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A Few Thoughts About The Trip

I was musing the other day that there is some historical context to Patricia’s odyssey. It seems like every hundred years or so, and even still in these days of planes trains and super highways, some people set out to cross the continent under difficult and challenging conditions.

Two hundred years ago at the beginning of the 19th century, Meriwether Lewis & William Clark at the behest of President Jefferson, struck out to to find a northwest passage to the Pacific coast traveling along much the same general route as Patricia only in the other direction.

It took them two and a half years in small boats. While camped for the winter at Fort Mandan, they added a young Indian maiden by the name of Sacagawea. (Her name is also sometimes spelled, and pronounced, Sakakawea or Sacajawea.) who would turn out to be of immense help along the way.

And so it was again, one hundred years later, in the first years of the 20th century.

There were still no roads to speak of when Horatio Nelson Jackson, a retired Doctor from Vermont, who, while dining at the University Club in San Francisco, placed a whimsical $50 bet with a group of total strangers who believed it was impossible to cross the continent in an automobile in 1903.

He then set out to win that bet.

Knowing nothing about cars, he purchased a two cylinder cherry red 1903 Winton Touring Car, christened it "The Vermont" and set out with the able assistance of a mechanic named Sewell K.Crocker to make a Trans-continental crossing. It took them three long months of being pulled out of ditches by farmers horses, being sent off in the wrong direction by locals and numerous breakdowns to complete the journey.

Along the way they added a third member to the crew. A white bulldog named "Bud". Bud rode up in the front seat with them donning eye goggles and providing moral support and adding calm during a crisis.

Dr. Jackson was later to remark that "of the three of them, Bud was the only one that never engaged in profanity".

What these two continental crossings and their participants share is a sense of adventure, a willingness to be challenged and unbounded energy and drive.

And now, in that great American tradition of Lewis & Clark and Horatio Nelson Jackson, in the early years of the 21st century, comes Patricia.

At 67 years young, she is embarked on a land journey on her Felt bicycle in which she will be challenged in many ways as yet unforeseen and will undoubtedly learn a great deal about herself.

It will be the trip of a lifetime!

But she isn’t going alone. The thoughts and good wishes of her many friends, supporters and family go with her. And, as Meriwether Lewis had his Clark, and Horatio had Crocker, Patricia has Gabriel. An invaluable asset indeed.

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Sherpa Gabriel & Patricia

When I suggested that out of a sense of tradition they acquire a third party like Lewis & Clark’s Sacagawea or Horatio and Crocker’s "Bud", there was difficulty reaching consensus.

While Patricia, being a dog lover seemed open to canine companionship, Gabriel remained nonplused. When I then suggested a young Indian maiden, Gabriel showed considerably more enthusiasm while Patricia seemed to almost bristle a bit at the notion.

I offered my own services but they quietly demurred. The issue, so far as I know, is closed.

Pictures From Horatio's Journey