Thursday, May 11, 2006

Walking Across The Country . . .

· How much weight might you lose if you walked 3,000 miles from California to New York? A 40-year-old man who finished such a trek on Tuesday found that he was 100 pounds lighter.

Steve Vaught began the walk from his California home in April of last year. His goal was to shed some of his 410 pounds and find happiness. Vaught said he had been very sad since being in a car accident that killed two elderly people.

As camera crews filmed him walking across a bridge into New York City, Vaught said: "I'm glad that I'm here, but . . . it's never been about the destination. It's been about the journey."

Vaught slept in tents and motels on his trip and went through 15 pairs of shoes, more than 30 pairs of socks and six backpacks.

· A thief stole Heinz Stucke's bike within hours of his arrival in Portsmouth, England, this week.

That's bad enough. But the bike and Stucke had traveled together since 1962. He had visited 165 countries on it, pedaling some 335,000 miles. (That's like circling the globe 13 1/2 times!)

"I would do anything to get my bike back," the 66-year-old German cyclist told reporters. "I'm emotionally attached to it."

Stucke began globetrotting at age 22, thinking he'd stop after a few years. He never did.

In an earlier interview with freelance writer Ron Gluckman, Stucke said he had been "shot at by Nkomos rebels in Zambia, stung by bees in Gambia, singed by volcanoes in Central America, arrested at pistol point in Cameroon" and involved in accidents in four countries.

Shortly after arriving in Portsmouth on Monday, Stucke was napping in his tent when his bike, covered in stickers from his travels, was stolen. "It is not a very nice welcome to England," he said, but "I . . . have myself to blame."

This story has a happy ending, however. The bike was found yesterday, abandoned in a city park.

Stucke said he expected all along to get it back "because it's not a flashy one."