Norton, Melissa

PERSONAL: Married.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Chandler House Press, Tatnuck Bookseller, 335 Chandler St., Worcester, MA 01602.

CAREER: Retired math and computer-science teacher.

WRITINGS:

Just the Two of Us: A Cycling Journey across America, Chandler House Press (Worcester, MA), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Melissa Norton is a mother and grandmother who crossed the country by bicycle with her husband when they were in their fifties. Norton wrote an account of their journey, Just the Two of Us: A Cycling Journey across America, in which she documents their sixty-three-day adventure across 4,611 miles, which began in Astoria, Oregon, and ended in Bar Harbor, Maine. She comments on the inns in which they stayed and restaurants where they ate, as well as the people they met and some of the difficulties they faced, including crossing mountainous terrain. In this book, which is written as a journal, she offers tips on embarking on such a trip and how it affected the personal relationship between Norton and her husband. Library Journal contributor John McCormick felt that "the book has the potential to appeal to both the bicyclist and the armchair traveler."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Norton, Melissa, Just the Two of Us: A Cycling Journey across America, Chandler House Press (Worcester, MA), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, John McCormick, review of Just the Two of Us: A Cycling Journey across America, p. 100.