The Scoop
BOOK REVIEW – COAST-TO-COAST ON A TANDEM
Posted on: Saturday March 15, 2025
It’s safe to say at some point in our respective lives, we’ve often thought about traveling the United States from one end to the other.
A true “coast-to-coast” adventure! Take that idea one step further. What about sightseeing the entire country on a bicycle? Better yet – on a tandem bicycle with a partner?
Not only did Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin’s Peter & Tracy Flucke do just that – they even wrote a book about it. In 2014, the bike enthusiasts traveled from Washington to Maine on a tandem bike. Their entire trip, including the good, the bad and the (sometimes) ugly details are chronicled in their 2017 release “Coast to Coast on a Tandem.”
The paperback book published by M & B Global Solutions Inc. is 221 pages in length and admittedly is what I’d describe as an “easy read.” Each chapter is sort of like it’s own short story. The format is akin to reading a couple’s respective diaries – with a day-to-day, blow-by-blow description of their incredible journey.
Contained in the book are photos sprinkled in, illustrating a handful of their stops and some of the interesting people they met along the way.
Peter and Tracy document all of the details of their often grueling trip. During their exhaustive excursion, they spend nights either in a tent, at a campground or park. Sometimes, they’ll stay in whatever hotel or motel they can find. Othertimes, through their extensive network of connections within the biking community, the couple would stay at a hostel or at a “Warm Showers” home. The “Warm Showers” homes are often owned and operated by bicycling enthusiasts who open their homes to traveling cyclists around the country.
In this book, the Flucke’s provide a brutally honest, no-holds-barred description of their day-to-day lives on the road. No sugar coating going on, here. They cover the highs and lows of traveling the country on a tandem bike. The potholes, the breakdowns, the detours, the nice hotels, the not-so-nice places and everything else in between appears in this book.
They also meet some absolutely incredibly, supportive people during their jaunt across the country, and share those stories as well.
When reading each chapter, I felt like I was riding shotgun with these two. You pretty much feel like you’re the third wheel with them – feeling all of their angst, fear, doubts, joy, triumphs and every other emotion in between.
With their easy-to-read chapters, it’s a tough one to put down. You can’t wait to see what state they will enter next. Will they suffer another flat tire? Will they be able to find a bike shop to make their necessary repairs? Will they get lost when they have no wifi signal and unexpected detours surface? What delicious food will they refuel with? (With the amount of calories the pair likely burned up – the good side is they can pretty much eat whatever they want on the road!)
When there is no internet service available, an old school map is how they navigated their trip. As they inched closer and closer to their destination in Maine, folks in convenience stores, local pubs and restaurants got the know them as they’d post frequent updates on their journey through their respective social media avenues.
This long trip tested their marriage more than once along the way. Both Peter and Tracy spill their guts in these pages and as a reader, you often feel like you’re riding shotgun with them on the bike or refueling with a delicious meal or a cold pint at a microbrewery somewhere along the way.
If you’re looking for a relatively easy read – and one that’s genuinely very tough to put down – I’d highly recommend “Coast to Coast on a Tandem.”
You can obtain your copy of “Coast to Coast on a Tandem” and the Flucke’s other book “Bicycling Historic Route 66” at these locations: Physical stores: Lion’s Mouth Bookstore (Green Bay, WI); Bosse’s News & Tobacco (De Pere, WI); Neville Public Museum (Green Bay, WI); Badger State Brewing Company (Green Bay, WI); Saranac Glove Company (Green Bay, WI); Village Books & Paper Dreams (Bellingham, WA) and S.S. Badger Lake Michigan Car Ferry (Ludington, MI/Manitowoc, WI).
Also online at: www.webike.org and www.amazon.com