Pilgrim Wheels by Neil Hanson Q&A!

Pilgrim Wheels is a Reflective Memoir on Discovery, People, and Place by cyclist Neil Hanson. Please Join me today in a Q&A session with Neil!!

What was the original inspiration for your bicycle trip across America?

I wanted to take a bike ride. A long bike ride. Hundreds of miles, just me and my bike. Why? No particular reason, it just sounded like a neat thing to add to the checklist of “fun and exciting things I’ve tried.” The idea became an adventure. An adventure to plan for and to move toward. A box to check off. Eventually, I was clipping into my pedals in Monterey, California, pointing south along the coast on a beautiful summer day, discovering America and me.

The trip didn’t take shape to be a journey of discovery. I wasn’t trying to heal from a lost job, or a failed relationship, or trying to discover myself. I just wanted to ride my bike a long ways, with a really open mind, to see how I did riding 100 miles a day, day after day.

But then things evolved a bit, and I began to discover more about me, about my journey, about the people I met. About America. It didn’t start off as any sort of pilgrimage or deep journey, but rather as a bike ride. But it morphed into this journey that discovered me, and a pilgrimage I didn’t really expect.

How far did you travel on this journey and did you deviate at all from the route you’d originally planned?

Total distance was just over 3300 miles, just under 125,000 vertical feet of climbing. My average rolling speed was 14.2 MPH, the lowest temperature I rode through was 35F, and the highest temperature I rode through was 119.

My route did evolve as I rode, sometimes due to road closure, and sometimes just because I felt like trying something different. This book takes me up to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, which is almost exactly halfway, though Kansas is probably where I deviated from my route more than anywhere else.

What surprised you as you began your journey across the country?

The first surprise was how easy the routine and the travel came to me. I joke a lot about how it was just riding a bike—climbing into the saddle and peddling—but that really is a great description. By the time I got to my second or third night out, I had just fallen into this nomadic routine that worked really well for me.

That little surprise also speaks to the nature of the adventure that this story represents. Too often, we think of adventure as some wild and wooly ride down some class 5 rapids in a raging river. While there were a few “wild and raging” moments I found along this road, the vast majority of what I classify as the adventure of this journey came from the steady nomadic rhythm that became my daily life, quietly pedaling through something completely unknown, discovering an interesting new person around the next bend in the road.

Are there any moments that stand out as being especially meaningful or emotionally transcendent as you travelled?

Beginning in the lush forests of Big Sur, climbing over the coastal range, then spending a couple of days drawn further and further toward the Mojave, really set me up for the depth and meaning I found out on my own in the deserts. Standing on the side of a deserted highway in the Mojave, not long after sunrise, feeling the power and vastness of the desert around me, swallowed in the silence, was one of those moments I write about in the book. Another was the afternoon ride through the heart of the Sonoran, mesmerized by the sensual dance of distant dust devils in the wind, fascinated by the cars disappearing into the shimmering heat of the asphalt in front of me as oncoming cars would appear out of that amorphous mirage.

If someone were to propose a trip like yours, what advice would you give him or her?

First, take the time to decide what it is you’re looking for in a ride. I really like the general route I took, although in hindsight, I probably would make some small changes. What I love about my route is that I was able to find some really fine roads to ride on, I saw a wide variety of landscape, and I feel like I really experienced the heart of American culture.

Second, I can’t stress fitness enough. Be sure you’re fit to complete whatever distance you’re setting out to ride. I’ve read several accounts of cross-country trips where a good percentage of the joy was lost until the rider slowly became fit enough to do the ride.

Third, I’d recommend thinking hard about the “style” or riding you want to do. Do you want to be fully loaded and self-sufficient or minimalist? One of the things I noticed in the accounts I read of other cross country trips was that sometimes folks didn’t think this through a lot. It’s easy to overlook, and my “pack” dwindled considerably as I rode, learning more as I went about what minimalism really meant. Too often folks burden themselves with lots of gear, mostly because that’s their “vision” of touring on a bicycle. Many of them then end up spending a fair number of nights in motels anyway, and eating at diners.

6. How has this journey changed your impression of our country? Do you feel the same about America as you did before you decided to bicycle across the mainland?

I grew up in Kansas, a product of Midwestern kindness. So I pretty much expect most people to be kind and generous. Even with that as a starting point, I was continually humbled and heartened at the generosity, kindness, and true concern that I encountered from people across America. Sure there were some rude drivers, along with a few other exceptions, but generally I was overwhelmed by the goodness and camaraderie people shared with me. From the young woman I met at the airport in Monterey to the old rancher who pulled over and gave Dave and me ice cold water on a 100+ degree day in Kansas, the goodness in people warmed my heart.

