Tuesday, October 27, 2009 — Two individuals from Sweden recently spent an evening in Stanfield, but the visit was not merely a vacation.
Linda Hokka, 18, and Martin Johansson, 22, stopped at a home in Stanfield after traveling by bicycle from New York City. They began their journey on Sept. 2 in Manhattan and plan to travel along the eastern edge of the United States to northern Florida. After reaching Florida, the youth plan to turn west and travel to California before turning north and continuing to Canada. They plan to end their journey by returning to New York City. They have estimated the trip to take approximately 12 months.
They will be traveling an average of 50 miles a day. They plan to camp each night in tents and they will cook their own food. So far they have camped at various campgrounds, backyards and vacant fields.
“We’re doing this trip because we wanted to see the country in a special way and we have always liked biking and outdoor life,” Linda said.
“It was a big challenge to get out of Manhattan and New York, but me made it. Our first impression of the U.S. is that the people are very nice.”
In total, the trip will take Linda and Martin approximately 2,000 miles across the U.S., but for them this trip is more than about seeing the sites. Linda and Martin are trying to bring awareness about the environment through their trip. They want to demonstrate that everything affects the environment and that it is possible to diminish the amount of traveling done by a gasoline powered vehicle by choosing to ride a bicycle instead.
Due to interstate laws, Linda and Martin will not be allowed to ride their bicycles along any interstates, so they will have to take many back roads, which could pose a possible security risk.
“They’ve never been to many of the areas where they’ll be traveling and they’ll be riding through parts of the country that has a lot of bad weather and dangerous animals. We’re just hoping they make it there OK,” said Naomi Clontz, in whose backyard the Swedish teenagers camped while in Stanfield.
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weden residents Martin Johansson and Linda Hokka are biking across the U.S.
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Swedish bikers travel across United States
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