Bicycling, blogging and a tragic end

In the past couple of months, several noted travelers have died while doing what they love, exploring the world. Yes, travel involves stress and potentially dangerous situations, but so does staying home. Car accidents and drowning are two big tourist killers, but it’s not every week that they’re front page news.

While on a family vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico I was hanging out by the pool with some other students when a commotion started near the deep end. A man was found floating. One of my companions jumped into the rescue and spent a tense half hour working his lifeguard CPR skills to revive the man, who had been drinking. He did start breathing, but didn't survive the ride to the hospital. It shook me deeply, seeing him being wheeled past on a stretcher. Did it keep me from wanting to travel? Not hardly.

That’s why this morning’s news about the tragic deaths of a delightful couple of fellow travel bloggers came with heartbreak and something else, which I hope won’t sound insensitive, the realization that they passed doing what they loved and together.

Peter Root and Mary Thompson left Britain in the summer of 2011 to cycle through Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China. They introduced the world to their plans by posting: “At 17.00 on the 12th July 2011 we took a ferry from Guernsey to France with loads of stuff, two bikes and the intention to cycle east around the World.” Their popular blog, Two on Four Wheels, chronicled their adventures, and mis-adventures, with inspiring candor. They were killed by a distracted truck driver while cycling through the countryside in Thailand.

Their pictures, tweets and posts brought so much joy as they revealed their joy of the road. Peter’s father has said, in a MSN news report, that “What helps me is to think of how happy they were with each other.” I think of that as well and how happy they made so many of us, vicariously peddling alongside them.

Photo courtesy of author.