I was looking for something to read me off to sleep the other night and pulled “Travels with Charley” by John Steinbeck off the shelf.
Within a minute of cracking the cover, I was pulled back 25 years to the first time I read the book and found a voice that explained my desire to make a cross-country bicycle trip.
“When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age, I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping….”
He continues:
“When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. This to the practical bum is not difficult….”
Steinbeck goes on to justify his trip in search of America and leave behind friends and family. He then tells about his preparations and later his trip and the people he meets along the way.
This isn't a book about bicycle touring. It's the late '50s or early '60s. Steinbeck outfits a pickup truck with a camper on back. He names his rig Rocinonte, for Don Quixote's horse. The Charley in the title is his poodle, who accompanies him.
Even though it isn't about bike touring, Steinbeck travels like many bicyclists. The destination for him isn't as important as how he gets there, what he sees and who he meets.
When my friend and I took our cross-country bike trip back in 1984, we had the same goals — meet people, learn the land, see the sights. Even though we had a definite destination of Carlsbad, California, the 11 weeks it took us to get there describes our meandering path.
I'm glad I did it when I had the time. There's a lot of other people who have taken the time for long-distance bicycle tours. You can choose from more than 1,300 online bicycle tour journals at the Crazy Guy on a Bike website.
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