DAY 123 | 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.Purchase Jacob's art inspired by his bicycle tour, including the world's most beautiful Ant Farm. ⁠www.AntLife.space⁠Join Jacob on a bicycle tour! He leads week-long bicycle tours in Colorado during the summer. Sign up here, ⁠www.MountainHighBicycleTours.com⁠.Contact me at [e-mail] me on Buy Me A Coffee www.buymeacoffee.com/HowToMoveTheStars#bicycletouring #travelblogger #bikepacking #adventure #narrated #series #bicycle #bicycleculture

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
June 16th, 2013 Gary. I could see my breath in the
cold morning air. I wanted to sleep until the day
warmed up, but I had camped too close to the road.
Loud trucks that woke me throughthe night also wouldn't let me
sleep in. I got up and peddled into a
bucolic landscape of green rolling farm fields interspersed

(00:21):
with patches of open forests. A few miles into my ride, I
stopped the snack on a package of Americinsky cookies that I
purchased at a gas station. It turned out to be chocolate
chip. I never thought of chocolate
chip cookies as distinctly American, but I don't mind
claiming them. I was getting ready to leave

(00:42):
when another cyclist pulled up on a loaded bike, a man named
Gary. He had a long Gray beard and
looked to be in his 50s. Most notably, he wore a black
Boulders hat. Gary was friendly and his
English was just good enough to have a conversation.
He said that his trip began in Munich a month ago, and we'll
take him across Russia then, maybe as far as Alaska.

(01:05):
I offered him a cookie, Then we started down the road together.
An hour later, Gary was lost somewhere behind me.
His bike looked very heavy, and though I waited, I never did see
him again. At this point I have mixed
feelings about traveling with someone else.
I like the simplicity of not having to consider anyone but
me. Though a couple of days company

(01:27):
might be good too. Maybe I'll see him again.
There's only one road and we areboth on it tonight and between
fields in a strip of white Aspentrees.
As I hung my hammock I noticed awhite spider camouflage against
a tree bark. How beautiful for a spider to
evolve to match the color of theforest.