Interview with John Clevenger - The "Procrastinating Pedaler"

Name: John Clevenger

Family Members: My household is my girlfriend and I. No pets, but outside are various critters such as bunnies, quail, sometimes ducks in the front yard and the Canadian geese that live around here all year long and make their morning and evening flights into and out of the park nearby

Age (be as vague as you wish): No need to be vague, I'm 62. You either get older or you don't and so far I've chosen getting older. It's certainly been fun and interesting

Where are some of the places you’ve gone with ExperiencePlus!?: Before I found ExperiencePlus I went on bike trips to the Azores, Portugal, and Ireland. With ExperiencePlus I've been to Corsica and Greece

Where does your love of the outdoors come from?: I suppose it was just the way I grew up. As kids, my brother and I were always playing outside, and my family went on lots of camping trips all over the U.S. and western Canada. I also spent many summers on my grandparents' farm which meant working outside a lot. When we moved to the Oregon coast, I thought my parents had taken us to heaven because I was always on the beach, waterfront, or the jetty

Describe your perfect day outdoors: It's probably on a bike tour in some place that I've only read about before. What a wonderful thing. Someone takes your bag to the next place you'll be, marks the way, and you get to spend all day going out to play, explore, meet new people, and see and do things you've never done

Where is your favorite travel destination?: So far it's been Greece. The pictures show me with my biking buddies on the ferry leaving Zakinthos and we're all crowned as winners in Olympia. But I'm certainly not done with these adventures yet, so some future trip may top that

Do you have a movie or book recommendation?: I love reading and movies, so this might be a little long. I'm interested in how things work and came to be, usually from a new or different perspective, so on a large scale I found Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" fascinating. Smaller focus books I've enjoyed are "Salt: A World History" (Mark Kurlansky), "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" (Mary Roach), "The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance", "The Book on the Bookshelf" (Henry Petroski), and "The Victorian Internet" (Tom Standage). My favorite novels are by Ivan Doig, for example "The Sea Runners" and "Dancing At the Rascal Fair" and the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian. For trips I always try to take an "airplane" book, preferably a science fiction one about time travel

I'll just list my two favorite movies: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Young Frankenstein."

Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know: I'm a chemistry professor and sometimes on long rides when I'm slowly climbing a hill and being passed by everyone I've been called the "happy chemist". Since I'm usually one of the last ones in, it proves I'm happy without "performance enhancing" additives. But less well known is that in high school and college I did a lot in speech and theater. The amazing high school teacher that got me started in all of that was Rick Price's mom! The picture shows me trying out my oratory skills in the famous theater at Epidauros

What’s your favorite ride or hike in your hometown?: The ride I do almost everyday in the summer, my friend calls "John's Verdi Meander". It's about a 30 mile loop and includes the new bike path part of the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway which means now we don't have to ride along the free way. In the picture of the Bikeway, I'm the large orange object on the right of the picture bundled up in my winter riding outfit. I also do a lot of rides with my local bike club the Procrastinating Pedalers. One of the most spectacular is the ride over the Old Donner Summit highway and bridge. That's not me on the bridge, but the picture shows what it's like

What’s one outdoor activity that you’d like to take up?: I used to cross country ski a great deal. But biking became addictive, so now I do that all year around. Since 2000, I've almost ridden my bike the distance around the earth. The squirrel on the front hasn't gone quite that far. It's in commemoration of the one that I accidentally ran over and to warn the other squirrels that I assume their avoidance skills are better than mine and that I'm going to hold the line. I guess when I'm too old to ride, I'll probably continue hiking and walking.

What’s one outdoor activity that doesn’t interest you in the least?: Way back in college I took a course in golf. After trying to hit that little rock with those big wooden clubs and avoiding the saber tooth tigers (it was a long time ago!) I was convinced that golf wasn't in my future

Describe the greatest adventure you’ve yet to take: It's called life and so far the journey has been mostly fun and certainly always interesting. In terms of travel, I'm looking forward to a lot more biking trips, but don't know yet where they'll be

Anything else you’d like to share with us?: Well, in that first picture, I'm not really doing what at first you may think I'm doing. I'm just gazing out of a ruined cathedral in Ireland and living up to the name on the jersey - Procrastinating Pedalers of Reno-Tahoe