There Used to be a Guy... But He Died

by Alan Wilkinson

The sun blazes down on Main Street. The little old feller sitting outside the barber-shop hears a dry rhythmic squeaking and sees the stranger riding into town. On a bicycle.
The stranger lowers himself to the ground, grimacing. The old feller pauses, cigarette between his lips and a match in his hand. He pushes his hat back on his head, wondering what kinda darned fool is out in this heat.
The stranger asks, ‘Any idea where I can get this fixed?’
The old feller strikes the match on his boot-heel. Lights his cigarette. ‘We-ell,’ he says, and inhales deeply, ‘there used to be a feller.’ He lets the smoke out in a long slow plume. ‘But he died.’

For British travel writer Alan Wilkinson there’s only one way to get to know a place, and that’s the hard way. Here the author of The Red House On The Niobrara recalls his 630-mile trip across Nebraska on a borrowed bicycle. Heading west from the banks of the Missouri river, he makes for the Wyoming line and the state’s highest point, 5,426 feet above sea level. It’s an elemental experience as he’s broiled by a September heatwave, stopped dead in his tracks by a 55 mph wind, scarified by flying dirt, then chased by dogs and rescued by a cowboy. Along the way he considers the history of this Great Plains state, and his reasons for being drawn to it.

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 3, 2016

Reviews

[Nick Kovacs · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s not about the gear

Finally a cycle touring book that isn’t filled with gears, trade names, perfect clothes or insanely expensive trinkets but rather about the journey, the land and the intrigue.
If you want a “how to” pass this one by but if you want a “why to”, well you’ve found your Huckleberry.

[David H]

If he had been born a century earlier, British travel writer Alan Wilkinson would have thrown his saddle bags over a horse and headed out across the prairie. Sadly, since the Great Plains were settled and connected by tarmac and rails, he had to do his 630-mile trip, diagonally northwest across Nebraska, on a bicycle, his clothes, tent, airbed, water bottles and notebooks packed on the back.
Nebraska? Why would Wilkinson ride across a state that many (at least those who do not live there) consider flat and featureless, a state you drive across but don’t stop, except for gas and a motel?
Wilkinson is on a mission. Inspired by Western history and literature, especially the works of Nebraska writers Willa Cather and Mari Sandoz, he has traveled extensively in the western US. For him, Nebraska’s small towns, with their fading Main Streets and declining populations, have secrets to tell.
With wry humor and evocative images, Wilkinson skewers the romantic myth of life on the prairie. Through blisteringly hot summers and harsh winters, settlers defied an inhospitable landscape to plant and harvest, build homes, schools and churches. Most of all, they just survived.
Wilkinson is determined to be a survivor. Saddle-sore, his legs aching, and scorched by a September heatwave, he keeps pedaling, wondering why a “flat” state has so many hills. He is buffeted by high winds, pushed off the road by speeding trucks, chased by dogs. He counts the mile markers, calculating when he can stop and set up his tent in a city park, or occasionally splurge $30 for a motel bed and a shower.
Wilkinson’s book may not persuade many travelers to leave the interstate and explore Nebraska. But his account, drawing on research, reading and real experience in the saddle, provides an intriguing glimpse into the history, places and people of an often overlooked state.

[KT · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I agree with some of the magazine editors he’d approached: this story of a bicycle journey across Nebraska would have been more interesting with an overarching theme related to Buffalo Bill Cody. And I could hardly read past the parts where he mentioned that his teen daughter was ill and needing medical attention all by herself in a friends’ home back in Lincoln, and then he didn’t write about calling her, didn’t mention thinking or worrying about her. I sure worried about her! It rather spoiled chunks of the book for me.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice travel adventure about a bike ride across Nebraska.

[Deb Grove · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book. Greg bought it before our trip to Nebraska. The author who is British had visited Nebraska before and has been "enthralled" with the view of day-to-day life of small town America which he found in the small isolated towns in Nebraska. He decided to get closer to it by starting at the southeast corner at the lowest altitude of the state on the Missouri River and riding to the highest point, in the western panhandle corner with Wyoming and Colorado. His description of his daily ride was interesting to me for several reasons: I rode my bike many miles in Central Ohio when I was in grad school and loved the feeling of the miles flashing by; I also like small towns, some that are the same as they have been for many years and others that have been left behind; and I have enjoyed traveling through the Nebraska countryside. If you are looking for excitement and adventure, this book may not be for you. If you want to look over someone's shoulder and view different places than what you encounter in daily life, then you might want to pick it u