COUPLE BIKE THEIR WAY TO NEW ORLEANS

Melvyn King and his wife, Debbie Clark, are spending their vacation on a trip through the Midwest. The couple left Minneapolis June 24 and hope to arrive in New Orleans July 18 -- not bad time since they are traveling by bicycle.

The biking duo -- dressed in white, long-sleeved, sun-protective clothing with hats that have a French Foreign Legion-looking neck drape in the back and a tiny rearview mirror attached, rolled into Cape Girardeau Monday afternoon via Ste. Genevieve on U.S. Highway 61.

We didn't have a support vehicle with us until Hannibal, King said.

King and Clark, who live in Cortland, N.Y., were pulling a 65-pound trailer, but decided to let the support vehicle do that job after pulling it from Minnesota to Missouri.

The support vehicle is a van with two other bicycles on top. It is driven by Clark's sister, Leslie Wood, and her husband, Patrick, and King's mother, Susan Warner, all of New Jersey.

King steers the custom-built 105 pound, 24-speed bicycle with a handlebar comfortably attached at each side.

The riders lean back in foam-cushioned seats rather than in the upright or forward-leaning positions of regular bikes and racers.

"You still have to pedal; it's still a lot of work," Clark said.

The $4,000 bike, called a Ryan Duplex, also known as a Tandem Recumbent, is one of about 105 bikes ever made in the U.S. by Dick Ryan of Hamstead, N.J.

"We average about 70 miles per day. At least that's the hope," King said.

King is a psychology professor at State University of New York at Cortland, and Clark is a psychologist who has her own practice.

They bicycled with a group of 70 riders across the U.S. two years ago from Seattle to Asbury Park, N.J., and have biked throughout New England and England. They have ridden three tours in Ireland.

King and Clark say they haven't had much trouble other than the 90-plus-degree heat and having a rear tire blow out in Minneapolis.

"We stay to the smaller, quieter roads," Clark explained.

"Almost everybody is so friendly. People stop and jump out of their cars to take a picture of us, Clark said."

King and Clark decided to stay in Cape Girardeau Monday night. They will cross the Mississippi River bridge Tuesday to travel south on Route 3 to Cairo and then on to Memphis.

"We get to see tiny towns that you would never stumble into with a car," King said.