NEWBERRY — Hanna Elshoff has been travelling around the country since May 1, 2015, and her journey recently brought her to Newberry and the surrounding area, as she makes her way to Chicago.

“I’ve been on it nearly two years and the whole two years I’ve ended up where I am supposed to be. It is really crazy,” she said.

Elshoff has been traveling on an ELF by Organic Transit. According to their website, organictransit.com, the ELF is a solar and pedal hybrid vehicle powered by you and the sun. It gets the equivalent of 1,800 MPG.

To get to know Elshoff, we have to go back to 1961 when she immigrated to the United States from Germany, when she was 18. She was sponsored by a couple in Ford Dodge, Iowa, and Elshoff said all she had at that time was a bike.

“After a couple of years I had a connection in Texas. I was going to ride my bike to Texas like a hobo. It did not matter, I was footloose and fancy free,” she joked. “My sponsor said, ‘Hanna, you cannot do that, it is too dangerous.’ I got to Texas, not on a bike, but I never let go of that dream totally, and life takes you all kinds of directions.”

Elshoff’s plan was to begin her journey at age 80, if she lived that long, she said. But, on her 70th birthday, things started clearing out of the way so she decided to make the journey when she turned 75. In the meantime, she joined the Lions Club.

“Then, about three and a half years ago, I saw a regular bike with a motor, and I am not in that good of shape. I’ve got to have a bike with a motor. I was just about to go to a bike shop and I sat in front of a computer and put in solar powered bike, and that thing showed up (referring to her bike),” she said.

“I am kinda spontaneous and I had frequent flyer miles, so I flew to Durham (North Carolina, where her bike is manufactured). I rode one, and I ordered one, and while I was in Durham I decided not to wait until 75 and decided to start May 1, 2015. This was May 1, 2014, so it gave me time to plan,” she added.

Elshoff said her first journey was to the Lions headquarters in Chicago and it is there they wrote about her journey in the November 2015 edition of the Lions Magazine. A major goal of her journey was to meet former U.S. President and Lion Jimmy Carter. According to Lions Magazine, Carter inspired her to become a United States citizen.

“I was going to see Jimmy Carter, and I did in Georgia, and by chance I had dinner with Jimmy Carter,” she said.

When she went through Georgia, she travelled throughout the entire state, and the Georgia Lions helped her across the state. She told them she would be back to Georgia for Mule Day 2016, an event that draws thousands of people.

After Mule Day, Elshoff had to get some work done on her ELF, so she rented a car and returned to her home in Minnesota, but she returned to her journey and got back on the road in Durham. A family she stayed with recommended taking the route that took her through Newberry.

She then came to Newberry and then to Joanna and Clinton and she learned there was a State Lions Convention in Spartanburg (this weekend). She decided to stay in the area, and this week she is making her say to the Convention, after which she will be on the road to Chicago.

Hanna Elshoff traveled through Newberry and Laurens County last week, as a part of her journey to travel across the country.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_DSC_0835.jpgHanna Elshoff traveled through Newberry and Laurens County last week, as a part of her journey to travel across the country. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@civitasmedia.com

Reach Andrew Wigger at 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @ TheNBOnews.