Student's Parents Visit New College
After Pedaling the Long, Winding Road

(April 10, 2007) – First-year student Taylor Kennedy's parents arrived on the New College of Florida campus today, visiting Sarasota from Missouri. It took the couple 10 months to get here.

Greg Kennedy and Marguerite Quirey arrived on bicycles, having pedaled from Manhattan, Kansas, to Montana to Oregon to Southern California, then back across the country to their cycling journey's end in Sarasota.

Earlier in the day, the Quirey-Kennedys made a phone call to the Peace Corps to accept their invitation for volunteer service for two years in South Africa. They'll start two months of Peace Corps training in July.

Taylor and his parents drew a crowd in New College's Hamilton Center Tuesday afternoon as the student proudly introduced his helmeted parents to friends and other passersby.

A couple of empty-nesters, the Quirey-Kennedys sold their house in Warrensburg, Mo., before heading out on two wheels to visit their three sons: one, a graduate student at the University of Montana in Missoula; another, a graduate student at the University of Southern California; and Taylor, their youngest, a first-year student at New College who spent a year working for Habitat for Humanity between high-school graduation and college.

Greg, 57, retired from the University of Central Missouri after 25 years as a college professor, and Marguerite, 54, worked as a mother, a computer programmer and a consultant for the local school system and at UCM.

All totaled, the couple spent about six months aboard their bikes, mostly camping along the way. They had a two-month layover in Montana before heading west over the Rockies to Portland, Oregon. They spent Christmas in Los Angeles, then headed for Phoenix with Taylor, on Christmas break, covering the leg on a bike that was later donated.

The Quirey-Kennedys, who first met at Florida State University when he was a Ph.D. student and she was a master's degree student, made several stops along their route through Florida to visit some of Marguerite's FSU roommates from her undergrad days.

"It was safe," Marguerite said of their journey, "and people have been wondrous." And, in wonder. She said they met many others making cross-country trips, and others who were envious of their journey.

The trip wasn't completely without hazard, and both bikers are believers in skull-saving helmets. Marguerite had a couple of spills, and Greg, who trailered much of their gear behind on a cart, took a header on a downhill run along the Pacific Coast, then had trouble remembering what had happened. Headed to his brother's California home anyway, they made it a weeklong layover to rest.

"I'm OK now," Greg said. "I think it was a minor concussion."

The couple will be in Sarasota for a week and plan to visit both of their mothers before heading off to the Peace Corps. After training in South Africa, Marguerite will serve her two years as an educational consultant for rural schools and Greg will serve as a capacity builder for nongovernmental organizations dealing with HIV-AIDS.

For the trip home from Sarasota to Missouri, they are renting a four-wheeler. With an engine.

New College student Taylor Kennedy with his parents, Marguerite Quirey and Greg Kennedy (left to right), in the Hamilton Center at the end of the couple's cross-country biking adventure, soon to be followed by a tour with the Peace Corps in South Africa.