An Interview with Cross Continental Touring Cyclist Moni Neville

Moni Neville successfully crossed the continental United States by bicycle in 2004. This was her second attempt at successfully crossing. Prior to these tours she participated in numerous solo and group tours including some hosted by her bicycle club.

You have written some of the most popular journals on the CrazyGuyOnABike web site and while each journal is wonderful for talking about the particular tour there isn't really a summary of your touring background anywhere. How did you originally get introduced to bicycle touring?

A friend from the first cycling club I ever belonged to (Sorell Slaymaker, and the Cherokee Wheelmen from Ponca City) invited folks along on a tour he was planning. It was a three day Memorial weekend self contained tour, using bed and breakfasts. I rode the "heavy" cheap tandem with my daughter, my husband rode his old Schwinn and then the other three folks rode single bikes. We had a BLAST, that just had to be repeated.

With a wide selection of tours to choose from what were some of your favourite bicycle touring adventures and why?

Most favorite was the trip with my daughter riding self contained from Corpus Christi Texas to Broken Bow Oklahoma (which by the way, I am working on adding to my list of online journals at the moment). Lori and I realized just how much we enjoy each others company and how much we can accomplish as females. We plan a tour about every three to four years as time and money allows.

Another one must be the riding I did during the dream tour with my friend Mel. We had ridden together for 10 years at the beginning of that tour. In fact we rode our very first 100 miler together. No matter how seldom we ride together, we always fall back in to the same rythm and speed.

Between those two I am not sure who I like to tour more with. I feel totally lucky to have both as touring partners. We are all friends together but have never managed a tour with all three of us.

During your tours you have ridden solo, as part of a family, as part of a team and of course as a club member when touring with your club. What are some of the things that you enjoyed about each style of touring?

Solo:

I can do whatever I want, however I want, as long as I want.

With my daughter:

I treasure the time we get to spend together, riding, camping, cooking, goofing off and all.

As a team:

The riding, the camaraderie, joking, talking, camping, goofing off etc.

With the club:

The camaraderie, joking, riding with different people throughout the day, and most of all, having someone to talk to.

I recall reading that you are a member of the Oklahoma Bicycle Society and that this club likes to bicycle tour together. Can you tell us a bit more about the club and some of the bicycle touring adventures that you've enjoyed with the club?

Well, there is touring.. and there is touring. OBS mostly does bike rides, in a slower fashion then the racer wanna bees, but touring to me, is more the WHOLE aspect along with staying out for several days, taking your gear along and be independent of vehicles and schedules.

OBS however has a very few members that tour self contained (ahem, I mean, tour like me) but, while I was living in Oklahoma City (OBS base) I did quite a lot of tours with those few folks. We mostly rode self contained to club rides based anywhere from 90 to 150 miles away from the city, joined their ride there, and rode back home afterwards, taking a couple of days getting there, and a couple of days going back.

I won't ever forget the first such trip. When we rode out of town, and there were all these people with panniers and trailers behind, or ahead, I had such a GREAT feeling of pride to belong in this group. We rode from OKC to Lake Murray, for the "spring fling" weekend. Only three rode back, but I was in that group too. Some from that trip still tour, and I have toured with some of them a lot. All are such great people to ride/tour with.

Best story from that first ride:

Andy and I were lagging behind. Our butts were sore, and legs tired (second day out). We had a pretty good climb ahead, but right there was the interstate bridge.. and bridges lend themselves for snack breaks. :)

So, we took a snack break. Stood at the railing and "made" the trucks going below; honk. What a hoot! Finally we started up the hill. Taking our time. The walkie talkie squawked... and David kept wanting to know something or another. Drat, how am I supposed to climb a hill and hold a walkie talkie and talk all at the same time. I finally turned the darn thing off. LOL... only time I was ever able to turn David off. LOL.. David and I are the "main" talkers in the club.

Anyway, we did finally make it to the top and the others were ready to go.

Bottom line to this story.. we had fun. And years later when I crossed I 35 way up north I had to think of Andy and the fun we had.

Two years ago you set out on your "Dream Tour". I suspect that the ending of that tour was not what you had originally hoped for. Any ideas on why your tour ended the way it did back then? Do you feel it was a positive or negative ending?

