71 year old Patricia Starr will be representing Nebraska in the Miss Senior America Pageant in Atlantic City come October.

Why she's bike riding 1,400 miles to get there is a different story.

Coming back to the High School where she graduated, Patricia started a scholarship for music students Friday at Wahoo Public Schools. She's using the bike ride to raise awareness on the need for music education.

"The specific reason here is to establish the Patrica Eliason Starr scholarship for music students and it will be a 500 dollar scholarship for vocal student and a 500 dollar scholarship for an instrumental student," Starr said.

The scholarship is set to begin in 2009, and with a lot of money already raised, Patricia hopes even more can be raised during the journey to Atlantic City.

Long bike rides like this is nothing new to Patrica. In 2004, at the age of 67, she pedaled over 3,600 miles from Oregon to New Hampshire.

"I know I can do it because I've done it before so I don't have any apprehensions about finishing the ride, we're just going to have fun everyday," Starr said. "We do have directions that will lead us to supposedly the safest roads,you know I don't want to get run over by a truck before I get there."

And, once the pedaling ends, the pageant begins...

"I have about 7 days to after we get there to change from a bicycle queen to a Ms. Sr. Nebraska," Starr said.

Patricia Starr was also Miss Wahoo in 1957.

If you want to follow her progress in her trek across America you can go to her website.

www.PatricaStarrNebraska.com