schools, cities and, in Norman's case, a natural history museum.
Not everyone bicycles at the same time, or all the way. They take turns getting breaks riding in the truck. "We do tag teams or sort of leap-frog our way,” Kenny said.
"What you are doing is really terrific,” Rosenthal said. To commemorate their visit to Norman, the mayor said, the city will plant a tree in Reaves Park in their honor "and we hope you come back someday to visit it and us, again.”
Members of the Norman Bicycle League met the bicyclists on State Highway 9, east of Norman, to escort the group to the Sam Noble museum where they were greeted by the mayor and other city officials and treated to a private tour and platters of food.
Stariha said the trip "came from an idea we had that we could all come together and do something about the environment. This is an environmental project to raise awareness about cleaning up the environment.”
The six students have bicycled in rain, fog and heat so far, and at elevations of 1,500 feet and higher. They bicycle by day, blog about the trip at night and do homework.
"We have lots of homework,” Kenny said. "We didn't get away without having to bring that with us.”
The group hopes to arrive in Seattle in time for an April 22 Earth Day celebration. To read more about their journey, go to www.inconvenient
ride.com.
