-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 […]
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