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Over the Hills: A Midlife Escape Across America by Bicycle
David Lamb's journey--on a sleek 21-speed touring bicycle--carried him 3,145 miles, from his home near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., all the way to the pier in Santa Monica, California. The result is a highly personal account of coming to grips with middle age in the tradition of Howell Raines Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis .
Lamb did no training for his cross-country feat, failed to curb his addiction to either cigarettes or junk food, and along the way encountered an America all but invisible to those unfortunate travelers held hostage by the interstate. The journey took him three months, and Over the Hills is the magnificent a literary travelogue, funny and celebratory, a story about people met and physical challenges overcome.
Lamb did no training for his cross-country feat, failed to curb his addiction to either cigarettes or junk food, and along the way encountered an America all but invisible to those unfortunate travelers held hostage by the interstate. The journey took him three months, and Over the Hills is the magnificent a literary travelogue, funny and celebratory, a story about people met and physical challenges overcome.
254 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
2 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
David Lamb
79 books20 followersDavid Lamb's work has appeared in numbers publications, from National Geographic to Sports Illustrated. He has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, an Alicia Patterson Fellow and a wrier-in-residence at the University of Southern California. Lamb is the author of six books on subjects as diverse as Africa and minor league baseball. His most recent book is "Vietnam, Now: A Reporter Returns". He is a member of the Maine Newspaper Hall of Fame.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
December 31, 2019
In 1995 the author, David Lamb, decided to take two months away from an established career in journalism, valiantly unplugging from direct deposit, and in order to sojourn across the continental US on an aging bicycle. He did most of the ride solo and unsupported, armed only with his wit and charm - this was before the widespread use of cellphones or Google Maps - and when it was over, he captured the experience in this delightful memoir. It's an entertaining mix of anecdote, bicycle lore, and recent US history, a self-propelled variation on William Heat-Moon's Blue Highways. i highly recommend this book to anyone interested in aging well or touring the USA from the dynamic equilibrium of a bicycle seat.
June 26, 2012
I read this years ago, long before I ever thought of riding across America. Found it intriguing then but how much more now that I can relate to his experiences-- note, of course, that he did it long before there were so many cross country riders-- he says that he met only six other bicyclists along the way. He did it self-supported (motels), without training and without giving up his cigarette habit. Although I didn't ride solo, I agree with his assessment:
Bicycling solo across the America is a low-risk, doable challenge. The fact that so many people I met thought it was an impossible undertaking perhaps had more to do with how little adventure and uncertainty they were willing to accept in their lives than it did with my own daring...
Being an oldish and fattish woman who has accomplished this trip twice, I believe that it is something anyone can do if they have the spirit to do so and are willing to undergo some temporary suffering!
Bicycling solo across the America is a low-risk, doable challenge. The fact that so many people I met thought it was an impossible undertaking perhaps had more to do with how little adventure and uncertainty they were willing to accept in their lives than it did with my own daring...
Being an oldish and fattish woman who has accomplished this trip twice, I believe that it is something anyone can do if they have the spirit to do so and are willing to undergo some temporary suffering!
February 2, 2009
Far from an elite athlete, the author undertakes a cross-country bicycle trip and chronicles it with the sharp eye of an experienced journalist.
Nothing really extraordinary happens, but Lamb's description of the ordinary is captivating. For instance, his trek through the bleak, headwind-laden Oklahoma panhandle seems at once dreary, but his account of it makes it mysteriously alluring.
In the end, Lamb concludes that crossing the country by bicycle was not that big a deal. If a non-athletic, middle-aged smoker could do it, then most anyone could.
The trip didn't change him or make him a better person. He admits, like Kerourac wrote, that this undertaking was simply driven by an urge to "sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere." Thankfully, he deftly wrote about it.
Nothing really extraordinary happens, but Lamb's description of the ordinary is captivating. For instance, his trek through the bleak, headwind-laden Oklahoma panhandle seems at once dreary, but his account of it makes it mysteriously alluring.
In the end, Lamb concludes that crossing the country by bicycle was not that big a deal. If a non-athletic, middle-aged smoker could do it, then most anyone could.
The trip didn't change him or make him a better person. He admits, like Kerourac wrote, that this undertaking was simply driven by an urge to "sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere." Thankfully, he deftly wrote about it.
