Cabin Pressure with Shawn and "G"

Swapping Wings for Wheels: 4,500 Miles on a Bicycle

• Shawn & G • Episode 34

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What drives someone to trade the comfort of flight for 81 days and 4,500 miles on a bicycle? Flight attendant Rich takes us through his remarkable cross-country cycling adventure from Virginia to Oregon, revealing the physical and mental challenges that pushed him to his limits.

The journey began with a simple tradition—dipping his rear wheel in the Atlantic Ocean. What followed was an odyssey of lung-busting climbs through Kentucky's unforgiving hills, lightning storms above the treeline, and nights spent in the most unexpected places. With only a small one-wheeled trailer carrying his belongings, Rich simplified his existence to three daily goals: finding places to eat, sleep, and use the bathroom.

Beyond the physical feat of climbing 100,000 feet in elevation (equivalent to scaling Mount Everest multiple times), Rich's story illuminates something profound about human connection. Despite arriving in small towns with a mohawk, long beard, and what he describes as a powerful stench after days without showering, strangers welcomed him with extraordinary kindness—offering meals, laundry services, and safe havens.

From the mayor who opened city hall during a rainstorm to random bar patrons who paid for his lunch, these encounters restored Rich's faith in humanity. "People in general don't suck," he discovered, perhaps the most valuable lesson from his journey.

Now planning adventures through New Zealand, Iceland, and the Great Divide, Rich embodies the spirit of challenge and discovery that keeps life vibrant at any age. His story reminds us that sometimes the greatest rewards come when we get ourselves "in over our head and see if we can get out."

Want to hear more incredible stories from the skies and beyond? Subscribe to Cabin Pressure for weekly episodes that will change how you see travel and adventure.

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Speaker 1:

3,000 to 4,500 miles of bike riding, Over 100,000 feet of total elevation gain. We're talking to a guy who knows a thing or two about turbulence. All this next on Cabin Pressure with Sean and Gene hey, everyone welcome.

Speaker 2:

This is cabin pressure. What's up people?

Speaker 1:

we are in the house every week man every week.

Speaker 2:

Man you gotta, you gotta like give him a little, uh jolt you're, you definitely get, you definitely give him a jolt, that's for damn sure right man.

Speaker 1:

Uh, you know this, today has been a rough day you can say that again, go ahead.

Speaker 2:

It was a start off a rough day.

Speaker 1:

You can say that again, go ahead it was a start off a rough day for me. You know us catching up here, you know I got the storage unit and they freaking jacking up the prices with me and I tell my wife I was like, hey, you know what we need to get out of that thing. And so last night I was just like I'm doing this and we're leaving. And so this morning, last night I like reserved the U-Haul and all that stuff and I thought, hey, 8, 8 AM I'll be there and all that stuff. So this morning, as you know, because you helped me, yeah, you called a friend.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I called a friend to help. We're just all we're doing is switching some storage units to one to the other and and I get there at 8 am and come to find out I'm trying to get through this little u-haul app and all this stuff and I had reserved the damn truck for 8 pm.

Speaker 2:

brilliant, brilliant yeah, well, I was already at the, at the storage facility yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, as I had like and g's always the one like, he's anxious, he's ready to get things no, he's not, he's on time, he's on time.

Speaker 1:

Hey, anxious, I told him I was on time I told you I'd call you and you showed up yeah, on time anyhow. So then. So then I had to find a truck. Then, uh, so you all hooked me up with another place down the road here on lafayette, and I get there and, dude, it was like walking into Deliverance. I mean, it was ma and pa, and what was really freaky about it is like these old people and they had this really tiny baby with them.

Speaker 2:

And I was like this is weird.

Speaker 1:

But a lot of those U-Haul places are like that now and it was in the back of a was attached to the back of a house, yep, next to a barn and all the u-hauls on around the barn and it was like and and a stunk. I can't even tell you the smell. Was like I was like this is where you do business, like come on anyhow. But uh, I got in and I got the truck. Then they got down the road, forgot the key, had to turn around, go back to get key oh, no, no, no, that's when you called me, yeah, and that's what I called you like don't rush don't rush

Speaker 1:

yeah, I'm already here, I'm already here, yeah. So, anyways, I get there, we do our. You know, we got this thing done in just a couple hours, which we need to do the swap. And then, bam, I'm going back and I get the truck and I'm, you know, you got to fill up the truck before you return the rental. Yeah well, get get down. I pull in the gas station. Every damn pump got a red sleeve on it, doesn't work, not one pump. The whole gas station was down. I mean, like they had a semi section to this gas station. All their pumps were down too. I don't know what the hell is going on, but it was a pain in the ass. So. So I had to drive back into town, get this freaking truck, and it was just one thing after another and I just felt like I just couldn't be in sync this morning.

