Tails from the Open Road

By Tyler Maheu
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT- 30-year-old Stevens High School alumni Caleb Werntz has made it his life’s mission to inspire, and it has set about it in a feline-friendly way.

Werntz, who graduated in 2010 before going to film school in Hollywood, has always had a passion for bike riding. “Growing up in Claremont, you only really can bike to a couple villages. But biking throughout all of New England, up to the White Mountains, and across the country, it’s all so beautiful.”

He has taken his passion for biking, and added a twist, a furry companion in his bike basket. Marilyn is a nine-year-old calico cat, who Werntz has had since meeting her on his first cross country biking trip when she was only two months old, travels with him everywhere he goes. He says that this is his way of heartening the country’s citizens. “I love to inspire people, and this has been a really simple way of spreading joy and networking,” said Werntz. “So many people, especially my peers, who see what I am doing and want to live through it and be inspired.”

According to Werntz, when COVID-19 struck in 2020, he lost both his job and his housing. This spurred him to spend the past two years on his bike with Marilyn, traveling and making films. Originally going to film school in order to produce and direct narrative films, the past years with Marilyn have given Werntz further experience to achieve this goal. “I want to still make movies for a living, and this trip is giving me the backdrop I need in order to produce the content so I can grow,” he said.

Not only are these trips providing filmmaking experience, but they have proved a launching point for a career as a novelist. Werntz’s most recent book ‘MONROAD’ styles itself as a point-of-view tale from Marilyn’s eyes. “We had already toured a couple of years consecutively without a new book,” he said. “So, I wanted this to be something fun and light in order to share her perspective. The book covers our circle trip around the country.” The novel centers on the idea that Marilyn and Werntz are trying to find themselves, and their sense of freedom, through travel. However, by the end, they discover that they were free all along.

Some of Werntz’s favorite locales to bike through include New England and west Texas, where he says the desolation and lack of creature comforts placed him out of his element and helped him find himself. No matter how far he travels, Werntz has a soft spot for his hometown. “I love this town, I’ve always wanted to settle back down here,” he said.

For more coverage of the two friend’s bike journeys, visit www.calicocycles.com, where you can follow the pair’s social media accounts and purchase Werntz’s books.