From the Library: Old Man on a Bicycle

 I believe quite a few people ride across the country each year. I also believe that of those people, a quite small number are over the age of seventy; most are likely considerably younger. Author, and transcontinental bicyclist, Don Petterson, had not ridden a bike in more than thirty years, and had only picked up his Cannondale touring bike nine months before setting out on his solo journey. 

This book reads like a journal because most of it is, pages directly from his daily ride journal - incidentally, I told you those things come in handy; i can't believe how many things from rides done thirty years ago I have forgotten. Anyway, supplementing the journal entries are other personal observations about riding and aging, as well as clarifications of some of what was originally written in his journal. The book reads a little different from other similar transcontinental rides, because the author did the ride differently - he carried neither tent, nor sleeping bag, stove nor fuel. Instead he slept indoors and ate out each morning and evening, and seemed to celebrate each day closer to his destination with a congratulatory beer at whatever local establishment was within reach. After seventy years of successful living on the planet, that ain't such a bad way to travel.

Petterson, Don   Old Man on a Bicycle: A Ride Across America and How to Realize a More Enjoyable Old Age   Denver, CO: Outskirts Press, 2014