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By DAVE MASON,
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
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Patricia Starr writes
about her 2004 bicycle
trip across the U.S. in
"Angel On My
Handlebars." Ms. Starr
was accompanied by her
husband, Gabriel
Gonzales, below, during
her cross-country
journey.
MICHAEL MORIATIS/NEWS-PRESS
PHOTOS |
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Cyclist Patricia Eliason
Starr and her husband
Gabriel in the back of
the van that Gabriel
drives in support of her
cross-country cycling
efforts. |
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Michael Moriatis/NEWS-PRESS
PHOT |
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March 7, 2010 12:00 AM
Patricia Starr rode her bicycle
across the U.S., mainly by herself.
But during the scariest moments, she
said she didn't feel alone.
Not even when the lightning struck
and thunder boomed near the Grand Teton
National Park in Wyoming.
During that adventure and others, the
Santa Barbara resident said, she felt
the presence of an angel.
"You don't know what being alone is
until you're out in the desert with no
one else around, with no communication
because the phone won't work," Ms.
Starr, 72, said. "But an angel came and
helped me. I rode for an hour with an
angel's wings wrapped around me."
Ms. Starr writes about those
experiences and others in "Angel On My
Handlebars" (Summerland Publishing,
$19.95). It was released in January. She
will sign copies of the book at 1 p.m.
March 27 at The Book Store, 1137 N. H
St., Suite Q, in Lompoc.
The author and concert pianist
clearly doesn't believe in the word
"can't."
"I wanted to do something wild and
crazy like this for 20 years," she said
recently as her husband, Gabriel
Gonzales, listened in their living room
overlooking all of Santa Barbara. "I
never had the opportunity."
"I thought, 'Wouldn't this be awesome
to say you've pedaled across America?' I
wanted to take the challenge," Ms. Starr
said.
So she did. She pedaled across the
U.S. in 50 days in 2004, raising $22,000
for an annual $1,000 grant through the
Patricia Starr Endowment Fund for Music
Scholarships at Santa Barbara City
College. She said she typically rode 120
miles a day, roughly 10 to 12 mph.
It was a 3,622-mile journey from
Astoria, Ore., to Portsmouth, N.H.
"She's a pretty determined woman,"
Mr. Gonzales said.
For her cross-country trip, Ms. Starr
rode with America By Bicycle, a group
pedaling across the country. But she
explained that because she was the
slowest cyclist, others quickly passed
her, and she ended up being by herself,
except for Mr. Gonzales following her in
their van.
But sometimes not even he was there.
That happened when she was riding by
herself near the Grand Tetons, the
landmark Wyoming range, when a
terrifying lightning storm struck. As
thunder boomed, Ms. Starr felt afraid.
"I said, 'Please, God, please help
me,' " she said.
"All of sudden, there's this calm
that came over me. An angel put its
wings around me. From that point, I was
extremely calm."
When her husband caught up with her
later in the van, he noticed something.
"He said my eyes were different. They
were translucent. He knew someone was
taking care of me."
Between Riverton and Casper, Wyo.,
Ms. Starr was alone again when her
husband ran into a woman at a store,
waiting for a helicopter to transport
her husband, who just had a heart
attack, to a hospital. Mr. Gonzales
stayed to help the woman.
And in South Dakota, Mr. Gonzales
helped a family with a flat tire and a
hole in the spare. Ms. Starr, meanwhile,
was riding far ahead, again alone. But
in her book, she praises her husband for
being an Earthly angel helping those in
need and talked about the heavenly angel
that supported her when Mr. Gonzales
couldn't be next to her.
She writes that her guardian angel
helped her when she and other bicyclists
decided to ignore a "bridge out" sign in
Portsmouth, N.H. Instead, they found a
tiny walkway, only 2 feet wide, along an
abyss. She rose above her fear of
falling from a great height and pushed
her bike along the narrow path.
Throughout the trip, she said she
tackled steep hills and adventures such
as crossing the Continental Divide.
"Each day was a challenge. But I have
good Nebraska genes that don't give up.
If you have something to do, you do it,"
said Ms. Starr, a native of that state
who graduated from Wahoo High School in
1954 and earned a bachelor's degree in
piano performance four years later at
Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln.
She went on to teach music in Hawthorne
Elementary School in Los Angeles before
moving to Santa Barbara in 1960, where
she has given private piano lessons and
founded The Santa Barbara School of
Music. She also served as director of
music at St. Raphael Catholic Church,
and she played organ and piano and
directed choirs at various churches and
synagogues in Santa Barbara.
She and Mr. Gonzales married in 1998.
She has a son, Michael, from a previous
marriage; Mr. Gonzales has two daughters
from an earlier marriage.
In 2008, she rode her bicycle 1,400
miles from Wahoo, Neb., to Atlantic
City, where Ms. Starr, who was crowned
Ms. Nebraska in the Senior America
contest, competed in the national
pageant. As she pedaled alongside friend
and fellow cyclist Tony Aitken, she
raised money for music scholarships at
Wahoo Public High School.
Ms. Starr said her next dream is to
ride across the country to raise money
for music scholarships in the U.S. that
she would like to see offered through
New Horizons, a national organization
overseeing groups such as Santa
Barbara-based Prime Time Band. She plays
trombone in the ensemble, which consists
of musicians who are 50 or older.
"This is about inspiring people," she
said about her bike journeys and book.
"Life has no limitations except the ones
you make."
e-mail: dmason@newspress.com |
