People along the way

May 21, 2026

by Tom Ewing

In June 1928, Clara McGrew Lindgren rode her bicycle for 750 miles from her home in Nebraska to her parent’s home in Wisconsin. This ride was covered by the Omaha World Herald on July 29 and in a longer article in the Lincoln Journal Star on October 28.  

She had planned to ride with some other girls, but they had dropped out, so she made the trip alone. Lindgren wore a khaki shirt and knickers with a visor for a hat. She carried a change of clothes, slicker, blanket, sweater, and camera: “And oh yes, a volume of Shakespeare for light reading.” After making her way through two plays, however, Lindgren decided “it was more fun to have political discussions with people along the way,” so she mailed the Shakespeare volume back home. Lindgren’s biccle, named Cassandra, carried from 50 to 70 miles a day. She sought overnight accommodations in tourist camps or with friendly families along the way. 

Lindgren’s difficulties were partially a product of conditions in the 1920s. She had to deal with muddy roads, which led her to catch a ride on a travelling “circus wagons” for one stretch and to ride between railroad tracks for another section. In the final section, when the accumulation of gravel on her tires meant her wheels would no longer turn, she gratefully accepted a ride to reach her final destination. 

Gender and age were important factors in the coverage of her ride. In Charles City, Iowa, she was suspected of “being a runaway girl” and was almost detained by local authorities, until the park superintendent insisted she come home with him and his wife.

After riding for 750 miles, “practically the first bicycle riding she had done for eight years,” Lindgren abandoned her plan to ride home, shipped Cassandra, and took the train, reuniting with her husband, Lawrence Lindgren, a faculty member in the bacteriology department at the University of Nebraska. 

Almost fifty years later, high school senior Nancy Duncan, of Berea, Ohio, also took a solo bicycle ride, although her trip covered more than 4000 miles from Oregon to Virginia. Duncan left Reedsport, Oregon, on June 11, and completed her ride in Yorktown, Virginia, on August 31, according to an article in the Cleveland Press, November 25, 1976.

Duncan echoed Lindgren in her declaration that “the neatest part of the whole trip was meeting the people along the way,” who opened up their home and offered free lemonade to cyclists: “they seemed so interested in where we were from and what we were doing.” 

“I felt really lucky that I got to go,” Duncan stated, as there were “so few kids my age on the trip.” Duncan carried 32 pounds of gear, including wearing apparel, eating utensils, sleeping bag, three pairs of earrings, and “suntain oil,” as “sunburn was the biggest problem with bikers on the road six to nine hours.” 

Duncan offered these final thoughts on the trip: “It turned me into a kind of super-patriot…The people were fantastic! They were really kind, friendly, and helpful the entire trip. It’s an inexpensive and good way to travel.”