Cyclist pedals 3,000 miles to see Obama's inauguration

By GottaLaff

I just flew biked in from Los Angeles, and boy, are my arms legs tired!

A 22-year-old graduate of Occidental College and a resident of Highland Park, Bowen rolled out of Los Angeles in early December, driven by a desire to "do something special" to mark what he and many Americans see as a transformational moment for the nation. [...]

He threw together the trip in a little more than two weeks, mapping his route, creating a website, www.bikingforobama.com, to chronicle his trip, and contacting friends along the way to locate places where he might bed down for a night.

[...] Bowen hopes that by the time he reaches Washington he will have attracted an escort of 50 or even 100 cyclists.

"That would be my dream," he said, "to roll into Washington with something like that."

So far, he has covered about a quarter of the 4,000-mile distance. [...]

So why is he doing this?

Well, besides the fact that he can -- he's a happily untethered young man, fresh out of school, between jobs, single -- Bowen envisions his ride as something of an exploration, a journey that will take him not only across America but also, in another sense, into its heart.

"Really, it is very complex," he said. "I have this passion for knowing where people are at in these desperate times. We are pretty quick to call everything a crisis, but if ever we had one, we are going into one right now.

"So with the cliches of the Obama campaign -- not to put it down -- but the mantra was change, progress and hope. And so, how can this change and progress and hope happen when everything we read in the news is looking like we are not headed that way?"

Smart, pro-active, thoughtful 22-year-old. Maybe he should think about running for office one day.