Riding with the Blue Moth

Bill Hancock has written an exquisitely crafted memoir out of his heartbreak. Pedalling across the country was a means of coping with unbearable pain, and in doing so, he exorcised (as far as was possible) some of the agony of losing his son, Will. His odyssey is also an accidental biography of the nation, in the small, incisive portraits of some of the people he encountered on the way. Taking the back roads as a means of avoiding the worst traffic, he encountered backyard America in all its variety. In writing "Riding With the Blue Moth' he has given us a memoir, a valentine to his son, and a legacy for his granddaughter.

Bill tells the adventures of his bike ride across America and the pain he went through that led him to his journey. This book will make you smile, cry and want to spend as much time with your loved ones as possible. Since it grips you like a vice from the beginning it won't take long to finish it and it may even inspire you to buy a bike!!!

Riding the Blue Moth is an adventure that takes the reader well beyond the mileage. The pure physical toil grows insignificant to the emotional heartache. But like the challenge of every new day, when the sun comes up, Mr. Hancock accepts what lies ahead and perseveres. He shows that human spirit and love of family, however beaten in his grotesque loss, rises above all else. By the end of the journey, it is clear that peddaling was the least of Hancock's effort and merely wetting his feet in the Atlantic was the least of his triumphs. The only thing more remarkable than the ride is the man.

"Riding With the Blue Moth" by Bill Hancock chronicles not only the grief of losing a son, Will, in the Oklahoma State basketball team airplane tragedy but also the amazing conquest of a cross-America bicycle trip. Bill Hancock gives his heart and soul to a spirit-cleansing ride as well as getting the support of his wonderful wife, Nicki, daughter-in-law Karen, and the entire immediate family after this gut-wrenching loss. Bill's honesty and coping with the struggles of Will's loss and the hazards of trekking from California to Georgia are absolutely inspiring and refreshing. This book is a `must read' for anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one, a great personal challenge or even the casual reader who wants to get a great spiritual lift from a wonderful volume.

After the death of his son in a highly-publicized plane crash,Bill Hancock flees the blue moth of sadness in a bike ride across America. He talks with ordinary people in their workday worlds and his account of them becomes a lyric love song to America. He gives an inside glimpse into the world of college sports and an intimate glimpse into a loving family where sports and music compete. His witty travel journal is also a journal of personal grief and sustaining grace, written with a reporter's clarity and a poet's heart. It is funny, tragic and beautiful.