Family enjoys the adventure of a lifetime

<p>There's family road trips and then there's this family road trip: Bill and Amarins Harrison are taking their three young daughters on a 7,000-mile road trip from their native Kentucky to Alaska.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>On a bicycle. A two-wheel, five-seat tandem bicycle, to be exact. Pulling a small trailer behind them that contains their tent, among other things. Without an accompanying van to provide logistical support. With $300 in their pocket when they left Mt. Vernon, Ky. on Aug. 1, 2009.</p><p>“Some people think we are crazy,” Bill Harrison said. “What people don't understand is this is just an extension of what we do back home. From Derby Day (in May) to Thanksgiving, our kitchen table is out on the front porch of our home. We spend all the time we can outside. We are outdoors people.”</p><p>Now 4,400 miles into their trip, the Harrisons arrived in Petaluma last Thursday and will stay until this Thursday at the home of Tom and Carolyn Maloney.</p><p>A native Kentuckian, Carolyn Maloney heard about the Harrison's trip from a sister who still lives in Kentucky. Having raised 12 children herself Maloney was more than happy to take care of three more for a week: Cheyenne, 7, Jasmine, 5, and Robin, 3.</p><p>“Bill asked me if we could lend him a yard to sleep in,”Carolyn Maloney said. “I said I can do you one better. You can have some of our beds.”</p><p>Their seven nights in Petaluma will be longest stop on what is expected to be the 13-month trip for the Pedouins. That's what the Harrisons call themselves. Pedouins is a derivative of Bedouins, the desert nomads of the Middle East.</p><p>“I guess Amarins and myself are a bunch of gypsies,” Harrison said.</p><p>The Harrisons are not traveling to raise awareness for cancer or to promote a charity. The reason is entirely personal.</p><p>“We wanted to live our dream, to see America and Americans, to see what made this country great,” said Harrison, 48, a home remodeler.</p><p>“America is the place it is not because of politics or religion. It's because Americans are risk-takers and I think we have lost of little of that over the years. So I wanted our girls to see America from the grass roots level. It's the pioneering spirit all Kentuckians have.”</p><p>The sight of a five-member family on a 14-and-half-foot long yellow bike has drawn attention in every town, burg or nook and cranny they have entered. Harrison is on the first seat, in charge of steering and breaking the bike. Jasmine is the second seat, Robin the third, Amarins the fourth and Cheyenne is the caboose. The Burley trailer, loaded with about 100 pounds, follows. With family aboard, the entire rig weighs 740 pounds.</p><p>The sight of three young girls draws second, third and fourth glances, as well as the occasional pointed commentary that the Harrisons are irresponsible parents. Yes, police have responded, after getting an anonymous phone call, and have questioned the parents. Harrison reassures them all and begins with the most responsible example: How Robin is secured in her seat.</p><p>Robin wears a seat belt. Her dad has extended handlebars around her, effectively enclosing her. On her handlebar is a six-inch-square foam pad. When she needs her nap, Robin rests her head on the foam pad and falls asleep. She operates the foot pedals but they are not connected to the bicycle chain.</p><p>“When Robin pedals, it's funny because she is like a hamster in a wheel, going nowhere," Harrison said. "Amarins and myself do 90 percent of the pedaling."</p><p>The family does not begin riding until two hours after sunrise, so as to be seen clearly, and stops riding two hours before sunset, for the same reason. They do not ride in the rain. They said they take less-traveled roads with ample shoulders whenever possible.</p><p>They have biked as many as 73 miles in one day and as few as six. They prefer to average 30 miles a day.</p><p>Said Harrison: “Some people said, ‘Why not have separate bikes? Why not have a separate tent for the kids?' No, I wanted us together all the time. They never leave my sight. The criticism? That's somebody else's issue."</p><p>The trip will end, Harrison said, if the kids cease to have fun. This is not a fitness test but a very long field trip in nature. Let's literally stop and smell the flowers, Harrison tells the kids. Let's taste the local cuisine. Let's notice the geography and how different it is from home. Let's talk about all that. Such give-and-take is an extension of the home-schooled Harrison kids.</p><p>“Our country spends more money on education than any nation on earth,” Harrison said, “and yet we are 36th in the world in education. I can do a better job of that. My kids know how to think.”</p><p>For his part Harrison offered few details on himself. He said he has bachelor's and master's degrees from Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. His bachelor's is in Industrial Arts. He speaks Arabic. He spent four years in Palestine on a humanitarian mission. His wife, 34, is from the Netherlands, speaks three languages and is a stay-at-home mom who is a part-time tax preparer.</p><p>That's it for the parent's biography. When pressed Harrison shuts off. All this is very calculated.</p><p>“Once you start describing yourself,” he said, “people then start seeing you through the lens of that information. They start forming opinions. You get put in the box and they may not even know they are doing it.</p><p>“That would just get in the way of this trip. I want this trip to be apolitical. No religion. I want people see us as five people on a bike, having an adventure, exploring America. We are just ordinary blue collar people doing an extraordinary thing."</p><p>Now completing the ninth month of the trip, Harrison estimated that $4,000 has spent repairing the bike along the way, with 21 flat tires and 18 new tires consuming a large chunk of that.</p><p>How did he get the money to pay for it? Donations, he said.</p><p>The Harrisons carry a computer and GPS tracking device with them in the trailer. They have a Web site - www.pedouins.org - and through it have received about $5,000 from people who have been inspired by their journey.</p><p>“I wanted this journey to be about faith, about the faith of the generosity and the kindness of the American people. I wanted this journey to be about the good things America has to offer,” Harrison said.</p><p>So of the 250 days they have been on the road, Harrison estimated they have spent 150 of them in their 8-foot-by-10-foot square tent. The rest of the time they have spent on homes or motels, as non-paying guests of the owners.</p><p>The Harrisons have received three police escorts, in Natchez, Mississippi, in Aiken, South Carolina and last week across the Golden Gate Bridge. When their trailer blew up on March 9, REI provided a new GPS at no charge and Burley replaced the trailer at no cost.</p><p>"Look, we're not stupid," Harrison said. "We know this trip is fraught with dangers. When we left last August the mountain people around us took bets that we wouldn't make it to Jelico on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. That was only 40 miles away. I love mountain people but they don't think outside the box."</p><p>His plans remain simple. They'll make it to Fairbanks, Alaska by late August. Stay in Alaska to experience the winter. Then, providing no dramatic developments, they'll pedal across Canada and re-enter the United States through New England.</p><p>“This is an earthy, gutsy, primal trip that demonstrates you don't have to be rich to be happy," Harrison said.</p>