DAY 117 | 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 10th, 2013 Horse. I woke up to the horse's head 10
inches from my face this morning.
He was scratching his chin on the rope that suspends my bug
mesh. I reached out and pushed him
away. I was sympathetic that he was
tortured by mosquito bites, but I didn't want him touching my
things. He shuffled off and I packed up

(00:22):
to leave. The time was only 4:00 AM, but
morning had already arrived. The sky was filling with pastel
light and thin, wispy clouds shimmer in the first rays of
sunshine. The birds were awake too, and
singing their favorite songs. I was out of food and excited to
get to town to buy more, but I arrived too early.

(00:43):
Everyone is asleep and the stores were still several hours
from opening. A gas station was my only
option. I bought a 1 kilogram bag of
cookies and snacked on them for 50 miles until I found an actual
store. I also stopped to talk to a car
mechanic when I fell in Ukraine.A bolt sheared off in my bike
frame and I hoped the mechanic could help.

(01:05):
The guy was about 40 years old and wore greasy work clothes
with sandals. He was one of two men in the
small one car garage. I showed him my problem and he
had a look on his face like he had never seen a broken bolt
before. I should have taken that as a
sign. He started off with pliers but
couldn't get a grip. Next he used a drill to cut away

(01:26):
at the bolt material. The progress was slow and he
pushed so hard that the drill bit broke after 20 minutes.
I was losing confidence in him. I hoped he would give up on his
own, but when he didn't I was compelled to let him keep
trying. His next idea was to use a
hammer and nail to push the boltout.
I didn't like watching him pounding on my bike, but by that

(01:47):
point we were both committed. Eventually the bolt was out, but
the threads were destroyed in the now Oval hole was just as
useless as if I left the broken bolt in place.
In the afternoon, a bicycle to pass the landing site of the
first man into space. Yuri Gagarin aboard Bolstock 1

(02:08):
in 1961. He orbited the Earth once, then
parachuted into a field east of the Volga River.
The flight took just 89 minutes.Out here under the perpetual
sky, I have a keen awareness that I am in space all the time.
I think of my bike as a spaceship, lifting me 6 inches
into the cosmos as I slowly orbit the Earth.

(02:30):
Tonight I'm sleeping in a Grove of trees close to the road.
When I chose this spot, I didn'trealize I was directly in line
with an airport runway, and now airplanes keep coming in low and
loud above me. I'm hoping they stop flying
after dark.