The Book Cellar – Joy Ride: A Bike Odyssey from Alaska to Argentina

Ville & Kristen Jokinen will be presenting about their bicycle odyssey from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Bahia Lapataia, Argentina. Two- years and over 18,000 miles, they will tell stories, show a short video and have time for Q&A. We hope to see you there!

Joy Ride details how explorers Kristen, a real estate agent from Oregon, and Ville Jokinen, a financial analyst for Toyota in his native Finland, met scuba diving in Vietnam and fell in love. After hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from California to Canada they decided their next adventure would be a two-year cycling trip covering 18,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina, despite never having cycled other than around the block. Only their starting and ending points were planned, in between was navigated daily by their sense of adventure and intuition. Locals in Mexico, Central America, and South America allowed them to camp in their fields and farms, invited them into their homes and families and acted as tour guides. Kristen and Ville held babies, attended quinceañeras, drank pulque, played soccer, and visited schools. They persevered unrelenting, punishing rain and wind, altitude sickness, dog attacks, bike accidents, and countless flat tires to cycle between the ends of the earth.

Ville and Kristen Jokinen move through the world with a sense of curiosity and belief that kindness connects us to our shared humanity. Well-timed following a global pandemic, Joy Ride reconnects us to hope and the inspiration to pursue our wildest dreams.