[Levin]

I'm not a biker, but the car rage people are ridiculous. What I don't get is why it isn't fun to see bikers on the road. I love to see them moving themselves by their own power, enjoying the outdoors, pushing their limits . . . That a driver gets anger b/c of some deceleration for a person who is outside doing something worthwhile and productive shows that he is taking life entirely at too quick a pace.

Last Fall we drove from Utah to Yosemite through Nevada on Highway 50, "the loneliest road in America." In Ely for a pit stop, we met a man from Alaska, in his 50s, who was biking from San Fransciso to Las Vegas. His get up was a marvel -- not expensive and shiny, but ingenious in its compactness and everything just so for accessibility's sake. He was pulling one of those small hook-ons, with plastic containers bungee-corded down. He rode by day, and camped on the side of the road by night, or made it to towns like Ely for the KOA campground. He did not stay in hotels. There is just not much on Highway 50 but mountain range, valley, mountain range, valley, mountain range, valley --- very beautiful in its own way, but it takes a real adventurer to conquer it on his own with just his bike. After talking to him, I felt truly inspired --- and lazy.

Oh yeah -- he also recharged his iPod and cellphone with a solar battery pack of some sort. They guy was as lean as as can be, but obviously tough as nails. With his resourcefulness, he will be one of the survivors if McCarthy's vision of The Road ever comes to be, and not b/c he'd be one of the hunters; he'd just out pace and out wit the bandits.