Breathtaking: How One Family Cycled Around the World for Clean Air and Asthma

Geared up with two tents, six panniers, two tandem bicycles and one stuffed pink pig, Paula and Lorenz Eber set off from Seattle, Washington to cycle the world with their two daughters, eleven-year old Yvonne, and her thirteen year old sister, Anya. Their dream: to pedal in a complete circle around the world using a carbon free, environmentally friendly way to travel. Their goal: to raise awareness of asthma - a disease that Paula has suffered from her entire life - and the world’s desperate need for clean air.

Breathtaking is the exciting and inspiring true story of their adventures. Readers follow the Ebers across Europe, Asia, the South Pacific and North America as they raise their daughters around the globe. School is conducted outdoors on mountaintops. The responsibilities of parenting have been expanded to include hunting for an English copy of the latest Harry Potter book. And family togetherness takes on a new meaning as the Ebers must work together to survive a 100-degree heat wave in Italy, drug smugglers in Russia, a broken foot in New Zealand and a tornado in the U.S. Yet, as the family pedals farther and farther away from home, they realize that the greatest challenge they face is the journey that they must undergo within themselves.

The Ebers returned home twenty-four countries and 14,931 km (9,332 miles) later - raising ＄65,000 for the non-profit organization, World Bike for Breath. They spoke about clean air and asthma to more than 150 newspapers, magazines, and TV stations, including Time for Kids, NPR, and PBS’s Roadtrip Nation. They are the only family on record to complete a full circumnavigation of the world by bicycle.

Paula Holmes-Eber, Ph.D. is the author of six books and more than 50 magazine articles, chapters and poems (see select list of publications). A frequent contributor to Adventure Cyclist and the League of American Bicyclists Magazine, Paula has published over twenty articles on cycling and adventuring as a family. She is director of Bike for Breath (www.bike4breath.com) a business with a social purpose: to inspire people to travel by bicycle, promoting clean air and a healthy environment so that all of us can breathe. She is also the president of Squeaky Wheels, a non-profit bicycle organization, where she collaborates with state and local organizations to promote cycling. In her professional life, Paula is an anthropology professor at the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Lorenz Eber, P.E. is an aeronautical test engineer who currently works at Amazon. In addition to his passion for cycling, he is a private pilot, a sailor, and a photographer. His photographs have appeared in numerous books and magazines, including Time Magazine and on the cover of Adventure Cyclist. His photographs have won the People’s Choice Award at the Seattle Bike Expo as well as several other contests. For the past five summers, Anya Eber has led hiking and biking trips through Europe for the outdoor adventure company, Backroads. She is currently working on her doctorate in Criminology at the University of Oxford in England. Her thesis focuses on protecting art and archaeological treasures from illicit trafficking around the world. Yvonne Eber worked for two years as a maternal-infant care nurse for Nurse Family Partnership in impoverished Clark county, WA, where she assisted low income and homeless pregnant women and mothers. She recently began her Doctorate in Nursing at OHSU where she will be studying pediatrics and global health.