Speaker 2:

No, it was a snowball effect of shit, that's what it was.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was a snowball effect of shit, right, so hopefully the show doesn't go into a snowball effect of shit and I participated with him too.

Speaker 2:

You, you did forget that he stopped at the wrong door of the other uh, yeah, the other stores when we were unloading we.

Speaker 1:

I parked at the wrong door when he and we unloaded the truck in a different door. Yep, brilliance, yeah anyways just intelligent. What do you end up to?

Speaker 2:

well, outside man is beautiful. Here again, it's beautiful in ohio, you look a little.

Speaker 1:

Uh, lobster over there, I got a farmer's tan. Do you got a farmer's tan?

Speaker 2:

farmer's tan. I'm proud of my farmer's tan see how pale I am.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you're funny. I know he's got a natural tan.

Speaker 2:

That's bullshit you just got a natural tan, I got red. I'm like lobster red right but no, I was outside, it was outside. I was outside doing the lawn edging, doing that deep edging, all that fun shit we do up here in Ohio this time of year when the weather's beautiful.

Speaker 1:

It's beautiful, man, one of our 163 days of the years that we get to enjoy Sunshine, sunshine.

Speaker 2:

I know man. I tell you, though, it was absolutely gorgeous.

Speaker 1:

Other. Tell you, though it was, it was absolutely gorgeous, other than getting up and I had a great workout this morning and then getting up when, and the whole shit show with you. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, you know what, today on our uh show, we got a guy that uh knows the thing or two about turbulence and uh, but not to just 30 000 feet up, try 33, try 33,000 miles across the US. He's a flight attendant and he crossed the US on a bike and he basically traded fuel for some calf muscles.

Speaker 3:

Rich, hey, hey, what's up, what's going on?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we want to hear some interesting stories Like what made you want to do this first of all, Oof, because I'm a little crazy.

Speaker 3:

No, I started doing when I hit 30, started doing a little more biking I always biked as a kid going up, but I started hitting it again when I got around 30, then I'd do this ride through Ohio called Goba, the great Ohio bicycle adventure, and people thought I was crazy doing that because it's like 50 miles a day for a week, but it wasn't a real big deal. But I met all these people on those rides that have done the cross country and stuff like that, so that kind of piqued my interest. So then, uh, I always had that in the back of my head saying I'm going to do this, but you know, in reality I never thought I'd do it Right.

Speaker 1:

I mean, how long does this type of ride like even thinking about it to plan for it Take? I?

Speaker 3:

mean, there was, there were a couple of years that I was wanting to do it, but I was was like it's just never going to happen. I'm never going to be with a person that'll be like okay, cool, take off, I'll see you in three months, yeah, yeah. So with those logistics and then just working, you know how the hell are you going to get off work for three months? For three months?

Speaker 1:

right, I mean rich. Rich is a uh flight attendant as well, so he's he's traveling around and doing all that stuff, so he understands the whole business of uh moving about the country and uh, and definitely a personable with people yeah, it was uh, it was crazy because they offered the it was a probably say I left them like june 1st, so probably beginning of May.

Speaker 3:

They offered the leave of absence and then I said, hey, I'm going to do this crap to the girl I was seeing at the time and she was like, oh yeah, go for it. And I was like you're going to watch my chickens, you're going to watch my dogs and I'm just going to be out and looking back, she's like, yeah, get the hell out of here.

Speaker 2:

So this is actually an all. It's a mapped out route, rich.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, adventurecyclingcom. They have turn-by-turn routes, multiple routes across the US, up and down east to west coast, up down the middle, northern tier, southern tier. I did the Route 76, which was back on in 1976. They called it the Bike Centennial to celebrate, you know, america's birthday, and a bunch of these old, dirty hippies rode across the country, you know, in blue jeans and crap like that. So I met one of the guys that originally did that. He's this like six foot five. Oh wow, early dude, total hippie dude. Um, everyone calls him tiny, I have no idea what the hell his name is, but he does that go-kart bike ride. That's how I met him. So just like peeking with him a little bit and you know that kind of sparked my interest in this stuff.

Speaker 2:

So how do you prep for something like that, though, I mean, when you okay, you had this idea You're saying, okay, I'm going to do it. Okay, how did you prep for that? A lot of beer. It had to be because I'm sure like damn A lot of deep, deep thought.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I was riding fairly heavy prior, but not nothing crazy. Um, I was doing this. Uh, lance armstrong had a training book, so I was following through that, you know, as much as I could. Um, I'm not fast, you know well, this isn't no, no it's just a long and slow. That's me.

