Customer Reviews

Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad

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It was after his Phil Donahue Show back in 1988 that we started to write back and forth. Those were the days before most Americans even knew how to program a VCR and here was Steve on his high tech bike with the bells and whistles and ability to do email and even receive messages at the end of the day, etc., and all powered by solar panels. His story begins in Telluride, CO and he sets out to ride this bike across America to Ohio then PA then Maryland and Virginia and North Carolina Florida west to Louisiana and Texas New Mexico and Utah and California. In the Epilogue he writes:

Two years have passed .....A lot has changed....and then he met Maggie. In a jazz bar in Columbus Ohio and he challenged her to learn ham radio, get in shape and leave with him in August. And she did and they were well into the 4k of their first date.

The reason I love this book and buy up copies is the same reason I loved and bought and but Bill Gates book The Road Ahead. Because they speak volumes of the history of the computer tech world and serve as a reminder of just how damn far we have come.

Tired and desperate behind a boring desk job, Steven K. Roberts breaks free with a recumbent bicycle of his own design, trekking cross country while writing the book via mobile computing technology. His adventures are entertaining and written in a candid, personal style that makes you appreciate his quest for romance while proving definitively the value of mobile telecommuting--even from the wilds of rural Colorado. His mission is to make location irrelevant while remaining connected, and this ace of technomadness is pure inspiration. Highly readable and recommended for those adventure seekers with a mind to wander, but a heart in community.

Imagine being so fed up with the day to day activities of a ho-hum suburban life, a typical job, a typical car, etc. that one day you decide to cash it all in......for a bike!! And dump your fiance while you're at it.

Steven Roberts did just this. Sold the house, cars, quit his job to begin his long (and true) trek across the United States. Armed with a CB, a sattelite uplink, a laptop computer, and other high tech gadgets (circa late 1980's) he writes about his journeys in a fascinating manner. This is what MTV's Road Rules is....for adults. What is amazing is the people he meets along the way, the sites he sees, the trials and tribulation of finding water and getting a flat tire. I can't give enough praise for this book, and would love to read anotehr one if he has one.

I'm not really much of a techy but I loved Steve's bicycle adventure and innovative lifestyle he pioneered. The book is a must for anyone interested in Technomads.