The Beginning: thoughts and a realization

As I began my ride last thursday, a nice 33.7 mile-er through a chilly early October storm; I was struck with the idea that I rode past this path in my train hundreds of times, but as I lost the trail and picked it up again, and struggled across the rough and muddy patches I realized that I really knew nothing about this place, or really any place that I had passed so carelessly in either a train, plane, or car.
As I thought about this I realized that none of us really knows much about the places that we see every day, or the people that may live there.

As I rode on, the rain poured down, and I was cooled from my sweat, and I could not help but smile at the beauty of the country.  I remembered that joy from when I lived in the hills of Ohio, and from the grasses of the high plains where I grew up.  I realized that though I love this country, when I used to travel it from state to state every summer I did not really ever know what I was passing, even if I was doing my best to pay attention. I thought about my convalesance from being hit by a car in the city this past summer, and how much that experience made me realize that life is fleeting, and we only have a short time upon this earth.

I then realized what I wanted, and had to do.  I have lived for 25 years on this earth, and there is still so much of my country that I have not seen, and so much that I have seen that I do not know. In order to recitfy this, I have decided to ride my bicycle from Chicago all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and blog about it daily.

I am beginning my training now, and will time my route so that I am crossing the Rocky Mountains just as the last of the winter snows melt off to allow me safe passage.  Why am doing this? Several reasons, but here are some of the main ones: 

• I want to get in shape: as far back as I can remember I have never been in the best of shape, and these past few years I have become concerned that if I do not take action I will never get into shape.
• I want to reconnect to the America where I grew up: I grew up in an America of wide open spaces, sweeping landscapes draped with a rich mantle of color in the day, and blanketed by the stars at night.  I feel like I have spent too much time surrounded by concrete and bricks, and it is sucking some of who I am right out of me.
• I want to feel like I am a part of something bigger than my work and my belongings: I feel like we as a culture forget an essential part of the American spirit, when we face overwhelming odds, and move forward with untiring strength until the goal is accomplished.  It is this spark that I am going to need to channel if I am going to accomplish my goal
• I want to connect with the people that I meet along the way: As I reconnect with America, I also want to reconnect with Americans, there are some of the most wonderful people in our country in out of the way places, and I intend to open myself to the wonder that is the streets and roads and people of this great land.

I invite you all to follow along with me as I take the ride of a life time, and connect America with myself and with all those that I come into contact with.