Nate Baker sent a note (no return address) to my mail drop in Colorado in June 1997. He wrote that after we parted ways in Illinois, he rode up to Minnesota and would spend the rest of the summer with relatives. In 1998, he planned to continue his cross-country ride and arrive at the coast of Oregon at the beginning of summer. He said he'd be praying for me.
Wyeth spent three years out in Sheridan, Wyoming after he finished his and Jeff’s cross-country adventure, working at the Sheridan Daily Press. While there, he met a lovely woman named Donna who became his wife on May 25, 2002.
Abbey and Bill flew home safely from Denver in July '97 after their month-long jaunt through Kansas and Colorado. Bill is happily sailing his sailboat in Florida; Abbey graduated from college and is now working at a sports club in Connecticut.
Roel Mazure reached San Francisco on August 25, ’97. He is currently alive and well in the Netherlands, and in October ‘98 I visited him and his girlfriend Claudia in their new apartment in Rotterdam.
Alice and Dale reached Eugene at the beginning of August, and prepared to ride to the coast the next day; friends and family had planned a welcoming party in Florence. But pedaling out of the city, Alice’s bike hit a pylon, sending her sprawling onto the shoulder. Although she went to the hospital, she escaped with only bruises. Her bicycle wasn’t so lucky—it landed under the wheels of a thundering semi truck, which pretzeled the wheel and the rear half of the frame. Her helmet broke in two pieces at the force of impact, and since it was still under warranty, Bell Helmets, Inc. sent her a little card along with replacement headgear: “Welcome to the Saved-by-the-Bell Club!” At the end of August, Alice mounted her bike again and she and Dale officially completed their ride across America.
Lili and Jack reached the Washington coast at the end of July 1997. In December ’98, we finally got together and shared two evenings of pictures and stories and memories of our trips across the country. In the spring of 1999, they visited Jeff and me in Jeff's apartment in Virginia, and we got to host some real, live bicycle tourists in our living room. Luckily, we remembered how much food bicyclists can eat, and we made an adequately large bowl of pasta.
Charles Wagner, the quiet man with whom I rode through some of Colorado and most of Wyoming, never wrote to me. The letter I sent to him was returned, “no known address,” but I saw his name in several logbooks and I assume that he finished his trip in Oregon.
I met up with Jesse and Daniel in Eugene before camp. They rode in on schedule, despite some mechanical difficulties that necessitated hitchhiking for a day. After NBTSC, Jesse traveled for a year, and now lives in Eugene, OR with his wife and baby. Daniel went back to his family’s ranch, where he is currently working, building a house, and happily snowboarding.
And lastly, the kitten that Abbey rescued is living with the Peach family in Rush Center, Kansas. “…Originally named ‘Princess,’ we soon found out that ‘she’ was a prince,” Susan wrote. “We have renamed him Matt the Catt.” In the accompanying photograph, Matt looks happy and healthy quite a bit larger than when he rolled up to the Peaches’ in my handlebar bag.