Published: June 01, 2007 11:45 am            

A long journey, a lot of new faces

NORMAN — Transcript Staff Writer

Come Monday, one young Norman couple will say good-bye to their home, friends and car as they embark on a two-year bike trip to the center of all 50 states.

“We want to see the country while we’re young, and we don’t have kids yet, so we have a lot of freedom and we want to take advantage of it, I guess,” Aaron Beese, 27, said when asked why he and his wife, Laura, 24, decided to take the trip.

Aaron got the idea for the bike trip about two years ago when he read in a hiking magazine about people who hike to the highest point in each state. But he figured that would only show a small part of each state; by biking to the center, the couple will have to cross the entire state and experience the culture fully.

Aaron and Laura, OU alumni and Norman residents, married less than a year ago. But before they were even engaged, Aaron told Laura about the trip.

“He sits me down and starts talking about this bike and this idea for this trip,” Laura said. “And it took me a long time, but when we got married, I knew what I was getting myself into.”

The general plan

The couple will pedal on a tandem bike to the geographic center of every state. They will take back roads through small towns and plan to camp out or stay with people they meet along the way.

They have been looking at satellite images of the center of each state, some of which include schools, fields, houses or prisons.

They will spend their first winter in Hawaii, working on a coffee farm owned by an OU alumna. The next winter they said they probably will spend in Oregon. Laura said their goal is to make enough during the winters to pay for the rest of the trip.

After the two year trip, Laura said she will use her music education degree to teach while Aaron, a mechanical engineering graduate, will write a book about their adventure.

They will carry all their possessions in bags attached to the sides of the bike and racks in the front and back.

Because they will have to pull their belongings on the bike, the couple has had to compromise on some issues, like hair mousse.

“How much does that mousse weigh?” Laura mimicked Aaron saying. “A pound? No way! When we’re going up hills, you’re going to be sad.”

So in the end, they decided to start out with the fewest things possible, and if they need something they can buy it on the way.

Everyone has a story

The point of traveling on a bike is to be accessible to people, Aaron said. People are much more inclined to talk to you and even give you a place to stay if you are on a bike, he said.

He said he went on a bike trip from Virginia to Alaska a few years ago, and by the end of the trip he was bold enough to knock on a door and ask people if he could camp on their lawn.

“I just realized that people like to be a part of a big adventure like this,” he said.

The bike also lets them travel slowly enough to experience life in that state, Laura said. She said she’s come to adhere to Aaron’s philosophy that travel is all about the people you meet. Everyone has a story, she said.

“And here we are, by geographic whim, choosing 50 people,” Aaron said. “Because we definitely, no matter what, want to meet the person who lives closest to the geographic center and spend a day with them and see what their life is like and learn what we can from their experience. There’s at least 50 stories there.”

Hopes and fears

When asked about safety issues, Laura said she’s had to change her perception of what is safe.

“I’ve just thought a lot about it, because I’ve been stretched a lot lately in what my perception of safety is,” she said. “I perceive that I’m safe because it’s comfortable here, because it’s familiar to me. I perceive the unfamiliar as unsafe. But really when I sit down and put the two side by side, riding on a bike on a tiny road that no one goes down where you’ve got people who are caring for my welfare, I’m so much more safe than when I’m driving in my car where no one cares for my welfare. That was a big thing for me to realize.”

For example, on their trial run a few weeks ago, the Beeses traveled to northwest Oklahoma. They said people were incredibly kind to them, even putting them up in a hotel for free when a bad storm moved into the area.

Besides, Laura said, they’ll have nothing worth stealing. The unusual German bike would be pretty hard to conceal, too, she said.

The couple said they are excited about seeing parts of the country they have never been to before and sharing experiences in places only one of them has been to.

Aaron said he is excited about the Wisconsin part of the trip. A bike tour will be going through the state at the same time as the Beeses. They have planned to meet up at the geographical center of the state, which happens to be a stop on the bike tour.

“That’ll just be fun to share part of our journey with people who also enjoy traveling by bike,” Aaron said.

Laura said, for her, it’s all about the old friends they will visit and the people she will meet along the way.

“I know that it’s just going to be meeting new people every day,” she said. “You know, people that I would have never met otherwise.”

Julianna Parker

366-3550

jparker@normantranscript.com

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.