DAY 110 | 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):
June 3rd, 2013 Towel I left witha push from the wind to spend
the day surrounded by magnificent farmland and sky.
Fields of wheat stretched out tothe horizon like an ocean, and
under the bright sun, currents of air sweeping across the grain
to reveal as beautiful golden waves.

(00:20):
In one exquisite moment, I matchthe speed of a gust blowing
straight at my back. The world around me danced and
swayed and I was in perfectly still air.
I had become one with the wind rolling across the land.
The sensation was surreal and I was overwhelmed by the beautiful
moment. My eyes filled with quiet tears
of joy. I stopped at a gas station for

(00:44):
ice cream and to get out of the sun.
Several curious employees gathered around to look at my
bike and try to talk to me. I stayed for an hour, cooling
off in the shade as they worked around me.
When I was ready to leave, a group came back together to see
me off with a gift, a towel withthe gas stations logo.
I didn't want a towel, but they're well known to be about

(01:06):
the most massively useful thing one can carry.
I accepted graciously. Before beginning this journey, I
feared the loneliness of being by myself would be too much to
bear. But I'm not fully alone.
Interactions like the one at thegas station are fun and
meaningful, and they happen every day.
What I have lost is someone I can know and who knows me.

(01:28):
But I don't feel lonely. I feel light.
I've shed the burden of time, energy, and care that goes into
relationships as though there are fires I'm no longer tending.
I now sit in the dark, but I'm free to just sit.
As I've persisted in my isolation, I've begun to
recognize subtle aspects of thisexperience.

(01:49):
One nuance is that I am living without social influence.
I don't exist in society enough to infer norms, and by not being
with people, I've removed myselffrom their judgement.
Good or bad, I view this as a positive.
My impression of the world has been freed from the consensus of
thought around me. Through my isolation, I'm

(02:10):
learning to be exactly myself, undirected, accepted by my own
morals and principles. I wonder who I will become
tonight. I'm a narrow strip of forest
looking out for my hammock at the purple Twilight.
A mixed herd of goats, sheep andcows are moving through.
Two shepherds are here as well, but they pass by without seeing

(02:31):
me.