In a little more than a month, Nathan Winters will hop on a 20-plus-year-old bike in coastal Maine, start pedaling westward, and won’t stop until he reaches the Pacific Ocean.
“I have decided that enough is enough and I am going to live out my dream,” the 29-year-old writes on his site, FollowNathan.org. “I am going to ride my bike across America and seek out my adventure while doing good for my planet.”
Here’s his proposed route, and he hopes to raise money for the Nature Conservancy along the way. As you can see, he plans to stop in Wisconsin, one of three states he needs to visit to get to 50.
“Never been to Milwaukee,” he writes. “But I bet it’s a cool town. Only one way to find out!”
His stated goals while here are: 1) “Have a good night on the town,” 2) “meet cool people,” and 3) “catch a Brewers game.”
I’m very interested in Nathan’s bike ride, and not just because I wish it was me doing it. I pretty much have a moral obligation to try to help any crazy cyclist trying to bike across the country.
This stems from last summer when I was a crazy cyclist trying to ride from Denver to Milwaukee. I made it as far as Omaha without major incident. Then while riding, one of my bags fell off without me noticing and I lost half my luggage, my wallet, all my money, my GPS, my food and even my underwear. I was devastated.
If it wasn’t for the kindness of a local guy named Brian Nimmo, I might still be stranded on the roadside somewhere in Nebraska.
Brian, my host in Omaha that I met through touring cyclist website www.warmshowers.org, bought me everything I needed — and then some — to get back home. And then he gave me $200 for the road.
He told me NOT to pay it back. Just pay it forward.
That’s Nathan’s goal, too.
“It has been a top priority of mine to do good and give back to the world and our planet,” he says. “Everybody has that responsibility at some point, do they not?”
So over the last few weeks Nathan and I have exchanged numerous emails about getting prepared to go on a long bike journey. I’ve tried to answer his questions, like “What part of your body felt the most strain?” (the butt, so bring plenty of Butt’r), “What did you do for directions?” (GPS, Google maps and a healthy dose of the wisdom of locals), and “What was the hardest part of the trip?” (being alone for 8-13 hours a day).
When he gets closer, I plan on biking with him, giving him a place to stay and taking him to that Brewers game. But I’d like to help out more. That’s where YOU come in.
Leave a comment below and tell Nathan one thing he NEEDS to check out while in Milwaukee. Let’s show him all the support we can. Let’s make his stay in Milwaukee the most memorable stop of his 3,500-mile journey. I’m sure Nathan will pay it forward.
Don’t miss this week’s Bartime where Carly finds Milwaukee’s smokiest bar but tries to look past the cloud.
