83 Days
This past weekend’s New York Times featured the story of Annie, a fixture of the fish market here in the Big Stink. The story is all swell and stuff. It’s about a woman named Gloria ('Annie' was her alias) and her life and how she spent the last part of her life as this character at the fish market. And people loved her and she was a bit wacky and she passed away recently. A fine article.
What caught my eye (ouch) was this part:
While working in Manhattan’s jewelry district, Ms. Wasserman met an ex-soldier named Fred Fleck, who planned to bicycle to Alaska, where he would attend college on the G. I. Bill. He suggested that she accompany him. “And she did,” Ms. Fleck said. “A free-spirited woman.”
The front page of the Sept. 5, 1947, edition of The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner featured an article with the headline: “ ‘Bike-Hikers’ Reach City 83 Days Out of New York.”
“Clad in clean white duck slacks, faded colored wool shirts and moccasins, the young couple, deeply tanned, looked as though they had been on an afternoon’s jaunt. Gloria’s nut-brown shoulder-length hair glistened in the sun. ... Glowing with enthusiasm, Gloria left her job as a manufacturer’s model and amateur entertainer, bought a bicycle, and came along. She plans to get a job in Fairbanks, possibly as an entertainer.”
She was 22. [full article]
Holy moly. They rode to Fairbanks.
Because I’m a modern day dandy, my mind reeled about what a great and challenging ride this would be and then it reeled again to think what it would be like in 1947.
I don’t even know where to start. I wish there were more details about this part of her life.
Did they carry a tent and sleeping bags?
No chamois padded shorts! No wicking shirts. No sunscreen.
Ack! No cellphone. No GoogleMaps. No GPS.
No Cliff Bars.
Was Advil invented yet?
No clicky shoes or padded handlebar tape!
Did they cheat and hitchhike during some of the trip? Bears? Wolves? Cougars? Crazies?
I bet it was romantic. Oh, tent loving.
I really need more details.
Distance
According to the GoogleMappers, the distance is about 4,600 miles. If we rode 60 miles a day, we could reach Fairbanks in 77 days. You and me. I don’t get that much vacation time, so that will be an issue.
(they rode about 55 miles a day)
Need to go shopping
There’s a great screenplay here.
