—as told to—
I learned about the Trans America Trail in college from a friend who had done it back in 2015. He was a year below me and at one point, he took a semester off to do this cross-country tour of more than 4,000 miles. I followed him on social media and was shocked, thinking, “You can just ride your bike across the country?” He does photography, too, so he was taking these incredible photos. His journey stuck with me—though I didn’t have an actual plan to do the same until recently.
I’ve always ridden bikes leisurely, never competitively. I learned to ride when I was 3 years old. Growing up, we would ride bikes around the neighborhood with friends. We’d ride to a local Wendy’s without telling our parents, even though it was maybe half a mile up the road. It was fun. I always owned a bike.
I started to play with the idea to do the tour a few weeks into 2022. At the time, I worked as a civil engineer in traffic operations and transportation planning. I loved my company, and my coworkers were great, but the work itself wasn’t what I saw myself doing for the foreseeable future. I needed a break. I had money saved up and this idea in my head: I wanted a physical challenge that would get me out of my comfort zone.
My bike at the time wasn’t touring-specific, so to do this, I first needed a different bike. I was interested in either the Kona Sutra or the Trek 520. I was checking local stores online for weeks with no luck. Then, around mid-March, I saw this bicycle store in Baltimore actually had the Trek 520 in stock. I called and asked if they’d hold it for me, and I took the hour-and-a-half trip to Baltimore. They let me test ride it for about five miles—it was a great bike and I bought it. On my drive back home, my mind was racing: I could actually do this!