50 States in Motion: Joe Tarantino’s Cycling Journey

Most of us don't realize that the extraordinary journeys we fear -- like cycling across all 50 states in the US -- are often intertwined with profound faith and resilience. Joe Tarantino’s  story challenges the limits we place on ourselves and reveals how divine guidance can turn even the toughest conditions into moments of divine intervention and purpose.Imagine cycling through snowstorms in Fargo, tackling 104-degree days, and finding God's presence in both deserts and mountain passes. Joe shares the unanticipated joys and lessons from traversing America’s diverse landscapes—each mile brought alive by encounters with kind strangers, miraculous coincidences, and moments of spiritual clarity. You’ll discover how faith transforms obstacles into opportunities, and how perseverance, paired with a higher purpose, unlocks the true reward of one’s journey.In this conversation, Joe breaks down:

• The mindset shift that allowed him to embrace long-distance cycling as more than just a physical challenge

• The surprising ways God’s providence guided him—like finding a charger in a small town or navigating road closures with support from strangers

• Why personal endurance is deeply connected to spiritual endurance

• How prayer and faith became central to his adventure, especially when facing extreme weather and safety concerns

• The ultimate reward of living with purpose, not just miles

You’ll learn why Joe’s journey isn’t just about pedaling across states — it’s about forging a path where faith, resilience, and community redefine what’s possible. His story offers hope and inspiration for anyone facing their own mountains — whether literal or metaphorical — and reminds us that the greatest adventures are often those that lead us closer to ourselves and a higher power.Perfect for adventurers, faith seekers, and anyone ready to challenge their limits with divine guidance. If you believe stories of perseverance and faith can inspire your own journey — hit play now and discover the extraordinary within your reach.[

 resources

The Pale Pink Road by Joe D'Arentino - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4XYZ123

Audary Audio Group - https://auduriaudio.org

Joe Tarantino’s Website - https://tarantino-bicycles.com/

Transcript

Joe’s Story And Career Pivot

Spark For Long-Distance Cycling

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Hello everyone, thank you again for joining me on another episode of the DOS show. Today we have a special guest with us is another show, John Kino. Today's audio podcast is sponsored by Audrey Audio Group with inspired an appliance through discussions, testimonies, and teachings, equipping listeners with meaningful conversations. Joe has to have cycled through all 50 US states, crisscrossing a vast network of roads and trails, with 25 marathons and other endurance events under his belt, he retired from a successful career in the aerospace industry as a chemist, engineer, and operations manager. Responding to God's call to a different direction in an otherwise comfortable life while pursuing his cycling goals. He seeks to inspire others to chase their dreams through his writing. Joe grew up in Kingfield, Ohio, and now lives in Louisville, Ohio with his wife, Robert, a former Spanish teaching high school candidate counselor. Joe graduated from Greenfield College and now University, with a double major in chemistry and English, holds a master's degree in analytical chemistry from Youngstown State University, and has an MBA from Walsh University. Joe and Bobber, who married in 1979, have two sons and is active in the measuring in the local district and the denominational levels. Joe, thank you for coming on the show today.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Dorsey, thanks for for having me. I look forward to uh to chatting with you here. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

So my first question is usually an icebreaker question. Today's icebreaker question is what got you started in in cycling and in wanting to do all 50 states?

