Duo scoots across U.S.

Fearless septuagenarians finish cross-country trek in Times Square

Andrew S. Garib, METRO New York | Link | PDF | For these two friends, who have 143 years and 4,200 miles in the last month between them, it’s all about the adventure. Over four weeks, Buddy Rosenbaum, 71, and Bob Chase, 72, rode the length of America’s oldest cross-continental road, the Lincoln Highway, on their three-wheeled scooters — an age-appropriate and fuel-efficient upgrade from their fleets of past motorbikes — ending their tour yesterday at the highway’s eastern terminus: Times Square.

“I’m never more alive than when I’m on the road,” said Rosenbaum, a former psychologist who lives nearby on the Upper East Side.

It’s on the road that Rosenbaum and Chase, who met during a motorbike tour of South America’s Patagonia region 10 years ago, developed their special, complementary friendship. “He’s the uptight New Yorker, and I’m the laid-back West Coast person,” said Chase, a former executive.

Age hasn’t hampered this well-traveled duo, who have been on more than 40 two-wheeled journeys together taking them to Norway, the Orkney Islands and the Himalayas.

“You may have to get creative in finding new ways to express your passions, but you don’t have to give up,” Rosenbaum said.

On the little-known Lincoln Highway, which begins near Chase’s home in Freemont, Calif, the duo saw a side of America “99 percent of people never see,” Chase said.

“Biking keeps me going,” said Chase, who has been across America four times.

Their next trip might take them through Northern Canada and Alaska. End.