Review: The Buddha and the Bee by Cory Mortensen

Inviting readers on a wild ride from Minnesota to California, The Buddha and the Bee: Biking through America’s Forgotten Roadways on an Accidental Journey of Discovery by Cory Mortensen is an atypical adventure for wanderers and workplace dreamers alike. Part road guide and part diary, biking lovers can follow the well-laid route on these pages, learn to sidestep critical unpleasant lessons, and gain the confidence to take their own big swings of adventure without fear.

Pedaling through the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the unforgiving Southwest desert, and the Sierra Nevadas, this is far from a casual trek, particularly given that the author had never biked more than 100 miles in a day before embarking on the trip. Mortensen was an office worker turned thru-biker who took plenty of missteps and wrong turns on his spontaneously structured ride, and that sense of an everyman author sets this long-distance memoir apart from others, which are often the stories of extreme athletes conquering elite challenges.

Mortensen’s depiction of the trip is brutally honest, seeming to hold nothing back about his mental spaces, avoidable errors, or contradictory thought processes, giving readers what often feels like a stream-of-consciousness transcript of a rigorous internal journey. Boldly tackling the physical and mental demands of an unpredictable 2,000 miles, this book shows that the secret to his success is not having the most expensive gear, the perfect diet, or an ideally mapped route. Instead, it is mental fortitude, a hunger for purpose, the kindness of strangers, and the desire to overcome self-doubt that makes his two-wheeled cross-country expedition possible.

Armed with a healthy balance of humor and humility, Mortensen’s daily accounts are peppered with notable landmarks and anecdotal experiences, from sublime moments of natural beauty and philosophical clarity to the hedonistic bliss of AC in a motel room and calorie-dense binges after exhausting days on the road. Woven between the travel basics are powerful reflections on existentialism, mythology, American history, the Boy Scouts, old relationships, sleep deprivation, religious oppression, and countless other hot-take musings that are both timeless and contemporary.

Anyone who has ever taken a long solo trip may recognize familiar themes and dichotomies – freedom vs. stability, expectation vs. reality, desire for solitude vs. hunger for connection, and other classic conundrums of travel literature. Mortensen bluntly explores these ideas as he moves through backwater rest stops, high-altitude hangovers, poorly timed flat tires, and the lullabies of nearby highways. The random encounters he has along the way are both hilarious and heart-opening, capturing the kaleidoscope of cultural norms and outliers across America.

The occasional photographs add some grounding context for the narrative details, though some of the image curation could use improvement, or at least expansion. There are also occasional conversations with single-serving companions that slow the pace without adding significantly to the narrative. Some of the nuanced details of diners and motels feel somewhat superfluous, and those slightly less compelling sections could be eliminated without compromising the interesting minutiae.

On the whole, however, this is cleverly crafted and addictively easy to read, offering authentic wisdom for adventure-seekers, homebodies, and everyone in between.