O, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
Defence of Fort M'Henry, Francis Scott Key (1814)
The United States of America is exceptional.
Exceptional among today's societies. Exceptional among societies throughout human history.
We are blessed to be living during the Great American Experiment, in which the people proclaimed that God created all equal and endowed each person with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The people then created a government limited to protecting those inalienable rights. This concept was revolutionary in 1776, and still is today.
Imperfect people in a fallen world cannot live up to those lofty principles, but the American people work toward them anyhow. To form a more perfect Union, as our Constitution eloquently says. Our track record through history proves it. And we continue to strive to do so.
Now, 250 years later, the United States of America still stands. A miracle, perhaps. Divine intervention many times, for sure. This is a milestone worth celebrating. And we can celebrate joyously, while still working to improve.
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| A group of cyclists riding Bikecentennial '76. (image by Adventure Cycling Association) |
Fifty years ago, the nation celebrated its 200th birthday, from the smallest village to the largest city. It was a nation-wide party affirming our shared history and heralding our hopeful future. The country was ablaze in Red, White, & Blue. What a time!
On July 4, 1976, I was enjoying the summer before my senior year of high school in Yankton, South Dakota, a farming community of about 12,000 people. After the parade through downtown, folks meandered over to Fantle Memorial Park for a host of patriotic festivities lasting all day and into the night.
At the park, I spotted a booth where one could register to vote. Because my 18th birthday was less than three months away at the time, I registered to vote for the first time. On our nation's Bicentennial!
I then wandered around the park, past an assortment of tables of other groups and vendors, many promoting events happening all over the country. Wow. I had no idea. Remember this was 1976. No cell phones. No internet. No email. No cable tv. We had a local daily newspaper, a few weekly national magazines, and ABC/CBS/NBC broadcast news. The only thing streaming was the Missouri River.
The flyer for one event leapt off a table. Bikecentennial '76. A few dreamers were riding bicycles across the country! All the way from Oregon to Virginia! As I later learned, over 2,000 people completed the entire cross-country route, and almost 50,000 people rode along at least part way. See, Bikecentennial: Summer of 1976.
Across the entire country! On a bicycle! Wow!
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| Jubilant finish of my 2021 ride of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. (image by Cyler Groseth) |
That seed landed on fertile ground. Right then, I knew that someday, somehow, I would ride my bicycle across the country. I might even create my own route, thinking East to West through the heartland, like the pioneers.
So, I followed the Bikecentennial group, as best as I could, from information gleaned off flyers posted at the occasional bike shop I encountered. Over time, that group became an established non-profit that created and developed bicycle touring routes all over the country, including several other cross-country routes. In 1993, they changed their name to Adventure Cycling Association ("ACA").
Later, with the sport of mountain biking exploding in popularity, the ACA embarked on a radical plan. Create a new cross-country route for mountain bikers, from the Montana/Canada border to the New Mexico/Mexico border, on primarily remote, rough gravel/dirt roads tracking the Continental Divide. See, Genesis of the Great Divide.
The ACA first published the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in 1998 and it immediately caught my attention via a relatively new thing called the information superhighway. Wow. The imagination to dream up such a route! The dedication to map it! The audacity to even consider riding it!
This is next-level cross-country!
Is that even possible? How? Boy, if I could ride it, well, that would be something. But for a married professional with two pre-school age daughters, it was way out there. Beyond reality anytime soon. But, someday.
That's when my dream of a cross-country bicycle ride re-ignited, decisively turning away from the paved East-West Bikecentennial route to the primitive, backroad, remote, North-South ride along the spine of the continent through the heart of the Mountain West. For me, it had to be the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.
Forty five years after learning of Bikecentennial '76 and twenty-three years after learning of the Great Divide, I finally lived that dream. Unreal. See, Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (2021).
And it all started with a flyer in a small town park at our Bicentennial party.
What a country!
