Drivers speeding down Highway 20 on Whidbey Island slowed to stare at two people riding something different.

The pair were riding recently in a quadracycle, a four-wheeled pedal-powered machine that seats two people and a cargo carrier on the back.

For one of the riders, the trek down part of Whidbey Island was the latest stop in a journey that stretched for thousands of miles. Paul Everitt, 28, from Grimsby, England, started riding his four-wheeled contraption in Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 29 and traveled across Canada to Victoria, before beginning his trek down the West Coast of the United States.

“I needed a bigger challenge, so I thought I’d ride across Canada,” Everitt said earlier this month while taking a quick break near San de Fuca. Prior to his current adventure, he rode his quadracycle, which he designed and built, across Europe.

He only recently started cycling in the United States. While in Bellingham, he picked up a passenger, 29-year-old Ian Steger, a friend he met in New Zealand several years ago. Steger spent several days pedaling with Everitt before returning to his job in Bellingham.

Steger and Everitt traveled on the shoulder of Highway 20 on their way to the Port Townsend ferry. From there, they planned to ride on Highway 101 toward Mexico.

He has a website, www.going-solo.co.uk, established to document his journey. In addition to highlighting his travels, he also has links established allowing people to donate to veterans’ assistance organizations — the Wounded Warrior Project in the United States, the Wounded Warrior in Canada, and Help for Heroes of the United Kingdom. He was inspired to raise money for wounded soldiers by his friend who serves in the armed forces in the United Kingdom.

Everitt said he prefers the four-wheeled machine to a bicycle. It has been a spark for conversations in the towns he’s visited which has made for a more enjoyable journey.

“It opens you up to things you normally don’t see. It seems to capture people’s hearts,” Everitt said.

Meanwhile, he continues his travel down the West Coast. He said he doesn’t have a set schedule and is open to suggestions from anyone he encounters. Everitt does have a deadline, though. He wants to cross into Mexico in January; that’s when his visa expires.

He is already thinking about his next journey. Instead of a quadracycle, he said he hopes to use a raft, which he will use to sail down the Mississippi River, “Huck Finn-style.”