The arrogance of this social snob is appalling. Middle Amerians weree stupid hicks, and the author even presumes to know God's feelings about giving him breezes. To say that I detested it is to underestimate my feelings. ( )

There were parts of the book that I liked and parts that I did not enjoy.

As a cyclist, I was looking forward to the story of the epic bike ride across the country. That's why I took the publisher up on the offer for a review copy of the book. The bike ride was epic. At least this half of it. The other half of the ride from the West Coast to the middle of the country is in a separate book.

I found the introspective thoughts on the ride, and what compels him to ride, and what keeps him pedaling to Atlantic Ocean to be thoroughly enjoyable.

I didn't like the dialogue. Dialogue is hard to write. It's hard to write in fiction. It's even harder to write in non-fiction when you are trying recreate the scene and the message. I found the dialogue to be distractedly wooden. Bad enough to have stop reading the book at several points.

But like any long journey, you just have to keep turning the pedals. He does capture the joy of long bike rides:

"On one hand, this has been the adventurer of a lifetime, and I don't want it to end.... On the other hand it this unexpected sense of accomplishment that's building inside me with each pedal stroke. The accomplishment needs a ribbon tied around it, a point of completion." ( )

This book about the author's second half of his ride across America takes him from Kansas to Maryland. Having ridden a part of this route I was intrigued by the book. Rather than a detailed recounting of the ride, it is instead a collection of short essays about politics, America, relationships, and traveling. As happens when riding a bike, a person become reflective and thinks deeper thoughts. Hanson has collected them here. ( )

The book is a description of a bicycle trip from Kansas to Maryland, not focusing on the details of the trip but rather on the author's musings prompted by the experience. While I enjoyed it through the first half, by the second half I could just about predict what his thoughts would be and his insistence on positivity especially in terms of other people began to grate. Pleasant enough but perhaps longer than necessary and better for a less cynical reader than I ( )

I received this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program. I thoroughly enjoyed it..I thought that in order to better appreciate it, I should read the author's first book "Pilgrim Wheels" first. Although I read the first book prior to reading this one, that isn't a requirement. This second book stands alone as an interesting report on Mr. Neil's travels and experiences on his journey from Kansas to the east coast at Annapolis Md. Rather than solely being a description of what the arthor experienced during the trip, which he does well, he also gives his opinions on many different subjects that are developed and tied into events that happen based on things he sees and experiences, as well as reporting and expanding on items which he discusses with the many varied and interesting people he meets enroute.
This is a book for those who have an interest in biking, American life and living as well as many philosophical subjects. ( )