Building Toward A Cross-Country Ride

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Well, those are kind of two answers because what got me started uh wasn't what got me interested in doing all 50 states. Actually, the first the first chapter of uh of of the my book that just came out, um Pale Pink Road is the the name of it, but talks about I I kind of was uh challenging myself to run a hot ride a hundred miles one day. And that's what kind of got me started in in really long distance cycling. And it didn't go very well as I described, but uh from then on, uh I would do some periodic riding, and uh it just didn't have a lot of time when you're raising a family and have jobs and other responsibilities to take time out to go for long-distance rides. And so I would kind of piece them together uh two or three days at a time, and then it gradually got a little bit longer, four or five days, and then I did about a week, just uh about a month or two before I retired, and then I I was kind of hooked. I had I had for all the routes that I'd ridden, I I'd went from Chicago to the East Coast, and I said, okay, we're gonna we're gonna ride across the the country next, and I'll I'll start in Chicago and I'll ride out to the to the West Coast. Well, uh it didn't quite work out the way I planned it, but uh what when I finally finished up and I did connect the routes uh about a couple years later, I just really felt like when I got back home that I just wasn't seeing anything new. I'd go out for a bike ride and I would always end up at my home. I would finish where I started. And I I just kind of kind of missed being out on the road and seeing new things. And and so I was kind of needed a new challenge, and I just I kind of felt the Lord's leading that I I wasn't done biking yet. And uh he put the idea of 50 states before I turned 70 years old in my head, and I'm and I'm glad that he did put that age on it because uh I just turned 69 this year and and I'm I'm running out of gas, and I'm glad that I that I got I got all 50 states in before then. So that that's kind of a uh a long answer to a couple short questions.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Right. How how long have you been bicycling and how long did it take you to do all 50 states?

The 50 States Goal Before 70

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Well, like a lot of people, I started bicycling when I was just uh in grade school. And uh the the first the first ride on a bicycle did not end very well. My dad put me on the back on the top of the bike and and pushed me down over the road, and I bounced, or not up down the road, but down in our backyard, and I kind of bounced around, and next thing I know, I ended up tangled up in the change of a swing set and uh crying and yelling at my dad. And anyway, but we we finally got through it and I learned how to ride. And uh then it was more kind of a utilitarian thing when I first started, uh riding with uh you know my brother and my cousins, uh going to neighbors to play, you know, backyard basketball, football, or baseball, whatever we were doing. And then as we kind of got a little bit longer, it just seemed like you know, there's there's some power, there's some freedom in this, and and I and I like this. Um and so that's kind of what really got me started going. And then as far as the 50 by 70, I kind of touched on that a little bit. It just was I just felt like I wasn't done yet, and and I needed to keep going. So it it from the time I started uh seriously biking with the 50 by 70 in mind, um, that would have been in 2017 after I finished connecting my road across the country. And then I I really kind of finished up in uh 2022. So it was probably another another five years, and then I took what I call my gap year. Uh there were some areas that I had ridden where, for whatever reason, I wasn't able to connect the route entirely. I had to leave, we had uh obligations, and there would be like a 20-mile gap, or there would be a uh a 40-mile gap or a 50-mile gap. So then I took a year to go back and connect all those gaps. I just I just didn't like telling people that I had ridden across the country with a connected route when I knew there were some gaps in there. So one time I drove you know a 2,000-mile-round trip just to to complete a 50-mile gap. So it was out and back. And uh anyway, but I got it done, and that's that. So I'm I'm happy to to to say that I I got it before I got much older.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

What would that gap look like? I mean, why why would there be that gap in that in that speech, I guess, or in that in that travel?

Early Riding Memories And Mindset

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Well, the the one the long one, the 50 miler, uh, it started out. I was gonna ride from Fargo, North Dakota, down to Kansas City. My wife was in some meetings at the Nazarene Theological Seminary. She's on the Board of Trustees there. And so she said when their meetings were done, she was gonna ride up and and meet me along the way. And it started out, it was kind of early October, and I got hit with a snowstorm and a blizzard in in Fargo that that delayed my riding for a couple days. And while we're there, my wife called me and said she forgot to renew her driver's license and that while she could fly on an airplane, she was unable to rent a car. So what we had to do was she, well, when I finally got out of the blizzard, I kept riding, and she flew into Sioux Falls, uh, South Dakota Airport, and it was uh quite a ways off my route. And so she had to uh schedule a lift driver to come pick me up, take me to the airport. I rented the car, and then uh she drove it, and then we went back down and got on our route, and so all that kind of delayed things, and so I had this 50-mile gap from the uh southern part of Minnesota uh go going north about 50 miles. And then the next morning after she arrived, it was another big snowstorm, and I had I had to wait for about four inches to clear out so I could ride on the slush in the roads, but further north where the gap was, uh it was it was worse yet. And so uh I kind of left that there. And interestingly enough, when I finally went back to do it uh and and ride that area, uh my my older son uh had since then married a girl who lived in South Dakota and her parents were there, probably about 30 miles from where I ended up finishing to do this gap. So when I finished up, I I drove over there to meet with them. So it was pretty exciting. It was it was fun. And it was the second time I'd been to their house. The first time uh was in a blizzard. We drove out there the meeting before they got married, and it was probably a wind chill of about 50 below zero. And when I rode out that day, drove out, um, it was probably about uh over a hundred degrees uh heat index because it was so hot. So I I had two extremes in South Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So there's a there's another long answer to a short question.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

What's the and this is coming off of what you just spoke about with the weather and the snow and everything, what's the worst um weather, you know, that you have um biked in, and what was what was that like?

