‘It’s Been An Awesome Journey’ In His Cross-Country Rickshaw Walk, Allie Stevens Has Been Attacked By Wild Pigs, Bitten By A Brown Recluse And Run Over By A Police Car. But He’s Not Complaining. By Brad Goins
YEARS AGO, Allie Stevens ran a profitable limousine service, hauling wellheeled clients all over Chicagoland. All of that ended in 2007, when Allie’s wife died of cancer. Allie knew he needed to mourn. And he wanted to mourn on a long dock by the ocean. He traveled until he came to Oceanside, Calif., whose name, he felt, must indicate a proximity to the ocean. He figured right. Oceanside boasted a 2,000-foot-long dock that ran right over the ocean waves and accommodated the popular Ruby’s restaurant. It was on this dock that Allie sat for three months, fishing as he mourned the loss of his wife. He fished and fished until he wore out much of his tackle and was obliged to
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LAGNIAPPE
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go to a swap meet to get some more. It was at this meet that Allie saw his future — in the form of a big red cart. He was actually looking at part of an old horse carriage. Suddenly he was struck by a thought — “I need to stop this mourning.” It was time to do something. First, Allie had to haggle to get the $160 red cart. Part of the deal was that the carts’ owners would sit in the cart as Allie pulled them from Pasadena (the site of the swap) to East Los Angeles. Whether he realized it or not, this was Allie’s very first rickshaw ride. As Allie transformed this old horse carriage into his first rickshaw, he put a karaoke box in the cart. On the dock, he