Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
my bike in the back of his station wagon. We chatted amiably as he ferried me over the
worst stretch of road and set me on my way here to Biggs, which turned out to be, yes,
more or less a crossroads, but also an I-84 truck stop town, where I found a bed for the
night and the first truly bad meal of my journey. (For the record, it was an open-faced
turkey sandwich, with that pale, gluey gravy we all know so well from our high school
cafeterias.)
The town, such as it is—I couldn't make out much more than gas stations, motels, and
a restaurant—lies on a plateau just above the Columbia, but the only route upriver from
here on the Oregon side is the interstate. There's a bridge to Washington here—I can see
it from my motel—and I'll be crossing it in the morning. It's a little scary-looking, and I
don't know what Highway 14 on the Washington side is like; I've heard it's rideable but
has truck traffic. I'm facing a long day. There are no places to stay for a hundred miles
or so, and I'll have to cross back over the river again late tomorrow to find a bed.
After dinner tonight, I found a note in my email from a reader in Walla Walla, Wash-
ington, where (fingers crossed) I should be landing in a couple of days. He has invited
me to his home for dinner with him and his wife, and I'm thinking this would be a good
time to try a little face-to-face reader interaction. It won't get any more convenient than
this; after all, I'll be riding pretty much past their front door. (How big can Walla Walla
be?)
On the other hand, I also heard from Thus Spake the Dancing Scorpion again. Here's
what he wrote:
“In the words of Lin Yutang, 'Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is
the noble art of leaving things undone.' Why was it necessary, Webber”—jeez, pal, can
you get my name right?—“to repeat an experience, once done, one more time? Was it
merely boredom? Lack of imagination to go forward? You, an experienced writer and
chronicler of deaths, should know more than most that the wisdom of life consists in the
elimination of nonessentials. And this bicycle junket is most certainly nonessential. It's
something best left undone. Clinical shrinks have unpleasant things to say about senti-
mentality. Finally, I find it more than curious that of the thousands of readers of the
New
York Times
, only my postings have been a critical voice regarding your ill-advised beha-
vior. The only critical remarks have been about the amount of money you paid for a nice
shiny bike in Manhattan. Reader interest seems to be only for their own vicarious ego-
centered interests. Get off the road and go back to work writing obituaries. The sooner
the better.”
Now, I like the idea that leaving things undone can be as noble as doing things. (It's
sort of obvious, though, isn't it?) I had to look up Lin Yutang, and it surprised me that in
spite of the Confucian tone of the quotation, he was actually a twentieth-century Chinese
