http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/adventure/2011/12/books-on-bike-perfection-and-womens-bike-won-freedom/ Just another blogs.smithsonianmag.com site Sun, 12 May 2013 14:12:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/adventure/2011/12/books-on-bike-perfection-and-womens-bike-won-freedom/#comment-185 Emma Smith Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:27:09 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/adventure/?p=551#comment-185 Peter: I wonder--why did she not keep a diary? Seems an extraordinary woman; too bad we don't know more about her trip. Thanks for your research! Peter: I wonder–why did she not keep a diary? Seems an extraordinary woman; too bad we don’t know more about her trip. Thanks for your research!

]]> http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/adventure/2011/12/books-on-bike-perfection-and-womens-bike-won-freedom/#comment-176 Peter Zheutlin Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:56:38 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/adventure/?p=551#comment-176 As Annie Londonderry's great grand-nephew and author of the only book about her I just want to clarify a couple of points in this post. Annie's round the world bicycle trip began in Boston, not New Hampshire. The confusion may be that her first corporate sponsor, and there would be many, was the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Co. of New Hampshire, whose name she adopted for her journey. Having collected hundreds of newspaper articles about her journey (no diary has ever been found), I can say that while there are no reports of bears, there are several of bandits and highwaymen and near death escapes, many apocryphal for Annie was an unabashed storyteller with a vivid imagination. In the U.S.. at least, her route suggests she sought to avoid traversing high mountain passes. Rather than ride from S.F. straight to Chicago, she rode south to L.A., east to El Paso, north to Denver and then east to Chicago thus avoiding the Sierras and Rockies. For the full account, the book is called "Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride." As Annie Londonderry’s great grand-nephew and author of the only book about her I just want to clarify a couple of points in this post. Annie’s round the world bicycle trip began in Boston, not New Hampshire. The confusion may be that her first corporate sponsor, and there would be many, was the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Co. of New Hampshire, whose name she adopted for her journey. Having collected hundreds of newspaper articles about her journey (no diary has ever been found), I can say that while there are no reports of bears, there are several of bandits and highwaymen and near death escapes, many apocryphal for Annie was an unabashed storyteller with a vivid imagination. In the U.S.. at least, her route suggests she sought to avoid traversing high mountain passes. Rather than ride from S.F. straight to Chicago, she rode south to L.A., east to El Paso, north to Denver and then east to Chicago thus avoiding the Sierras and Rockies. For the full account, the book is called “Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride.”

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