Last summer, the Pedouin family – that’s parents Bill & Amarins and daughters Cheyenne, Jasmine and Robin – hoped on their bright yellow five-seater bicycle and set off from Kentucky, bound for Alaska.

Now, after nearly 7 months of determined pedalling, they’ve reached the Pacific Ocean and are turning north. There are still many miles ahead, but I loved the description on their blog of the moment when they reached the ocean:

“Words cannot express how we feel inside when we finally see the ocean. Lack of comprehension on our side results in lack of expression. We ride the final yards full of high spirits and pride.”

Their story, which I discovered on Biking Bis, is an inspiring one, for anyone who’s thinking of travelling with kids.

Of course, the trip hasn’t always been easy. They’ve had 19 flat tires so far in some 6,000km of pedalling and sometimes the terrain has been challenging as they try to propell over 600 pounds of bike, gear and riders up hills. In one journal entry, near the beginning of their trip, they write:

“Another curve, another hope that we are to the top. Crushed again, we still need to go up and up and up. We hit a wall today. Our muscles have left us, we don’t want these mountains anymore. We give up pedalling for a while and resort to pushing it around the next curve.”

The difficult moments soon fade, however, and I’m sure this family will reach their goal of arriving in Alaska this summer. Once they do, the plan is to stay for a year to experience life up north.

“We will discover the way the Alaskans live. Enriching our lives with the exposure to new customs and traditions.”

I’ll be watching to see how they go on their way up north and you can follow along too on the Pedouin Blog.