Patrick decided to do something more ambitious than all his English mates who just went to Australia for their "gap year" out of university. He bought an entire bike touring and camping rig, got a (paid, fancy) berth on a freighter for America, and started riding.

Becuase his freighter landed in Montreal in March he had an inconvenient (naive?) weather start working his way all the way down through New England while it was still basically winter there. But he charmed everybody he met and rode to Virginia, then headed west on the Trans-Am route and crossed the entire country.

But his real secret: He's riding a revolutionary and incredibly comfortable-looking recumbent tricycle (take a look in the pictures section for a picture of his rig). Everybody he met on the whole trip had to stop and talk to him about it. When the three of us were riding together the tourists just ignored Chris and me and went straight to Patrick to quiz him about his beautiful recumbent. I've got to get one of those!

Now he's ridden all the way across the US (and more) and hopes that prospective employers will look favorably on a young man who can take on a project like that... and complete it successfully.

Of course, with a personality like his, he'll have no trouble finding good work or with enjoying it.