By Sarah Lang
The Lebanon Reporter
Lebanon — Lebanon resident Richard Lyons flew to the Pacific coast in Oregon in June to explore the area on his bicycle. He told his family he was going to ride around for a while and then head back home.
But 60 days later, he had biked nearly 4,000 miles — across the country to the Atlantic Ocean.
“I had a lot of questions of whether I could actually do it, so I didn’t tell anybody what I was planning,” said Lyons, 57. “I was kind of afraid to tell them because I didn’t want to get out there and find out I couldn’t do it.”
So Lyons started out riding along the Columbia River that separated Washington and Oregon. Every few days, he would call his family and say he was doing fine and was going to ride a bit farther.
He continued through Montana and to Yellowstone National Park — his favorite part of the ride. He went through Hoosier Pass in Colorado, which took him to the highest point of the trip at 11,500 feet through the Rocky Mountains. Then he headed straight east, to Yorktown, Va.
It was around Kansas when Lyons finally told his family his secret plan.
“I felt more comfortable letting them know at that time,” he said. “They were pretty worried.”
Another person who was worried about Lyons was his neighbor Betty Whitlatch. Lyons and Whitlatch live in the 1900 block of Syracuse Court, and Lyons often helps Whitlatch with shoveling snow or raking leaves.
“I’m quite elderly, and he’s so good to me,” Whitlatch said. “He’s just such a wonderful guy, and I thought it was a wonderful thing he did.”
For more of the story, see Monday’s Lebanon Reporte
