Spokane Woman Bikes Across Netherlands

Dimming eyesight didn’t cause a Spokane woman to blink when she got the chance to bicycle through Holland (the Netherlands).

Margaret De Croff Milsap, 68, left her home in the Spokane Valley in late June and returned this fall after pedaling 796 miles through all 12 provinces of the Netherlands.

“It was just God, myself and I,” she said. However, she stayed overnight in bed and breakfast inns where she was never short of company.

Although her father was born in Amsterdam, the main attraction to biking there was the hundreds of miles of bikeways - most of them paved or bricked - that are separate from roads.

One can ride most of the way through Holland and rarely have to ride on a highway.

“There was the occasional secondary road and sometimes I’d share the paths with mopeds,” she said. “It’s a good thing I didn’t have to go on the roads much. They drive like crazy over there.”

Bicycles were the main traffic of concern. On one day, Milsap was passed by 30,000 cyclists out for a four-day organized tour.

“Many, many of them were senior citizens,” Milsap said.

Because of the heavy bicycle traffic, Holland requires all bikes to be equipped with bells to alert pedestrians and other bikers when you come up from behind.

“I rode in 90 degree weather,” she said. “Wouldn’t you know it; they said it was the second hottest summer they ever had.”

Despite Holland’s reputation for being flat, Milsap said, “In some places the country actually has hills.”

She visited many war sites, and rode her bike almost every day.

Even though her tiny, foldable Dahon bicycle served her well overseas, she sold it there before flying home.

“I’m not sure why,” she said, “but I did bring back the bell, the seat cover and the lock.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo