In 1976, physical education and mathematics teacher Syd Muzzy, his wife Judy, friends Butch and Emma Hill and 10 students, all of them from Battle Ground High School, set out on a cross country bike trip to Washington, D.C.
In 1971, Muzzy, an avid bike rider, began hosting spring break biking trips out to the beach. In the fourth year of the excursions, an idea came to him for a more ambitious ride.
“I remember sitting on the beach with one of the kids and I said, ‘you know, it would be cool if we ride our bikes to Washington, D.C.,’” Muzzy recalled.
Muzzy spent the next couple years researching the best routes and making plans on recruitment for the long trip.
He wrote letters to churches, schools and state agencies asking for accommodations while they journeyed, and he wrote to the local newspaper to garner recruits.
“I put out an article in the paper for kids who are interested to get a hold of me and write a letter why you want to go along,” Muzzy said.
Muzzy instated a rule of required training session attendance, and after several of those, the number of student riders dropped from 26 down to 10.
The group set off on June 14, 1976, and shortly into the ride, one of the bikers tumbled and got hurt to the point of needing stitches.
“I thought, ‘Oh no, I hope this isn’t going to be the end for us,’” Muzzy said
The injury was quickly dealt with in The Dalles, their first stopping point, allowing them to continue on the next day.
Muzzy planned each day to follow a pattern where one day would be long, another day would be less mileage, then the third would be even less.
Every seven days of the trip, the crew would get a couple days to rest and prepare for the next stretch.
One of the most notable moments to Muzzy was an exchange that happened outside of Boise, Idaho, with the police.
“This car stopped and stared and turned around and went back into town as fast as they could, so we thought nothing of it,” Muzzy said. “Then when I was finishing my tire, police cars came and they stopped about 50 feet from us, and they all got out.
“I was walking toward them. They told me to stop, and they wanted to know what was going on. I told them I had a flat tire. They all started laughing and they told us that the person we scared away came back to the police department and reported there were some Martians that landed on the highway.”
Each time the caravan entered into a town where they’d be staying, a helpful note with directions would be sitting on the back of the welcome sign, courtesy of Muzzy’s wife Judy.
As the band of bicyclists crossed the country, they were able to visit various scenic locations and experience American marvels, like riding an original Mississippi River ferry boat.
Eventually, Muzzy and his students reached their final destination.
“We stopped on the Potomac Bridge and we could see the Washington Monument and we could see the Lincoln Memorial, and we stopped at the entry sign that says ‘Washington, D.C.’ and our tears were flowing,” Muzzy said.
What awaited them upon their arrival was a tour of Washington, D.C., complete with visits to all the major landmarks and free tickets to the Smithsonian and Library of Congress.
“I got to realizing it’s over. After two years of planning, all that work, all that research, all that came to a sudden end, and that was a hard pill for me to swallow,” Muzzy said.
When all the festivities were finished, the entire party loaded up their bikes into a truck trailer, piled into a truck, and set off toward Iowa where Muzzy had arranged to pick up a bus.
“We drove back into Battle Ground to a welcoming community,” Muzzy said. “They had signs everywhere: ‘Welcome back home kids.’”
In the beginning, the ambitious trip seemed almost unrealistic to Muzzy, especially when he factored in bringing students.
Now, Muzzy is preparing for a reunion with the ride’s participants.
“When Butch, Emma, Judy and I sat down and talked, we actually discussed, because we were all school teachers, we knew the impact that we had on young people,” Muzzy said. “So we really wanted to leave a lasting impression on those kids. Now, I get to see all those kids together for the first time in 50 years.
“They’re all 63 to 65. I’m 80 years old, and it’s still paramount to my life. Having them all together and seeing them, it’s going to be really cool.”
