Barney’s journey started at the University of Florida, where she received a degree in telecommunications in 2012 and became a filmmaker. Barney returned to campus on Oct. 23 to show her documentary “Cycling the World” in the Reitz Union Auditorium.
An audience that included UF soccer players, cycling enthusiasts, students, professors and familiar faces — former Gators soccer coach Becky Burleigh introduced Barney — turned out for the event presented by Great Storytellers.
I was unaware of Barney but attended the presentation to write about Barney’s visit to campus. Watching her documentary was so inspiring that it is easy to understand why she won an Emmy for her work.
In addition to her films, McKenzie has produced work for National Geographic and interviewed high-profile people such as rock stars, politicians and athletes. Despite all those experiences, Barney said her story truly began when she eventually realized that she was telling other people’s stories before she knew her own.
To discover her story, Barney started shedding the layers of her identity by going thru-hiking. Thru-hiking is long-distance end-to-end hiking, during which you are in the woods for months. Thru-hiking showed McKenzie that she wanted to understand more about the world and see all the cultures on this planet.
That’s when her journey switched to cycling.
Barney decided to cycle across Vietnam in less than 30 days, going from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi. When she made the decision, Barney didn’t have any formal training.
She used to cycle around campus at the University of Florida, but traveling by bike across a foreign country is from another world.
Barney played soccer for the Gators from 2008 to 2012, and she said her athletic background helped her become physically and mentally fit for her adventures after college.
To complete the task, Barney flew into Ho Chi Minh with just the clothes on her back, bought a used mountain bike and started to cycle north. The trek took her 22 days, and impressively, she completed the journey solo.
Barney was not ready to put away her used bike.
She embarked on another adventure after Vietnam, cycling from Istanbul to Amsterdam. She said she wanted to make the trip to prove that she could…
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