CTP (S4EAugSpecial2) What A Tandem Bicycle Teaches About Not Being Done

CTP (S4EAugSpecial2) What A Tandem Bicycle Teaches About Not Being Done
We talk with author Terry M. Brown about going from “I haven’t ridden in 40 years” to riding a tandem bicycle across the United States and writing Ten Little Rules for a Double Budded Adventure. We dig into the real-life logistics, the weather scares, the COVID curveballs, and the mindset shift that turns a huge goal into lasting confidence. 
• Terry’s “Genesis story,” from Greece to Ohio to North Carolina 
• deciding to commit to a coast-to-coast tandem bike ride 
• the life lessons behind Ten Little Rules for a Double Budded Adventure 
• route memories like Mackinac Island and problem-solving on the road 
• staying safe through rain, hail, and severe storm forecasts 
• making food work during COVID with limited options 
• why a shorter Maine lighthouse trip feels more purely fun 
• Terry’s wider writing career, upcoming Peg Unhinged, and a quipu-inspired idea 
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A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Gear

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello, welcome to another episode of First Institutionals Podcast. I am your host, Joseph L. Warner, that's L-E-N-A-R-D and Francis Now that's one without a hole. Thank you for tuning in. As Bram Norton used to say on his show. Let's get on with the show! Announcing Christitual's podcast gear! CTP gear or CTP wear, if you prefer headgear, like cats, torso gear, apparel, drink gear, mugs and glasses, and the sort. So subscribe to CTP at tinyurl.com slash subscribe to CTP. Get your CTP gear via tinyurl.com slash ctp gear. And of course, get your Joseph M. Leonard Media Manuscripts via Joseph M Leonard.us slash shop. And again, that's Leonard without an O. Joseph M L E N A-R-D.us slash shop. Joining me today is Terry M. Brown, author of Little

Meet Terry And Her Roots

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Ten Little Rules for Double Budded Adventure. This'll be fun. I'm sure. And it's Terry M Bro Terry T-E-R-I. M as in mediocre. Just it's a joke. It's a joke. Yes, her middle initial is M, though, but no, it isn't for mediocre. Brown, B-R-O-W-N. Welcome, Terry.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Thank you so much for having me. M is for magnificent. It's very magnificent. So just so you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah. Well, see, and and I joke with all my guests, but Terry and I know each other. I've been on her show. Uh I have you been on my show yet before? No, this is this is the first time. Oh, I thought you were returning. See 350 episodes plus countless co-hosting Savage Dunfilter and countless as a guest on other shows. It's like I can't keep them all straight anymore. I get it. I get it. I'm like on a thousand podcasts all over the internet currently. My own co-hosting and as guest. Anyway, we're not here to discuss me. Uh yes. For the since this is your first time, even though I thought you were returning, explain to this audience uh the proverbial, as I like to joke, Christian show, right? Proverbs, proverbial first question. Where were you born and raised? Your Genesis story. Where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Places you've been significant places you've been in between, that sort of thing. Admit to you how many years in jail for what? Yes. Again, we're joking, Peter. Yes, let's go say for the benefit of your transcript, we're laughing.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

That is a joke. So yeah, so I was actually born in Athens, Greece. My dad was in the Air Force, and so I was born in Greece. Um, I did the major growing up years in Ohio. Uh, when I was 15, the middle of my freshman year in high school, my parents decided to move to North Carolina. Um, at the time I hated them for that. I could not believe that they had uh rooted me and just you know taken me to this So you went from being a buckeye to a tar heel. To a tar heel. And and really, so I moved in 1979, and we moved to the small town of Pinehurst, where the entire county had one stoplight, and I had been living in Canton, Ohio, where as a teenage girl I could hop on the city bus. Yeah, well, we would hop on the bus and head to the mall for the day, and that wasn't possible anymore where we lived. And so I really, really hated my parents. I could not believe they had done this to me. Yet, here it is. How many years later? Um, almost 50 years later. Oh, you just doxxed your ass. That's okay. I don't mind. I don't mind, but here it is, all you know, I yeah, not quite 50 years later, and I'm still in North Carolina. So I absolutely love it here.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Um I'm now on you.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yeah, yeah. I'm now on the I I live at the coast, and uh yeah, I love I love where I live. Um there's been like all kinds of adventures in between, but North Carolina is definitely what I call home now.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

All right, and keeping with the Christian puns, right? What was the genesis of the book?

