A reporter from the University of Florida asked me if I’m looking forward to reaching Tallahassee. “It’s been a long tour. It must feel good to know you’re almost done.” Not really. I see this tour as an incredible opportunity, a gift. I’m in no hurry to finish opening that gift. I’m not pretending to […]

I wanted to let you know I finally got a nice long run on Saturday. We haven’t been able to do that much on this tour because of the traffic, so this was really fun. Rich found this really cool bike trail outside of Gainesville, and I got to just run and run. I also […]

A reporter asked me what I expected to get out of this project. I never thought about it in those terms. It’s fun, we meet great people, I get to ride a bike and spend lots of time with Becky—those are all cool side benefits, but they’re not why I’m doing it. I can’t really […]

If things fall into place this morning I’ll be honored to talk to a special audience. Becky’s working to arrange a speaking event for the Re-Entry Center of Ocala. It’s a program designed to help men emerging from the department of corrections break the cycle of addiction, crime, and incarceration. I’ve spoken to similar groups […]

We had a great ride today, but had to stop about two miles from the hotel. The town of Spring Hill literally has NO bike lanes or sidewalks on major streets, and we (well, Becky) decided two more miles wasn’t worth the risk. So we stopped to get off the bike and a lady came […]

Note to the touring cyclist: if you’re going to use Google Maps for directions, make sure you enter the correct address for your starting point. The day’s ride doesn’t begin well when you get lost at the very first turn out of the hotel parking lot. On the other hand, Lakeland is a cool place […]

A few days ago we were unloading in a hotel room. I flipped on the TV to whatever channel appeared, and in the background I heard this comment: “I hope they pick me. It would change my life.” That caught my attention. Turns out it was some sort of cooking contest—this young woman worked for […]

For some reason, the start of week #4 of the Florida tour has me thinking about my best friend Wayne. Wayne was the first person I told about the dream of a cross-country ride. He always encouraged me to go for it. I’m sorry he didn’t live to see it happen—it would have brought him […]

Just a quick update because it’s Sunday. Saturday brought our first in-progress rainout of the tour. We started in beautiful, cool, sunny weather in Bradenton, but as we headed north the wind kicked up. At about 25 miles I stopped for what cyclists call a “natural break” and when I came outside a rainstorm had […]