Photos from a Bicycle Ride across the USA - 2007

If you’re thinking about riding a bicycle across the United States, I absolutely encourage you to get out there and pedal.

I’ve done two trips, one in 2007, another in 2011, two of the greatest adventures of my life. I tell everyone who’s interested: It’s not that hard. If you can pedal without crashing you can do what I did. You just have to be persistent. I was 58-years-old when I rode across the country for the first time.

I was in good shape for my age, but you don’t have to be a superb athlete to make this happen. Again, you have to be persistent.

If you aren’t the type to quit, you can manage.

I met Beth while pedaling across the USA. 

Like my daughter, she had type-1 diabetes.

Her grandmother described her as "a little warrior"

fighting hard to beat the disease.

If you’re interested in details, I have lengthy posts describing both trips. I was still teaching in 2007 and my students at Loveland Middle School helped raise $13,500 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I raised $10,500 in 2011, and got handcuffed as a suspected bank robber while traveling in Indiana.

I did both trips east to west, saving the most spectacular scenery for last. I also made a point of hitting Yellowstone both times, and traveled more than 4,000 miles on each trip.

Here’s the best news. Both times, when I reached the Pacific, I wished I could turn around and ride back. 

I had that much fun.

Many riders I’ve talked to would say the same.

The following pictures are all from my 2007 ride.

UPDATE: I set out to ride across the USA again in 2024, at age 75, and made it from Acadia National Park, all the way up and over Glacier National Park, along the Going to the Sun Highway. I got stopped in Kalispell, Montana, by forest fires ahead in Oregon. So I only pedaled for 3,200 miles. I tell my wife, I will try again in 2029, when I turn 80. God willing.

 

She is not a fan of that idea.

My daughter Emily developed Type 1 diabetes when she was 14.
I rode in her honor.

(UPDATE: She has now been type-1 for twenty years)

(UPDATE: Emily had twin boys in 2021.
Prosper, left, Story, right.)

I always tried to teach my students if you have two legs, you can do it.
You can always do more than you think.

(UPDATE: I retired from teaching in 2008.)

I began my 2007 ride in Avalon, New Jersey.

The first few days, I rode down the coast, took a ferry from Cape May
and crossed over into Delaware and Maryland.

I carried camping gear; but when I was tired I paid for motels.
In Fredericksburg, Virginia I stayed in a real dump.

That's the towel the motel supplied!

I taught history, so I visited the Chancellorsville battlefield.

I also steamed up a steep hill to see Jefferson's home at Monticello.

A magnolia blossom in Virginia.

Every famous pioneer needs a good set of wheels.
Blue Ridge Mountains.



Roadside memorial - Indiana.

I didn't take many pictures of Ohio, Indiana or Illinois. Lots of farm fields.
I live in Ohio.

Oldest church in Vincennes, Indiana.
Basilica of St. Francis Xavier.

(Founded by French missionaries in 1732.)

My bicycle (21 gears; heavy duty wheels) held up well; camping near Columbia, Missouri.

UPDATE: For my second ride across the USA I upgraded to 27 gears.

For my third attempt, I had 30.

Beside the Missouri River;
a bunch of drunks at a campsite nearby kept me awake late into the night.

These two young men were pedaling east from California.
I met them in Kansas.

(I lost their names; but we shared acquired wisdom.)

Perhaps you've heard: Kansas is flat.

(Well, that is true.)

Kansas sunflower and visitor. 

More Kansas! Still flat!

Many small towns in the West are shriveling as family farms are supplanted by agribusiness.
Population declines mean even churches close.

(In two towns I was told even McDonald's had closed.)

Abandoned high school, Ness County, Kansas.
Large parts of the West have fewer people than in 1920.

Kansas scene.

Eastern Colorado is flat, too, but you gradually rise in elevation to around 4500 feet.
You can tell you're approaching towns
because you can see grain elevators from twelve miles away.

Somewhere in Colorado.

Royal Gorge Bridge is fun to see and the scenery in this part of Colorado is fantastic.
I was fat when I started and could barely get this jersey on!

I joked that I looked like a fat, pink sausage. Now I was in shape.

A view of the bridge.

Scene from the Arkansas River Valley.
The ride up that valley was beautiful.

I woke up near Leadville, Colorado to this view outside my tent.
I often made my own campsites, as here.

Elevation: 10,151 feet.

Parts of southern Wyoming are barren. Somewhere north of Rawlins.

I pedaled from New Jersey to Wyoming before I got my first flat.

(I served with the Marines, 1968-1970.)

While fixing my flat, Sarah Brigham pedaled up and we had a nice chat.
She was riding south to Durango, Colorado.

Large parts of Wyoming are wide open country.
I took this picture looking back south, the way I had just come.

Not far from Jeffery City - population in 2010, 58 persons.

Lake at the top of Togwotee Pass, not far from Grand Teton National Park.
You soon start a 17-mile-long downhill ride.

Pedaling a bicycle in the Grand Tetons is a joy.

The Garcia family was camping on the site next to mine.
They invited me over for a steak and a beer.

They were a delight to meet.

Morning view: Jenny Lake, Grand Tetons.

If you're pedaling coast-to-coast, I highly recommend
going through Yellowstone National Park.
You'll be glad you did.

Blue hot springs.

Large hot springs.

Spectators watch me pedal past in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone elk.

Geyser erupts.

A geyser erupts.

Yellowstone countryside - with rainbow.

Earthquake Lake was formed in 1959
when a huge rock slide blocked the Madison River.
Several campers were crushed in their tents.
(Montana.)

So many people people donated for the cause. These two waitresses at a place near Earthquake Lake heard what I was doing and gave generously to JDRF.

(I failed to get their names. Nuts!)

You can ride I-90 near Butte, Montana. There were some big fires in the area in 2007.

UPDATE: My third ride across the USA was halted in 2024 by fires
all across Oregon.

Pedaling up and over Lolo Pass, in Idaho, I met Gene Meyers,
one of the few riders I ran into also heading West.

He was a gentleman and we rode together for several days.

It was fun to have someone to talk to after going solo so long.
Gene had been pedaling most of the way with a woman who drank too much.

Gene and I spent an entire day pedaling up the Lochsa River Valley.
A gorgeous Idaho stretch.

When I hit the Washington State line I realized, "Hey, I'm actually going to do this!
I said I'd pedal across the USA and I'm nearly finished."

Farm near Walla Walla, Washington.

Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Valley, Oregon.

You can ride I-84 down the Columbia River; here, I was on Old Route 30, high above.

Mt. Hood, sixty miles away, Oregon.

  

Only a mile from the Pacific.

My brother met me on the second-to-last day of my ride,
carried my gear in his car, and brought champagne.

Finished the ride after 51 days. Oregon Coast not far from Tillamook.

(I will post pictures from my second trip, probably next week.)