March 29, 2008
David Lamb is raising the cycle touring writing level. Lamb has been nominated 8 times for Pulitzer prizes as a journalist & foreign correspondent for the LA Times. Now he writes about his southern tier tour of the USA. I have done many extended tours In USA and in England so I know the kind of conversations and views that are met on the road. This tale captures the fell the best of those I have read. Clearly he comes to this as a writer before a cyclist but like any god journalist he does his research. This books speaks to me as a life long cyclist and as a two wheel tourist.
October 29, 2024
I always love an adventure book about someone journeying across America. I found this in a re-sale shop and it spoke to me then, and even more as I was reading it. You must know that this was published in 1996, so he did his journey in the mid 1990's so his observations reflect that point in time.
David Lamb, an LA Times international correspondent based in Washington DC was dreamer. He thought that if he travelled just a few miles from his home in Virginia, his dream of biking distances would be satisfied. No. He set off on a cross country journey, vowing to do every mile via bicycle. His wife thought him insane, but nonetheless supported him. His aim was to see the country, and meet the people in sections of the country that he probably would never have met.
Riding solo on the country's highways and byways (sometimes seeking to retrace Route 66), leaves you a lot of time to think as you pedal.
Traveling near Roanoke VA, he encountered a town that the economy left behind.
"Troutville had an air of vanished prosperity. It was almost as if these communities were marking time, daring the fates that had claimed so much of Main Street, USA, They no longer offered a refuge to the traveler because the hotels and restaurants and gas stations had closed and relocated along the ramps of the interstates. Even the downtown barbershops and hardware stores were disappearing, and in their place stood tanning salons and video stores." (note: this was the 1990s when video stores were prevalent. Not anymore.) "The transition saddened me. For a person rooted in the city, I had always felt strangely at ease in Small Town America, but moving through it now on a bicycle, I saw something I had not seen before from a car's window: The horizon of isolation. It was a spiritual, not geographical, thing, and it moved with me down the road, through each little town where the young men were gone, and the women who stayed behind had grown plump, and even in the best of times. scratching out a living was a hard day's work."
On the animosity of people towards someone riding a bicycle:
"Though I could count the number of dolts I had encountered since leaving home on the fingers of one hand, I was mystified as to why the sight of an adult bicyclist raises the hackles of so many motorists and people of limited mental capacity. Back in Virginia one dimwit had tossed a beer bottle at me from his pickup, and a friend who used to commute to work by bicycle in Fairbanks, Alaska, told me how passing drivers delighted heaving bottles that smashed on the pavement just ahead of their tires, making flats unavoidable. Every biker has similar stories and they all involve beer bottles and pickups. At first I thought we were targets merely because we share the road and cause delays. Then I thought it was because we look funny in our tight shorts and multicolored jerseys and pointed shoes. Or because we are a symbol of frivolous idleness astride what is viewed as a child's plaything. In the end, the answer, I decided, was simple: Alone on the road, we are defenseless, and the drivers who hurl bottles and take pleasure in giving us fright with high-speed, close-in passes are the grown-up version of the bullies we remember from school who only picked on kids too weak to fight back. I've never heard of a biker being taunted by just one man in a car; it always takes two."
Along the way, reflects on the history of regions, such as those that were long-ago Native American lands, and, the Louisiana Purchase and westward expansion (Manifest Destiny) and how Laughlin, Nevada came to be. He takes similar tangents like author Bill Bryson, and you come away with a greater understand of lots of things.
And this on traveling on, what was once the great Route 66:
"America, cars, the open road--this is what we think of when we talk of America," he said. (Angel Delgadillo, a barber in Seligman, who is the president of Arizona's Historical Route 66 Assoc.) "Your history is here. Going west. The Dust Bowl. Small towns. Restless energy. This is the image of America I've always had, being able to do exactly what we're doing now. Being on 66 is like watching a documentary. I just wish I could have rented a convertible."
Says Lamb:
'It was a romantic view and one I did not quibble with. Though Route 66 has become an almost generic term for road life before the interstates--and thus lives on the nostalgia for days that were slower, more innocent and not without trust--the highway is a symbol of a nation's westward experience and it does warrant a communal nod of recognition. I had traveled it from Seligman to Kingman three times before--in a car, in an RV and as a hitchhiker--and could remember many of its bends, its abandoned roundhouses and shuttered Harvey House restaurants run by the railroad, its closed one-room schoolhouses and Mobil gas signs of a flying red horse, blowing idly in the wind. But on a bicycle, 66 looks different, does not feel light a ghost road. Instead of seeing what was dead, I was cognizant of what was alive--the towns themselves that, after all, had not given up, the hardy desert flowers and the cacti that held secret stocks of water, the breeze and sunshine and smell of cattle in the autumn air.'
