View from the North40: It's not planes, trains and automobiles

When I was about 15 years old a friend of my family rode his 10-speed bicycle on a 330-mile road trip from Salmon, Idaho, to our home in northwest Montana and then home again — a 660-miles that took about a week each way, averaging something under 50 miles per day. He was 16 years old, and this was in the dark ages before cellphones and internet. He had to use quarters in pay phones and know how to fold paper maps.

I remember admiring that he even conceived of doing such a thing, let alone planning and executing the trip. I also remember being in awe that his parents just let him go on...