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Well, I think that the day after I finally left uh Fargo, it it was a pretty rough day. Uh the wind chill was about 17 degrees, and the wind was, I mean, it was howling, it was, it was windy, and I I got started, and and soon after I got started, probably less than two miles, I had a flat tire, and I'm trying to fix the flat tire and in the frigid weather, and it was okay when I was riding because it was mostly a tailwind, so it kind of pushed me along. But it if I ever would stop, um, it was rough, and it was about a 70-mile day that day, so I just kind of had to keep going. So the the other side of that, I've been on some hot days when uh I finished one ride and it got up to about 104 degrees, and there was another day it was well that same day then ironically, it was also a 104-mile ride. So the last last 15-20 miles were were were pretty rough, but uh I got I got through it. And uh there's been other days when it's been rainy all day and and that kind of stuff, but those are and those aren't fun either. But you know, those are probably too extremes as far as temperatures were.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Do you when you do a multiple-day trip like you do, do you stay at hotels or um bed uh like um the um I I don't camp and I don't do bed well, I do some bed and breakfast.

Closing Route Gaps And Logistics

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Bed and breakfast. That's what that's what I was looking for. Yeah. Um well some people say, you know, a bad day on the golf course beats a good day at work, and I've translated that into a bad night in a hotel beats a good night of camping. I just feel like after I've ridden, you know, in some of these extreme conditions, I want uh predictable environment, I want air conditioning, I want a hot shower, which I don't always get, and uh sometimes the heaters don't always work the way they're supposed to, but it's still better than trying to set up camp in that kind of weather. So yeah. And a lot of times, more recently, my wife has joined me, and and so uh she's not a camper. She has a bad back too. So we we always try to find uh a hotel to stay in.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

What were uh what was it like when you realized that you completed the 48, you know, states and that you still had two more to go to with Alaska and also Hawaii?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Well, my plan was all along that those I figured if I got through the lower 48 states that those were going to be more of a celebration. And uh my wife in her retirement, she uh became a certified travel agent. She does cruises only. So, and cruising isn't my favorite thing, but she got me on a cruise ship uh and we went uh to Hawaii. And so what I did there was I just uh I got off at a couple of the ports and I rented a bicycle and I I rode around you know 50 miles or so and you know rode to Pearl Harbor when I was in Honolulu and a couple of the other sites, uh rode up the side towards the um uh the volcano national park and didn't quite make it. We had some thunderstorms and another flat tires on a rental, so I didn't want the cruise ship to leave without me, so I headed back a little prematurely. And then Alaska uh was the only trip that I did with a group ride, and uh so that was that was that was a little bit easier. I didn't have to put all the logistics into planning. Uh I rented a bike there with from them. They they provided the bikes, they they would work on them if you needed anything, they carried all your luggage and they took you by what they called the boring parts of Alaska and took you to the to the more scenic parts. But really, when you're in Alaska, everything is beautiful, everything's scenic. So uh yeah, I I think those trips, and it was kind of weird because it's like as soon as I got on the bike in Hawaii, I said, Well, you know, am I done that I bicycle? I I've I've ridden for two minutes, am I done? Can I just turn around? So I felt like I I had to do uh you know do some due diligence, and and the uh the trip uh in Alaska was about 400 miles, and it was a good trip too.

