American Ramble Adieu

Not long ago, an old man of eighty-two peddled his electric bicycle along the same route he took seventy-five years earlier as a first grader in downtown Saint Paul. Most everything had changed along the way including himself. But it was a comfortable ride and let him dream a little dream as the miles rolled by.

The old brick school house is long gone but the little French church next to it remains. Most of the folks he knew back then have also faded away with the decades that followed. After he left downtown, he seldom stepped foot back there ever again. An effort for an all-class reunion died before it was ever born.

After the hill climb to St. Louis Catholic Church, I retraced my old street car ride back along West Seventh Street then up Randolph Avenue to the little house my mother built there seventy-six years earlier. It was a nostalgic return to a time of vapid images still etched in my gray matter. A wandering return to a place that no longer exists except in my memory.

Neil King Jr. in his wonderful book ‘American Ramble’ truly captures the age-old concept of wanderlust in all of its many forms. He writes: ‘As fine a start to any walker’s reading list would be Rebecca Solnit’s history of walking and the literature of walking, Wanderlust, which delves deep into the Western history of wandering and its influence on art and the human mind.’

More recently, there has been an abundant enchantment in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s trilogy on his 1933 walk from Holland to Constantinople, which begins with the incomparable A Time of Gifts. The long list of literature celebrating the wandering soul goes on and on.

A long time ago, when I was raising a family and only had time for daily runs and weekend bike rides, I immersed myself in travel books of a more circuitous nature.

Even before that, feeling constrained by the confines of youth, I fully embraced the wild idea of traveling around the world in a tramp steamer. That idea was brought on by a paperback book found at the drug store.

I never did go tramping around the world. I did manage to live in Europe for a while and returned there often. Through the decades, I’ve done South and Central America, the European thing and Asia included. I know it’s only been a fraction of what others have done. But it satisfied my soul and taste for the unexplored.

Yet as fascinating as these jaunts have been, it’s the closer to home, more leisurely rambles about town that bring the most enjoyment now. In my simple mind, there’s nothing more relaxing, eye-opening, and satisfying than a petal-assisted ride wherever in town I want to roam.

My new e-bike makes the ride even easier on back and limb. I may be too old to bike across the United States but I can settle for a tour of Twin Cities instead. Granted, it’s not quite the same but it satisfies my curiosity and lets me pretend I’m that kid once again.