"You're doing what again, exactly?"

I am riding a bicycle across the United States. From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

ACA's Southern Tier Route

This isn't a huge deal. Plenty of people have done this before, on this route. We'll be in a town every night, so it's not as extreme as backpacking in the wilderness for a week, where chances are you won't see many people. These are paved roads, with cars, and cell phone service at least 50% of the time, and only a few stretches of 80 miles between services.

Okay, maybe it is a bigger deal than I'm making it to be. I don't know anyone who has personally done anything like this. Riding a bicycle 80-100 miles (127- 161 km) a day, every day, for at least 40 days, by my calculations. I'm prepared for temperatures of over 100 degrees F (37.7 C) through the deserts, but I'm not sure I'm prepared for the humidity of the South.

"What brought about this crazy idea?"

When I was in sixth grade or so, I dreamed of going on a bike trip. I think I read about an organized tour in the travel section of the newspaper one Sunday, and I asked my mom if we could do that. "Someday, sure," she said. She didn't exactly discourage me from this idea, but there certainly wasn't any movement to making it happen. Thinking back on this, from the perspective as a mother of a very persistent 3.75 year old, I'm now realizing Mom didn't really mean "someday" like my 11-year-old self interpreted it. I wanted it to happen next month. I wanted to start planning and GO. I was pretty dissapointed when "someday" didn't come soon enough, and I don't think it was mentioned ever again. I'd bet Mom doesn't even remember this conversation as a Really Big Thing.

Lessons learned:
Parents: be very, very careful about what you say to children. (I never got a tree-house either.)

image from Tree House Love

Children: Don't stop dreaming. Someday you'll be an adult and you can make things happen for yourself. (My tree-house dream has adapted somewhat, but that's another story)


So, when the opportunity presented itself, quite directly, might I add- I jumped at the chance. NZ asked, "I'm riding across the U.S. by bicycle. Anyone want to join?" How often do you get asked a question like that? Despite a few hurdles, I'm making this happen. We leave on Monday.