Weather Chaos And Roadblocks

SPEAKER_00 14:35

I know and I've heard of several people like yourself, you know, that do bike riding and bicycle trails like this. Isn't there a minimum amount of miles each day, or you know, that you can say, well, I'm now a I'm now a certified, not certified, but I'm now a bicycle enthusiast?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

I guess I I read a when I was a teenager and I was just learning about uh long distance traveling, they said, unless you've ever done a century ride, which is a hundred miles, that you can't really be uh considered a cross-country cyclist. Uh and so I did. I one trip I did almost 100 miles a day for for five days. It was about a 500-mile trip. And what I found out was I I mean, I certainly felt my legs certainly felt like they were a cross-country cyclist. But what I found out was I just didn't have time to see things. And I would get up, I'd be on the road at 5:30 in the morning, sometimes, you know, and I like I tried to take my time a little bit. It was in the summer, it was hot, so I'd try to cool off and you know, air conditioning, make a nice lunch and things like that. But I would get to the hotel ready to take a shower, I'd order a pizza, and you know, get myself organized for the next day's ride, make sure I knew the route and all that. And and I just didn't get a chance to to kind of relax. And so I said, well, when I start, when I retire, I'm going to uh you know spend a little more time and I'm gonna cut the distances back. So I think the sweet spot for me is somewhere between about 50 and 60 miles a day on an average. And and that allows me to, I still like to get up early. I'm a morning person, and a lot of times uh I get to the next hotel before my wife's checked out of the other one, and it's early morning. I've I've arrived at a hotel with a just a powerful tailwind one time at 9.30 in the morning, and they let me check in. And then there's other times if I get there early and we'll just go uh get something to eat or or visit the local museums and and and whatever other attractions are around there. So I I think for me about 50 to 60 is is a is a good distance. And some of the group rides, uh, they will schedule like the one in Alaska. We did about 70 to 75 miles. No, they were carrying your luggage, so it made it a little bit easier. When I ride, I I carry my own luggage, even though my wife's there, I I carry it all.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

What what role has your faith played in your cycling experiences?

Hotels Over Camping

Celebrating Hawaii And Alaska

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Well, very little when I first started. It was just more of me setting a goal and trying to do something and making a lot of dumb decisions and get myself into trouble sometimes. And and when I finally retired and I and I was riding, um I just felt you know the Lord was was there in a way that I hadn't experienced before. And particularly the last section when I was ready to finish out the last ride, um, and it started in Seaside, Oregon on the on the Pacific Coast, and I was going to ride to a place called Winter South Dakota, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota. And it was where my trip ended prematurely the year before because I had some knee issues from overtraining for a marathon and not allowing it before I tried to go all the way from Chicago to the West Coast. And I was I was really anxious about that trip. I was going to do it by myself for the first seven, eight days until my wife cut up and there wasn't a lot of cell service in in Washington state. And I just really became anxious. And when I was having my morning devotions, and I always I always do that before I leave, pray for protection, but I just felt the Lord kind of speaking to me a little bit differently. And he says, You know, I didn't bring you all the way out here to be miserable and fail. I I brought you out here so that you can enjoy this, and and I'm gonna keep you safe. And as the trip went on and I connected the route, I'd always say, Oh man, I want to write a book about riding across the country. And very clearly the Lord said, You know what, that might be what you want to do, but what I would like you to do is write a book about how I took care of you and all these things that some people might call coincidences that you experienced during this 31-day trip, that it wasn't they weren't coincidences all, that they were just examples of God's uh providential guidance and protection. And when I felt that, uh, I said, you know, I I really felt like I I needed to write that book, but I am I am a kind of a naturally an introvert. And so God just kind of spoke. He said, You know, I took care of you on this trip for 31 days, just like you prayed for. Now I'd like you to respond by writing and and telling everybody what I did for you. And and so that from that point forward, it really kind of shifted my focus in not doing what I want to do on these trips, but uh what I felt like the Lord was leading me to do. And so it it became a big part of my cycling after that.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

You mentioned about um you know God telling you about the coincidences and everything. What were some of those, you know, uh things that you experienced on that on that trip that you thought maybe were coincidences, but God didn't see it that way.

