The What and the Why

This fall one of my dearest friends, Lou Eney, asked me if I wanted to to a coast-to-coast bicycle tour with him this summer. Having not ridden a bike regularly in several years, and having not a clue about what this would entail, my answer was, of course, an enthusiastic "yes!"

When I tell people I'm going to ride my bike all the way across the country this summer, they react in one of two predictable ways. The first is, "Wow, I'm really jealous. I could never do that." These people are mistaken; the truth is that, short of a medical obstacle, anyone could; they just have to want it enough. The other reaction is "Wow, you're crazy! Why would you want to ride a bike all that way when you could just drive a car?!" I think John Forester provides the best answer to this question: 

Cycling does it all --- you have the complete satisfaction of arriving because your mind has chosen the path and steered you over it; your eyes have seen it; your muscles have felt it; your breathing, circulatory and digestive systems have all done their natural functions better than ever, and every part of your being knows you have traveled and arrived.

I came across this quote in my (very extensive) research for what is admittedly a huge undertaking. The Atlantic and the Pacific are pretty far away from each other, and bicycles can only travel so fast, so this leaves a lot of possibilities in between. Some certainties, however, are that I'd be foolish not to start this in good physical shape and with adequate equipment and finances, so in January I bought a bike and started training, researching, and saving in earnest. 

The fact that I have no way of knowing exactly what I'll experience this summer in no way discourages me. In fact, it's exactly the reason I want to do it.