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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
At the age of fifty-four, David Lamb, frequent Pulitzer Prize nominee, and
author of The Africans, The Arabs, and Stolen Season: A Journey Through
America and Baseball's Minor Leagues, took a break from his job as a Los
Angeles Times foreign correspondent and set out on a journey to
explore America: " As a journalist, I had built a career living off the
adventures -- and often misfortunes--of others. I had spent a dozen years in
Australia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, traipsed through battlefields from
Vietnam to Rwanda, crisscrossed America a hundred times... It had, in fact, been
years since I had taken on a challenge requiring discipline and endurance that
had nothing to do with fulfilling professional obligations. ... My intent in
biking from the Potomac to the Pacific was to do what I most enjoy: dawdle and
hang out."
The author averaged about fifty miles a day. He breaks his coverage down into
three major sections; Virginia to the Tennessee Mountains, Across the Mississippi
and the Oklahoma Panhandle, and Texas to California. Lamb explored the backroads
and highways, mountains and deserts, and cities and towns that his path crossed.
His requirements were basic -- food and simple accommodation in which he could
rejuvenate himself, maintain his bike, and prepare for the next day's
journey.
What is most striking about Over the Hills is the simplicity in
which Lamb approaches his journey and the conversational writing style in which
he informs the reader of its progression. Travelling as a unobtrusive observer,
Lamb spent time with rural Americans and encountered a few other bicyclists. From
the east to west coast he travelled over very different terrain in various kinds
of weather.
"The raw wind raced me through the mountain passes, snow-covered
buttes to my right and left, and all about me a Western landscape as wide and
handsome as anything I had ever seen..... I slipped over the Continental Divide,
at 7,766 feet above sea level, suffering neither a shortage of breath nor any
tinges of fatigue.... Had I been carrying champagne I would have popped a cork,
but I had only raisins and cigarettes to commemorate the moment... atop a
mountain chain, 65 million years old."
His vivid descriptions of what he saw, his clear account of people he met, and
candid revelation on how he felt allow readers to get a genuine feel for his
journey. He punctuates his narrative with observations and comments on American
culture past and present and tidbits of American history.
Over the Hills is a rewarding means of exploring certain portions
of America. In addition to the travel aspect, readers are a witness to a man's
pursuit of a dream, testing his limits of endurance, and finally the achievement
of a goal. All this is beautifully shared and provides entertaining reading.
In the Afterword, Lamb modestly states,
"I suppose when you strip away some of the dramatic detail I cling
to, the most extraordinary aspect of my trip was that it was pretty ordinary. In
three thousand miles, nothing truly unusual happened. I just got on my bike and
went. The fact is, almost anyone could have done it."
In reality however, not many people would have undertaken such a journey. The
fact is, David Lamb did it!