Speaker 1:

What was that? What was that? Uh like, uh, your goal on a daily, like how, how many miles a day were you trying to like put in per day?

Speaker 3:

It. It totally varied Cause um, it depends, cause I had a long goal, a short goal and a medium goal every day. So all I did you know, those are my three goals, and all I'm trying to do is find a place to poop, trying to find a place to sleep and trying to find a place to eat. Those are the only thing. Like you, simplify your life, those are your only three goals every day.

Speaker 1:

Every day.

Speaker 3:

Every day. It's perfect. That's awesome man. So so I might have a short goal of like 40, 50 miles. Medium goal 70, 75, long goal 100. But some days I was down where the hell was, I I forget, but I found some really cool bar and it was 11. I went in for lunch and ended up making friends with the bartender. She was like, oh, go take a shower at my house down the street. I'm like, okay, no one's there. She's just like, just let yourself in, go take a shower because I stunk. But she was trying to keep her clientele Right, yeah. And then I ended up sleeping in the parking lot.

Speaker 1:

So I went like five miles that day.

Speaker 3:

That's why I, you know, made some friends and just chilled out and slept in a parking lot.

Speaker 2:

That's so. So now, where, where did this? Where did it all start? Oh, yorktown Virginia. So you started in Yorktown Virginia, and that first day you remember, the first day, how many miles you rode.

Speaker 3:

I think I did about 50, but I was kind of pissed on my first day. What you do is you dip your rear tire of your bike into the ocean that you're leaving, and then you dip your front tire in the ocean that you're going to.

Speaker 3:

So it's like the tradition Right and the ocean that you're going to. So it's like the tradition Right, and when I was doing it, I'm riding and then I see probably about 25 dudes and girls, whatever riding and they were from a group that ended up. I was kind of mad because I saw them, because I wanted to be totally alone, but then I ended up hooking up with these people. They were doing a bike the us for ms and they do cross-country rides raising money for ms awareness. They go and clean up people's houses and help them with chores and do all this type of stuff. It's a really good organization, um, so I ended up riding not directly with them, but we crossed paths for probably a couple of weeks, um, but they were really super, super cool people. Um, yeah, so that was a cool, cool experience meeting all those guys. Um, but yeah, so that's how that kind of all started out.

Speaker 1:

How long did it take? Was there ever a thing where you're like you know what I'm done?

Speaker 3:

Tons of times, tons of times, tons. You're on the side of the road. You just want to bust out, cry. It's crazy. You're so beat down. You're just like what the fuck Right right, it's like fatigue and you fuck Right, right.

Speaker 1:

It's like fatigue and you know you can't have no place to recoup and we're riding through Kentucky.

Speaker 3:

Those hills are straight up, straight where mountains are, straight up, straight down. So you're doing full 100 percent lung busting. Then you're flying down the hill 50 miles an hour, lung busting, going up, and then there's freaking dogs off chains all like up in your face And're just like shit, I can't outrun the damn dog because I'm going up to damn hell, wow and um. So so that stuff. And you're just on the side of the road and you're just like, oh my god, I just want to, I just I just want to fall over, go to sleep right, quit was there times when you just fell over and yeah, yeah, and and the thing is you feel like you're just gonna bust down and cry because you're just like I'm so defeated.

Speaker 3:

And then you go around the turn. Then there's a big dam with a field, flowers everywhere, sure. And you're like, okay, I got this, that's my power right now. Sure, so that'll get you through the day.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3:

And then, like the next day, you know something else might happen. Like that, you know you change your music up or you don't have any music at all. You know, and you're just like zoning out. I mean hell. I was on a bike, falling asleep, pedaling like nodding over. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 3:

I'm drinking five-hour energies while I'm riding, so I just don't fall asleep while I'm pedaling.

Speaker 1:

Unbelievable.

Speaker 2:

Now did you get a lot of muscle cramps, stuff like that too?

Speaker 3:

You know, I didn't really have much of that Trying to remember.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. I mean going that distance, yeah, I mean it seems like your legs would be screaming, going up a mountain and then coming back down.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's kind of like when you started going into Colorado and you see the Rockies and they're only like a quarter inch tall in the distance and you're just like, ok, you know, because you know, but this time, you know, I had some miles in so I was getting in shape a little bit, and they keep. Every day, the mountains, you know, grow another quarter inch. And then you get there and you're like, oh damn, and you're just like, ok, your mindset just goes to, because before you know, you're trying to cruise at good speeds most of the time, but you get to the mountains you're just like, okay, I'm gonna go two and a half miles an hour for the next three hours.

