A couple of summers ago, Associated Press Calvin Woodward rode the campaign trail, covering hopefuls for the Democratic presidential nomination.
This past summer he took the TransAmerica Trail, riding his bicycle some 4,000 miles cross-country from Washington DC to Newport Beach, California.
What did he find? Adventure. People with dreams. The solitude of back-country roads. He writes:
One astonishing thing about this trip is that it can be done at all in this day and age.
In this land of congested suburbs, clogged highways and city clatter, it's possible to go from Washington, D.C., to the Pacific on roads less traveled.
The route is stitched together from lonely backroads and byways, bordered by farms and meadows. The silence is often vast, broken only by the wail and thunder of the freight train, still the signature sound of America.
Woodward's piece “AP takes a backroads US bicycle journey” tells some of his experiences in each state along the route; most involve the people he met.
What struck me about Woodward's piece is how little things have changed in the 25 years since my friend and I rode cross-country. The increasing Asian and Hispanic immigration into stable communities is one thing; a woman downloading gospel songs off Yahoo in Kentucky was another (few personal computers and no Internet access in 1984).
But everything else, the dogs, the terrain, the helpful and the curious people are all still around.
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