I loved this book, and looked up David Lamb on on Wikipedia only to find that he passed away in 2016.
David Lamb, an LA Times international correspondent based in Washington DC was dreamer. He thought that if he travelled just a few miles from his home in Virginia, his dream of biking distances would be satisfied. No. He set off on a cross country journey, vowing to do every mile via bicycle. His wife thought him insane, but nonetheless supported him. His aim was to see the country, and meet the people in sections of the country that he probably would never have met.
Riding solo on the country's highways and byways (sometimes seeking to retrace Route 66), leaves you a lot of time to think as you pedal.
Traveling near Roanoke VA, he encountered a town that the economy left behind.
"Troutville had an air of vanished prosperity. It was almost as if these communities were marking time, daring the fates that had claimed so much of Main Street, USA, They no longer offered a refuge to the traveler because the hotels and restaurants and gas stations had closed and relocated along the ramps of the interstates. Even the downtown barbershops and hardware stores were disappearing, and in their place stood tanning salons and video stores." (note: this was the 1990s when video stores were prevalent. Not anymore.) "The transition saddened me. For a person rooted in the city, I had always felt strangely at ease in Small Town America, but moving through it now on a bicycle, I saw something I had not seen before from a car's window: The horizon of isolation. It was a spiritual, not geographical, thing, and it moved with me down the road, through each little town where the young men were gone, and the women who stayed behind had grown plump, and even in the best of times. scratching out a living was a hard day's work."
On the animosity of people towards someone riding a bicycle:
"Though I could count the number of dolts I had encountered since leaving home on the fingers of one hand, I was mystified as to why the sight of an adult bicyclist raises the hackles of so many motorists and people of limited mental capacity. Back in Virginia one dimwit had tossed a beer bottle at me from his pickup, and a friend who used to commute to work by bicycle in Fairbanks, Alaska, told me how passing drivers delighted heaving bottles that smashed on the pavement just ahead of their tires, making flats unavoidable. Every biker has similar stories and they all involve beer bottles and pickups. At first I thought we were targets merely because we share the road and cause delays. Then I thought it was because we look funny in our tight shorts and multicolored jerseys and pointed shoes. Or because we are a symbol of frivolous idleness astride what is viewed as a child's plaything. In the end, the answer, I decided, was simple: Alone on the road, we are defenseless, and the drivers who hurl bottles and take pleasure in giving us fright with high-speed, close-in passes are the grown-up version of the bullies we remember from school who only picked on kids too weak to fight back. I've never heard of a biker being taunted by just one man in a car; it always takes two."
Along the way, reflects on the history of regions, such as those that were long-ago Native American lands, and, the Louisiana Purchase and westward expansion (Manifest Destiny) and how Laughlin, Nevada came to be. He takes similar tangents like author Bill Bryson, and you come away with a greater understand of lots of things.
And this on traveling on, what was once the great Route 66:
"America, cars, the open road--this is what we think of when we talk of America," he said. (Angel Delgadillo, a barber in Seligman, who is the president of Arizona's Historical Route 66 Assoc.) "Your history is here. Going west. The Dust Bowl. Small towns. Restless energy. This is the image of America I've always had, being able to do exactly what we're doing now. Being on 66 is like watching a documentary. I just wish I could have rented a convertible."
Says Lamb:
'It was a romantic view and one I did not quibble with. Though Route 66 has become an almost generic term for road life before the interstates--and thus lives on the nostalgia for days that were slower, more innocent and not without trust--the highway is a symbol of a nation's westward experience and it does warrant a communal nod of recognition. I had traveled it from Seligman to Kingman three times before--in a car, in an RV and as a hitchhiker--and could remember many of its bends, its abandoned roundhouses and shuttered Harvey House restaurants run by the railroad, its closed one-room schoolhouses and Mobil gas signs of a flying red horse, blowing idly in the wind. But on a bicycle, 66 looks different, does not feel light a ghost road. Instead of seeing what was dead, I was cognizant of what was alive--the towns themselves that, after all, had not given up, the hardy desert flowers and the cacti that held secret stocks of water, the breeze and sunshine and smell of cattle in the autumn air.'
I loved this book, and looked up David Lamb on on Wikipedia only to find that he passed away in 2016.