Speaker 3:

Wow and then you get up to the top of the mountain. You know we did a hoosier pass and that was a, I think, 11 000 feet or something like that. Flying down that damn mountain going 55 miles an hour, that's got to be scary as shit. That's got to be scary as shit.

Speaker 2:

I don't care 55 miles an hour on a bike. Oh yeah, it was awesome. That has to be scary as shit. I'm sorry man, I'm in those damn tires.

Speaker 3:

I'm on tires as thin as my thumb. People are afraid to do that shit on a motorcycle.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's crazy man. In a car.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you don't mind a motorcycle in a car how?

Speaker 1:

much packing, like how much stuff was with you, like, like did you have like the rear packs and all that stuff.

Speaker 3:

I didn't have any saddlebags or panniers. I had a a one wheeled trailer. It's called a Bob trailer. It just has like a duffel bag. It's probably about a foot and a half wide and two and a half feet long and that was all my stuff.

Speaker 1:

That was it. That's all you brought into the bed, like that duffel bag in the back of your bag.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Like my warm clothes were like my rain gear, so if I was cold I'd put in a rain gear on.

Speaker 1:

I wouldn't be buying some panniers on the way.

Speaker 3:

for sure you need to go lightweight, but I just had some basic. I mean my clothes were stinky. I mean you ride all day and just the sweat.

Speaker 1:

Right, you're just doing it.

Speaker 2:

The weather though too, right, the clothes get stiff, right, but the weather had to be crazy. I mean, it changes the weather all the time, oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

Kansas was like upper nineties the whole time and that was that was hard. But I remember being up. Shit. How was I like an Oregon or it might've been up in Oregon, but I just remember we're above the. We were above the tree line.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 3:

And I was with a couple other people that I just randomly met up. We're above the tree line and the lightning starts in every direction, like in front of us on the sides of us, behind us, we're just in this giant electric yeah, like you can't, you can't and you're just like, oh fuck, they tell me to lay flat on the fucking rocks and and get away from my metal stuff.

Speaker 3:

And I'm like, um, but it was freezing, it was probably 40 degrees rain, soaking wet. Your fingers are wrinkly like, yeah, so so wet. So we're up on top of this mountain. I'm just like, screw it, I'm bolting down.

Speaker 1:

So now I'm just bolting down this mountain, can't even barely see, because the rain's coming down so hard and there's cliffs and rain and lightning and yeah so, so, so, because you're talking about all these elements and stuff that like, did you like plan for all that stuff? Like, did you bring anything gear, stuff like that, like glasses for for riding and stuff I didn't bring any.

Speaker 3:

Uh, I'm not a, I do have sunglasses, but I didn't have any like that, so I had rain gear.

Speaker 1:

You know, like you know, you knew, you were going to hit that type of weather.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that weighs too much.

Speaker 1:

You're so you're like literally streamlined, like I'm going to do as light as possible.

Speaker 3:

Try to do as light as possible. I mean cause, if you're carrying an extra five pounds over a hundred miles or over 4,500 miles, right, you know, that's it. It adds up, it adds up.

Speaker 2:

He's becoming our version of gump. Yeah Right, I mean no kidding. I mean I'm listening to this and I'm like, you're like the version of gump. So Rich, okay, craziest place there had to be, a crazy place that you had to bed down Right, because when you're, when you're out in the middle of nowhere, you you just got a, do you do?

Speaker 3:

I had a one-man tent, um, that was small enough where it was you could, you know, shoulders hit both sides of it and, uh, you can sit up in it and that's it. Um, I think, as far as having to like, do take emergency shelter and stuff like that, I just power through most of the stuff because you know, I mean, we're waterproof, right.

Speaker 2:

But you're out in the middle of nowhere sometimes, right, and you just had to pop that tent up. Yeah, there's no nerve-wracking times that you're out there and no, you're throwing that little. You throw in that little one-man tent that you can only lift your head up in yeah, I mean I would do the.

Speaker 3:

Uh. Yeah, I did break down in storms and put that stuff up when it was going to be pretty miserable, just on the side of the road, temporary, but like up on the top of that mountain. There was no way in hell that thing would have just been blown away, oh for sure.

