Rob McDaniel, 54, left the Palouse in 2000 to represent WSU Extended University Services on the west side as associate dean for University Partnerships in Olympia. But last summer, he temporarily departed the West Coast for the East when he and his wife, Diane, 53, traveled from Westport, Wash., to Provincetown, Cape Cod, Mass. – by bicycle.
The two started their love affair with bicycle touring in the mid 1970s, and in 1982 they made their first notable tour from Moses Lake, Wash., to Redding, Iowa. Still, a trans-American trip was not in view until recently.
“When we turned 50, we decided to get serious about a cross-country bicycle tour,” McDaniel said. “About a year ago we started putting dates on the calendar and planning out a trip.”
Since the two did not have a lot of time to prepare, much of their training came on the road, he said.
“We spent more time preparing to be gone than we did preparing (physically) for the tour,” McDaniel said. “We took off with 50 miles of training and just listened to our bodies.”
The McDaniels, each carrying approximately 30 pounds of gear, traveled for 55 days across the northern states. A typical day was spent at a pace of 12 miles per hour for eight to 12 hours, with occasional rests for refueling.
On earlier trips, they camped out along the way, but this time the McDaniels stayed in motels.
“The most important tool I brought, besides my bicycle pump, was my credit card – you can count on spending $100 per day with food and lodging,” McDaniel said.
On a few occasions, they ran into problems with lodging. One night, in Walker, Minn., the McDaniels found themselves in a coffee shop, looking for a motel. After realizing they were out of luck, the shop owner came to their rescue. The owner lived out of town and offered the McDaniels his shop as a place to stay.
“Instances like this reaffirmed my belief that the world is still filled with good people,” McDaniel said.
During the tour, they spent their days enjoying the scenery and taking notice of things one tends not to notice going 70 miles per hour in a car, said McDaniel. They also enjoyed the food.
“We were burning more than we could take in, so we were eating whatever we wanted. I must admit, I ate my share of Snickers bars!”
They encountered a few problems during their tour, like questionable roads and flat tires, but in the end it was a great experience, said McDaniel. One thing, however, did disappoint him: “I never saw a moose – I really wanted to see one,” he said. “They even come into town in Moscow at times, but I never saw one during the tour!”
After touching their front wheels in the Atlantic Ocean, the McDaniels finished their tour, boxed up their gear and flew home with over 3,300 miles on their bikes.
“At first I thought, ‘I’ve already done this,’ but looking at our pictures I think we may want to go again — possibly through the southern states or in Europe to do a river ride,” McDaniel said.
“We did the trip because we believe we need to have a great adventure every decade,” he said. “People sometimes talk of cross-country bike tours as daunting, when really it is (just) doing something over and over for 55 days.”
