What started out as one person's bike ride to lose some weight became the story of a slice of America from the Pacific Northwest to the Florida Keys. There were big cities, rural towns and great stretches of open land. Heroes and villains are out there too, but mostly it's fine people living day-to-day and unknowingly impressing strangers. The weather wasn't left out either. From the first winter storm in the mountains of Washington through the tailwinds in Idaho to the heat and storms of the South, weather kept things from getting boring. Seeing America at ten miles an hour without the protective shell of a car allows all of the senses to get to know the country. It was an interesting ride with insights into culture and sore muscles. And then there was the awesome chocolate sundae in a ranch town in Utah This personal narrative also has an appendix that acts as a guide for others that might want to try their own adventure. There are details on gear, route selection, and expenses and most of all encouragement. You don't know what you'll find out there on the road until you get there.
Tom Trimbath - Writer
I fell into writing by trying to lose weight. That's not an obvious career path. I decided to lose weight by bicycling, and figured it would take so much bicycling that I'd be able to cross the continent. So I did. By the time I was done, I'd sent out 15,000 words of emails, which a friend pointed out was more notes than most writers have when they start a book. So I wrote Just Keep Pedaling. The emails tell one story. The rest of the book gets into what really happened each day.
After the first book I realized that I could do a better job and decided to chronicle the life of the natural world in Washington's Cascade mountains. I'd hiked there for a couple of decades and was surprised to find that, despite the excellent writer and adventurers in the area, no one had taken on the simple task of describing a year's worth of visits to the mountains. And so the Twelve Month series swept into my life.
But people asked where I found the time to delve into these adventures. When they find out that I retired at 38 they want to know about how I did that. So I wrote one book on personal finance (Dream. Invest. Live.) and helped on another (Your Money or Your Life - revised and updated edition).
That's what happens when I relax and follow the path the universe lays out for me.
