44 Days Across America
During the summer of 1997, two kids had the wild idea of spending their summer bicycling across the United States. On this, the 20th anniversary of that adventure, a dramatic retelling of their nearly 4,000-mile journey that spanned two oceans, three mountain ranges, and miles of not-so-flat stuff in between.
I’ve lived in New York City for almost 20 years now. On weekends, or early weekday mornings, I bike out of the City over the George Washington Bridge with other area cyclists heading north towards towns like Piermont and Nyack to take in the relative calm and solitude of the Hudson River Valley for a few hours.
However, one summer twenty years ago, I had the incredible fortune of spending it with a good friend, on a bicycle, usually in the middle of nowhere, plotting and plodding our way across America.
I kept a daily journal of our journey and have compiled an abridged version of it here, complete with a few recollections looking back now on something that, no sooner had it finished, did it feel like a dream.
Special thanks to David Birchfield for being my traveling partner on that seven-week adventure.
The adventure begins again on June 27, 2017. Follow along in real time — 20 years later — as the epic story unfolds, one day at a time.
Until then, I’ve…
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