Bicyclist Pattie Baker is a familiar sight as she tools around Dunwoody with a rainbow-colored rubber duck on her handlebar and a pool noodle on the back of her rig to ensure a safe distance for oncoming and passing vehicles.
Baker not only has used her bicycle as her primary mode of transportation in Dunwoody, but around the world.
Her latest book, “Round America with a Duck,” chronicles her five-month, 10,000 mile trip across the United States on her foldable bike. She traveled between cities using public transit and used her bike while exploring the area around each stop.
Baker’s book begins when she left on a foggy morning March 20, 2023 from an Atlanta bus terminal with her bike, 60-liter backpack, and a sack of clementine oranges and ended 165 days later, fittingly, on a midnight train to Georgia.
One of her goals was to spend as little money as possible on the trip, and she managed to limit her average daily expenses to $20 a day using the WWOOFing work/live method.
Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), according to its website, “links visitors with organic farmers, promotes an educational and cultural exchange and builds a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.”
Travelers exchange 20 to 30 hours of work at the farms for food, lodging and education. During her trip, Baker’s stops included a llama and lavender farm in California, a Hare Krishna temple in Utah, and an alpaca farm in Kansas.
“There was something wonderful at each place I went,” she said. “One of my goals was to find hope in a world where there was very little hope, and I did find it in the most unexpected places.”
Traveling using public transit also offered many learning opportunities, as Baker experienced extreme weather catastrophes, numerous transit delays, and “dangerous and uncomfortable personal situations.”
“It was an internal and external journey for me,” she said. “The most important thing I learned was to trust the journey.”
Baker said the lessons she learned on her travels has spurred her to continue it. She just finished a six-week WWOOF trip to Ireland, and is now writing about that adventure.
“There’s a lot of ways to live a life,” Baker said. “Turning 60 and becoming an empty nester, I didn’t want to sit on the sidelines for the rest of my life.”
Even before she took on her biking challenge, Baker was an advocate in the Dunwoody community, serving on the city’s Sustainability Commission during Dunwoody’s initial years of cityhood.
Baker also promoted urban harvesting and served as a founder of the Dunwoody Community Garden and the food pantry garden at Malachi’s Storehouse.
She was honored as the city’s sustainability hero in 2021.
Baker’s book is available for sale online at Amazon and several independent book dealers. Her website also includes information on her other books, “Food for My Daughters,” Traveling at the Speed of Bike, and “Bucket List.”
