LA PINE — Two legally blind cyclists are pedaling their way from the bottom of South America to the top of Alaska, hoping to show that severe vision impairments can’t slow them, or others like them, down.

The 18-month ride will be 17,000 miles in all, said Tauru Chaw, 42, during a coffee break Monday afternoon in La Pine.

“So far we have gotten to 12,000 miles, so we only have 5,000 miles to go,” he said.

Chaw and his girlfriend, Christi Bruchok, 32, on Monday rolled from Chemult to Sunriver. They plan to make it to Bend today, where they plan to stay for a week. They are set to give a presentation for the Bend Sunrise Lions Club before they get back in the saddle.

The talk at noon Friday at Jake’s Diner, 2210 N.E. U.S. Highway 20, is open to the public, said Russell Chase, the club president. He said the club was interested in hearing what they had to say for a simple reason.

“The fact that they are legally blind and have been traveling that far,” he said.

The journey began Jan. 19, 2012, at Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the duo said. It is set to end this July at Deadhorse, Alaska, on Prudhoe Bay. The pair are financing the trek with some help from sponsors.

They ride a tandem with a trailer, carrying camping gear and enough food for up to a week and a half, depending on how far the next town is on the road. The set-up weighs about 150 pounds. They average about 10 miles per hour.

This is the second time the couple has set out on a big adventure on a bike. In 2009 they rode from California to North Carolina, a 3,200-mile “test run,” as Chaw called it. Before that, the longest ride on the tandem, which they bought off the Internet earlier that year, was a three-day ride near their home in Phoenix.

While they kept the cross-country trek quiet, they have been telling folks all about their latest ride at each stop. Many of those have included visits to schools for the blind. There they offer messages of encouragement to the students.

Bruchok said those include: “Don’t let others decide what you can and can’t do,” and it is “not a question of if you are going to do something, but how you are going to do something.”

Bruchok is the stoker, providing pedal power in the second seat. Chaw is the driver, steering the bike up front. They said they are able to see the road together by combining what vision they have, making up for what the other is missing.

Bruchok was born with severe myopia and is now completely blind in her right eye. What she does see out of her left eye is blurry. Chaw has a genetic degenerative disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which over the past decade has cut off his peripheral vision. What he sees is like looking through a toilet paper roll, as he describes on their website. Bruchok helps guide him into dimly lit restaurants when they come in from the bright outdoors.

Their website is called twoblindtoride.org, a play on words and a jab at their naysayers. Before their ride Chaw said the couple heard many people tell them that they were simply “too blind to ride” that far.

They’ve ridden through hot deserts, bustling cities and now are bracing for the cold ahead. Oregon is offering them an unexpected preview of the chill. They both said they thought the state would be warmer this time of year. While they are camping most of the way, they have gotten occasional time out of the tent.

In Chemult, they spent a warm night at the Dawson House Lodge, where they were given a room for free. They said they’ve encountered such kindness all along their ride. Another example was only 65 miles away, in La Pine, where the manager of the Sugar Pine Cafe gave them free cups of coffee and kept the cafe open a little longer than normal so they could warm up.

They are set to stay until the end of the week in Bend, with Dewain “Dewey” Davidson, 84, and his wife, Bonnie Davidson, 65. Dewey Davidson said he learned of Bruchok and Chaw when they contacted him on warmshowers.com, a website that links long-distance cyclists with free places to stay.

He said he admires the couple’s sense of adventure and wishes he had done something like their ride himself.

“I would have, and probably could have, and should have, but I didn’t,” Davidson said.

The couple has been together eight years and used to work at Intel, where they met. After learning he was going blind, Chaw said they decided to go on adventures around the world. Along with the cross-country trek and the current ride, they’ve gone to Nepal for mountain climbing. After this, he said, they’ll have to go back to work.

At the cafe in La Pine, Chaw had another message to add after Bruchok listed her messages for students at schools for the blind.

“Adventure is the spirit of life,” he said.

If you go

What: Presentation about 17,000-mile ride by a pair of legally blind cyclists

When: Noon Friday

Where: Jake’s Diner, 2210 N.E. U.S. Highway 20, Bend