Lawnmower Man

The fast-talking, former Grateful Dead roadie isn't the first person to attempt to drive a riding lawn mower over a long distance.

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Man who rode mower through Logan now traveling across Iowa article
Paul Woods stands outside of his camsite at Beaver Mountain Tuesday morning. Woods is riding on a lawnmower from Alaska to Virginia with his dog Yoda. (Eli Lucero/Herald Journal)
By Aaron Falk
A man whose cross-country journey on a riding lawn mower came through Logan earlier this year is driving across Iowa this week.
"I've been driving so long a lot of people started calling me 'Wheels,'" Paul Woods told The Des Moines Register last week. "I've persevered, and I know I'll make it."
Woods, 44, spent a night in the Beaver Mountain Ski Resort parking lot in late January before continuing up the winding canyon road toward Bear Lake.
In the more than five months since he left Cache Valley, Woods has traveled at least another 1,000 miles east. He was last seen Friday riding through Baird, Iowa, a tiny town about an hour northeast of Des Moines.
Megan Gordon, a reporter for the Iowa newspaper, said it was not clear what route Woods took after leaving Utah, but she said he traveled through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Woods has said he is traveling from Alaska to Virginia. Along the way, he has attracted plenty of attention.
"Cops stop by every day," he told the Register. "To tell you the truth, I would be offended if they didn't."
As he stopped along the side of an Iowa highway last week, a number of passers-by stopped to chat with him.
"I'm not going to say he's crazy, but he's certainly not your everyday guy," said Greg Overton, who caught up with Woods last weekend in Jamaica, Iowa.
Overton said he gave Woods $40, a clean shirt and a new road atlas.
In return, Woods shared his stories and jokes with Overton and his son.
Woods said he and his dog Yoda have endured bitter cold as they drove through Montana and weathered hail storms in Nebraska. In Iowa, he has exchanged his tattered jacket for short sleeves and sunburned arms.
During his time at Beaver Mountain, Woods joked with the resort's staff as he fixed the brakes on his modified Toro lawn mower.
"I've spent more time fixing it than driving it," he said in January, adding that he had gone through three engines on his trip.
His mower broke down once again last week on Iowa Highway 141.
But the days of tinkering with his 30-year-old mower might be over. A Toro distributor in Iowa gave Woods a new mower Friday.
The fast-talking, former Grateful Dead roadie isn't the first person to attempt to drive a riding lawn mower over a long distance.
A man named Alvin Straight rode 290 miles from northwest Iowa to Wisconsin on a John Deere mower, inspiring the 1999 film "The Straight Story."
If Woods completes his 4,500-mile journey, Overton said he thinks Woods will garner similar fame.
"Somebody will probably figure out a way to make an interesting movie about it," he said.


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