18 days

I just looked at my countdown  app on my phone...I leave in 18 days!  I'm kind of freeking out a bit, but I'm really excited.

This is my route. Now you may notice it stops in phoenix and the reason why is because I don't know how I am getting back yet. If I have time, I am biking back, if I don't then Ill fly back. Or If I find a job along the way I'll bike there. Really, it's just all in the open at this point.

About The Trip

Okay, so how did I come up with this idea to bicycle around the United States?

Well, here's the story.  While I was coming back from summer classes at Michigan State University just over a year ago I had a completely random idea.  I had taken this expressway back to my parents house many times before, but for some reason as I passed an on-ramp to a major expressway heading south this urge came over me to just take it.  I had not completed my summer classes yet, but for some reason I can not explain I felt as if I needed to run away.  My palms started sweating, my heart started pounding, everything in my body was telling me to get on that road and just drive.  Thoughts raced through my head, contemplating what would happen, what would people think, who would I tell, what would I tell them, is it possible for me to just leave?  I could do it, I thought.  I have friends in the west, It wouldn't be that hard.  1 mile left, 3/4 of a mile to exit, exit now in 400 feet, my hands shaking, heart pumping, palms sweating more and more.  It was like a first kiss. That is the only thing I can compare it to.  When the time came however, I kept on the road I was on and didn't exit.  Why?  After all of that, why didn't I just do it?  One reason; My parents.  If I had paid for my college I would have done it in a heartbeat, but I was fortunate enough that my parents paid for my college.  If I had just left everything behind and not had finished my classes, I would have felt as if I let my parents down.

So! I was left driving feeling like I had to do something big after college.  I had to escape to wherever and just go and for some reason in that split second I said "I'll Bicycle around the United States".

I had never been a cyclist before and I had never thought about cycling.  I played some sports in high school and club sports in college, but never did cycling capture my attention.  I always thought of cyclists as those people who piss you off when you are trying to make the red light in heavy traffic, holding up the right hand lane so this thought to cycle the states was completely random.

So I had the idea to tour around states, and when I say "around" I don't mean go here then there, maybe over there; I mean around.  More or less circle the United States.  So I had this crazy idea set.  Now I thought, "Where am I going to stay?" and the answer was clear: Camp.  My freshman year of high school I did a 3 week backpacking / rock climbing trip with Moondance Adventures.  It was about 15 of us or so, two of which were our guides, backpacking in the Wind River Range in Wyoming, finishing with a two day trip up the Grand Teton.  Before that trip, which was nothing less than spectacular, I did some casual camping with class trips and loved every minute of it and after I did some camping with my friends in Arizona.  I had always loved the feeling of the outdoors and the freedom of having nothing more to worry about other than keeping the camp fire going and if there is enough beer.

Now it is just about a year from that day and I have been working out and cycling to get ready even though I don't think I could ever be ready for something like this, mentally or physically.  I leave May 15th 2011 and It should take me about 3 months to get to Phoenix, Arizona (Yes I know, it is going to be hot down there, I lived there for a few years in college).  Coming back????  Well, we'll see what happens.  Story of my life.

Where am I going and why is this a Q & A format all of a sudden?

I'm not sure why this is a Q & A, but Ill stop it.  I promise. For my trip tho, I am starting in Port Huron, Michigan.  I am originally from just outside of Detroit so it just makes sense that I start in Michigan.  From there I am crossing into Canada to get to Niagara Falls.  But Evan, I thought your website is called CyclingTheStates?  Why are you going into Canada?  Well, here's the answer.  I hate Ohio.  End of that answer.  So from Niagara I am going up to Bar Harbor, ME.  Then down to Virginia, crossing to Colorado, up through montana (crossing back in to Canada for Glacier National Park), more west to Vancouver (yes Canada again) down (back into the USA) to San Francisco, east to Yosemite, and southeast to Phoenix, AZ.  I have no idea how I am getting back or my route, I guess I'll just be working on that, but i've got time.