Mileage Myths And Finding A Sweet Spot

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Well, when I first ran into the first couple of them, I thought, well, these were coincidences. And then when it happened, like almost every day something would happen. I said, No, this is God taking care of me. Um, you know, I like a dummy, uh, and I'm not the only one, but I I left my phone charger at the hotel the previous night. I didn't know it until I got to the next hotel. It was 100 degrees, and it was a small little town, and I I I said, What am I gonna do? You know, because my phone was down, I'd been using it to track uh where I was going. I used Google Maps and all that stuff. There wasn't much, and what am I gonna do? I got all I got is a bicycle here. It's a small little town. I walked over to and I hadn't even taken a shower yet. I walked over to the window and I looked outside, and there was a store, and it said uh, I can't remember the name, but it it was uh uh mobile uh phone store that and they had all the chargers and everything over there, so I took a shower. It was like a two-minute walk to get there, and so that was the first thing. So now I had that taken care of. I had um sections of the route that I wasn't sure I was gonna be able to do. Um and I would I would I would ride and I I just knew that I it was not good. I saw there was construction and the roads were closed, and I would pull into a little cafe and I said, Can you give me a better idea? I don't want to ride on this trail, it's all rocky, and my bike's not set up for that. How how do I get to this next town? And they said, Oh, they got a girl and they said, She lives over there. She said, Yeah, they just opened the road up yesterday. You can ride on it, they just haven't taken the signs down. There were things like I tried to, I was crossing the Washington Desert and the eastern Washington Desert, and so I had to go quite a distance, probably 40, 50 miles, where there was no water. It was a hot day uh up in the 90s, and I thought, where am I gonna get all my water? I got to store all this water. I kept calling this one place that looked like it it was uh the only cafe in town, or the only cafe along the route, and nobody would ever answer. Uh there was there were no hours listed. I I drove up there and I saw some cars and I pulled in and I said, I didn't think you guys were open. I said, I've been calling. She goes, Well, we just opened up like uh you know a week ago. We had a fire, it burned a place down, it'd been down for several years, and it just opened up. And just on and on, things like Like that. Um, the the uh godly people that were there to support me and give me what I need. Uh it just I I just when I finished up, I said you can't say these are coincidences. This is just God's taking care of me.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Yeah. Was there any type of um accident or you know, problems that you ever had with your bike that you would like to talk about?

Faith Shifts The Mission

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Well, probably uh some of them I probably don't want to talk about because they're kind of embarrassing how how I'm dumb but and the first one it's it's in the the first chapter, the first book. Again, the section is or the second book, um, it's called A Collection of Bad Decisions, and it'll talk about some of the dumb things I did there, and I I won't spoil it for for any readers. But some of the other ones that have happened later on, um I was in the middle of nowhere going through Kansas and and it I just man, that tire is not something's it's out of whack, it's not doing something right. And I thought, well, maybe it needs to be true up a little bit, it's bouncing around and I'm going and going, and no cell service. And next thing I know, it just it's a flat tire, but it wasn't just a flat tire that I could fix. The there's a little uh wire bead that goes around that holds that tire inside the rim. It had actually broken through, and I had no way of repairing it at that time. And uh so finally uh my wife kind of knew where I was going and she she discovered me. And uh so we had a drive through that. That was another section that I had to come back in and fill in the gap later on, and uh just met some really super nice people, a guy that owned a bike shop and coached me through, told me what to do, and uh he offered some some tires and some support. But but that worked out. But for the most part, um I've had pretty good luck uh with the bike. The bike that I have now, um what parts are left of it, uh, have about 17,000 miles on it. The frame cracked, and I was fortunate to find that out just before I went on a long trip out through the Mojave Desert. And uh I was glad that uh they and it was it was a Trek bicycle, and Trek has a lifetime warranty, so we got that fixed up, and I got the bike back just about a week before I was ready to leave. So uh yeah, I've had some trouble, but uh for the most part, uh I'm I'm pretty handy with bikes, and I try not to ride any bike that I can't repair, you know, myself, you know, knowing that I'm so yeah, so we we've got through it and uh is it any any type of trail or route, maybe the Allegheny Passage or the CNO trail historic route 66 that affected you the most unforgettable experience or excuse me, offered you the most unforgettable experience and why? Well, I did the uh the the gap, the greater Alleen Passage to CNO. That was the first ride I did the year after I finished my long trip out west, which was just completely um without interacting with people. It was just so so quiet and lonely out there, and especially um before my wife arrived. So I just wanted an easier ride, and I knew some people did it, and it was, and it was just refreshing meeting all the people along the way. Um so that was just that was kind of different. It was good to see that there was a different way of doing bike trips than what I'd been doing on the roads all the time. There were some really nice trails out there with amenities, and uh so I enjoyed that. But probably riding through um Route 66, especially when I got out into the Mojave Desert in California, it was unlike anything that I had been here in in Northeast Ohio. We don't we don't have deserts like that and just so lonely. And I a lot of that I rode the historic Route 66. Um there are there are several Route 66s that have evolved over uh really about the hundred years. I think next year is the hundred-year anniversary of the official start of Route 66. And um, man, out there in the desert, sometimes it'd just be so quiet. Um, it just was it was a whole different, unique experience. It was it was it was very rewarding being out there and doing that. So I I enjoyed that. And and Route 66 is so long, it goes from Chicago all the way down to Santa Monica in California. So uh each one, each little section was a little bit different, but I particularly enjoyed going through the Mojave Desert.