On the dream tour we were supposed to have more people going all the way, which just didn't happen, nor did the others join us as had been planned. Mel had to get back since he was on a time table. He hoped to ride as far as Fargo ND. Because of the time frame, we had been pushing miles and not taking rest days. Then, when his hip got too painful for him to continue he took the train to go to Fargo. I was in such a rut, that I just kept going and going and going. Later, when I was looking for a "nice campground" to layover a day, I just couldn't find one.

I found Rick and Dan instead, and rode on with them. However, they were faster then me, and pushed even higher mileages then I had been doing by myself so I ended up letting them go.

Still I didn't take any time off. I finally ran out of umpf. My body gave up. I realized, I couldn't continue as I had been going, but I didn't realize that I honestly needed a break. I called home and asked my husband to come and get me. Soooo... in reality I did just what I needed, I took the break.

However I later regretted not reading the signs or listening to my body and just quitting. It really worked on me to go back and start over. Just going back to where I left off and finishing I don't think would have satisfied me.

Overall, I feel like I handled the quitting situation right as I really needed to make a change. It gave me the break so that I could rebuild my strength. So to answer your question, it was both a negative and a positive ending.

Last year you got back on your bike and set out to Cross the US by bicycle once again during your "Try, Try Again" tour. Personally I found this quite impressive because it showed your personal courage and commitment to making your dream happen. When preparing for the tour did you experience any pre tour jitters or worries about your ability to succeed?

No not jitters about succeeding but I did wonder if I was doing the "right" thing. Did I really have anything to prove??

Ultimately you succeeded in making your dream happen during that tour. What was different about the two tours?

I believe that the main reason I succeeded this time was the previous failure. Yes in a way I think it was a failure... still.

The main difference was taking time off. At first it really was a little to soon (for me) and too often but overall one needs the rest days to recuperate in body and spirit during such a HUGE undertaking.

Crossing a country as large as the United States by bicycle must come complete with a few really interesting adventures. What were some of your favourites when you look back on that time?

Dream tour:

One of my favorite times to look back at was the time Mel and I spent on the mountain, waiting to be allowed back on the road. We desperately looked for diversions, and made us some great ones. Like standing at the edge of the road, looking and pointing at NOTHING. Peeps in cars would stop, get out and look, to see what we had pointed at... or looked at. Another diversion was tossing ice clumps up out of the ravine, to see how many cars dodged the ice on the road. What a HOOT!

Try again tour:

One of my fondest memories is the smorgasbord dinner we fixed in Lolo Hot Springs. The Ebers and the try again gang all pooled their last provisions, gathered other ingredients, cooked and ate a GREAT dinner together!

When you returned home from your Try, Try again tour did you experience Post Tour Depression? If so, what did you do to help it to go away?

Depression, I don't think so, but difficulty re-entering the "real" world, yes!

To alleviate the normal I typed in notes and worked on my journal (like I did last year). This time I didn't get on the bike as much, and I moped around a lot. Then, totally unexpectedly my husband got transferred and we moved. It did take me till the middle of December in the new house to realize that I was truly back. I had finally started to use my organizer and calendar again and had appointments and plans to keep. I really don't like tours to be over. I would prefer to keep going.

This year you have a new touring adventure planned. What fun filled adventure do you have planned for this summer?

Well, the short tour in Germany, a cross state ride I usually participate in (riding to and from self contained of course), a trip to a ladies gathering in Iowa, and a new mother daughter adventure in September. Unfortunately the latter will not be on a bike this time, as a knee injury keeps Lori from riding.

No big bicycling plans. I think, my sponsor, husband I mean (lol), needs to be kept happy, and I might need to skip doing something like a long tour for a year or so.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

I still LOVE to ride a bicycle. In fact, as I type this I have a bike in the van, parked outside. I am out of state, but brought a bike along. I met with a fellow Phred list member (cycling forum) for one ride and I did another ride today. I hardly ever go out of town without a bike. :)

The reason for this years short tour... a trip back to Germany to help my sister celebrate her birthday. My touring bike has never been there yet and it gets to go along.

I hope to be able to keep riding for a long time and I dream of a pacific coast ride.

An interview with Moni Neville

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