Peace

Lord knows as someone who had ridden the 50 States Ride 13 times, I love a good gimmick. Me and my 650 states can’t hold a candle to the accomplishment of Lynn Salvo.

I first heard about Lynn from a blog reader during one of my tours. She was riding her bike across Canada. It had something to do with a peace sign.

Lynn who is six years older than me rode the Southern Tier route from San Diego to Saint Augustine in 2015. It was her first big tour. She was, by my math, 66 years old. A couple of years later she came up with a crazy idea. Why not trace out a peace sign with her bike tours. Across Canada and up and down both coasts would be the circle, with a dove’s foot down the center of the US from Canada to Wichita and then on to intersect her Southern Tier route to the south, southeast, and southwest.

The peace sign project is a labor of love. Lynn’s older brother John died when his plane crashed in Laos during the Vietnam War.

Reading about the recently completed, last leg of her peace sign down the west coast of the US blew me away. She’s 72 years old and that route sounded HARD. So many hills. So much wind. She even rode her bike on the bridge between Washington State and Astoria Oregon. When I reached Astoria in 2018, I took one look at that sucker and said “No way!” Aside from the fact that it’s a brutal climb, it’s a two-lane highway with no shoulder and the cross winds are insane.

And then there was that mountainous wildfire detour she had to take along the coast of central California. Eek.

14,500 miles over six years.

Dang.

I lifted this map from her blog. I’m pretty sure she won’t mind.

If you can get past the firewall, here is a Washington Post story about her.

Congratulations; Lynn.