DAY 107 | Russia | How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride around the world

How To Move The Stars is the day by day retelling of a bicycle ride around the world. Start from the beginning to get the whole story. 

My adventure was a modern day epic, a solo, self-supported bicycle ride spanning 38,000 miles across six continents. There were moments I barely survived, and times I cried tears of joy, but mostly, this is a story about the thousands of people I met along the way.  I moved through their cultures, and dramatic landscapes. I ate their food and slept on their land. I was constantly arriving to the open arms of strangers who were excited to help me achieve a feat that few could imagine. I did this for years, immersing myself in the world and meeting the people who live here. The story I returned with is a snapshot of humanity, captured in a lived experience. Thank you for joining me on my journey.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
May 31st, 2013 A Russian treasure, Marina was gone in the
morning. She left early to get to her job
at the library. When I said goodbye to her
parents, they passed on a gift from her, an art piece she had
made. I was handed a masterfully
painted wooden egg the size of my fist.

(00:20):
Wrapping around the curved surface was the scene of a woman
standing in a lush pasture beneath the black sky.
She's wearing a red dress with fine, intricate gold lace
painted with a single strand brush.
Her face showed quiet contentment as her arms reached
out. To her right, a log home with a
red roof. To her left, mountains under a

(00:42):
golden sun. The piece is beautiful, a
treasure to carry home with me. The temperature is 90° today
with a stiff headwind. I felt like I was biking into a
blow dryer, and practically, I was.
I drank 10 meters of water and my shirt never even became wet.
I only got a sense of how much Iwas sweating when I stepped into

(01:03):
a gas station in the still air. My skin became saturated so
quickly that I could feel the beads of sweat running down my
face, arms, and legs, leaving a trail of trips across the floor
behind me. I picked an ice cream out of the
cooler, then walked to the salescounter where I discovered that
today was the store's grand opening and I happened to be

(01:24):
their very first customer. Watching the sale were 15
employees and managers in 1/2 circle around the back of the
cashier with all eyes on me. I became self-conscious of how
wet I was and felt embarrassed when sweat began to drip from my
nose onto the brand new counter.I wiped the drops away with the
hem of my shirt. The cashier kept to her script

(01:47):
in Russian. She tried to upsell me a
rotisserie hot dog. I declined.
When I was handing my change, the two managers gave each other
a congratulatory handshake. I imagined them framing my
sweaty ruble to hang on the wallcommemorating their first sale.
I met a guy named Oleg out on his first day of a local bicycle

(02:07):
tour. We stayed together for a couple
of hours in the afternoon. He didn't speak English so he
rode in silence, but I enjoyed having someone to look around
with. At the gas station.
We sat in the cafe to eat ice cream and attempted a
conversation over Google Translate.
We tried, but his translated questions were near gibberish
and the answers I got from him didn't respond to what I was

(02:30):
asking. He seemed to be as confused as I
was. On my way to finding a place to
sleep between the farm fields, Icame upon a full right Mulberry
Bush. Finding the wild bounty gave me
great joy. The fruit was sweet and I gorged
myself until I could skip dinner.
I was reminded of my childhood computer game, The Oregon Trail.

(02:52):
In the game I was a settler in 1848 navigating an aux drawn
wagon across North America. I remember being thrilled when
my character found berries alongthe trail.
The game was essentially a storyabout traveling very far, very
slowly, and was perhaps pivotal and shaping my sense of
adventure. I've got my hammock hanging now.

(03:14):
The sky is dark and the birds have gone quiet.
My legs are propped up a little higher than my body.
I'm hoping to train the sorenessout of them.