February 24, 2019
It was a pleasure reading about a middle-aged, unpretentious guy who ate plain American food, drank milkshakes and smoked as he biked solo across the country. (Although as he later died of esophageal cancer, perhaps he should've cut out the smokes.) Nothing bad happens to him on his journey besides flat tires and anxiety, so, Melville-like, he slips in chapters about the history of bicycling. Lamb's writing is simple and graceful and he views non-coastal America with great affection.
November 17, 2025
I read this book in 2003, and it is memorable to me because I was getting into a cycling routine, and kicking around the idea of riding 'cross country. I enjoyed the writing style and the things he thought were memorable, like his riding gear feeling loser around his waist after just a few days, and chicken-fried steak not disagreeing with the system when the body is efficiently burning calories. If you're a cyclist, or intend to get into it, this is a great inspiration - you must read it.
November 14, 2023
I loved how the author focused on interacting with the local folk along his journey and told their personal stories, intermingling them with the history of the locations. Being a bicycle enthusiast I liked him telling the history of cycling and the highways across the country. The author has prompted me to look into a cross-country cycling road trip!
October 13, 2017
Thank you Mr Lamb
May 3, 2018
David Lamb takes a cross-country journey on bike from Washington D.C. to California, describing his experiences and the country along with bicycle history. Very interesting.
Read
October 9, 2024Meh, I quit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2017
I loved David's story about how he biked from DC to Santa Monica and the people and places he encountered. Even though it's two decades out of date it's a great story about how you see things on a bike that you would never see from a car. He started this trip with minimal prep, overweight, and a smoker. Persistence and patience led him to a finish.
My wife and I are hikers and love the intimate encounters you have with people and places that you'd normally pass by in a car--or even a bike. David's descriptions of his own experiences are inspiring.
I also appreciate how he ties in stories about the history of cycling and how it changed our society. A good mix of personal experience, local color, and history.
My wife and I are hikers and love the intimate encounters you have with people and places that you'd normally pass by in a car--or even a bike. David's descriptions of his own experiences are inspiring.
I also appreciate how he ties in stories about the history of cycling and how it changed our society. A good mix of personal experience, local color, and history.
February 13, 2010
Wanting to travel across America on a bicycle could strike many as an incomprehensible desire. Over the Hills is a memoir of a middle-aged journalist's 3000-mile afternoon ride. The book is well-written, fun to read, and strikes an excellent balance between travelogue, personal memoir, and barely disguised worship of middle America's relaxed way of life.
The author is decidedly not part of bicycling culture. He wore ordinary-looking clothing on his trip, ate in ordinary diners and truck stops, and stayed in ordinary hotel rooms, with his bike standing by the side of the bed. Mr. Lamb is very much a character in his own story.
I'm not sure whether it's that the writing got better after the first few slower chapters, or that I grew to appreciate the style as I read. The latter slow acclimation would be particularly appropriate. Highly recommended to cyclists and considerate cagers alike.
The author is decidedly not part of bicycling culture. He wore ordinary-looking clothing on his trip, ate in ordinary diners and truck stops, and stayed in ordinary hotel rooms, with his bike standing by the side of the bed. Mr. Lamb is very much a character in his own story.
I'm not sure whether it's that the writing got better after the first few slower chapters, or that I grew to appreciate the style as I read. The latter slow acclimation would be particularly appropriate. Highly recommended to cyclists and considerate cagers alike.
April 19, 2018
Is this still in print? I read this ages ago and was captivated by the spirit shown. As I recall, there's not much to it...I rode from here to here, stopped for lunch here, talked about the local gossip with somebody, rode again, stayed overnight at this place, had to repair a tire, etc. Then repeat for the next day. But I'd love to bike across the country someday. Reading books of this type lets me live the experience through the authors.
---update 4/2018...just finished re-reading it. I wasn't remembering all the details quite correctly, but think Lamb does a fine job throwing in history of the bicycle, of roads in America, of bicycling advocacy, as well as recounting details of his adventure. Seems dated now, 20-odd years after it's publication, but was the first bike touring book I read and I appreciate it being the one to grab my interest in this subject. Not the best of the bike touring books I've read, but certainly in the next tier.
---update 4/2018...just finished re-reading it. I wasn't remembering all the details quite correctly, but think Lamb does a fine job throwing in history of the bicycle, of roads in America, of bicycling advocacy, as well as recounting details of his adventure. Seems dated now, 20-odd years after it's publication, but was the first bike touring book I read and I appreciate it being the one to grab my interest in this subject. Not the best of the bike touring books I've read, but certainly in the next tier.
