Hey Mom, Can I Ride My Bike Across America?: Five Kids Meet Their Country - Softcover

Boettner, John S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0962570761 ISBN 13: 9780962570766

Publisher: Sbf Productions, 1990

Synopsis

Dead Poets Society meets Stand By Me as 5 real 12- and 13-yr.-olds ride their bicycles 5,000 miles across America. They want to see if their country is as wonderful as their teacher says it is.

About this title

About the Author

John Seigel Boettner is a husband, dad, teacher, cyclist and author in Santa Barbara, California. He and his wife Lynn have two children Jacob and Isaac, and have led groups of young people on bicycle journeys in Canada, Japan, Ireland, Austria, and all over America. When the four of them aren't off on some adventure, you'll see them pedaling alongside the beaches and mountains of their hometown. They're the ones with long line of bicycle riding kids behind them.

From the Back Cover

Joy and Carl are 12: Jimmy, Heather, and Ethan are 13, and all five of them are pedaling their bikes 5,000 miles, from sea to shining sea. Hop into the pages of Hey Mom, Can I Ride My Bike Across America? and sweat your way up and down the Blue Ridge Mountains, swap your helmet for a straw hat when you stay with an Amish family in the hills of Tennessee, dodge a tornado in the Ozarks, and sing the entire score from the Wizard of Oz as you blow across Kansas. Even follow the ruts of the Pioneers as the kids use the journal of an old 49er to lead them across the plains. When you finish riding through three days of snow in the Sierras and finally reach the Pacific . . . when you turn those final pages and goosebumps dance up your neck . . . you'll more than likely find yourself nodding with Dave, the buckaroo you met over biscuits and gravy a few pages back, who said:

"I just wanted to tell you what a special pleasure it was to meet your kids and hear them tell their story . . . Ain't had such a good feeling about kids and this country for as long as I can remember . . . ."

From the Inside Flap

"Son, I wanna tell ya how much I admire what yer doin' there with them kids o' yers. Now I know ya haven't felt that comfortable bein' round me, shoot, it's written all over yer face, but I got to tell ya I think what y'all are doin' is the greatest damn bit of education I ever seen. Ain't no book learnin' or lecturin' that cain teach these kids what ya be teachin' them by bein' out on the road . . . meetin' folks white and black, takin' the time to stop and talk ta 'rednecks' like me, seein' where folks live and how they live . . . followin' the trails of ole wagon trains . . . Dammit, that's worth more than any piece of paper. That's what evra kid should be learnin'."

"Thank you, sir," I interrupted.

"Now don't y'all be thankin' me. I just wanna be sure that you and yer kids got enough ta eat and have some good membrances of Arkansas. I know we be different than y'all out in California, but I'm glad I got the chance to meet y'all and for my friends here to meet y'all too. Before ya leave, I want ya to promise old JC two things:

"First of all, I want ya to send me a postcard when y'all reach California."

"Shoot, I'll send you one before that."

"Nope, ya jus' listen to me now. I said I wanted ya to send me one from California and not before. You spend the rest of yer time on the road bein' on the road, not writin' me some silly postcard."

"Yes, sir."

"And second of all, I was damned impressed with yer bunch of kids. Y'all have done right well with them. Just promise me one more thing: y'all keep bein' good to each other. I cain tell ya've been good to each other so far, cuz I know what I sees and you got yerself one damn fine bunch of kids there . . . Ya jus' be sure ya keep bein' good to each other the rest of the way.

"Now , you bes' be gettin' outside now, and don't bother with no more thank yous . . . Ya got a bunch of kids and a good wife out there waitin' for ya so git goin'. I took too much of yer time up already. Have a good trip and remember, be good to each other."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Sept. 13, Eagle Lake Dear Journal, Now that it's September more and more people are asking us why we aren't in school even when they know we're following the pioneers and riding 12 hours a day and sometimes over 100 miles. It used to bother me, but now I tell them we are in school - the best kind of school. I say: America is our classroom, Our bikes are our textbooks, And the people we meet are our teachers. I told John if he uses that in his book, he owes me! Signed, Jimmy

Edition details

• Publisher: Sbf Productions
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0962570761
• ISBN 13: 9780962570766
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 439