Brent Kent knows the Cookie Lady. He met her in Afton, Virginia while biking across the contiguous United States.
Moments after completing his last final of his freshman year, the ambitious student from Martinsville, Indiana set off for Yorktown, Virginia, to begin his 49 day trek across varying terrains of the US. Armed with three outfits, running shoes, a tent, Chunky soup, essential bike tools, a small propane stove, a mapped route, and a journal, Kent’s trip westward began with a ceremonial back tire in the Chesapeake Bay.
Kent’s idea for the trip sparked after volunteering to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina during his freshman year. He thought biking across America would be a great way to raise money for the clean-up. He sold his laptop to buy a suitable bike and found a company sponsor to pledge money. Unfortunately the company bailed out after hearing Kent’s plan, thinking he would not be able to make such a journey.
But the company obviously didn’t know Brent Kent.
"I told everyone, including myself, that I was going to do this trip. I was determined to do it. I sent the company two postcards—one from each coast."
But the trip did have its rough points. Already by day three, a severe cold and bad weather made for "the worst day of the trip." But once this far, Kent was not about to give up.
"The Appalachians were the hardest part. I thought my legs were going to explode. But after Berea, Kentucky I was home free. The Ozarks are barely a mountain range, and the Rockies are a gradual climb."
But people like the Cookie Lady made the arduous terrain fascinating and manageable. Since 1976, the Cookie Lady, June Curry, has been assisting cyclists by offering food or shelter in a barren part of Appalachia. Her current log book has over 11,000 entries with people from every state in the US and over fifty countries. And visitors often return her generosity with Christmas cards, letters, money, or random crafts. Kent sent her cowboy figurines from HobbyLobby to assist with a model she was creating.
"Her life revolves around this. The world came to her!" Kent said.
The rest of America turned up many interesting encounters, too. Like the internet faith-healer in Missouri that offered Kent shelter from a tornado. She was kind enough to offer Kent a TV dinner and a shovel to guard against snakes and rats in her barn where Kent slept. But rats and snakes were a minor hurdle in comparison to cougars and scorpions in the desserts of Nevada.
Kent found lodging in places such as parks, fire departments, churches, picnic tables, deserts, and junkyards. Kent said people were surprisingly hospitable, offering lodging and food, simply because he was cycling across the country.
"They open up and tell you everything because you are never going to see them again."
Kent ended the trip at the Golden Gate Bridge on June 23, earlier than expected. His goal was to average at least seventy miles a day—he averaged eighty-three. His only problem now is finding a way to top this trip next summer.
But through this experience, he took comfort in and began to understand the words of Steinbeck: "You will finally begin to enjoy the trip when you realize that you’re not taking the trip, the trip is taking you."
Johnson '07 is Bachelor Photo Editor. Each week he takes one or two pages for an essay or photo essay.