November 28, 2013
I LIKED it. It's by a regular guy whose memoir chronicles his "regular" bike ride from D.C. to Santa Monica....casually, humbly, and honestly. He shares his insights and feelings as he surprises himself by continuing....and continuing.... and finally reaching his destination on the opposite side of the continent. He muses on the character (and characters) of the small towns on his daily stops across the "heartland of America", his improving health and determination, and of missing his family back home. He sprinkles in many historical bicycling facts and occasional ideas of how bicycling could improve our world today.
This is NOT a novel, there are no chase scenes (not even really dogs), no blood (not much, anyway)... But it's a great read about a great guy you could easily strike up a conversation with. I don't think I'll follow in his path, but I definitely enjoyed reading about it!
This is NOT a novel, there are no chase scenes (not even really dogs), no blood (not much, anyway)... But it's a great read about a great guy you could easily strike up a conversation with. I don't think I'll follow in his path, but I definitely enjoyed reading about it!
September 3, 2015
I enjoyed this book even though the cover highlights a pet peeve of mine found in the book. The book's subtitle reads, "A Midlife Escape across America by Bicycle" and the first line of the introduction reads "I slipped past fifty an into middle age without a whimper". Unless you have a firm foundation of centennial ancestors in your family, the midfifties are not your middle age. The American life expectancy average hit a new high of 78. So even if you want to optimistically call your forties your midlife, the fifties most probably are not.
I read this book because my wife Mindy and I are planning our own adventures of traveling the United States. Though Lamb admits he had no firm reason for his adventure of biking acoss the states expect perhaps the American love of travel, I can relate. There is a joy in the journey and he provides good companionship for the ride.
I read this book because my wife Mindy and I are planning our own adventures of traveling the United States. Though Lamb admits he had no firm reason for his adventure of biking acoss the states expect perhaps the American love of travel, I can relate. There is a joy in the journey and he provides good companionship for the ride.
January 3, 2013
An overall interesting read - I wouldn't say there wasn't much of a theme - it's more than "just" a travel narrative. There are some very interesting and unique interludes on modes of travel in general and some more specific to biking. I also enjoyed his recollections of conversations with those he met along the way and the pieces of the journey relating specifically to the fact that he was biking. However I do have to admit it is a bit depressing to have a smoking/not-trained person doing it when I haven't yet had the chance!! :-)
December 8, 2015
A bicycle touring book from a mid-lifer. This book sparked my own interest in bicycle touring -- as a mid-lifer -- and, as such, has had a huge personal impact. There are many books about cross-country bicycle rides but Lamb is a mid-lifer and a journalist with a great writing style and an excellent eye for observation and detail. I highly recommend this book; I regret it is so hard to find. My own library removed it from circulation.
April 17, 2011
The book was interesting throughout, even though there wasn't much of a unifying theme. I most enjoyed the changing descriptions of landscape and culture as Lamb crossed the country. A self-described novice cyclist, Lamb is able to provide a down-to-earth perspective on a seemingly superhuman voyage.
July 15, 2009
Since I'm about to embark on a 350-400 mile cycling trip I pulled this book off my shelf and reread it. It was just as funny and interesting as the first time.
July 2, 2010
This guy rode across the U.S. in two and a half months staying cheap motels and eating junk food, not to mention smoking and drinking hard liquor. If he can do it....
March 18, 2011
Inspires me, but not to the author's extent. Fun read.
January 31, 2013
meh... but I am jealous he had the time to do it.
Read
December 8, 2012good, bicycling
January 8, 2014
Good job mixing in the history of the bicycle with his current adventure across the US. Fun to read.
March 21, 2014
Good writing, with some history of cycling thrown in for good measure.
April 6, 2017
The title pretty much says it all - it's kind of Blue Highways on a bike. (What? You haven't read Blue Highways? It is pretty much the standard wander-around-the-country book that I measure all others against.) Lamb rode his bike from his house in Alexandria VA to Santa Monica, CA, largely on small highways and back roads, and most of it by himself. He injects a lot of little tidbits about bicycle history, history of roads in the US and so forth, most of which were very interesting - but of course the best parts are talking about the routes he chooses, the people he meets, and the sights he sees. It's a quick read too.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews