by Eloise Hanner
Paperback - 256 pages (August 2000)
Cumberland House; ISBN: 1581821441
Dimensions (inches): 0.85x7.94x5.19
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"The story is not just about the bike, it's also an examination of life and relations." --New York Daily News
"The First Big Ride" offers a thorough grounding to anyone pondering such and expedition." --Seattle Times
Quotes from readers:
"...an inspiration to ordinary people with a yen to do the impossible."
"...it seemed like the writer was talking directly to me."
"Thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing!"
This is the story of a middle-aged businesswoman
who left a successful career to see if she could find something more meaningful to do with
her life. A noncyclist, Eloise Hanner joined the first Big Ride (sponsored by the American
Lung Association), in which more than seven hundred bicycle riders crossed the country
from Seattle to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1998. To Hanner, the ride represented a
new beginning fraught with challenges and opportunities.
Starting from zero, she trained for several months to work up to where she could ride an
average of more than eighty miles a day. What started as a bicycle odyssey, however,
developed into a distilled version of life, where storms became life-threatening and
strong friendships formed in days instead of weeks or months.
More than a travelogue, Hanner's account of the inaugural Big Ride is an examination of
career and values and what to do with the second half of life--a question asked by many
baby boomers as they approach fifty.
This is not the story of an athlete, but of an ordinary person. It is an inspiration for
everyone who sits at a desk and wonders if the time for adventure has passed.
About the Author
Eloise
Hanner was raised in the small town of Coeur d' Alene, Idaho and graduated Phi Beta Kappa
from the University of Idaho in 1971. Her first years out of college were spent overseas,
first with the Peace Corps in Afghanistan and later with a British oil company in Kuwait.
Upon returning to the States, she began a career with Merrill Lynch in San Diego and
worked as both a stockbroker and a resident manager for 15 years. She retired early in
1998 to follow other pursuits, having come to the conclusion that to have a more
fulfilling life, she needed to get out of the corporate world and do something completely
different. The Big Ride was the first step. Upon completing the cross-county journey and
writing the book, The First Big Ride--A Woman's Journey, she and her husband Chuck once
again joined the Peace Corps for work in Paraguay. They are currently back in the States
and plan to settle in Florida.
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