by Jonathan Zukosky Canandaigua Messenger August 17, 1987 He calls himself a “high-tech nomad” who crosses the country in a “220-pound electronic cottage on wheels.” He is Steve Roberts, a free lance writer who has been biking across America since 1983 in ever-evolving, high-tech fashion. It’s easy to believe Roberts when he says his is the…

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This was just a brief snippet from western New York, as we were enroute from Buffalo to the Finger Lakes and Ithaca. Local newspapers would often get wind of our passage and send a photographer to meet us on the road; this one had almost no accompanying story. That little mirror trick in the photo,…

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This story in Gram News from Batavia, New York, describes our visit with a delightful ham couple in August 1987. What Are High-Tech Nomads?by Deb Johnson – KA2VTY Well, on Thursday, August 13, at Syd’s house, we had the pleasure of meeting Steve KA8OVA, and his girlfriend, Maggie Victor, KA8ZYW. They had just hit the…

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It’s easy to forget how much we had to busy ourselves with the low-level hardware just to get a net connection… physically connecting to phone lines, dealing with bulky and sometimes error-prone acoustic couplers, long-distance dialup to the nearest network node (making connect-time charges even worse). The cable in the photo above was an essential…

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After Maggie and I left Columbus (the second time), we pedaled northeast through a brutal Ohio summer and turned right at Lake Erie. Every day or so, we chatted with local media, but this one stands out in my mind for the cute photo… and the maple syrup farm of our host. Ohhh, the yummies……

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Cyclist Magazine cover, August 1987

A visceral, intense day of bicycle touring… this was first written on November 29, 1986 as Chapter 14 of my Miles with Maggie series. by Steven K. Roberts Cyclist Magazine February, 1987 Do you ever read published tales of long-distance touring and wonder what it really feels like to be out there, exposed to the…

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by Steven K. Roberts Pymatuning Lake, Ohio side 12,819 miles August 1, 1987 The most effective way to make it rain is to pitch camp. For eight riding days, the sun has baked our hot flesh into sweat-glistened tan, streaked with the stark white of belly wrinkles and tinged daily with a hint of fresh…

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Marion, Ohio, was Maggie’s home town… and the local paper followed her story with occasional updates from the road. This is a shift in perspective from most of the newspaper articles in this archive; she is the star! We were on our way northeast on the second leg of the Winnebiko II adventure, and stopped…

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The blazing-hot summer of 1987 saw us heading northeast from Columbus, resuming the adventure after tidying up things in my old home town. This local news article captured a snapshot of this phase…. by Susan Dice Mansfield News Journal July 26, 1987 MT. GILEAD — Just as a turtle carries his home on his back,…

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Part of my series in Computer Currents during the Winnebiko II epoch, this celebrates the magic of packet radio… data communications on the ham bands while mobile. This technology was an early hint of what we now take for granted, with a computer in every pocket! In those days, exchanging messages with others required a deep…

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