Providential Moments On The Road

SPEAKER_00 27:08

You started a 500-mile ride through New England just a day after running the Hogging Marathon back in 2019. How on earth did your body handle that and what was that like?

SPEAKER_02 27:24

Well, let's just rephrase the day after and make sure everybody understands that I had planned on riding the very next morning after the marathon. Well, it was a good thing that we had uh rented, or I guess we my wife had reserved it was a handicapped uh room and it had rails near the toilet and in the bathroom because the next morning I wouldn't have been able to get off the toilet if I didn't have those rails. My legs hurt pretty bad. I'd always told myself, you know, if I was gonna schedule a long ride after the marathon, and that was the only marathon I've I ever did for I the first time I ever rode ran uh Boston. Sorry, get myself uh fumbled on the words here. Uh it took me many, many years to qualify for it, and I said, if I'm gonna run it, I am not gonna hold back knowing that I've got a long bike trip coming up, and I didn't, and my legs paid for it. So the next day it was pretty, pretty windy, it got cold, so we just said, you know what, I'm gonna revise the itinerary, we're gonna drive to the first place, and then we're gonna start from there. So I still ended up doing the 500 miles, and uh it was interesting because my legs were pretty sore after each day's ride, and I didn't schedule real long rides at the beginning, like 45 to 50 miles, but after the end of each day's ride, my legs actually felt better uh because it was all the soreness was getting kind of squeezed out of it by the pedaling, and by the end of the trip, I actually felt pretty good. That was it was unusual. Now, that said, that was the last marathon I'd run until March 1st of this year. And I thought, well, I can do this again, um, not realizing you know how how much uh six years had taken its toll on me. And so I ran the Myrtle Beach Marathon on March 1st, took a day off. I thought, well, smart, I know I don't have to do it the next day, and then we drove to St. Augustine, which I had ridden to before, and then I I rode from St. Augustine down to uh Key West, and it was exactly 500 miles to the tenth of a mile. And I felt like when I was riding along here, I said, okay, God, this may not have been my best idea. I I need to be very pay very close attention to how you lead me in the future and just not always assume that you're going to take care of me if I come up with one of these dumb ideas. And uh so that I that might be the last marathon.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

What state or wraig has been the most rewarding for you to to go through and to to see?

Mechanical Failures And Fixes

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Well, I I kind of touched on it uh earlier, and I think Washington State was, and and for just all the reasons that I previously mentioned about how I felt God's presence there, um, and just really realizing that he was going to get me through this trip. And and not only that, all the people that I met there uh that were just put there at the right spot, the right time, but also the diversity of what I experienced on that that trip. You know, from riding along next to the Pacific Ocean and the coast, and then all of a sudden you start turning north and west, and you're climbing the Cascades, you start going into these monstrous, towering um evergreen forests, and you're climbing mountain passes, and you see Mount St. Helens in the distance, you see Mount Rainier and the snow all over the top of that in the distance, and then you go over the pass, and you know, you're climbing up there, and you're you're getting warm because you're climbing, and then all of a sudden you get in that cold air at the top of the mountain pass, and you go screaming down a uh the descent, and you go into this desert and it's 90 degrees. It's just such such diversity. Um, and and the fact that I was able to finish that section before my wife met up with me, I I just really felt that that was very, very rewarding, and what I experienced there. It just was kind of like no other state that I'd I'd been in. And you know, just really again feeling God's presence there and and just all the the diversity that I saw just made it such a unique state that it was especially rewarding.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Yeah. You love writing and writing, how long do you plan to continue both?