Speaker 2:

But you had to go through the storms and stuff where you're literally soaked, right.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, I mean you're soaked in that little tent and you get out and you're soaked yeah you wake up soaked, you put on your wet clothes, you go to bed wet, you'd wake up wet and then you'd change your clothes into the other wet clothes that you have. Wow and yeah, but the craziest tent story. So I was in the tetons and this, uh, this was still had the newspapers that you know in the corners and they had this bear attack up in the tetons and it went through like two or three different people's tents and attacked them. Oh no, well, I got all my, my, my tent and everything in that duffel bag. Well, I go to break tent. I'm like two days outside of tita or two days outside of where those attacks were. My nutella jar broke open. Scat was all over my sleeping gear, all over my tent, so I smelled like freaking bear food in bear freaking country that was the most terrifying damn thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. You're like a bear snack in an inevitable tent right, you've scented yourself for the next so many miles.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because a bear radius is, I think, like their territorial radius is like 500 miles or something like that.

Speaker 3:

I chummed the water for them, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So what state would you say was the worst one that ride through Kentucky?

Speaker 3:

Kentucky.

Speaker 2:

Really.

Speaker 1:

Why so?

Speaker 3:

It was pretty. Those Hills like in in Colorado, like you go up a mountain, they grade it pretty well. You know you got a lot of switchbacks.

Speaker 1:

Kentucky.

Speaker 3:

They're like F? F that just go straight up, go straight down. And it was hard, wow. I mean, I wasn't as in shape as I was by the time I got to Colorado, sure, but Kentucky was hard and the coal trucks you'd be riding, and these giant coal trucks would go past you and they create suction. So you lean out because it kind of sucks you in. Right, that's a little intense.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a little nerdy right.

Speaker 2:

Okay, bike tires. How many times did you blow those?

Speaker 3:

I went through maybe just a couple sets, but I had extra tubes and patches and I don't even know how many dozen times patching. I mean there were some places where where you just on the side of the road there'd be all those little wires from tire trucks blowing those to get up in your tires and, you know, flash stuff like that. So that was kind of a pain.

Speaker 1:

But you know you get quick at it after a while so, speaking about like breaking down, like, was there a time during this whole trip where you like broke down, where you was like I'm, I'm like, uh, I can't go and I'm going to stop for a few days? Like this is, I'm staying here for a while.

Speaker 3:

No, I mean just those, those many episodes that I had you know, never lasting for more than an hour or five Sure.

Speaker 2:

An hour or five.

Speaker 1:

Five or.

Speaker 2:

So the whole, the whole trip. How long did it take?

Speaker 3:

Eighty 81 days. But I did a side trip through my trip so as a break during my ride I did another ride during the middle of my ride.

Speaker 1:

So in the middle of this ride going from cross country you decided you know what. I really want to do this piece.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, because I like doing that Goba ride. Just about every year I've done it about 10 times going across country. You decided, you know what I really want to do this piece? Yeah, because, um, I like doing that goba ride um, just about every year. I've done it about 10 times. The great ohio bicycle adventure, and this time it was down and uh, they do a different section of ohio each year. This section was uh down by athens and I went to school at ou so I didn't want to miss that year year. Yeah. So our a friend, uh lisa, okay, and her husband bob, oh yeah, they they came down, so I rode across to uh cave and rock illinois all right so then, uh, the girl I've seen at the time picked me up from cave and rock, drove me back down to southern ohio.

Speaker 3:

Then we did that tandem. We did that ride there on a tandem and I was like like, oh, that goba is easy. Well, this was the hilliest damn goba that I ever did, and we were like right. Yeah, um, so that my break week was a week of riding 50 miles a day through Southern Ohio and then was driven back to cave and rock Illinois where I left off and then continued my ride.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's wild, that's wild.

Speaker 3:

Like.

Speaker 1:

I was expecting more of like okay, you know what. I stopped at this hotel.

Speaker 2:

Had a burger.

Speaker 1:

And I decided I'm going to chill for a week. You know, that wasn't the deal?

Speaker 3:

No, that wasn't on the plan, that's wild.

Speaker 1:

Hey, so you were also alluded earlier. Like you were, you know, going down the hill away from dogs, so did you have any other like encounters with animals and stuff outside of? Like you weren't bear food, so you're sitting here, so we know that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, part of the ride, a road through Yellowstone, cool and I happened to be with a couple of people during that part and we were commenting. Commenting damn, we haven't seen any buffalo, nothing. And then next thing that would go around the turn. I'm 10 feet away from this buffalo. I'm just head to toe in spandex and you got this damn giant beast with these horns staring at me that was.

Speaker 1:

That was pretty cool. They're intimidated too when you get close to those.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah I was close enough to hear the damn thing breathing and I'm just like here look at my spandex.

Speaker 2:

That's what I was thinking. Going across some of these states. They've got these wild animals and then you're on a bike You're like a snack going across the country with them.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, probably a little meaty and tough. Yeah, at that point the muscles would be tough and tough.

