THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9606020071
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 74 lines
``We're just going to put our wheels in the ocean,'' Rob Goubeaux explained to the lifeguard eyeing him skeptically from his perch. ``We just rode here from the Pacific.''
The lifeguard nodded nonchalantly and watched as Goubeaux and his wife, Jocelyn, walked their mountain bikes into the choppy Atlantic waves off the Oceanfront Saturday afternoon.
``Do you believe it?'' Rob Goubeaux asked his wife as the surf lapped their feet.
``No,'' she replied with a smile, and gave him a big cross-bike kiss.
The 37-year-old television editor (``Rescue 911'') and his 38-year-old wife, an audiologist, took leaves of absence from their jobs, dipped their rear wheels into the Pacific Ocean near Santa Monica, Calif., on March 17 and pedaled 3,600 miles in 2 1/2 months.
Waiting for the couple were their parents - both sets. Phil and Shirley Hedges, Jocelyn's mother and father, drove from Hillsboro, Ohio. Gay Lee and Bill Foley, Rob's parents, drove from Centerville, Ohio.
``You'll notice that their hands look a little funny,'' said Phil Hedges, pacing nervously near the beach at Atlantic Avenue and Laskin Road. ``It's the tan they get with the gloves.''
Bill Foley said, ``These kids have more nerve than I ever had in my life.''
Close to 4 o'clock, Bill Foley said he caught a glimpse of the bikers through a telephoto lens. They were about a mile away on Laskin Road.
Then, as they wheeled closer, the family members got really excited. ``There they are!'' ``That's them!''
``Can we actually get to the water from here?'' Rob asked after he'd greeted his family. He peered across the crowded Boardwalk and the garden of umbrellas and chairs on the beach.
The Goubeauxes said the best things about biking across the United States - as opposed to taking a train or an automobile - is the natural world. ``You can't smell all the wonderful smells - like the grass - on a train,'' said Jocelyn.
``The best thing is to feel the wind on your face,'' said Rob.
But the No. 1 experience is to stop in all the little country cafes along the way and talk to the folks you meet there, they said.
But it wasn't all fun and games.
As they neared West Memphis, Tenn., Rob suddenly heard a cracking sound and soon discovered that his bike frame had cracked. The Goubeauxes had to stay in a motel and send the frame back to California, then await delivery of a replacement.
But help was never hard to find.
When they just couldn't make it up a big mountain in Mesa Verde, Col., they hitched a ride with a man with a van. And when they were prohibited from riding through a tunnel in Zion National Park, a sympathetic camping couple took pity on them, went through the tunnel and unloaded their own gear, then returned to bring the Goubeauxes through.
And there were the dust storm in Oklahoma, the tornado in Arkansas, the snow in Colorado.
The travel routine involved four days of riding followed by one day of complete rest as they averaged 50 to 100 miles a day.
The couple will now break down their bikes and travel by car to Washington, D.C., then board a plane and head back west.
But they'd like to bike the East Coast or take the northern route from California east sometime in the near future.
The Goubeauxes are clearly in top shape, though Jocelyn says she believes she's probably the only person to ride cross country and gain weight.
``I was hungry all the time, and food has been our main objective on this trip,'' she said, looking up and down the Boardwalk to see what new taste treat Virginia Beach held in store.
The trip was ``just a trip around the block . . . a really long block,'' boast the shirts Jocelyn designed to mark the adventure. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
With their wheels in the waters of the Atlantic, Rob and Jocelyn
Goubeaux celebrate the end of their ride from the Pacific coast. by CNB