News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Elizabeth Renner in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. photo provided
Elizabeth Renner sang her way across America.
The Sisters music teacher set out May 11 to bicycle across the country. The experience of moving across 13 states at a self-propelled pace, soaking in not only the sights but also the sounds and smells of her country, inspired every train song, every song of the land she knew.
For she did not simply fly over or drive by the "amber waves of grain;" she got off her bicycle and walked through them, feeling their velvet touch.
That was in Kansas, perhaps the most unexpected delight of the 48-day trip.
"Before I left I was just dreading Kansas," Renner admitted.
Like most of us, she had a mental picture of a drab, flat, dry place -- an unappealing seven-day slog in an otherwise exciting trip.
But Kansas was beautiful, coming out of a drought in glorious green, splashed with a riot of colorful wildflowers.
"All the people who live in Kansas were saying it's the most beautiful it's been in years," Renner said.
Renner knows what folks were saying because she stopped to talk to them. For her, this trek across America was an opportunity to explore nooks and crannies you'd miss traveling by car.
She stopped at museums, she stopped in little stores and she took time to enjoy each of the 13 states she traveled across -- only one of which she had visited before.
The CrossRoads Cycling Adventures trip started in Los Angeles and wended its way east by northeast across the nation. Mechanics and support vehicles accompanied the riders to provide technical back-up.
For Renner, the route created a curious sense of time-travel, reversing the course of the nation's settlement.
She kept a detailed daily log of her adventures, which may still be accessed at http://www3.outlawnet.com/ bikelizabeth/.
Renner was one of 30 riders from all over the country making the trek.
She trained intensively at Sisters Athletic club for 10 months to prepare for the rigors of the trip.
She rode a recumbent bicycle, which has been her favored two-wheeler for eight years.
The recumbent offered one unexpected challenge along Route 66 outside Gallup, New Mexico, as her daily log recounts: Renner and a fellow trekker were riding side-by-side on smooth road "when he yelled 'Dog.' I looked around started to smile at this cute little dog running with us. Steve yelled again, 'Elizabeth, DOG!!! GO!!!'
"We went from 15 mph to 30 mph in a nanosecond and darn if this dog didn't keep up with us for over a quarter of a mile!
"My recumbent puts me in jaw range of most canines and I didn't much like the idea of being his afternoon appetizer. I cursed Rich and Ross when they made us do our 'stomps' in spin class, but I guess it paid off today!"
The slow-paced journey across the middle of the continent gave Renner -- who has always lived on the edge of the U.S. -- a different perspective.
She was struck by the tremendous sense of motion as trains, planes and automobiles flowed through and above the midlands of the nation, heading from one end of the country to the other.
There were few mishaps on the 3,500 mile journey --some tough days and some easy days... virtually all of them good days.
"It was easier than I thought (mentally)," Renner said. "You just had to get on your bicycle and pedal."
She found the demands of the trip strangely relaxing -- with the day's route laid out and the mission clear, the riders just focused on their bike and the countryside.
"You're forced back to the basics, yet you don't have to make any decisions," Renner said. "It's really a fantasy world."
Renner was even fitter and more enthusiastic at the end of the trip in Boston, Massachusetts than she was at the beginning.
"Except for missing Jon (Renner, her husband) and petting the dogs, I could have easily gone on another seven weeks," she said. "That pesky Atlantic Ocean got in the way."
After the joys of this trip, more treks are definitely in the cards, Renner said.
"There will be something," she said. "But not now. I don't know what it will be."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)