You may be wondering why I am taking a trip like this. I am still answering that question for myself, but at this point, I have the following “top five” reasons:

1. Achieving a Long-held Goal. For more than forty years, I’ve had a goal of traveling across the country on a bicycle. I included this in a list of 50 life goals that I wrote on September 18, 1984–it was #5 on that list. I’ve accomplished about 20 of those goals, and most of the rest I no longer have an interest in pursuing. (Give me a break–I was only 29 when I wrote these, and times change, right?) But this goal has always lingered, and now is the time to do something about it.
2. Tackling a Physical and Mental Challenge. I enjoy a physical and mental challenge, and this adventure will provide both of those.
3. A Time to Reflect. This trip will provide an extended opportunity for contemplation and reflection, free of the normal obligations and distractions in life. I really enjoy the three-day weekend I spend each year at the Demontreville Jesuit Silent Retreat, and this trip will provide a similar chance to step away from the din and craziness in our world and refocus on what is most important in life.
4. Slowing Down to See the World. Traveling on a bike is slower and provides more opportunities to see and experience things along the way than traveling by airplane or car. This trip will provide a chance to see America up close from the seat of a bike in a way that Trudi and I were fortunate to be able to do on five bike trips in Europe in recent years. The cover photo and the photo from my inaugural blog entry are from those trips, as is this one:

5. Something to Write About. I just finished reading Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, a travel book he wrote early in his career, in 1867. In it, he wrote that “the nomadic instinct is a human instinct” that has “a charm which, once tasted, a man will yearn to taste again.” He also wrote that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” This bike adventure will give me a chance to celebrate the joy of writing, and to have something interesting to write about. You will be the judge of my success.