If you see the Simard family on the road this week you probably won’t forget them. Father Guillaume is pedaling a heavily laden bicycle pulling a trailer and 5 year old Laurent. Mother Isabelle and two daughters, 7-year-old Nora and 9-year-old Beatrice are also pushing along with loaded down bikes. And you thought a long trip in the car with kids is tough.
The Simard family sold their home in Sherbrooke in Southeast Quebec and are heading to Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The trip will mean years on the road. Right now they are able to enjoy Ohio’s series of bike trails and the Ohio Canal Towpath trail. Guillaume is navigating with help from his I-Pad and local cyclists.
Guillaume Simard: “We check on Google there are plenty of bike paths. And we check on the American Cycling Association. There’s an Underground Railroad trail. It’s a nice thing to do with the kids, that they learn the history of Afro-Americans to go that way."
Isabelle Bibeau: “We ask the locals for the road. They are good to help us to choose a better road to take.”
Urycki “You talked about doing the Underground Railroad. You have to educate your children on this trip then?"
Isabelle: “Yeah, they were already home-schooled at home and we just continued to home-school them on the road. We think that every day we have a chance to educate them with what we see and all the people we meet and all the things we can do on the road.”
Urycki “So overall this will take how long?”
Guillaume: ”We are often asking them (the kids). Maybe two years, maybe 3, maybe 4. We say 3 years; we’ve got 3 kids but we’ll take the time that we want to."
Urycki: “And you have some GPS device to help you track your route?"
Guillaume: “We use the I-Pad and satellite GPS device to check in with persons everyday so our family can follow on Facebook and see where we are and that we are safe. So for the grandparents and family it’s a good thing.”
Guillaume is writing a blog about the trip and the two girls are writing a slightly fictionalized account in a periodic journal they hope to sell. Their website is called 10FeetOnTheGround.Org. One of the girls says a highlight for her was playing pool in Hiram. The group is keeping their expenses low by using a cyclist organization called Warm Showers that offers a free place to stay in the homes of fellow bike travelers. They’ve been given a free room at a hotel and a dinner at a pizzeria …
Isabelle: "We didn’t get out our food for about one week now. And where we’re going they wait for us to share a meal with them and, you know, it’s like ‘Oh my gosh.’ We are amazed.”
The family travels between 12 and 25 miles a day. They’ve ridden more than 700 miles so far and will get a break when they reach Columbus. They plan to house sit there for two weeks. Then on towards Mexico.