Wheels keep turning for couple

Contributed photo Diane Guest Horsman, with husband, Tracy Horsman, cycled to Alaska.

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By Adele Koehnen, Contributing Writer 8:44 AM Thursday, November 5, 2009

Since Diane Guest Horsman graduated from Fairmont High School in 1973, her love of cycling has challenged many adventures.

After earning a degree from Bowling Green University, she worked briefly for the Montgomery County Board of Retardation, before going to Japan to teach English to Japanese children.

“During my years there, I joined a group of cyclists and we rode all over Malaysia, Vietnam and Burma,” said Horsman. “In 1993, I met Tracy, a fellow cyclist, and my husband-to-be. He was from England but works in France as a restorer of antiques.

After the couple married in 1996, they bought a sailboat and lived on it in the intercoastal waters near Lake Okeechobee in Florida.

“But our love of cycling was still strong, so in 2000, with advice and maps from Adventure Cycling of Montana, we took off on our English-made steel bikes with strong wheels and started our journey to Alaska following the Mississippi River up to Canada,” she said. “Five months from February through July, and 7,500 miles later, we were visiting my sister, Joyce, in a small town near Anchorage. We mainly camped along the way, staying in motels only 10 times.”

After a few weeks visiting Horsman’s parents, Ted and Gloria Guest in Kettering, Diane and Tracy will return to Florida and their sailboat to escape the cold months up north.

But, then it’s off to London for more permanent housing on a flat bottom houseboat on the Thames.

Is the urge to plan another cycling journey in their future? “Maybe just some cycling through England,” she said.

Contact this columnist at (937) 433-1552 or adeleauk4737@sbc global.net.

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