Speaker 1:

I think, yeah, at that point the muscles would be tough. That is absolutely crazy. So, uh, entertaining yourself like going across is like when you did stop and stuff like whoa, what was that? Like you weren't like uh, doing safety demos for the prairie dogs and stuff like that no, but I I do moo at every cow that I go past you were doing a lot of moving across the United.

Speaker 3:

States Sure.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I'd be like now, did you come across any people with road rage for riding bikes? Cause I know a lot of times they don't like sharing the road.

Speaker 3:

Um, I didn't really have any. I mean, you might get some beeps, but I haven't had it. I didn't have any crazy people throwing crap or nothing like that that's amazing going that that many yeah that many miles, that many days you know, the biggest surprise with the ride was how nice people were. Like. You're always like, you know, you get, you get people and you're just like holy crap, what is wrong with these people? I tell you what. There's people I'm riding and they'd be riding their bike just on a whatever, just a ride.

Speaker 1:

And the next.

Speaker 3:

Thing you know they turn around and start following me and start talking. They'll be like, hey, do you want to come over for dinner?

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 3:

I'm like sure. Then the next thing, you know they're like washing my clothes, cooking me dinner. I'm sleeping in random people, houses sometimes that I've met for five minutes, wow, and they just invite you into their house. One place was really cool. We were in Oregon. It was me and this dude and his girlfriend, and the guy said hey, I called my wife, she's going to make dinner for all y'all, and then we go into the. We go into his house. It was a beautiful house, you know, and looking at his bikes he was like I'm like that's a $5,000 bike, that's a $7,000 bike, that's another $5,000.

Speaker 3:

So you know he is he was into it too. So we stay the, we have some bottles of wine. They wash our clothes, you know, and we're total strangers to them. The next morning they go. Oh yeah, just, we've got to both go to work. So, just, you know, let yourself out whenever, and I'm like you've got jewelry boxes, you've got $5,000 bikes. You'd never see my ass again, sure, but people were just so nice and like trusting, it was super refreshing.

Speaker 3:

But it seemed like you know, yeah, it's, it's a cool community because I don't know when you, when you see someone with, uh, a loaded bike, you know with panniers or a trailer or whatever, you instantly have, you know, a understanding and like, I've met people riding Pittsburgh to DC on C&O, a great Allegheny Passage, which is just an off-road trail that goes from downtown Pittsburgh all the way to DC.

Speaker 3:

But I met someone there for five minutes and they were riding from over there all the way to DC. But, uh, I met someone there for five minutes and they were riding from from over there all the way to San Fran doing something, some young kids and they're like, oh, yeah, we're going to ride through Cleveland. I'm like, oh, give me a call, here's my number, and you know. Next thing, you know I'd met them for five minutes and they're sleeping at my house. There you go, reciprocates yeah, it was cool Cause a lot of these people like a lot of these places, um, there'll be like hosts and they'll have their yard and they'll put a little barn in the backyard with the bunk bed in it and be like help yourself to the hose and, you know, sleep in this wooden bunk bed.

Speaker 2:

That's what I was going to ask you to craziest place that you spent the night.

Speaker 3:

Hmm, I slept under the bleachers at a county fair. Some churches, a lot of churches along the way, will let you sleep in the church. So I've slept on church pews, altars, but my favorite was Hudson, kansas, because on these maps that give you the turn-by-turn directions across the country, they give you some suggestions on where you can sleep for free. And one was the city park in Hudson, kansas, and they were like call the mayor first, and they listed her number and said so she can turn the sprinklers off.

Speaker 1:

So you don't get drenched at night. So we call.

Speaker 3:

This was a decent amount of people at this time, I forget. So we call her up and she comes, shuts the sprinklers off and she goes. You know, it looks like it's going to rain. How about you sleep in the city hall? So next thing you know, she opens up the city hall, which looked like an old VFW hall, with some tables and stuff. So next thing, you know, get start getting phone calls. We're like what the hell's going on? So I answered a phone and they're like hey, are you all those bikers out there? And we're like yeah. They're like are you hungry?

Speaker 1:

we're like yeah yeah, I was hungry always so they started bringing us food just random randos from the town that is awesome, it was super cool. That's, that's that. That's that's what you get like this neighborly. You know, you know that's the human, yeah, yeah, the human, uh, whole experience of like you know, like you were saying it, it's surprising, if it feels surprising, that people are, that you know, open and giving and willing to take you in.

