“Your doing what!?” - that’s the usual response I get when telling people I’m spending this summer cycling across America. Most of my friends are now well acquainted with the idea, possibly even bored sick with my constant talk of the trip.
The trip itself is a culmination of a 3 year dream that first presented itself in 2007. At the time I was researching for another trip across America by car, when I found a journal documenting a guy who had cycled across. In the following weeks I became fascinated by the idea of doing something so big and different, but to this day don’t have a straight response for ‘why’.
A couple years and summers later I had finished my degree and got a job and felt the chance of taking the trip slipping away. It was then I decided there was never going to be a convenient time to take several months out of my life. After both my Grandmas passing away in the space of a year I really began to take stock of my ambitions. I couldn’t wait any longer, the trip still consumed my thoughts, it had to be done.
So skip to present, I’m ready to leave everything behind and on the 17th May 2010 I will be flying to Yorktown, VA and begin cycling to the pacific ocean. I will be following the Transamerica trail established by the ACA back in 1976.
Having spent several months travelling around the USA in previous years, this route still manages to go through all the states I haven’t visited except Illinois. Riding with a fully loaded bike, I plan on camping around 2/3’s and staying in motels the rest. Despite going alone I also hope to meet and ride with others along the way.
I read elsewhere another TransAm cyclist saying that people who ask why your going on such a trip probably wouldn’t understand if you told them. I guess I want to test myself away from the security of normal life, to live a life without walls and limits and finally live out my dream.
“You’re doing what?” That was the standard reply, every time, for months. My friends had long since stopped being surprised and moved straight to bored — I’d talked about little else.
The idea itself was three years old by then. Back in 2007 I’d been researching a very different trip, a drive across America, when I stumbled on some stranger’s journal of cycling the same distance instead. I couldn’t shake it after that. To this day I still don’t have a clean answer for why — only that the idea got into me somewhere and never fully got back out.
A couple of summers slipped by. I finished my degree, took a job, and felt the whole plan starting to recede into someday. It was around then, with both my grandmothers gone within a year of each other, that I stopped treating someday as a real place on the calendar. There was never going to be a convenient window cut out of a life for something this size. So I quit waiting for one.
Which brings me to the seventeenth of May, 2010 — a flight booked to Yorktown, Virginia, and from there a bicycle pointed at the Pacific. I meant to follow the TransAmerica Trail, the route the Adventure Cycling Association had laid down back in 1976, coast to coast on the back roads nobody drives on purpose.
I’d already knocked around the States on previous trips, and this route still threaded through every state I hadn’t seen except Illinois. I’d be riding fully loaded, camping for maybe two nights out of three and taking a motel bed for the rest, alone at the start but hoping, in the way you hope for weather, that other riders would find their way onto the road beside me.
Somewhere in my reading I’d come across another TransAm rider who’d written that anyone who has to ask why probably wouldn’t understand the answer anyway. That was close enough to true for me. I wanted to test what was left of myself once the usual walls came down — no schedule, no ceiling, just the road and whatever I turned out to be made of.
19 comments from 2010
If only I had your confidence bud! Have a great summer! Looking forward to this site becoming one of my daily visits. Say hello to some bears for me!
Gump!!
This the target then... http://bit.ly/MenMx
This is bookmarked! Hope the trip goes well!
Hello Ryan, good luck with your great adventure and enjoy the moment! Be prudent. Auntie Claudette from Canada, Mike's wife and Geneviève and Michèle's mum.
Hi Ryan Just rebuilding my bike at the Holiday Inn, Newport News, starting my Trans Am tomorrow. Just spotted your blog after seeing a message from you to Nick Stravous on Crazy Guy. I just bumped into Nick and his dad in the lift of the hotel, strange when someone you've seen on the net appears in front of you thousands of miles from home!I new he was starting a similar time to me (he's just left) I start tomorrow. Not sure how your getting to Yorktown. I flew into Dulles and pre booked a taxi with Gentleman Taxi, gentlemantaxi@earthlink.net , 804 839 8400, $220 which seems a lot of cash, but after a day of travel it was great to be picked up in style and dropped at the hotel near the start! Being an old boy, I'll be plodding along the trail so I'm sure you'll catch me up, any questions please shout stuart.woolger(at)googlemail.com Cheers Stu www.midlifecyclist.me.uk
Hey Stu, That was really cool meeting Nick, I'm flying into Newport News and staying in Yorktown. Thanks for the taxi link though you reminded me to book one! I just want to get started now, hopefully catch up with you along the way. Enjoy, Ryan
Hey Ryan, Love the site! I'll buy you a Sunday diner when you get home - be careful and take lots of pictures lots of love X
I expect daily updates!
Have a fucking AWESOME one man, Id love to join you on this! Maybe in the future with Doug and peeps, it would be fucking RAD. Good luck sexy! <3 X haha
If you email asking for "sort code and bank account deeetails sir" for emergency cash, I'm telling you now, I won't respond. Good luck growing a road-beard!
ENJOY the trip, Ryan! You'll be riding through some beautiful country. And hopefully you'll get your bear encounter :-)
hi ryan hope u have a good time and can u maybe get me some sweets?
Your sis just signposted me to the site. Loving your work (and stamina!) go for it and have an amazing time! What an achievement! Gem x
Hey Ryan, Just came across the link for this website from your facebook. This trip looks amazing! I hope you have a brillaint time out in the US, I am sure you will. All the best mate. Nick
Hi Ryan Like Pooley, this came up on my fb feed. What an awesome adventure. Have a great time seeing what's out there from two wheels.
Wow ryan this site is awsome... i will defo be checking it out lots!! Good luck and stay safe!xx
your site is amazing good luck hope the buts not to sore
Well Done Ryan on completing your dream and WELCOME Home. Hope you remembered Bradleys sweets!