Biking across America - the movie

I just watched a great movie about biking across America.

Only the bike had a motor.
And the America wasn't North.

All the same this movie had much of the spirit of our upcoming adventure.

It has youth - one of the characters is biking to celebrate turning 30 a la Katie.

This is the story of Che Guevara.

His motorcycle ride from Buenos Aires to Venezuela changed his life.

"This isn't a tale of heroic feats.
It's about two lives running parallel for a while
with common aspirations and similar dreams.

"Wandering around our America
has changed me more than I thought.

I am not me anymore.
At least, I'm not the same me I was."

Will our ride across our America change our lives?

Thunderheart

Tom likes action flicks.
I go for drama - no violence.

We have trouble finding a movie to watch.

But this weekend, in my quest to immerse myself in things pertaining to The Big Bike Ride, I happened across a movie that fit the bill.

Thunderheart, with Val Kilmer, set in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Excellent movie for the scenery. And for a glimpse into the situation of Native Americans - life on the rez as they say. Plenty of action for Tom; dramatic scenery and characters for me.

Even Tom enjoyed the wise old Indian with his weathered face and mysterious words.

He reminded me of the old ad from the 70s - the Indian with the single tear running down his rugged cheek. What was that an ad for?

As I scour my atlas for our route across America I see frequent Indian reservations - in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota. Odd that I come from a state named for the Native Americans, but I know none. Other than Jim Bruchac from the Family Nature Summits.

The scenery of Thunderheart is amazing. I had read about the Black Hills, about the badlands - I knew the area was sacred to the Indians - hence the vortex of Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, and the newly proposed country of Lakotah.

I can't wait to see it all from the seat of my bicycle.

Butch and Sundance

If you're going to be biking across Wyoming this summer you should watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

This is a classic film from the 70s with Paul Newman's twinkling blue eyes and Robert Redford's rugged good looks.

We watched it with Alex a few weeks ago and we got into the classic discussion - who's better looking, Paul Newman or Robert Redford? And does it really matter when you can watch the two of them riding their horses across this manly Western landscape?

It seems like every small town we'll be visiting on our bike trip has some story to share about Butch Cassidy and his Hole-in-the-Wall gang.

This was Robert Redford's first big film  and inspired the name for his ranch, Sundance, and the film festival he founded, the Sundance film festival.

So much fun to see these wonderful actors in their youth. But they both are so much more than pretty faces...

Paul Newman, nominated for 10 academy awards, may be most famous now for his Newman's Own brand of natural foods. All of the profits - more than $280 million have been donated to charity. And tasty? Well, Tom now uses Newman's own in his famous spaghetti sauce and my kitty, Stubby, snarfs down his Newman's Own cat food.

Robert Redford, my favorite, was also a Hollywood heartthrob for years. In fact, in my lab the incredibly sweet dessert the techs bring to work is called "Better than Robert Redford".

Much like me, Robert Redford believes in land preservation. In 1960 he spent his last $500 on 2 acres of land in Utah - 2 acres that later expanded to the 3,000 acre Sundance preserve.

So he protects 3,000 acres in spectacular Utah and we do 33 acres in scenic Indiana. We are kindred spirits.

Watch the movie. Enjoy the scenery.

And pay special attention to my favorite - the bicycle scene...

Movie of the Day - Jeremiah Johnson

They don't make movies like this anymore. Or actors quite like Robert Redford,

This is a wonderful movie based on a true story of a mountain man surviving in the wilds of the Rockies. Beautiful scenery, great characters.

OK, it was filmed in Utah and we don't go quite that far south. But I think the scenery is similar to what we will see going through Idaho/Wyoming. And the stories of the mountain men are essential to understanding the character of this region.

Watch the movie. You'll enjoy it.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdblink/vi1569129753/

Movies across America

Today I had a minor surgery. Not much – but it knocked me out of physical training for a day and my mind wasn’t up to reading. Besides which, we are having a beautiful snowstorm, so it’s a delightful day to curl up in bed or on sofa while the snow blows drifts outside my window.

So after surgery I dedicated to low-key movie watching and thinking about the movies to watch across America.

Tonight was Shane, a classic Western, complete with black hat bad guys and noble good guys. It fleshes out the conflicts of the ranchers versus the farmers – personally I thought the ranchers had a point. I got the book out of the library and it is beautifully written...Shane “road into the valley wearing no gun and riding a lone trail out of a closed and guarded past.” The valley in the movie was the valley of the Grand Tetons which we will see on Day 15 of our ride across America.

In fact, we can watch several movies depicting this incredible mountain range as described in a marvelous book, Rising from the Plains by John McPhee....”Hollywood cannot resist the Tetons. If you have seen Western movies, you have seen the Tetons. They have appeared in the background of countless pictures, and must surely be the most tectonically active mountains on film, drifting about, as they will from Canada to Mexico, and from Kansas nearly to the coast. After the awgon trains leave Independence and begin to move westward, the Tetons soon appear on the distant horizon, predicting the beauty, threat, and promise of the quested land. After the wagons have been moving for a month, the Tetons are still out there ahead. Another fortnight and the Tetons are a little closer.”

So now filling out the proposed movie list we have Little Big Man, Jeremiah Johnson, Brokeback Mountain, North by Northwest and probably some other old westerns since my husband, Tom, likes the old Westerns he grew up on. Maybe a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. He suggested Henry Fonda?