Speaker 3:

But was that in a lot of small towns though I mean yeah, yeah, it was small town mentality yeah, it was very cool and and I think when people see you on a bike even though I had a mohawk and a long ass beard and I stunk massively, um, but when people see you on a bike then they're kind of like it disarms them a little bit so they'll be willing to talk to you a little bit. Right, see what? Like, what the hell are you doing? You know I was raising money for the Livestrong Foundation, so that was kind of cool. But yeah, it was nice. Like I was talking to one couple in some random bar for lunch and I go to pay the bartender's like, oh no, that, that couple that you were talking to paid, paid for all your stuff that's, yeah, just like it was, just like stuff like that constantly through the ride yeah, I've had.

Speaker 1:

I've had that experience too before where I'd like go into a restaurant or something. I was with a group golfing one time where he had a whole group. Some guy at the bar like bought the entire group, like our, all of our dinners yeah, like amazing.

Speaker 1:

I mean we're, we look like we got money. You know why did? Why did you buy them? But it was just people was like being generous and guy came over, talked to us for a while and he didn't want anything. He just, hey, we, I know you're outsiders and I wanted to welcome you, type of thing yeah, no, it was great it's.

Speaker 3:

It's amazing how how cool people were. It was refreshing. It was something that everyone should experience. A lot of people are hardened off.

Speaker 2:

Did you meet anybody along the way that you've kept in contact with?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I keep in contact with a couple of them, mostly via Facebook. I've had a couple come to my house to do Ray's Mountain Bike, which is downtown Cleveland. It's the biggest outdoor indoor mountain bike park in the States, so had them come in for that. And then I went out to DC and was blasting through the DC streets through all the traffic on a tandem with these two crazy dudes that you know lane split and all that stuff. That was fun yeah so.

Speaker 1:

So uh, was there, like you're talking about, like I'm relating this to because, uh, I do uber eats and during the pandemic, one at a time, one the hardest things during pandemic was finding a bathroom, like right. And so you were talking about like, yeah, so, so it was like trying to find those is like was like seriously. So did you have some episodes where you had to just like, okay, um, this is where it's happening and I had to find some emergency spot type of like on the road?

Speaker 3:

cornfields and maps you know it?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I mean like it is. I can imagine like, and and the other thing that's interesting to me is that, like, how many, so how on this trip and how long? Did you say it was 81 days, 81 days? How many days or how many times did you shower in those 81 days? Did you never do?

Speaker 3:

that total, I would say less than 10 less than 10 times in a day.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean in 81 days.

Speaker 3:

Yeah I mean I? I literally like, if there was someone sprinkler on in their front yard, I would go in their sprinkler right um mcdonald. I'd be washing my junk in their sink.

Speaker 2:

There's a site right there, hey Mommy. There's some gump guy in there washing his junk.

Speaker 3:

But the thing is, you know, you took a shower. You almost felt grosser because you're putting on stiff, salty clothes.

Speaker 1:

Oh no, yeah. So you didn't get to like wash your clothes, right yeah, stiff salty clothes? Oh no, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So if you didn't, get to like wash your clothes, right? Yeah, I know, but you think about that 10 times. Think about that now doing 10 showers in 81 days 10, oh, you were a stinky-ass person.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, okay so here's my question Did you keep any of those clothes?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you did. You're like like at the end of the trip.

Speaker 3:

You were like like hey, I gotta you know these are done like some of the jerseys I wore were like the goba jerseys, so I I those are sentimental, sure, so I keep that right, but like this, the shorts and stuff nah yeah, a couple of jerseys, yeah, and then, uh, in um missoula montana, there's, uh, that's the headquarters for uh oh um adventure cycling. So when you go across, they take your, you go there, they take your picture and put you on their wall. And I bought like a trans am shirt from there that I still have.

Speaker 2:

That was Montana when you were biking through that, because that's beautiful.

Speaker 3:

I mean that's a beautiful place. Yeah, no, it was awesome. Idaho was my biggest surprise. Idaho was absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, loved Idaho, but Montana's great. I love Montana, I could live up there.

Speaker 1:

That whole western region of the United's great. I love Montana. I could live up there.

Speaker 3:

That whole western region of the United States period. I'm sorry, Jackson Hole. It was absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1:

One of the guys that I met along the way- after the ride he loved Jackson Hole so much he moved there. I can see why I totally get it.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, it's beautiful. I mean Montana's gorgeous, it's actually really cool. Oh yeah, it's beautiful.

