Annapolis' 'TransAm Grannie' writes, illustrates and bikes cross-country adventure

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Annapolis' 'TransAm Grannie' writes, illustrates and bikes cross-country adventure CapitalGazette.com

Patsy Helmetag doesn’t really like to bike.

The 68-year-old has lived in Annapolis 20 years and hasn’t biked much of the 13-mile Baltimore & Annapolis trail. Yet, she and her best friend biked across the coastal United States over six summers, and they’re steadily making their way back.

“It’s the adventure,” Helmetag says. That’s why she’s in it.

Before the self-dubbed “TransAm Grannies” continue their journey this summer, Helmetag published a children’s book on Feb. 5 based on their West to East Coast adventure.(The Transam Grannies) It’s a legacy her five grandchildren can share with their own kids, she says.

In the book she wrote, illustrated and bicycled, Helmetag tells the story of fictional grannies Annie and Frannie whose friendship started at 5- years-old and continued through a TransAm adventure “when their hair was the whitest white.” State by state, readers see the grannies travel through mountains, 115-degree temperatures and a hail storm, also enduring bug and animal bites of all kinds from Oregon to Virginia Beach.

The story of the real TransAm grannies goes something like this:

Helmetag’s best friend, Sally Schmidt, a math teacher in Oregon, called Helmetag one day saying she needed to mix things up.

“Let’s bike across the country,” Helmetag suggested.

The then 62-year-olds decided normal bikes weren’t built for their neck and back issues, so they bought recumbent bikes, which would allow them to evenly distribute their weight. The bikes, named Clark and Louie after famous American explorers Lewis and Clark, started their expedition on the coast of Oregon in the summer of 2011.

“We didn’t even know if we could do it. We thought, ‘Maybe we’ll get 10 miles and say this isn’t going to happen.’ And then we realized we can,” Helmetag said. “It’s not like we’re superwomen. It just makes you realize if you want to do something badly enough, and you’re with the right person, you can do it.”

Each summer the women picked up where they left off on the TransAmerica Trail, biking every mile themselves and using only the TransAmerica paper maps as guidance. Helmetag says the women averaged 40 miles a day, going up to 75 miles on some days.

Each summer came with its set of concerns, Helmetag says.

“It used to be, ‘Can we do it?’ Then it was ‘Can we get over the Rocky Mountains?’” Helmetag said.

They did both, pushing their bikes weighed down with 40 pounds of gear up to 12,000 feet of the Rockies in their second summer. That doesn’t compare to the difficulty of avoiding cars in East Coast traffic, she says, or the 115-degree weather in Idaho.

“This year, well we’ll see,” she says. “Every year is something different.”

This year the TransAm Grannies will pick up where they left off last year in ...

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Annapolis' 'TransAm Grannie' writes, illustrates and bikes cross-country adventure CapitalGazette.com

Patsy Helmetag doesn’t really like to bike.

The 68-year-old has lived in Annapolis 20 years and hasn’t biked much of the 13-mile Baltimore & Annapolis trail. Yet, she and her best friend biked across the coastal United States over six summers, and they’re steadily making their way back.

“It’s the adventure,” Helmetag says. That’s why she’s in it.

Before the self-dubbed “TransAm Grannies” continue their journey this summer, Helmetag published a children’s book on Feb. 5 based on their West to East Coast adventure. It’s a legacy her five grandchildren can share with their own kids, she says.

​

In the book she wrote, illustrated and bicycled, Helmetag tells the story of fictional grannies Annie and Frannie whose friendship started at 5- years-old and continued through a TransAm adventure “when their hair was the whitest white.” State by state, readers see the grannies travel through mountains, 115 degree temperatures, a hail storm, and bug and animal bites of all kinds from Oregon to Virginia Beach.

The story of the real TransAm grannies goes something like this:

Helmetag’s best friend, Sally Schmidt, a math teacher in Oregon, called Helmetag one day saying she needed to mix things up.

“Let’s bike across the country,” Helmetag suggested.

The then 62-year-olds decided normal bikes weren’t built for their neck and back issues, so they bought recumbent bikes, which would allow them to sit laid-back and evenly distribute their weight. The bikes, named Clark and Louie after famous American explorers Louis and Clark, started their expedition on the coast of Oregon in the summer of 2011.

“We didn’t even know if we could do it. We thought, ‘Maybe ...

Continue reading...

 

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