During my commute this morning, I spotted two riders on a semi-recumbent tandem pedaling College Avenue between Rider Auto and the intersection for Science Park Road. Naturally, my interest was sparked because, really, you don’t see bikes like Gareth’s all that often. I couldn’t tell during my drive-by if it was a Hase Pino or a Bilenky ViewPoint. While I was tempted to pull over, hop out, and see it up close, I figured the couple was on a long tour (based on the number of panniers hanging off the bike) and didn’t need some random schmoe stopping them to ask questions.

Later in the day, I was adding some tags to the photos of Gareth’s Pino and accidentally searched for “Hase Pino” across all of flickr. Suddenly, there it was! The bike I had seen in the morning, same bags, same riders! Turns out the couple that I saw are engaged in a tour of all 50 United States. Their goal is to visit the geographic center of each state, which would explain why they were in Centre County.

It is essentially a two year trek around the country. That sounds pretty awesome, but I don’t know how anybody could sit on an upright seat for that long. I know I certainly couldn’t. And this is why if Gareth ever asks me to tour the country on the Pino, I’m going to say, “Uh, no.”