About Us
Alice Honeywell
Alice Honeywell is a retired editor who lives with her husband, Booth, in Madison, Wisconsin. A long-distance bicycle tourist, Honeywell has participated in and led week-long tours for the Sierra Club’s National Outings program and other groups since 1982. In retirement, with the support and encouragement of her family and friends, she was able to live her life-long dream of pedaling across America.
Since completing the BIG trip, she has developed a free-lance career teaching writing workshops, primarily to government and nonprofit groups. She also volunteers for her church and other nonprofits, and she remains a member of Dane County’s Bombay Bicycle Club as she continues to pedal the paved rural roads of dairyland in southern Wisconsin. She is always planning the next adventure, hoping that her grandchildren will be soon able to join her. Contact her at ajhoneywell@gmail.com
Bobbi Montgomery
Bobbi Montgomery is an award-winning English teacher who retired just in time to begin pedaling across America. Also a runner and triathlete, Montgomery came to love bicycle touring when she joined Honeywell and others on a Nova Scotia tour in 1987. Other group trips whetted her appetite to pedal greater distances, so when she and Honeywell discovered their similar retirement dates, her decision was easy. Cheered on by her partner, Bob, her children, grandchildren, and friends in Ohio, she joined Honeywell in Oregon for their three-month adventure on bicycles.
Back at home, she continues to ride the hills of southern Ohio with her local bicycle club, Gears4Beers.Now she consults for an education publisher and works with student teachers in southwest Ohio. She also volunteers in her community and is a board member of the HeartStone Foundation, a non-profit that helps those with life-threatening illnesses pay their medical bills. Contact her at bobbidarmont@gmail.com.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Alice and Bobbi, Finally got to check this out and I am eager to see more – especially the famous mailbox pictures! Enjoy Vermont and see you on Oct 3. I will spread the word. Dory
Hello Alice and Bobbi. Love this site. Am eagerly awaiting having your book in hand and will post (I’m sure raving) reviews afterwards.
Hi Pat,
Great to see you have been on the site. Glad you liked it.
Bobbi
Bobbi and Alice, I have read your book and loved it! Love the “extras” like the illustrated maps at the beginning of each section and all the photographs. I had to come back to this site to see more of them and see them in color. Am recommending it to all my friends and family and giving copies as gifts.
Pat – Coming from such a voracious reader as you, your remarks mean a lot. So glad you enjoyed our trip.
Bobbi
Hello Alice and Bobbi,
I read you book without putting it down except for food and sleep. It is a wonderful window on rural America and the people found in small towns. It is also an inspiration in several areas; to those of us who wish to write and to those of us who wish to challenge our senior years with physical limits. Thank you both for completing both your goals – the ride and the write. Gail
Thanks, Gail. We are glad you enjoyed our trip. Meeting you was one of the highlights for us!
HI there to Bobbi and Alice and all the incredible advendure cyclists out there….(especially my amazing partners on my trip)…absolutely adored taking the trip with you via your book….as a 2003 southern tier cross-country bicylcist i could certainly identify….boy those hills, huh?? America the beautiful, the hilly! TO MENTION all the other sidekicks like you said, the beautiful, inspiring people, lovely country, the wonderful feeling of a toned up lean body machine…you are now on my hero list! Hey, did you ever read The Lost Cyclist….oh my gosh….around the world on a bike in the 1880′s…can you imagine, some bumps there for sure, not a lot of roads out there!!! mostly dirt for sure….take care and God Bless, ever safety if you take that next trip. I’m sure the road angels will be out in force for you though! Gail Galvan, Indiana.
Thanks–I just picked up the Lost Cyclist. Just shows there’s nothing new under the sun. What we did was not exotic in any way, just a great adventure from which we learned a lot. One of the main reasons we wrote the book was to encourage people to live their dream while they can. AH
good morning!
we both enjoyed your book and even visualized ourselves riding along with you.
we do have a couple of questions that we didn’t see addressed at the end of the book.
after needing so much fuel during the trip…did either of you find it difficult to ‘cut down’ on your eating once you returned to a somewhat normal lifestyle?
did either of you experience considerable emotional excelleration or letdown as you approached the sudden end to your journey?
thanks and we look forward to reading about your next trip…
bonnie and frank
Thanks for your note on our website. Yes, I think I can speak for Bobbi when I say it’s very hard to cut back to eating normally after such an adventure. Food is fuel, but when we’re not pedaling all day every day, we don’t need as much, yet we love to eat. It’s a challenge. To answer your other question: I think we both knew it was time to end the trip, happy as it was, because we both have lives that we enjoy back home. It probably depends on what one’s home life is like as to whether the end of the trip is good or not. Keep pedaling! AJH
I just finished your book and what a fun ride it was. It was so refreshing to see the friendliness and kindness you received from total strangers along the way. This is the real America that you seldom seem to see in the media. The next best thing to adventuring yourself is being taken along with someone who is actually doing it. A huge thank you from me to you.
South to north is next?
Your book brought back memories of my own ride across America in 2000. I’m now involved in a local all-volunteer non-profit group aimed at making my community friendlier for bicyclists (and pedestrians). I hope you’ve discovered the joy of that kind of work too.
ordered your book the end of summer from AC and am now starting it. really looking forward to reading about your trip and experiences!
I just enjoyed reading about your trip. Thanks for sharing your journey with us. I’m not retired yet, but your book gives me aspirations of a future trip of my own. All the best.