The ultimate road warrior?  How can a computer professional take 7 weeks to travel across America on a bicycle, sleep in a tent and stay in contact with his family and employer and provide the local news media with pictures and journals?

With a laptop computer, cell phone and digital camera, of course. And solar cells to keep them charged.

I will be well connected.  I will be in e-mail contact, voice contact, and provide dial-in computer support at any time on this trek. I will be equipped with an IBM Thinkpad, a Motorola Star-Tac cell phone, an Olympus digital camera and a USRobotics Palmpilot digital assistant. I will share my experiences with pictures and journals through newspapers, television, magazines, e-mail and a web site.

I need your support.  I will join 1,000 other Americans on a 3,000-mile cross-country bicycle adventure, the GTE Big Ride Across America. The goal of this ride is to raise $8,000,000 for the American Lung Association, the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary health organization. Lung disease is the third leading cause of death in America. I have friends and relatives that suffer from breathing diseases such as asthma and emphysema. Don’t you? Doesn’t everyone? Your support helps the national and local American Lung Associations.

I must raise a minimum of $6,000 in contributions. Please help. Drop me an e-mail and I'll send you a pledge form.

The ride will be a national news event.  It is the largest group of cyclist to cross the country in history.

The times they are a changin’.  Thirty years ago, computers took up whole buildings and required special environments.

This year, my employer and clients won’t even know that I’m out of town, although my family will probably catch on sooner or later. (And all my electronic equipment weighs a total of less than 10 pounds.)

All pictures and text (c) 1998 by Bill Peterson, Anchorage, Alaska.