About

Me feeling triumphant at the
southwest corner of the US, after
completing the Pacific coast trail in 2013

My name is Roy and I am a student from Norway, and from June to August 2014 I am planning on riding my bicycle across USA from west to east. I will be riding solo and unsupported, meaning I will be carrying all the stuff I will be needing for the entire duration of the trip on my bike. I plan on sleeping in my tent (with the occational motel thrown in), cooking my own food, with a restaurant meal from time to time and generally enjoy.

This blog will docment the trip with several updates per week if not daily which I have yet to decide. The blog is mostly dedicated to family and friends, as well as functioning as a journal for my own benefit.
Anyone who want to keep track of my progress should feel more than welcome to browse.
Should there be any questions please don't hesitate to contact me at royan92@hotmail.com.

Why?

So, why on earth would I want to do something like this? For many reasons. Ever since I got introduced to bicycle touring by my dad, through several multi-week tours in Europe and the US, I have been in love with the lifestyle that follows. Bicycle travel gives such a unique sense of freedom. To go anywhere you want carrying all you will need, depending on your own body to take you there, is truly amazing. 

Traveling at the speed of a bike gives you time to really savor the surroundings and develop a close and personal relationship with it. Or as Hemingway put it:

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of the country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.  

-- Ernest Hemingway

In addition, bicycle tourists are often seen as voulnerable and harmless, which lets you see a whole other side of people. I have experienced how helpful and willing people were to take us under their wing when I was cycling the Pacific coast of the US with my father, the summer of 2013. However, of course there is the occational bad apple, but with openness and a healthy amount of skepticism, dangerous situations are among the rare.

I could go on and on about this, but the bottom line is that bicycle travel is in my opinion the ultimate way to travel, and by breaking the shackles of everyday life and doing this trip I will hopefully get a unique experience to carry with me.