Are you working on a sequel to Pilgrim Wheels? If so, what can you tell us about it?

Pilgrim Wheels takes the reader up to Medicine Lodge in western Kansas, and the next book will take the reader from Medicine Lodge out to Annapolis on the east coast. From the time I left the Big Sur coastline in California, all the way across the western half of the country, I was nearly always riding in some form of “The West.” The landscape varied from semi-arid to deep desert, the air was always dry, the views and landscape big and sweeping.

But Medicine Lodge is where that changed. I swept down into Medicine Lodge out of the big Medicine Hills, with vast views across landscape that is iconic American West, and emerged riding east into increasing humidity and rich farmland. From that point all the way to Annapolis, the journey took me through various forms of the “Old America,” one made up of lush farmland, deep woods, humid air, wide rivers, and more history.

Centennial, CO – Award-winning author and cycling enthusiast, Neil Hanson, announces the release of Pilgrim Wheels: Reflections of a Cyclist Crossing America (ISBN 978-0982639122), a travel memoir about the first half of his 2011 journey by bicycle across the United States. Hanson is the recipient of three 2010 EVVY Awards, including 1st Place – Inspirational, 2nd Place – Non-fiction, and 3rd Place –Spirituality, from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association for his first nonfiction book, Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty (ISBN 978-0982639108). Pilgrim Wheels has received a Runner Up designation in the General Non-Fiction category at the 2015 Great Southwest Book Festival and an Honorable Mention in the same category at the 2015 Los Angeles Book Festival.

In May, 2011, Neil Hanson announced to friends at a wedding reception in Colorado that after he left the dinner, he’d be climbing into a rental car, driving the car to Monterey in California, and riding his bicycle back through Colorado and then east 3,500 miles across the United States. His original intention was to make the trip as a kind of bucket list dream, a just-for-fun, once-in-a-lifetime escape for adventure and fun. What he discovered instead as he made his way across the U.S., is that this was not just a simple journey; he discovered himself as he pedaled across the remote and winding roads that traverse our magnificent country.

Pilgrim Wheels reveals an inspirational story of journey, discovery, and place, told from the saddle of a bicycle as one man pushes and pulls on the pedals, rolling down the highways of America. Hanson’s bicycle ride becomes a canvas for his incredible journey, a pilgrimage of wonder as he explores the people along the path, the obstacles he faces, the pain he endures, and the boundless joy he achieves as he completes the first half of his travels in the humid farmland east of Medicine Lodge, Kansas. A beautifully written and reflective memoir, Pilgrim Wheels provides a glimpse into the sweetness of physical achievement, the inspired awe that comes from the sheer beauty of our country’s majestic back roads, and the warmth and love shared by the people who welcome Hanson into their lives along the way.

“I originally wanted to take a long bike ride, mainly because it sounded like a neat item to add to the checklist of fun and exciting things I’ve tried,” said Hanson. “But, as I planned my trip, the idea morphed, evolving into a two-wheeled adventure from the west coast to the east coast. By the time I sailed out onto the Great American Desert of the Southwest, I felt the journey becoming deeper, quieter, brighter. As I left Twentynine Palms in California, I was swept across a brightly burning Mojave Desert by a scorching desert wind. I knew then that this trip had bloomed into something unexpected, and that I was free-falling into a pilgrimage full of peace and discovery.”

An award-winning author and native of Kansas, Neil Hanson received his B.A. in Psychology from Kansas State University and has worked as a carpenter, mason, truck driver, waiter, cook, bartender, landscaper, furniture mover, salesman, ranch hand, draftsman, manager, and executive. At one time, he owned a trucking company and has held positions at the corporate level and as a consultant for financial services, logistics, and defense contracting firms. He is currently employed as project manager at Kaiser Permanente. An inveterate traveler, Hanson has visited Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Italy, Mexico, and Canada, and has traveled through all fifty U.S. states. Besides being avid cyclist, Hanson also enjoys walking, gardening, birding, hunting, fishing, and reading. Hanson is the recipient of three 2010 EVVY Awards from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association for his first nonfiction book, Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty (ISBN 978-0982639108). He currently resides in Centennial, Colorado, which he now calls his permanent home.

For more information on Neil Hanson or Pilgrim Wheels, please visit: www.neilhanson.com or www.amazon.com.