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Yeah, so it's called Ten Little Rules for a Double Budded Adventure, and

The Tandem Ride That Changed Her

SPEAKER_02 5:47

it is a memoir.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Um I mean to put a PG 13 label on the show.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So what it is, is is it's really an inspirational memoir. And my husband and I rode across the country from the coast of Oregon to Washington, D.C. on a tandem bicycle. And this is life lessons I learned while doing this huge adventure. And for me, this was more than just, hey, look, this lady cycled across the U.S. At the time that I met Bruce in 2018, um, I had not been on a bicycle in 40 years. So when he said to me, I've always wanted to ride across the United States on a bicycle, I had been wanting to do a really big adventure. I wanted to do something that kind of proved that I wasn't done, that my life wasn't over. And I looked at him and said, So are you going to talk about this forever? Are you actually going to do it? And he said, No, I want to do it. And I said, Count me in. Well, that's crazy. I hadn't been on a bicycle in 40 years. And so about a year and a half later, we got on a tandem bicycle and rode across the United States. And I learned a lot about myself and life on that trip. And that's what this book said.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

I hope you avoided. Well, I think it's safe to say you avoided Detroit. You're still alive.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yes, yes, we did. Um, we we we did go through um where did we go through? We did go through Michigan, but we went up, we went UP and kind of over, and then we went all the way kind of down and around, and then went through like Toledo, Ohio. So we just kind of did this whole loop around that way. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Tulidoo is we call it here in Michigan. Tulidoo, Ohio. Yeah. Oh, yes, Tulido. Stare at uh uh Mackinac Island from the Straits.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

So we we actually um took a boat over and and enjoyed a day there, and it was really beautiful. Isn't it lovely?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Oh yeah, anyone got the chance to visit Mackinac Island, yeah, it's expensive, especially if you book the Grand Hotel. But if you can manage to afford to book a stay at the Grand Hotel where uh uh somewhere in time with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour were filmed, you really want to do it. Although get get ready to roast, there's no air conditioning in that hotel.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

So so what we actually did was we stayed in a campground, took the boat over, spent the whole day there and enjoyed ourselves, and then took the boat back and stayed at the campground because we were, you know, definitely yes, well, and and we were also doing this this huge trip across the United States. And you certainly, every time there's something beautiful, if you spent a lot of money, you have to kind of like figure out where you're gonna do it. Um, and then of course, being on a bicycle, we weren't allowed across that bridge. They used to let people ride across it, but not anymore. And so um we found

Detours, Islands, And A Pickup Truck

SPEAKER_02 8:56

the butt bike on a bus and well, we actually it was during COVID. There were no buses. We we found um a very nice person at the campground with a big pickup truck, and they stuck the bicycle in the back of the pickup and took us across. So it worked it worked out really well for us.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

And uh the the uh bicycle built for two thing, also since I mentioned somewhere in time as the movie. Oh, what a great movie! Have you seen that movie? Yes, I have, yeah. Another movie I highly recommend came out this year. You might still be able to find it in theaters or video on demand uh or streaming well pay-per-view, uh Kevin James Solo Mio. Uh I've not seen that one Angel Film Studio Romantic Comedy that you know came out around Valentine's Day. Uh oh, what a great, fun, funny, and a bicycle built for two jokes are built in.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Oh, I'll have to y'all have to go see that one then. That that sounds good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Oh, just the way my ADHD O C D brain works. I just ooh, fun stupid squirrel, exactly. Up the movie, right? Squirrel. Squirrel, I like that movie, too. What a great movie! Up yes. Oh, anyway, now what book number? This is not your first book.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Oh no, no, no. So I have three novels that came out

Building A Writing Career After Adventure

SPEAKER_02 10:43

before this. Then I had a children's book that came out after this, and I have another novel coming out next month.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

So I'm I'm just and then full disclosure, we're recording March the 25th. Don't know when this will air. So when you're saying next month, it you mean April. April. So April 21st.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

April 21st, I'll have a new one come out called Peg Unhinged. And then on top of that, I also have a short story in three different anthologies that are also out. So I have a wide range of things that I do when I write.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Yeah, I'm working on another right now, too, that I'm expecting to uh will be a Kindle exclude 99 cent short story exclusive uh that I'm planning to release in May. I I I I don't want to release anything on April Fool's Month. Really?

