Great Book!!
I love to read real-life adventure stories and when I picked this one, I could not put it down. Fun and easy to read. No long drawn-out details or facts but plenty enough to get the 'feel' of this cross-country bicycle trip with all its beauty, joy, satisfactions, dissatisfactions, happiness, sadness, trials, weather (good and bad), people met along the way (good and bad) etc, it has it all.
Sharing a cross-country adventure
I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Just the Two of Us", the real life adventure of a married couple who decided to challenge themselves, their fifty-something year old bodies and their thirty-something year old marriage by taking a cross country cycling trip. Bicycle travelogues can become tedious since long distance biking cycles through experiences relatively slowly, but Melissa's book maintains a good pace for the reader by distributing a variety of themes throughout - information about the equipment, the conditioning and the planning needed to attempt such a trip, a running commentary on the road conditions and scenery encountered, damage control as they run into the inevitable equipment failures, weather problems, and accommodation surprises, and most engagingly, an openness about how the relationship between two people who have been together for a long time can grow during such a long trip. Melissa does a good job in recounting anecdotes about the people and places that one meets traveling cross-country. This is a good read not only for distance cyclists who can find all kinds of useful information but for anyone who would enjoy sharing the experience of a cross-country trip up close and personal.I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Just the Two of Us", the real life adventure of a married couple who decided to challenge themselves, their fifty-something year old bodies and their thirty-something year old marriage by taking a cross country cycling trip. Bicycle travelogues can become tedious since long distance biking cycles through experiences relatively slowly, but Melissa's book maintains a good pace for the reader by distributing a variety of themes throughout - information about the equipment, the conditioning and the planning needed to attempt such a trip, a running commentary on the road conditions and scenery encountered, damage control as they run into the inevitable equipment failures, weather problems, and accommodation surprises, and most engagingly, an openness about how the relationship between two people who have been together for a long time can grow during such a long trip. Melissa does a good job in recounting antidotes about the people and places that one meets traveling cross-country. This is a good read not only for distance cyclists who can find all kinds of useful information but for anyone who would enjoy sharing the experience of a cross-country trip up close and personal.
Review by Richard L. Nolan
Review of Just the Two of Us This is simply the best book I have read on cycling. From first-hand experience, Melissa Norton captures the essence of cycling: why people do it; how they do it; and what the experience is all about. Just the Two of Us describes the process of a husband and wife team getting into cycling, building their cycling skills and experience by cycling over weekends. Weekend cycling extends to week long trips, and then to the ultimate: biking across the United States. Bikes are unpacked at Astoria, Oregon overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The adventure begins with the thrill of watching fisherman reel in 4 foot sturgeons at the mouth of the Columbia River. Norton makes the reader feel as if they are vicariously biking along with Dave and Melissa: seeing what they see, working up the hills, and coasting down the slopes at exhilarating speeds. Each chapter is introduced with the cities to be visited and the miles to be rode for the week. From the sunrise on June 15, the reader cycles with the Norton's along the Pacific Ocean, over the Cascades at McKenzie Pass, through the rich agricultural fields on the high plateau of Oregon, over the Rockies, trekking the long expanse of the plains of the Midwest, into the finger lake region of New York, and returning to familiar New England. Finally, we triumphantly ride with them into the Atlantic Coast town of Bar Harbor, Maine. By vicariously cycling with the Norton's, the reader meets the local people in the cities, their history, and the way they are. During the course of the trip, the reader learns a lot about cycling such as maintaining the bike, carrying gear, and safely riding among traffic. The pictures embedded in the book enrich the telling of the journey: landmarks are included, geographical perspective is integrated. I especially like the picture of the 13 percent grade sign shown on a steep "hill" in Vermont. Just the Two of Us is an exciting read. I highly recommend it. And, I hope that this will be just the first book from author Melissa Norton in sharing her experiences and thoughts about a most accessible and enjoyable sport. Richard L. Nolan
Lexington, Massachusetts
February 2002
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