Dennis Bell, a 47-year-old computer programmer, rode through Bismarck Monday, following the 100- year-old route of his wife's great uncle, William F. Babcock.
``I really think it deserves a book, but I have no idea how to write a book,'' Bell said of the parallel trips. And he may have found an even better way to record the trip: the Internet.
Bell, who took a three-month leave from his job and left Seattle on July 10, uses a laptop computer to record his trip on the World Wide Web. His web site is at http://www.wrq.com/bike.
Bell's employer, WRQ, a business communications software company in Seattle, has given him space on its web server to publish the home page. ``The whole company has gotten behind this,'' Bell said. ``It's one of the 'great' companies in the country to work for.''
He is making the trip alone. ``If my wife had been able to break away from her job for three months, we would have done this on a tandem,'' Bell said.
The trip, which took several months to plan, has taken Bell through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. On his way to Boston, he will ride in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
Babcock who eventually became assistant superintendent of the Seattle school system before marrying and moving to the Midwest around 1915, was an avid cyclist, Bell said. He had crossed the country several times by train and thought it might make an interesting journey by bicycle.
Bell and his wife, Judy, a lawyer for the city of Seattle, researched Babcock's trip for about 15 years. The story had circulated through the family for many years, Bell said.
``We got to thinking about this bicycle story and spent a good deal of time in the library combing through old copies of the newspaper to see if there was any mention of this trip,'' Bell wrote on his web site. ``After much searching we found an article dated June 7, 1896, describing a plan by these two fellows to ride to Boston, and the chase was on.''
Other family members also found a scrapbook filled with clippings from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other newspapers, Bell said.
He has tried to copy the plans of Babcock and Arthur L. Turner, who also made the 1896 trip. ``Their idea was to go slowly enough to get a good picture of the country and to report about it to whomever would print the story,'' Bell said.
Turner carried a box camera on the trip and Bell has been visiting museums and state historical societies looking for pictures that may have survived. ``Turner took at least 300 photos, and I've been hoping to find some of them,'' Bell said. ``My guess is they're gone.''
The historical, technological, cultural and personal aspects of the trip are what are important to Bell. ``To me, the bike trip is secondary,'' he said.
He is more interested in seeing the land crossed by Babcock and Turner. Bell also wants to experience the climate, flora and fauna on the trip, much like Babcock and Turner.
``They went through Yellowstone,'' Bell said. ``I made a point of going through the part they did.''
Bell has been averaging about 75 miles a day on his 21-speed bike. ``Every once in a while when I feel sorry for myself, I put my bike in the one gear they had,'' he said. ``They did a lot of pushing.''