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Oh no, so so here's the thing. It's called it's called Peg Unhinged. It is about a woman who's going through menopause and it is a very funny tongue-in-cheek. It's set at the beach. We live at the beach, and starting in April, is when everybody's coming here. I needed to get it out.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Maybe it should have come out on April 1st.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Well, that potentially, because Peg is kind of losing it a little bit. That's why we call her Peg Unhinged. So it's it's it's a good funny story. I think people will enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Yeah, my book, part of my life and living series, is gonna be about loss. So I didn't want it to come out. That's probably not until April. Yeah. Valentine's month, bad idea. Yeah, April, full tax month, bad idea. So I would to delay it to May. Yeah, even though it's killing me because it's basically done. It's like I want to release it now, but patience is not one of my virtues. Okay, okay. Oh, so have you got a next in mind? So I'm actually going to be at a writer's. No, no.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Well, and I don't have one. I don't have one. And the reason I don't have one is I'm terrible at titles. It takes me forever to come up with a title. I I write the whole book, I've done tons of editing, and I'm still struggling with a title because titles are just to me. I don't know how you're supposed to sum up all that you've done in this tiny little title. It's very hard.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

It's good to brainstorm with others what a title should be. And I suggest in how to write a book and get it published. Like I'm the one in May, I'm calling loss as a working title.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

I also have a working title, but it doesn't mean anything.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

That can be shared, but you never want to give away your real title until the book's ready to go.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

So so the one I'm, you know, I'm a pantser. So I I very much write by the seat of my pants, and I usually have like a very vague idea, maybe a character, uh, not much more. So the one that I'm thinking of, it's a dual timeline, it's historical fiction and present day. Um, there is something it's called a kipu, q-u-i-p-u. It is South American. Okay, South American Inca, you know, back with the Incans, they would take kind of like macrame knots, and they would tie these knots. And for a long time, historians thought that it had to do with accounting, how many alpaca we had and how many, right? Well, I read an article about a year ago. They now believe that some of these keepoo-that's what they're called, these knotted things, that they told stories, narrative stories. Well, my mind just jumped on that. And so I have an idea of a modern day anthropologist. I'm I have her as adopted. She knows that she is of South American ancestry, and because of that, gets into looking at South American type things.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Don't say too much more. We don't want to give story plot points. No, there's there's and and I don't even know enough to do yeah. I don't even know if someone will run through AI and try to steal it ahead of you. Yes, exactly. Today we'll AI cheaters, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

So it's it's kind of that, and then we'll be going back in time and also seeing poo from that. So you know, I don't even really know where it's going, but I think it's going to be really cool. I'm I'm really excited to sit down and just like see where my mind goes on this one.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

So yeah, well, you use double buttted in this one, so maybe it could be key poo-poo. Sorry, couldn't avoid the body humor.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Probably, yes, probably not. No, you don't want to steal that from me.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

No, no, I'll let you have that one. Oh, good. Oh, thank you so much. You're so welcome. For the benefit of the transcript again. We're laughing. This is fun, this is humor. You gotta keep us into humor, people. Oh goodness. Oh, I'm sure the people don't really care, but I do. How's the weather

Weather, Storms, And Staying Safe

SPEAKER_00 16:20

been?

SPEAKER_02 16:21

So you know, I live in North Carolina on the coast, and we had for North Carolina on the coast a very cold winter. I'm sure it was nothing compared to what you went through. So I'm we're not gonna do we're not gonna do a comparison, but just to give you an idea, I live on the coast of North Carolina. It typically does not snow here. If it snows, it is a dusting. And we typically see snow once every 15 years or so. I mean, it's just rare. I had almost 14 inches in my backyard.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Holy cow!

