"Planet Backpacker" Release and Book Signing Today!

excerpted from the Traverse City Record-Eagle, "Book Review: Trek brings world into view," by Tom Carr, Nov 2, 2008

"It had always been my dream to travel around the world," said Bob Downes, 56, of Traverse City. "I didn't want to be on my death bed thinking I never did that," he added.

Bob Downes pedaled a 20-year-old mountain bike throughout Europe and Asia about a year ago and wrote a book about his experiences. "Planet Backpacker," published by The Wandering Press, is due out early this month. The book will retail for $13.95.

Downes made the trek alone with a backpack and a backpack-size guitar to experience parts of the world he'd never visited. He took four-and-a-half months to make the trip from September 2007 to January 2008.

He says he wrote the book in 100 Internet cafes around the world and he writes of his experiences and of the interesting people he met throughout the trip.

He found there were "thousands of backpackers in the Third World, but practically no Americans. It was kind of a shocking thing," he added.

Downes publishes a newspaper called Northern Express, Northern Michigan's largest newsweekly.

There will be a book release party at 5 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Right Brain Brewery. He will have a book-signing and presentation from 1-3 p.m. Nov. 29 at Horizon Books.

See Northern Express
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