“Due to the pandemic, it’s not been possible to travel and see the world. But now, the world has come to us.”
That’s a paraphrase of a sentiment expressed by one Kansan as he described the benefit of improvements made to the bicycle facilities in his community. These improvements have welcomed people from across the globe.
Last week we met Donna Krug, district director and family and consumer sciences agent for the K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District in Barton and Ellis Counties. She and her husband John live in Great Bend.
Donna grew up on a farm near the rural community of Washington, population 1,131 people. Now, that’s rural. “We had a tandem (two-seater) bike when I was a kid,” Donna said. After she and John married and had kids of their own, they rode bikes as well.
“We had always been a biking family,” Donna said. In 2000, she and John purchased a tandem bike for themselves. Bicycling became a passion.
“We’ve put 75,000 miles on our tandem bike,” Donna said. “We’ve ridden in every Kansas county and every one of the contiguous 48 states,” she said. While it’s not possible to ride a bike across an ocean, Donna still has hopes of riding a bike in Hawaii.