SPEAKER_02 16:55

It was just, you know, and then on the day that it finished snowing, typically here it snows and the next day it's 60 degrees and it all melts. I mean, that's just the way it goes. Well, we kept it it was below freezing for three days. And below freezing, like the day it finished snowing, it didn't get above 24 that day. And it was just crazy. So the fact that it has warmed up and I have been walking out on the beach barefoot is just fabulous. So the weather here has been really nice. I'm I'm happy for that.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Uh, today, here, uh, again, for the benefit behind the scenes, today we're recording is March the 26th. The temperature here is 60-ish, but we got thunderstorms rolling in.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

So yeah, well, I mean, it is springtime.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah, you should expect last week, or was it the week before? Recently, this month, the upper peninsula got three feet of snow. Yes, three feet. Yeah, and then was that was after a day, uh, a couple days before that. We had like a 70-degree day. We thought, oh, relief, spring is here.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

No, no, you always that that's called faux spring, and then you get second winter.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

There's always second winter, so we usually get second, third, fourth, third, and fourth winter. Yeah, it could snow in June here, yeah. Right. I mean, literally, it has in the past. I forget what year I you looked it up once. It literally in Michigan snowed in June and 18, whatever. That was a long time ago, but it's still possible.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

When Bruce and I were riding across the United States, we were in Minnesota and we typically stayed in campgrounds, but one night there we stayed in a uh hotel and they had one of these, you know, like information things where you could read all about the area, right? And I'm I'm looking at like what is considered normal for snowfall, right? And according to this thing, it is possible for it to snow in Minnesota in all but July and August. And I'm looking at it, and it it is now like pushing toward the end of August. And I looked at Bruce and I said, Let's get out of here.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

I look I I literally I I believe, you know, sometimes memory gets fuzzy, but I believe I recall snows in August in Michigan.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

So I maybe not, but well, so I read that and it was like, yeah, let we need to get out of here. Like it's it's time to start heading further south. We need to get where, you know, we're not gonna freeze to death. Because you certainly do not want to be riding a tandem bicycle in the snow, like that is not something that I would recommend.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

No, bad enough just in in even chilly weather, uh, or where the threat of it's not snow, just rainy days. The colour rain is bad enough.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

We had quite a few rain, rainy days. Um, in fact, we started in Astoria, Oregon. We got started at the end of June. We had anticipated starting in May, but that was COVID 2020, and there was nothing open. We couldn't do it. And and we had decided if we could start by the middle of July, that we would go ahead and and go on the trip. And it was the end of June. We were able to go. Our very first day, it was about 55 degrees and it rained the whole day. And so we were cold and wet. Yeah, yeah. And we had we had just come from North Carolina where it was, you know, 85. And so here it is 30 degrees colder and rainy, and we're on the bike. And I'm thinking I was thinking, I don't know, maybe this isn't gonna be as much fun as yeah, it's not as much fun as I thought it was gonna be, but um so we definitely we hit we hit several rainy spots. Um, we got hailed on one time where we were out at a thunderstorm, it started hailing. Um yeah, it you you kind of do what you have to do. And then when we were in Minnesota, there was a day, actually three days in a row, where they said that the thunderstorms were coming through and they expected uh like 60 mile an hour straight line winds. And so we got a hotel and stayed.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Depending on your state, like Michigan, uh, if there's hail, you gotta look for tornadoes.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yes, yeah. And so we just said we did obviously do not need to be in a tent. You know, we do not need to be riding our bicycle and we do not need to be in a tent. And so we got a uh we stayed somewhere. We actually um we stayed next to a Walmart and across the street from a restaurant, and it was like perfect everything we need food, other things that you need were great. And so you know, yeah, the the rain would stop and it Kind of clear up for a little bit, and we would run to the store and get a few things, come back to the hotel, it would start pouring again, and it was like, Yeah, this is why we're glad we're not out in that.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

So, yeah, you're right close to me, a few cities over in Taylor, Michigan. There's a red roof inn right off I 75, next to a Home Depot, a church, uh, a couple of restaurants, and across from that is BJ's warehouse at Marge. So, yeah, it's like it's everything you need. That's well, and and all of Stones throw from Southland Mall, even.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

