Arlen Hall was pedaling alone in the Deep South when the driver of a big green pickup truck came up honking behind him. Hall, who is black, had tried to get some friends to join him on the Mississippi bicycle tour to be safe. Instead, he turned alone to face the driver blaring the horn of the truck, maybe an old Ford.

Lincoln couple Khara and Emir Plicanic’s cross-country bicycle trip started very low-tech, in a way, with four books. The first three were all books Khara read (and Emir read "by proxy" based on their discussions): "My Life on the Run" by Bart Yasso, "A Million Miles and a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller and "The Art of Nonconformity" by Chris Guillebeau. Each included some mention of riding bicycles across the United States. "I had never thought of a bike as a mode of travel transportation," said Khara, a photographer, teacher, and author. "And then I thought, 'that would be so fun.' "

Since I discovered U.S. Route 66 as a teenage hitchhiker, I’ve traveled it by Greyhound bus and tractor-trailer, by RV and Corvette and, once, by bicycle. Recently, when I wanted to return for another look, I headed straight for my favorite section, in Arizona, stretching from Winslow west to Topock on the California border. The last 160 miles of that route constitute one of the longest surviving stretches of the original 2,400-mile highway.

Demolition is nearly complete at Adventure Cycling, and construction is under way for an expansion that will add some 1,400 square feet to the downtown nonprofit.

More cyclists could visit Ashland after Bicycling magazine featured the annual Mt. Ashland Hill Climb Bike Race as one of five "painfully steep but hugely rewarding" races in America. The January issue of the magazine said that the race got its start 30 years ago when a few road bicyclists challenged some mountain bikers to see who could get from Lithia Park to the top of Mount Ashland the fastest.

The Rices, father and daughter, are not people to sit around. California native Mike Rice, otherwise an aerospace engineer, is a longtime surfer, runner and bicyclist. Jocelyn Rice’s sporting accomplishments approach storied status on the beachside: a surfer, runner and cyclist as well, she played basketball and football for Cocoa Beach High School, where she also won a state championship in the discus throw in 2009. No wonder, then, that in the days after Mike was laid off from his job at Kennedy Space Center and Jocelyn left Western Carolina University, they should undertake something appropriately challenging: a cross-country bicycle trip. So, starting Sept. 6, they set off on a 40-day odyssey that took them from the Space Coast to California.

“I’ve been a cyclist since I was a young teen. I bought my first bike, a Schwinn model, for $150, with money I earned working 30 hours a week in a fast food restaurant,” said Seneca Healthcare District Chief Executive Officer Doug Self.

After traveling nearly 2,700 miles through two countries and across four states, solo practitioner Jeffrey Tomassetti could see the finish line. The Mexican border was nearly within his reach. In June, Tomassetti, a Florida Bar member from Fernandina Beach, began his journey down the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a stretch of unmarked back country terrain along the Continental Divide from Alberta, Canada, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

A seasoned triathlete, mountain-biker, marathoner, and long-distance swimmer, Emi Berger, a vivacious 34-year-old veterinarian, said during a recent conversation at The Star that she didn’t think one could train for the 4,000-mile bicycle trip that she and Kevin Harrington had recently made across the United States.

Sixteen-year-old Mac Sullivan heard his dad joke many times about selling off the family's truck and going carless. In September, the joke became reality, and this month the Sullivan family pulled off a holiday feat on bicycles. "Last week, we biked up the Kim Williams and had to haul that Christmas tree back," said Mac, pointing to a sparkling tree standing roughly 8 feet tall in one corner of their lower Rattlesnake home.