Customer Reviews

Travels in a Strange State

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Lone women adventurers are a rare breed. And when you add two skinny wheels and a small tent you become the subject of both admiration and suspicion wherever you dare to peddle - are you alone? Aren't you scared? Isn`t it dangerous? Are you married? Why not? Do you have kids? Why not? Are you looking for a boyfriend? Why not? As a lone female cycle-tourer of three years running I was excited and reassured to read of Josie's enthralling zig-zag across the States, a land of big empty spaces, thundering 24-wheeled lorries and crazies hiding behind bushes with sawn-off shotguns, according to every third cyclist you talk to. ''Little lady, if you're not going to (insert foul request here), you'd better get the hell outta my way", a travelling friend once recounted. So I was comforted to read of the incredible warmth and hospitality of the American people she peddled into in between the long, lonely and dusty stretches. The book is written in an upbeat, positive style, as you would expect from a fearless 20-something lass. It is perfect to inspire the younger female cyclist or she who craves to progress from the safety but relative restrictiveness of bicycle-club touring. For older (35+) cycle tourists, of which there are a majority since it is a recreation that begs for more money and time, the recounting might seem a little lightweight, for it is not tainted by the weariness and 'why the hell am I doing this, if I see another stone circle I will scream' that creeps in as you cover more and more bitumen and gravel track. The book simply says, cut loose girl, there's a whole lotta highway and byway out there to explore, and you can do it. I have cycle-camped alone in supposedly edgy places like Nicaragua and Cuba but the States still remains a scary prospect. I'll just have to read this book again before I go!

Josie Dew continues to be a fun read. Her delight in Bryce Canyon was a joy to read. She is a gutsy, young woman with a sense of humor. I hope she keeps cycling and keeps writing. I also recommend Wind In My Wheels.

the intrepid Josie Dew is back on her bike again.this time its coast to coast via a straight line right through the heart of the good old u.s.ofa.I cant wait until she comes to Australia so she can tell the world how sunny the continent is,how friendly the people are and how much like the rest of Europe we turned out to be.

Having been a fan of Josie Dew since reading "Wind in my Wheels", and "The Sun in My Eyes", I was very disappointed with "Travels in a Strange State". I guess the first clue was "24,000 Murders in the United States." On page 1 paragraph 1. This is the start of a constant stream of murders, rapes, drunks and loitering perverts. She goes to 2 of the biggest tourist traps in the US, Hawaii and Los Angeles, and complains of the tourists. It takes her 173 of the 263 pages to get out of California. And then she streaks from Las Vegas to Halifax in the last 100 pages. In her eyes there is a murderer or pervert behind every bush just waiting for her. She dedicates a page and a half to a masturbator (alleged)and only 2 paragraphs to cross the beautiful countryside of Missouri. How did I cycle 8500 miles across and around the U.S. last year (2007) and not have one encounter with any of these scumbags. And her researcher needs to check out his/her fat facts for the U.S. "3 million over 600 pounds"(page 36). I don't think so. Very disappointing.

Like all Josie's books, it's funny, well written and entertaining. Keeps you turning the pages. If you're considering biking in the USA - read this first!

Josie Dew's books about her travels around the world on her bicycle remind me a little of Dervla Murphy's narratives, but Dew wears her politics a bit more lightly than Murphy. Traveling close to the ground, as Rick Steves would say, allows the cyclist to observe social conditions at close range, while the long stretches of road leave plenty of time to ponder what it all means.

In Travels in a Strange State, Dew flies into Oakland and sets out to cycle down the coast into Mexico. After a few days in the Bay Area, she considers traveling up the coast into Alaska instead. Eventually she heads south, stops in Los Angeles for a few weeks, then impulsively decides to fly to Hawaii. This turns out to be the best decision of the trip, because she falls in love with Hawaii.

In fact, by the time we're halfway through the book, she's still in Hawaii, the smallest state in the union. She still has the rest of the country to get to if she's going to write about traveling across the States.

She finally makes her way back to Los Angeles and from there it's on to Las Vegas. If you've ever driven from L.A. to Las Vegas, you know what a desolate stretch it is. I can't imagine bicycling it, but Josie does it, in 100 degree temperatures and air so dry she has to stop regularly to tend to nosebleeds.

From Las Vegas, she charges on through Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. Although this takes weeks of actual time, it goes pretty fast in the book. One stretch of mid-western highway is much like another, as anyone who's driven cross country knows. It isn't until Dew stops in Illinois to meet up with her mother who has flown in from England, that the narrative picks up the pace again.

Staying with American relatives allows Dew to see a more middle class side of America than she normally gets to meet on the road. Bicycling along open highway brings her into contact with any number of homeless people, truckers, hitchhikers, and youth hostelers from other countries. The suburbs of Illinois give her a different perspective.

Josie Dew writes about the people she meets and the sights she sees, and she shares a bit of the history of the places she finds herself. Listening to the radio at night as she falls asleep in her tent adds to her collection of local color.

I've read many travel narratives of exotic lands I will probably never see, but reading Dew's account of her travels in the country I've spent most of my life in gave me a look at America from an unusual and not very attractive angle. It was a little like looking in a three-way mirror and finding out what you look like from the back. Yes, your butt is that big.

Expecting another light-hearted rollicking bike adventure about Josies travels in the USA, I must say I was dissapointed by her continually noting the Negative. I have travelled much of the same areas but do not choose to dwell on the seamier and moribund aspects of life. I also felt like she was rushing to finish this book with hardly a mention of the last few thousand miles. I did appreciate her cute maps and drawings throughout the book.