Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
it, that the story I wanted to tell hadn't fully percolated. I know now, of course, that
that's because the story I was contemplating was my own.
Bicycling, the way I think of it, is solitary, and if it's going to stand for anything in a
narrative, it might as well be the solitary experience of being alive. That's a bit of high
and mighty ambition, I guess. But why not? I've now got almost twenty more years of
living and twenty more years of thinking about it.
There's another thing, too: For the past three years I've been writing obituaries, each
morning arriving at work and trying to condense the life of someone else into a coherent,
meaningful—and interesting—story. Sometimes I succeed and the dead come alive—I
say that fully aware of the wordplay—or are at least recognizable to the people who
knew and loved them. But sometimes either the details don't coalesce into a whole or
they don't add up to much more than a résumé and a list of grieving survivors. I'm feel-
ing both challenged and ready now to focus that task inward, especially without the
pressure of a daily deadline, and the cross-country journey as a narrative spine, as a con-
trolling metaphor, strikes my writer self as worthy. In other words, in one sense I'm do-
ing this again to consider why I'm doing this again.
Here's something that's already different from the last trip and that has me both surprised
and curious. People are already checking in, both in the comments on the newspaper's
website and in emails to me personally, with some rather forceful opinions, and I'm find-
ing myself provoked by them, inclined to respond.
How should I react to the feedback to what I'm writing while I'm still writing it? How
deaf should I be to compliments and complaints? Say I listen to good ideas and accom-
modate them or take criticism to heart and adjust my thinking. I wonder: Is using read-
ers this way, as editors before the fact, interesting? Is it good for the topic? Is it kosher?
Anyway, here I am still at the very beginning—before the beginning—but I can
already start to parse my readership and, like a politician scanning the polls, begin to
recognize where my sympathizers and critics come from. The readers who accept what
I'm saying at face value—about myself, the trip, my bike—seem compelled to applaud
and offer sincere advice.
Matters of uncertainty for me have included where, exactly, to begin pedaling and
in what direction. Tips have been pouring in on these issues, and my volunteer coun-
selors are divided. Some say head east from Portland up the Columbia River gorge to
Hood River, then cross the Columbia into Washington and ride in the direction of Walla
Walla. Others tell me the Washington side of the Columbia is preferable. Another option:
I could go south into central Oregon and then turn east toward Bend. Or I could begin