So Right, right. And so that's that's kind of what we had to do as we were going across the United States. You have to remember it's COVID, so a lot of things that used to be open weren't open. And we we took advantage of like the Dollar Generals, the number of times that we stopped in a Dollar General and figured out how are we going to eat? Well, let's see, we can have some of this and we can have some of this. We ate a lot of oatmeal because you know it's easy to heat up water. Um, we ate a lot of trail mix kind of stuff where I would go in and I would buy different kinds of because I can't eat that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

I hate that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Yeah, but but you know, we would do things like I'd buy some dried fruit and then I'd buy some some nuts and then maybe like like periods because that's a good thing to stick in a mix.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

And have too many nuts, or there'd have to be a lot of those woo-hoo-poo stops. Yeah, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

And then and then um like I always I like chocolate fiber. I always like chocolate. So I put a little bit of MMs in there too, you know, and then you make up a nice little bag of goodies that you can eat. Um, and the other thing we did is whenever we would pass a grocery store, if they had a grocery store that also did like the roasted chickens, you know, where they we would go in and get a chicken. And when we stopped for the night, we would eat off of that chicken and then you'd have to throw away the rest. I mean, it's not, but

Eating On The Road During COVID

SPEAKER_02 25:11

we were hungry. We're doing a lot of uh bicycling, and so we would sit and pick on that chicken. You were burning calories, yeah. Yeah, and when we would pick on the chicken, and then maybe we would have grabbed a I don't like a potato salad or something, and that would be dinner that day. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah. And and the one night that I loved it, we were in Montana, but we passed a Costco and we went in and got one of their big pizzas and and tied it to the top of our trailer that we had all of our goodies in, and we tied it to the top, and when we got to our campground, we had pizza for dinner.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

So that's good, that's good. I I mean like joking, you need to do a follow-up bicycling along along Route 66 or something.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Actually, that would be wouldn't that be fun? Yeah. So what we actually did was the following summer, we rode up the the coast of Maine and we did about 300 miles along Maine and we stopped at several different, I think six or seven different um lighthouses. So I called it my lighthouse tour. Um and and that was very that was enjoyable. I think what I liked about that trip was that it was so much shorter. You know, we did it was it was two weeks. We weren't we weren't trying to prove anything. We had already proven something, we already rode across the United States, and it was more it was more just fun and enjoyable. Whereas the one across the United States, I mean, it was fun, don't get me wrong. I'm glad I went, but it was also very hard.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

And and too much work for me, no chance you're doing it.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Well, and there and there was a lot of for me, it was internal pressure, but a lot of pressure to finish. Like I I I wanted I wanted to say that we did it.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

A bracketless goal.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Yes, yes, but going going up the coast of Maine, at any point, I could have said, Yeah, I'm kind of done with this, and it would have been fine. I wouldn't have felt bad about stopping. And so that was a very different kind of trip.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Yeah. Okay. Well, time has flown

The Maine Lighthouse Tour And Reflection

SPEAKER_00 27:21

as it usually does. You have a website, people could find you.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah, absolutely. So it's my name, it's terrymbrown.com. That's t-e-r-i m brown.com. There you can find everything. You can find I've got some podcasts, all my books, uh, you can sign up for my newsletter, all my social media links are there. Find my show.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

So it's it's all there. And so that's probably the best place. And then if you want to interact with me, I'm on all the different social media, so you can go to any one of those once you know you know how to get there. And you can do that from my website.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

All right. Thank you, Terry Magnificent Brown. I I I was tempted to do the mediocre joke again. My audience knows I can't normally pass on the keys and the joke, but I let it go this time. Well, no, actually, I didn't. I didn't actually anyway. Right here, that's me. I just can't do it. I just can't let it go. Disney now I'll have in my head. Oh, ADHD, O C D brain the

Where To Find Terry And Outro

SPEAKER_00 28:35

rest of it.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Let it go. Let it go.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Let it go. Take care, God bless, Terry. See you later.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Thank you so much. Bye now.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Life can be like an amusement ride, but not always amusing. Roller coasters, the life kind. Now available on Amazon.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

Life isn't a straight line. It twists, it soars, it drops without warning. But it's in those heart-pounding moments, the climbs and the falls, that we discover who we truly are. Rollercoasters, the life kind, a book by Joseph M. Leonard, available now on Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Stand up for water today. Every day and night.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Leave freedom and taking his voice first, shed his message over all the earth. God loves all your joy. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.