Hampden man sees America from his bicycle

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HAMPDEN – What college student hasn’t thought about it? Degree finally in hand, he sets off on a big adventure – to see the world, or a piece of it, all by himself.

Aaron Megquier actually did it – hopped onto a touring bike and saw the United States during a 52-day trip that began at Moose Point State Park in Searsport in late August and finished up in Seaside, Ore., in the middle of October.

Sure, Donna and David Megquier were nervous about their son biking across the country by himself, but the young man’s mother decided to enlist some special people to hold good thoughts for her son – her pupils at Weatherbee School.

“When I first began talking about it, my fifth-graders didn’t say much,” she recalled after Aaron was back home, safe and sound. “It was the first day of school, and they didn’t know me and they didn’t know Aaron.

“Then I put up a bulletin board with Aaron’s planned route across the country. He called us every night to let us know he had arrived safely at the campground, so the next morning I would move a peg to his present location,” she said.

The geography lesson spurred great interest in the youngsters, Donna Megquier said.

“Within a few days, my students were bursting in every morning with ‘Where’s Aaron now?’ and ‘How far did Aaron get yesterday?'” she said.

“I was very serious about Nordic skiing,” he recalled, “but not biking. In college, I had an old mountain bike I rode around campus.”

Megquier graduated from Colby College in May with a degree in biology and environmental science. He also is a graduate of Hampden Academy.

He’d never ridden more than 30 miles at a time, but soon would find himself averaging 95-100 miles a day, spending the night mostly in state parks and campgrounds.

Of course, there was one unplanned stay “by the side of the road” in Vermont, Megquier recalled. “I ran out of daylight.”

In Bryan, Ohio, he sought different accommodations.

“I stayed in a motel. It was my 1,000-mile reward,” he said. The overnight took place just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and, like much of America, Megquier was glued to the television.

Throughout his journey, but “especially after that,” he said, “people were so kind.”

They would give the young traveler food, buy him a meal, let him sleep in their back yards.

“People helped me out so much,” he said.

Megquier saw interesting structures along the way.

“The world’s largest statue of a thumb,” he recalled, “one of a flower pot, even a 40-foot fiberglass otter that would have given Paul Bunyan a run for his money.”

He could have reached the West Coast sooner than he did, but decided to ride a few hundred miles out of his way to see Badlands National Park.

“I really wanted to see that,” he said, “especially after 1,000 miles of corn and soybean fields.”

Snow in Montana and Idaho also forced him into a detour.

Finally, he reached the Pacific Ocean, then stopped in Salt Lake City to visit friends for three weeks before flying home.

Taking the trip on his own was “a big thing for the self-confidence,” but Megquier acknowledged there were things he missed about Maine.

“My family and my girlfriend, and a good, home-cooked meal,” he said. His first night back, his mother made him beef stew. “That’s a favorite.”

With payments for his college loans about to start, Megquier has been job hunting, but he also hopes to go back to school for a master’s degree in the future.

He learned a lot on his journey, and so did his mother’s pupils.

“We extended it to language arts as well,” Donna Megquier said. “My students wrote letters to him, and we sent them marked General Delivery to a town he was going to pass through in a few days.

“We studied vocabulary words like endurance, determination and perseverance,” she said.

For a teacher trying to keep her young charges from dwelling too much on the tragedies of Sept. 11, her son’s trip was a welcome distraction.

“Keeping track of Aaron’s bicycle trip uplifted and inspired us during a very troubling time,” Donna Megquier said. “I was glad to have something positive – like his progress and stories of kindness across America – to share with my students each morning.”