of the journey before mailing it to his family in Carpinteria. Lorenzo Martinez, the Panizzons’ mailman, read the notes and kept the town abreast of Marty’s adventures. “Everybody wanted to know where he was,” Martinez recalls. “I thought he was doing a great thing.”
The far-from-home cyclists created a spectacle everywhere
they rode. Newspapers wrote their stories, strangers offered them meals and the occasional bed, and Grand Junction, Colorado named them Tourists of the Week and treated them to an all-paid, two-day vacation from their trek. Pittsburgh offered one of the more memorable afternoons. After a climb over an unrideable tunnel followed by a nerve- wracking trip along the narrow edge of the Liberty Tubes, the riders were confronted by a State Trooper, “What the hell are you doing?” He ordered them to put the Torpados into the trunk and drove them to the station. Instead of handcuffs or a ticket, Panizzon and Rose were treated to hot showers and steaks with officers congratulating them on their unbelievable trip.
By Denver, the two had about 15 cents between them. Out-
side the city, they found an open ski lodge for tourists to use the lifts for hiking and the Rocky Mountain scenery. Panizzon and Rose convinced the owners to let them join the skeleton
pAnizzon bouGht A poStcArD
every DAy, FillinG it With neWS oF the Journey beFore MAilinG it to hiS FAMily in cArpinteriA.
crew for some quick cash. After a week, they each stuffed $65 into their pockets and climbed back aboard their Torpados. The $65 lasted them the rest of the way home. Well accustomed to gawking, flash bulbs, and newspaper
interviews, Panizzon remembers the return to Carpinteria as an anticlimax to the 3,200-mile journey. Riding into quiet Carpinteria, someone he knew asked off-handedly, “Hey, Marty, where you been?” It was another couple weeks before The Carpinteria Herald mentioned their successful return. In the following years, Panizzon’s spare time for hobbies became scarce while he raised a family and worked as an electrician. Retirement has cleared his schedule and rekindled his love of cycling. Rose, with whom Panizzon remains close, lives in Nevada. Panizzon’s contemporary cycling partner, Ric Castile, a man he calls a “tremendous athlete,” pushes him to regularly com- plete 200 to 300 miles a week at 73 years young. Since 2005, a carbon fiber frame Trek bicycle has become Panizzon’s mount of choice, but the Torpado—still in immacu- late condition and with all its original components—hangs from a revered place in his garage, a welcome reminder of a nutty adventure across the United States.¢
32 CARPINTERIAMAGAZINE
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