I come from a somewhat adventurous family. My dad traveled around the world a bit when he was young, my eldest brother backpacked through Asia for nearly a year after he got out of college, my next eldest flew off to Australia when he was nineteen. You get the picture. Myself being now nearly twenty-one and not having done much in the way of traveling, or “adventuring” — I’m hesitant to use that word because people today are simply flippant with it — I decided some time in 2015 that I wanted to make a trip of my own. Not out of the country, just to the other side of it. Explore the Pacific North West a bit, see California, stop in Nashville before coming back home. I live outside of Chicago, so even just the idea of going west is exciting to me.
Back in October of 2015, I made up my mind to change my plans a bit. Originally I’d thought of leaving for my road trip west in August 2016, so that I could enjoy the warm weather through much of the drive, but also experience autumn in the PNW. God had been getting on me around this time in October about my plans; I felt like He wanted me to leave sooner, or right then even. After getting it clear in my head He didn’t want me leaving right away, I found that what He’d really done was open my mind to the idea of leaving sooner than planned, rearranging the trip a bit. And that’s what I did. I moved my start date to early spring, and changed my mode of transportation from my car, to … a bicycle. Which I didn’t have.
Four months later, I have my bicycle, along with a small supply of accessory items I’ll be taking with me, which I will be adding to as my date of departure nears. But I won’t be adding much. This adventure isn’t just meant as a bicycle trip, or a way for me to catch up somewhat to the achievements of my family. This is me finally saying okay to whatever God wants me do. It’s also a faith exercise, because I’ll be depending upon the kindness and hospitality of strangers throughout this trip. I want to meet people, build relationships, share my faith, and learn to better love others during the time that I’m on the road. We live in an age and place where any decent parent brings up their child to be wary and keep to themselves around people they don’t know, because the world is dangerous. And it is, and that’s wise parenting. But I want to experience for myself just what people are really like when given a chance. I am unwilling to believe the grapevine opinion of the average human being. So I’m going to gather my own evidence, and do my best to enjoy every moment of it. And yes, I have high hopes, and little worry.
The Specialized Diverge A1 Sport, which I’ll be taking around the country. I’ll be adding a rear rack and panniers soon, as well as some other bags and an accessory or two. So far, training on this beauty is going quite well.
So why a bicycle? For one thing it’s much cheaper. But more importantly, it means slowing down. Cycling encourages a healthy lifestyle, and gives so much opportunity for going off the beaten path. I want to move at a pace that allows me to get where I’m going faster than walking, but slow enough to stop and show love to as many people as God might put on my path. When I decided to not join the Army, it was because God told me He wanted to do “impractical” things with me. At the time I had no idea what that meant. I’ve got a better idea now. What’s practical about traversing thousands of miles on a bicycle and staying with strangers when you could take the road by car and stay in motels? Not much. But stepping out of his boat onto the storm-tossed sea wasn’t the most practical thing for Peter to do either. I wonder what waves we could walk on if we really trusted in God.
Now down to the details. My planned day of departure is Monday, May 2nd of this year, just a few months away. My main destinations for the trip are Owatonna and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Washington state, Oregon, California, and Nashville, Tennessee. In between those places my route is open, to suggestions and direction, from people who wish to connect with me on social media, as well as those I meet along the road. Day by day, I hope (and pray) to find at least one person willing to take me in for a night, give me a couch to sleep on, and maybe a shower or a load of laundry (that last thing only every so often). Churches, and cafés and coffee shops will be useful in finding these. I already know one person who’s volunteered to take me in when I’m in Minneapolis (the awesome Jon Burns, who recently returned home from his own incredible adventure on the west coast), and I have faith there will be plenty more. My God is a God of amazing provision — I think it’s hard to truly believe that when we live out our daily lives paying for everything we have with the money we earn at our nine-to-fives, getting around in the cars that we’ve payed for, walking about in the bodies we feed. But I don’t want to ever fool myself into thinking that I am the sustainer of my life. Every good and perfect thing is from above, and I want to experience that in a way impossible to ignore. I know I will.
God is writing a new chapter in my life, and I can’t wait to find out how it reads. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I finish the trip, and I don’t care — I’m not worried at all. I don’t know how long I’m going to be gone; I’ll be moving into California and going further south as the autumn months start coming on, so I won’t have to worry about it getting too cold. I have friends from my church who are living in Texas now and invited me to come stay with them, so I could even go so far south as that, before heading to Nashville. I don’t know. Wherever I feel led I’ll go, whatever doors God opens I shall take.
There will be a donate page up on the site soon, for anyone who feels inclined to use it. It’ll be a place I can direct people who want to help, as any little bit of extra money could mean one more meal paid for. Of course I’ll have however much money I earn from work up till late April to go on, but again, I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. The only social site I use is Instagram, so that will be the best place for anyone to keep up with what I’m doing — though I think I will upload a video to YouTube now and again. The best places to reach me are linked to from this website, which will serve as the main hub of my travel log; I’ll be posting portraits and stories of people I stay with, and the regular sort of blogs as well. (Sign up for email notifications if you don’t want to miss any of it!)
And that’s about it. Now you know. Feel free to comment below or shoot me an email if you’d like to talk.
Thanks so much for reading.
— Joel