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‘The tyranny of miles’

At 70, FD native Alan Hutchison bikes across US

-Submitted photo
Alan Hutchison, 70, dips his front bicycle tire into the Atlantic Ocean on May 2 at St. Augustine, Fla., after completing his 3,100-mile trek across the United States.

It was like doing nine RAGBRAIs back-to-back.

That’s how Alan Hutchison described his just-completed 59-day, 3,100-mile bicycle adventure across eight states that began March 6 in San Diego, Calif., when he dipped the rear tire of his bike in the Pacific Ocean and ended May 2 in St. Augustine, Fla., when he dipped the front tire in the Atlantic.

“I honestly didn’t know what I was getting into,” said Hutchison, a Fort Dodge native. “I had done day rides, weekend rides, riding across the state in RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). This was like doing nine RAGBRAIs back-to-back.”

Hutchison, at 70 the third oldest of a group of 15 who made the journey, is a 1970 graduate of Fort Dodge Senior High and a 1972 graduate of Iowa Central Community College whose father, Jim Hutchison, once served as president of First Federal Savings and Loan of Fort Dodge.

Alan Hutchison is retiring at the end of May as a professor of English at Des Moines Area Community College after a 35-year career in education — teaching in the classroom as well as online and virtual classes. He and his wife Denise Mernka, a FDSH classmate, live in Des Moines. They will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in August.

Hutchison has religiously logged each day of the journey with text and photos in a blog titled, “A Journey Both Ways” — which can be found at: https://www.ajhutchison.com/blog. In the opening of his blog, Hutchison quotes these lines from a Navajo wind chant taken from “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat-Moon: “Remember what you have seen, because everything forgotten returns to the circling winds.”

“I call it the tyranny of miles,” he said in describing the unique qualities of a cross-country ride.

“You’ve got to hit your miles — 50 to 80 in a day. You get kind of tunnel vision, because that’s your goal, what you do. It’s when you stop — in the hole-in-the-wall cafes, people you meet, we met a lot of bikers solo or in groups — the places and people are what made it interesting.

“There’s the weather, wind, rain. It’s one of those things you say is fun, not like a roller coaster kind of fun, but having done it. When you’re on your bike, you spend much time thinking, finding out about yourself. It is a mental thing as well as physical thing. It would be easy to give up but you don’t. You’ve got to dig deep and sometimes tell yourself, you’ve got to go on.”

Hutchison was the only Iowan in the group, comprised of men and women who hailed from all over the country — New York State, Indiana, Washington, Georgia, Florida, California and Massachusetts. A nonprofit, Adventure Cycling, organized and operated the trip.

“A friend of mine I cycle with a lot, we kicked around the idea of maybe taking time off for several months for a self-contained trip where we would work our way back to Iowa,” he said. “I took a professional leave from DMACC.”

Hours upon hours of preparation preceded the trip. Up until then, his longest rides were on RAGBRAI — his first cross-Iowa trip in 1976. Hutchison bought a smart trainer equipped with a computer program, put his bike up on the trainer and programmed it to simulate the various conditions he would face. He trained through the summer of 2022, up to four hours a day, and took progressively longer and longer rides.

“Since I was a kid growing up in Fort Dodge and Spirit Lake, I was always on a bicycle,” Hutchison said. “Denise and I really learned how to ride bicycles on our first RAGBRAI.”

Hutchison was a year old when his family moved from Kansas to Fort Dodge, then moved to Spirit Lake when he was in sixth grade and returned to Fort Dodge when he was in 10th grade.

Denise and Alan began dating in their sophomore year at Iowa Central and continued at the University of Northern Iowa. Denise is the daughter of James and Beverly Mernka of Otho, and Alan’s parents were Jim and Jean Hutchison. All are deceased. He has two sisters, Diane Bock of The Villages, Fla., and Julee Bernard of Cedar Falls, and a brother, Gregg of Lawrence, Kan. Alan and Denise have two daughters — Adrienne Hutchison (and her husband Michael Gugliotti) of Baltimore and Natalie (and her husband Ryan Duff and their son Bruce, 2) of Vancouver, Wash.

His first paying job after graduation was with a savings and loan in Rock Rapids. He and Denise would ride their bikes to George, Iowa, 15 miles away, but said he “didn’t have a clear idea that biking would become such a passion” until their first RAGBRAI. He was transferred to Des Moines in 1976. The family moved to the Beaverdale area and in 1988 he was hired at DMACC. A few years later, Hutchison began commuting by bike 25 miles round trip from home to the community college main campus in Ankeny. Hutchison earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at Drake University.

Hutchison’s cross-country ride was on a southern tier route that took him through eight states — California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The group mostly skirted major cities, although they rode through metropolitan Phoenix on a bike trail, spent a night in Austin and on a rest day got into New Orleans. They rode alongside interstates in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas but mostly stayed on secondary highways, beginning each day by sunrise and ending the day by midafternoon.

The group was treated to a delightful glimpse of America.

“The high point for me was a little side trip we took to Mamu, Louisiana,” he said. “It’s the home of Cajun music. We went to a little place called Fred’s Lounge on a Saturday morning. Dancing, live Cajun music, great food. It was absolutely the funnest thing we did on the trip. Louisiana was my favorite state, I loved the food.”

Along the journey, he got three flat tires on his Surly LHT touring bike which he had purchased for the trip.

Hutchison said he thought they would never get out of Texas, which was about 900 miles and two weeks of the total trip to bike through.

His worst day — fighting 30 mph headwinds in a 6,000-foot climb at Tonto Basin in Arizona. That, he said, “was the day that told me I could actually be a rider and complete this trip.”

His retirement plans include more biking, including the 50th annual RAGBRAI July 23-29. Several friends from his cross-country trip plan to join him.

“I made some new friends,” he said, “probably for a lifetime.”

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