‘Moving forward cures all ills’
Print Edition
A cross-country bicycle trip, like an end to end hike of the Appalachian Trail, is usually a one-and-done experience, a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that doesn’t bear repeating.
Not so for Bruce Weber, a longtime reporter for The New York Times who at age 57 decided to reprise the coast-to-coast ride he took 18 years earlier, blog along the way and make the journey the focus of his latest book, “Life Is A Wheel.”
After flying to Portland, Oregon, to pick up the US$8,000 bike he shipped from New York, Weber set out from coastal Astoria on a 4,122-mile ride that took him to 15 states over 101 days.
For readers who haven’t pedaled the roads for a while, the author lays out the familiar agonies and dangers of long-distance cycling: steep, muscle-straining hills, fierce head winds, speeding truckers, roads with narrow or no shoulders and choppy, debris-strewn pavement.
But magnificent vistas that elevate Weber’s spirits help compensate for the pain. Even after he bonks for the first time in 90-degree heat in the scrublands of eastern Washington, he abides by his mantra that “moving forward is the cure for all ills. Keep pedaling.”
Weber’s trip is a solitary exercise, but the advent of the cellphone and the Internet make it far less lonely than his 1993 ride when pay phones were his only link to the outside world. “One day you’re a Flintstone, the next a Jetson” is his take on the technology leap today.
The long hours in the saddle gave him ample opportunity for reflection, enabling Weber to share thoughts on life and death, of which he is intimately acquainted through his most recent work as an obituary writer.
This delightful book is sure to appeal to cyclists who may harbor dreams of pedaling from coast to coast. But any reader simply looking for a well-written and entertaining travel story filled with insightful thoughts about life, family and aging will not be disappointed.
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