Bike Touring with Kids: The Books !
** NOW available on Amazon e-books and Print-on-demand!**
“Ed's stories show that we can have the same adventures with kids, and how the experience can strengthen family bonds. A highly-readable family tale.”
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Amazon.ca review
“Inspiring and informative, Ed chronicles how he and his wife embrace the philosophy of weaving one family adventure into another with the connective thread of exploring the unknown while bicycle touring.”
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Tyler Reaves, bike-touring dad, Canada
“Delightfully descriptive of so many not-to-be-missed family adventures. For those who enjoy travel stories and aspire to athletic journeys with kids, this is it! Fun to read even if you never make it off of the couch.”
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Amazon.ca review
Ed was a ghost-writer for over a decade, writing books and newspaper columns and speeches for other people - now this is his second book as a self-published author!
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It's a world driven by creative self-marketing, sharing by friends (and friends-of-friends-of-friends) and, above all, 5-star detailed reviews on the Amazon site.
So you can buy now on Amazon - and don't forget to share with your friends and groups, and to leave a detailed review on Amazon!
Bike Touring with Kids: Europe Epic
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Ed and Jocelyn fell in love on bicycles, spent their honeymoon pedaling from Vancouver to Tijuana, and refused to believe that life-after-kids would be the end of their ambitious adventures. So they hiked across Europe and South America on parental leave with a baby in a backpack, then cycled with their two young sons on various contraptions all over the Pacific Northwest, Yukon and Alaska, the Canadian Rockies and all four Atlantic provinces, and eventually for six months across New Zealand, Australia and French Polynesia on two tandems.
Now, Heron and Sitka are teenagers – and they’re in charge of the route planning, the fun stops, and most importantly, the desserts.
Europe Epic is the story of this intrepid Yukon family’s biggest odyssey yet: twenty countries, 10,000 km and several hundred desserts from Spain through Portugal, France, Italy and Croatia to Greece; then from Switzerland through Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to Norway.
In this inspiring and hilarious tale, you’ll follow the fearless foursome as they:
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Bike through bone-soaking downpours, gale-force headwinds, suffocating heat, thick spiky brush, a broken crankshaft, a rambunctious Good Friday parade and numerous dead-ends…
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… But also along spectacular cliffside trails, below sea level (twice), through a 400m-long tunnel under a medieval citadel, up and down the Alps (twice), on hard-packed North Sea sand beaches, and (more frequently than they should) on last-minute mad dashes to catch the day’s last ferry
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Ride not just bikes, but also scooters, surfboards, kayaks, wakeboards, sand dunes, ziplines, waterslides, gondolas, alpine hiking chairlifts, a whitewater raft, a wind-powered rollercoaster, and a Porsche
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Explore sea-carved caves, medieval castles, far-flung Roman ruins, opulent cathedrals, communist war bunkers, hollowed-out airplanes, royal palaces, Viking villages, Dutch windmills, the Louvre, the Acropolis, the Colosseum, and the life of Ötzi the 5300-year-old iceman
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Sleep in tents, on beaches, in free Danish dog-house-sized camp shelters, at a luxury Bosnian resort hotel, in a wooden teepee, next to an all-night karaoke party, in pilgrim hostels, in a Montenegrin cave, at a Willy-Wonka hippie camp, and on a rickety old canal boat
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Witness soccer matches, a tractor parade, a wedding on a fire truck, a silent disco, a spontaneous beach concert, a street fashion show, two sand-sculpture parks, a wave-powered sea organ, and a gaggle of French people chasing a duck with a bag.
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Learn to say Hello, Please, Thank you, “Can I have one of those pastries” and “Where are the chick peas” in 15 languages.
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Chase waves, jump off cliffs, swim in glacier lakes, scale a mountain peak in rock-climbing harnesses, nap under the Eiffel Tower, do the chicken dance in an Albanian grocery store, and get lost oh so many times.
Along the way, you’ll watch this pedal-happy gang experience endless highs and lows, meet hundreds of wacky characters and new friends, learn and grow and laugh and cry, and make forever memories as they evolve from two parents tugging along two kids, to four best friends riding side-by-side (not always literally, which would be hazardous) on the family bonding journey of a lifetime.
and also!
The adventure that started it all...
Bike Touring with Kids : The Oceania Odyssey
Ever since our first adventure with our kids - an eight-month Parental Leave epic hiking across Europe and South America - the people we meet have said, "You should write a book!" Well, now, finally, we have!
Bike Touring with Kids : The Oceania Odyssey is the story of our six-month, 6,000km family adventure across New Zealand, Australia and French Polynesia when our sons were seven and five years old.
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On our folding family Bike Friday tandems, we cycled the very northern tip of New Zealand to its southernmost point, then up the Gold Coast of Australia from Sydney to Brisbane, and finally many times around the ring road of the snorkelling paradise of Mo’orea. In this riveting and hilarious tale, you’ll read of:
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Towering mountains, pristine beaches, rugged rocky coastline, glow-worm caves, hot-spring pools, recently-active volcanoes, coral reefs and dozens of ferry rides
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Exploding camp stoves, broken spokes, parrot-chewed tent flies, impassable cattle fences and a lot of barfing
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Day-long ascents, brake-broiling descents and smooth, sweet cycling
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Close-up encounters with kiwi birds, penguins, kangaroos, poisonous snakes, reef sharks and sting rays (and also dolphins, koalas, pelicans and camels)
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Tornadoes, downpours, sub-zero nights with frozen tent zippers, and plenty of warm, sunshiny bliss
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Stepping in humongous piles of cow poop, used spaghetti water, and mud up to our knees
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A supporting cast of dozens upon dozens of quirky, fascinating characters who offered us delicious local food, spontaneous sleepover invitations, surfing lessons, ATV tours, horseback riding, sheep-chasing, and lifelong friendships
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Pannier-loads of practical tips and advice – from packing lists and grocery lists, to budgeting and planning and how to entertain curious kidlets on a bicycle for many hours a day – so that you, too, can bike tour with your kids and have the adventure of a lifetime (with a lot of barfing)!
Most of all, you’ll ooh and ahh, laugh and cry, gulp in fear and cheer along as this ordinary family of four pedals through a journey like no other – seeing new sights, experiencing new cultures, meeting new friends, and learning so much more than can be taught in a four-walled classroom. You’ll live through seemingly insurmountable family challenges and the pure elation that erupts when the whole team overcomes them. You’ll see how escaping everyday routine and leaping into family adventures allows for the best, most unforgettable moments of family bonding.
And you’ll have proof that “life after kids” can be just as adventurous and daring and disastrous and invigorating as anything you’ve done in your life before kids.
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