The Utter Folly Tour Has Hit The Road:

A Long Bike Ride Home For Faith & Peter Vicinanza

By Shannon Hicks

“An aging husband and wife leave behind the predictability of their lives — follow them as they complete the first unsupported East Coast Greenway Key West To Canada Thru-Bike,” reads a postcard from Faith and Peter Vicinanza.

“All they need is money, a sense of humor, and no place else to be for 100 days,” it continues. “At least they have a sense of humor.”

The Newtown residents have a lot more than that: They have a great sense of adventure, and many miles to go before they can get back off their bicycles.

Last year the Vicinanzas began reading up on, watching a film about, and listening to tapes about, hiking the Appalachian Trail. The two began preparing a six-month journey.

The more they prepared, however, the more they decided a hiking trip was not the thing for them.

“On my way to work this morning, I realized how much I love to bike, how long it has been, and how much more fun that would be than carrying a 70-pound pack, hiking in snow and rain ... and sleeping on the trail for six months,” Mrs Vicinanza wrote on December 14, 2004, the day she and Peter launched  their first folly website, TourDeVicinanza.blogspot.com, which announced a new project: a bicycling adventure from Key West to just inside the Canadian border.

The couple has decided to ride the East Coast Greenway, a 2,600-mile automobile free, bike-skate-walk path being created by The East Coast Greenway Alliance.

According to ECG records, the Vicinanzas will be making the first unsupported trip along the route, meaning they will have no support van or other assistance following them. They will have only the clothing, money, and other supplies that they can carry themselves. They will be bicycling with a small PC and a digital camera, and carrying as little else as possible.

The Vicinanzas will be posting on their website daily (now changed to www.UtterFolly.com), and she will be adding at least a haiku a day — “or biku as day, as a friend of mine wants me to put it,” she said in January.

The daily postings include the town they will be leaving from each morning, miles completed, each day’s weather, the daily haiku (or biku), the cost of regular gas in the area they are passing through (on Monday: $2.24 in Connecticut vs $2.06 in New Jersey), and the day’s grunge factor on a scale of one to ten.

Monday, departure day, was not bad, according to that day’s posting. They gave themselves a 1.

“We were in the car most of the day except when we were cleaning the house and packing. We didn’t even break a sweat, well maybe a little one while packing, and packing, and packing,” Mrs Vicinanza wrote Monday evening.

The website also features a link to the couple’s ongoing trip-related blog, which they began adding to regularly back in January. Visitors can catch up on the planning, packing, coordinating, and gentle nudging that has been going on between the couple during the early stages of the trip.

UtterFolly.com’s posts will also include daily photos, accident reports (Monday: “Nothing to report — I hope we say that 100 times”), a favorite quote, daily recommended reading, a dedication of each day’s ride (Monday was dedicated to Faith’s late brother), an expression of gratitude, and the combined weight of the Vicinanzas.

The couple plans to add video and audio clips by the time they start pedaling on Sunday.

Additionally, Mrs Vicinanza will be filing reports to be published in The Newtown Bee and she has also been invited to send poems from the road to www.poetz.com, a poetry resource website based in New York.

On Their Way

The fun has really started. The Vicinanzas left Newtown late Monday afternoon, headed south, where they planned to spend a few days at the home of some friends in Key West. Peter will celebrate his 65th birthday on Saturday, April 30, and then the bike trip begins on Sunday, May 1.

The trip will include more than bicycling and posting. Their itinerary is already posted online, and they have special appearances and programs that they have to show up for to help keep them moving.

Their schedule includes a conference call to the East Coast Greenway Alliance board of trustees’ meeting on Sunday morning before they hit the road.

On May 16, when they will be in St Augustine, Fla., Mrs Vicinanza will be the featured poet at PoetSpeak, a regular series at Backstreets Coffeehouse in St Augustine.

They expect to reach New York City by July 1, and then on Independence Day Mrs Vicinanza will be a co-featured poet at Bar 13’s LouderMONDAYS poetry series. Six days later she will be one of the poets in Block Island Poetry Project: Second Annual Music & Poetry Festival.

By mid-July the Vicinanzas will be back in the Newtown area, but just long enough to make an appearance as the featured poets at the Wednesday Night Poetry Series in Bethel and then start pedaling toward Providence, R.I.

Even after the trip is concluded, some time between August 2 and 5 in Calais, the Vicinanzas have follow-up plans. “The Faith and Peter Road Show” will be featured at a meeting of The Connecticut Authors & Publishers Association (CAPA).

Mrs Vicinanza’s nickname is “The Connecticut Poet.” She is the longtime editor of The Connecticut Poetry Newsletter, has published a number of chapbooks, and is the co-author with Joan Gleckler of my not-quite-blank book. In January of this year Mrs Vicinanza was selected by a national panel of poets and editors to be honored by Pudding House Publications’ “Poets Greatest Hits” series. The Newtown resident joined a list of only 200 poets across the country who have been so honored since the inception of the program in 2000 by Jennifer Bosveld, the founder and director of Pudding House Innovative Writers Programs & Library, which includes Pudding House Publications.

One of Mrs Vicinanza’s most visible projects is The Wednesday Night Poetry Series (WNPS), the longest running weekly poetry series in the state. It regularly features accomplished poets and new voices from around the world, and offers an opportunity for poetic discourse with the featured poets. Now entering its tenth year, WNPS now meets every Wednesday night at Bethel Arts Junction, at 5 Depot Place (in the town’s former railroad station). The series is organized by Mrs Vicinanza and Michael Seri, who also lives in Newtown.

Last weekend friends and the couple’s immediate and extended family of supporters and friends gathered at Bethel Arts Junction to offer Farewell and Good Luck wishes to the Vicinanzas.

“I’ve already created my first haiku for the road,” Mrs Vicinanza said with a twinkle already in her eye. “It goes like this:

“Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff.

“Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff.

“Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff,” she finished, surrounded by laughter. “That’ll be a good one for our audio link.”

Peter was just as animated. The couple will be updating their website, which was created a few months ago to drum up support (financial as well as morale), but one guest on Saturday was surprised that the Vicinanzas would be working while traveling.

“You’re going to be posting from the road?” said one young lady.

“Well,” started Peter, smiling, “not while I’m cycling.”

The Vicinanzas, and The Bee,­ will keep everyone posted on this wonderful  folly.