SPEAKER_02 31:39

Well, the I already touched a little bit on the writing part. As long as the good Lord gives me the health uh to do so and he leads me to believe that he's gonna keep me safe on the roads, um, I'd like to continue doing that. Uh now my wife, like I said, she's she's a big on cruises, and so she's got quite a few cruises planned for us in the next uh the next 12 months. And uh so that that cuts in a little bit of the biking time. But I'll continue as long as I feel that that's where the Lord wants me to go. As far as writing, um the books that I've written so far only cover 14 of the 50 states, and whether or not it takes another book or two or maybe more, uh I really feel like the Lord wants me to get out the rest of the story, so to speak, and and and how I was able to, some of the experiences that I had uh on those trips. And uh and and maybe at some point in time I've always wanted to be a science fiction writer, and I might try to do a short story or do something like that. I don't know how that fits into bicycling, but uh that's that's what it is. But if if God has something else planned for me, well, you know, we'll we'll go that route too.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Right. Well, I always like to ask my guest as we get let it end here. Can you give my listeners a word of encouragement or a word of um inspiration?

Favorite Routes: GAP, C&O, Route 66

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Well, I will tell you, I never thought when I retired that my life would end up on a bicycle as much as it did, and that that would turn me into someone who became very much more vocal about their faith than than what I was before. Um and so I would just say when you're for those that are close to retirement, um just be prepared. Don't just settle for doing something good, listen to God because He will have something great planned for you. Now, now maybe uh you might not think bicycling all through all these states is a great accomplishment, and and sometimes I wonder if it's it's uh you know more than what I'm making it out to be, but it's just led me in so many different avenues and interacted with so many different people through my writing and that that it's just been unbelievable. So, yeah, the the words are encouragement is that you know, just like riding up uh the side of a mountain and some of the miserable weather that I had, um, there's good days ahead, and you just got to get through it. You know, you you don't get to enjoy the downhills until you go through the you know the valleys and and and climb to the top of the mountain.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

And then can you tell tell us a little bit about some of the people that you met on your on your journey?

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Boy, I tell you, I just there's been so many. Uh the ones that I particularly remember, I I I was just really struggling one day and just thinking, is you know, how is this gonna work out? And I thought it was a little ice cream shop, and they maybe sold a little bit of coffee in there, and I went in, and and the long story short, I found out it was a former pastor. He prayed for me, he offered prayers protection, and just spoke to me and just calmed me down and just gave me some encouragement. Um, I had another guy one time, well, again, I was getting ready to climb a mountain. It uh, you know, I had to leave like three, I was gonna get up at 3:30 and ride up there at four o'clock in the morning. And I just told the guy, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do because I'm gonna miss breakfast. And and I I couldn't, I did I'm a big guy for bananas. If I don't have bananas, I start cramping and I have all kinds of issues. He says, wait there for a second. It was the one one of the helpers. He says, I'm here helping my my parents out with this place in in the summertime. And he came back and he had a whole bunch of bananas. He said, Here you go. He says, I'm gonna give you these, and he says, I'm gonna pray for you that you have a safe trip. And um, yeah, just many, many experiences like that, you know, where people have met you and you've you've expressed some some some problems and some concerns and and and they pray for you. And I just I just felt them, I felt the prayers.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Amen. Well, go thank you, Comic, for coming on the show today. We greatly appreciate having you.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Well, thank you, Dorsey. I've enjoyed talking with you and uh and uh excited that uh I had a chance to share some more about my faith and my my cycling journeys with with those of all your listeners.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Well, guys and girls, thank you so much for coming on and for listening again. Please go and follow Auduri Audio Group on Spotify and Apple Podcast, share review, and reach out to info at oduriaudio.org. And please go and like and share my podcast as well on my website at www.dorcyroshow.com. And please go and check out the girl's website and news info as well. And until next time, God bless. Bye bye.