Bar Mitzvah and the Beast

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Item # 840423

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Bar Mitzvah and the Beast recounts the journey of a father and son as they pedal across the country with their family generating discourse about global warming with a self-made petition.

Author: Matt Biers-Ariel
Softcover; 272 pages
The Mountaineers Books; copyright 2012
Full title is Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: One Family's Cross-Country Ride of Passage by Bike

Amateur bike rider, father of three, and everyday public school teacher Matt Biers-Ariel never dreamed of riding a bike across the United States. But then his hard-to-impress teenage son, Yonah, refused to have a Bar Mitzvah as he approached age 13. No dancing with grandma or chanting traditional prayers? Something had to be done to celebrate this rite of passage.

So Matt, his wife Djina, Yonah, and little brother Solomon decided to saddle up for a physical ride of passage—one that would take them 3,804 mi. by bicycle from the waters of the Pacific Ocean, across the Rockies, through Midwest small towns, and all the way to Washington D.C. . Armed with ibuprofen, several gallons of Gatorade, and one unpredictable tandem bike (the “Beast”), the Biers-Ariel family pedaled across the middle of America, chatting with locals along the way, roasting marshmallows at campgrounds, and quarrelling over the state of climate change, religious identity, and several flat tires. They also collected thousands of signatures on a self-made global-warming petition calling for the United States to undergo its own rite of passage—one of energy conservation.

The Bar Mitzvah and The Beast is a funny, thoughtful memoir of one ordinary American family’s extraordinary journey by bicycle, and an enlightening, warm exploration of the bond between a spiritual, nature-loving father and his ambivalent, computer-game loving son. rei:whytobuy>

Made in USA.

Item 840423