From the official web site for Two
Wheels North, at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press/s-t/TwoWheels.html
"Two
boys on a bike trip are sure to find adventure. Send them off into the
wilds of the American West, and it's a safe bet adventure will find
them.
Two Wheels North: The Original
Photos and Postcards
We have archived the original photos and postcards from Vic
and Ray's adventure in high-resolution scans.
Photos Here
Postcards Here |
In 1909, Vic McDaniel and Ray Francisco,
just out of high school, set out from Santa Rosa, California, on
second-hand bikes, bound for the great Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
in Seattle. Traveling on dusty roads, roads of logs, of planks, even of
corn stalks, and often no roads at all, they pedaled, pushed, and walked
a thousand miles north for fifty-four days. With excitement in their
hearts and a good luck billiken in their bedroll, they started out with only $5.65 between
them. Camp was wherever, whenever the sun was gone; food was an
occasional meal from a kindly farm wife and what they could fish, hunt,
or glean. But they learned that all strangers were not kind, not even
close.
Vic and Ray reported their adventures to their home-town newspaper. And
what adventures they had. They met their share of memorable characters,
from a young girl who stole Ray's heart to a pin-striped hustler who
tried to pick Vic's pocket. They traveled paths beside railroad tracks,
fought their way around boulders and up brushy hillsides, and crossed
rivers layered with salmon. They survived a grizzly's nocturnal visit
and the sudden terror of a snake bite. They held their breaths crossing
railroad trestles over treacherous canyons, and discovered that a
railroad tunnel doesn't offer safe passage when you're halfway through
and a train comes along.
Evelyn Gibb, daughter of one of the cyclists, has drawn on her father's
recollections to tell this incredible adventure in his voice. Winner of
the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nonfiction Book Award, Two
Wheels North is a captivating account of a journey that today we can
only dream about--one that finds two boys on the road not only to
Seattle, but also to manhood."
About the Author
Evelyn McDaniel Gibb is an award-winning writer whose stories and
articles have appeared in dozens of magazines and in the popular Chicken
Soup for the Soul series of books. She lives north of Seattle,
Washington. In the photo at left, Eveyln holds a Billiken, the
mascot of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition.
Information and images
from Oregon State University Press used by permission. Photo of Evelyn
by Eric Norris
