The Next Adventure

UPDATES FROM MARK & MELODY

MARK: In less than two weeks, I’ll start riding my bicycle across America, from Oregon to Delaware. More than 3,000 miles in less than three months (hopefully!). Many people have done this before me, both charting the course and providing the inspiration. I am not a hard-core bike racer or anything like that. I’m just a regular guy who wants to challenge himself physically and mentally. I want to feel alive.

Me on a training ride in Wisconsin just after saying goodbye to my parents. I rode from Brantwood to Merrill, about 50 miles.

So where did I get this idea? In the summer of 2012, while participating in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI), I briefly met a couple of younger guys who were biking across the U.S. I was intrigued. I started to wonder: “Could I do that?” We’ll soon find out. This journey, which has been a constant presence in the deep recesses of my mind for the past four years, will soon become a reality. All that’s left is driving out to one coast and pedaling toward the other. It’s “go time.”

MELODY:  I’m a documentary filmmaker, not a biker. So at first I thought there was no place for me in this next adventure. Frankly, I prefer the challenges of living overseas (like we did the past 4 years when we moved to Bulgaria). But when Mark said he wanted to do this crazy thing, I thought I want to be there to see this! I want to see my husband challenge himself and live his dream and feel alive. And along the way, I want to find out what makes other people feel alive. I will make mini-documentaries about them (and about Mark, too), visit places in the U.S. I have never seen, and maybe learn a few things about myself as well. Because (as someone once said) travel is the best way to be lost and found at the same time.