If you enjoy reading my Alaska to Mexico blog, this book might be worth a look. Kinda sounds like us...except in 1909! It is called Two Wheels North: Bicycling the West Coast in 1909.
Two boys on a bike trip are sure to find adventure. Send them off into the wilds of the American West, and it's a safe bet adventure will find them. (Its true! That is what this whole blog is about! Except it doesn't have to be boys necissarily. Just sayin.)
Evelyn Gibb, Vic's daughter, has drawn on his recollections to tell this incredible adventure in his voice. A captivating account of a journey that today we can only dream about, "Two Wheels North" has won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nonficiton Book Award.
This is on my "to read" list now. If any of you readers out there have already read it, leave me a comment about what you thought.
In 1909, Vic McDaniel and Ray Franciso, just out of high school, set out from Santa Rosa, CA., on second-hand bikes, bound for the great Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle.
Vic and Ray reported their adventures to their home-town newspaper, and what adventures they had. They met their share of memorable characters, from a young girl who stole Ray's heart to pin-striped hustler who tried to pick Vic's pocket. They traveled beside railroad tracks, fought their way around boulders and up brushy hillsides, and crossed rivers layered with salmon. They survived a grizzly's nocturnal visit and the sudden terror of a snake bite. They held their breaths crossing railroad trestles over treacherous canyons, and discovered that a railroad tunnel doesn't offer safe passage when you're halfway through and a train comes along.
Vic and Ray reported their adventures to their home-town newspaper, and what adventures they had. They met their share of memorable characters, from a young girl who stole Ray's heart to pin-striped hustler who tried to pick Vic's pocket. They traveled beside railroad tracks, fought their way around boulders and up brushy hillsides, and crossed rivers layered with salmon. They survived a grizzly's nocturnal visit and the sudden terror of a snake bite. They held their breaths crossing railroad trestles over treacherous canyons, and discovered that a railroad tunnel doesn't offer safe passage when you're halfway through and a train comes along.
Evelyn Gibb, Vic's daughter, has drawn on his recollections to tell this incredible adventure in his voice. A captivating account of a journey that today we can only dream about, "Two Wheels North" has won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nonficiton Book Award.
This is on my "to read" list now. If any of you readers out there have already read it, leave me a comment about what you thought.
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