Danish Immigrant Museum receives a special donation from Denmark – a bike with a story

Across Oceans, Across Time ….. From the Artifact Collection —

In August of 2012, Lars Toft Rasmussen began his six-week, 3124 mile trip across the United States – on a bicycle. Rasmussen, a 58-year-old reporter for TV2 in Denmark, decided to make the trek from Mill Valley, California where he had been an exchange student between 1970 and 1971 all the way to Washington, D.C. As he put it, “I was headed for the same goal as that of Obama, Romney and all the candidates for Congress: The capital of the United States.”

Rasmussen limited his luggage “to a few essentials – credit card, tooth brush and a few other items – which I carried in a small backpack. In order to secure an adequate power supply for my iPhone and iPad on the lonely stretches of the Western part of United States, the backpack was equipped with solar panels. I also mounted a small rack with a bag on the bike in order to be able to store enough water for the desert. All in all, I was able to carry about 1 1/2 gallons in this way. At 90 degrees F and 10 percent humidity, this turned out to be sufficient for about 70 miles, which was the maximum distance between towns.” Navigation was done by relevant pages of a road atlas and occasionally the GPS on his iPhone.

TV2 ultimately funded much of the trip in exchange for Rasmussen reporting along the way. He wrote articles for TV2’s website and did television news reports upon his return.

One of Rasmussen’s many stops along the way was The Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa. Executive Director John Mark Nielsen visited with Rasmussen as he toured and suggested that the museum would be interested in obtaining the bike for its collection once the trip was over. Rasmussen said he would consider it if Principia, the Danish manufacturer of his bicycle, would give him a new ride. Principia agreed. The bike that carried Rasmussen across the U.S. arrived back in Elk Horn recently, just in time to be displayed as a portion of RAGBRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, passed through Elk Horn bringing with it about 4000 cyclists.

Speaking about his interest in cycling, Rasmussen said, “Like almost all Danes, I was introduced to bicycling at an early age. I just never stopped riding.”

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