Speaker 3:

I mean, Montana is gorgeous. It's actually really cool. Oh yeah, it's amazing. Oh, another sleeping one. I just jogged my memory. It was Idaho. We were at some hot springs and we were down this path that was no bikes allowed and we had our bikes but we were sleeping next to these steaming springs and we had a giant moose walk like 10 feet away from us, right through the middle of this mist. That looked like we were in freaking mars that's awesome, cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he just gave me flashbacks. As a kid I had that type of experience, but it was up in, uh, the yukon actually, and we were in the springs and the moose comes walking out of the mist like that scared the shit out of you so.

Speaker 2:

So now you're going through. Where do you end?

Speaker 3:

up in astoria, oregon, astoria, oregon yeah so that was your end point.

Speaker 1:

That was the end point where you dip in the front front we're dipping my front tire.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so that day I wanted to be like an epic day, so that was my longest ride. It was 172 miles, whoa. I was riding 20 hours or so in the one day, but I got so lost. I'm up in the mountains and I see like the glowing of the city in the distance, so I know I had to get there. But I'm looking at my maps and none of these streets had street signs on them. So I'm going and it's the middle of the night. I got like a mohawk and a giant-ass beard. I look like a freaking crazy homeless man. Right, and you know one car would pass every 45 minutes. I tried to wave them down, nothing, and I'm just my bike. Light is running, running dim. I'm running out of food and water it was bad wow but it was good though that was.

Speaker 3:

You know that was 172 miles.

Speaker 2:

The last ride yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1:

So so, like at the end of this thing, was that just a point where you were just like, okay, you know what, I got this far to go, I'm doing it, this is all I'm done.

Speaker 3:

That mentality, yeah because I had someone waiting for me. I was like I'll be done by this time and I wasn't. Oh no, waiting for me for hours and hours, right hours, he's supposed to show up at this time and I couldn't get my phone to work. Yeah, yeah, it was funny.

Speaker 1:

So, talking about that like your technology, I wanted to ask a question about that. So, like, how did that work through the whole entire trip? Because you're talking about, like you have your phone and all this stuff, but where are you charging? This stuff Is it solar packs or what.

Speaker 3:

No, I'd go to like, if I pass the gas station, I just like steal some electricity from behind the ice machine. You know that's awesome, yeah, you know. Hey, hot dog roller. Oh, there's an extra plug, sweet Sure. And then I would just hang out for an hour.

Speaker 1:

So you're just like kind of like just a little spurts here and there. You were trying to.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and a lot of the stuff I mean trying to, yeah, and a lot of the stuff I mean I had no cell service for good chunks of the time, and yeah, so it was kind of you probably kept your phone off.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you probably kept your phone off the majority of the time anyway, right, unless you absolutely needed it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean because at that time I was using an ipod for music, so I wasn't even using a phone for music. Um, yeah, so it was just, you know, I had like a backup battery, that and then the phone just trying to charge those whenever you could. But yeah, that was kind of good to not have the technology though.

Speaker 1:

Right, I mean that little disconnect. That's about part of the whole venture too, right? Oh yeah, like you want to connect with humanity but you don't want. You know, like all the technology stuff, you really don't need all that with humanity, but you don't want you know, like all the technology stuff, that you really don't need all that. Um, so my, my other question would be like, like, was there any like along the way, did you, did you encounter any type of emergency stuff? Like you had, you know, some type of incident. I zoomed downhill at 50 miles per hour and crashed, or anything like that happened on your trip.

Speaker 3:

I only crashed once that I remember, but that was like after I rode over to the Hoosier Pass at 11,000 foot and flew down into the city. I actually went into a bike shop and rented a mountain bike after doing the 11,000 foot climb so I could um ride up breckenridge right on the yeti mountain bike and, just you know, do the uh, oh, what's it called?

Speaker 3:

the ski lift, take it up to the top of the mountain and then, oh yeah, mountain bike trails, yeah, and I was bleeding so bad. Oh my gosh, those, those dudes are crazy. The downhill, the downhillers, whole.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the ones that do those like downhills on the, on the ski trails and stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, it's fun, yeah I've done it.

Speaker 1:

I've done it a couple times and, uh, it is fun, but those guys are crazy motherfuckers yeah, you like it I mean you will. Trees might get very close to you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm not doing it Suddenly Not doing it, not doing that, not doing the 81-day trip either. That is freaking amazing though.

Speaker 1:

Well, the whole amazing thing to me is this like you know, first of all, like you began, how do you drop your life? Like you're just like I got to disconnect for life and in 81 days, was that your intended goal? Like 81 days was your goal or was it like I'm doing? I got three months off. This is it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I just had the three months off. I didn't really have any time goals, but I didn't want to take any breaks, okay. So yeah, that was kind of my deal. But I mean, you know, got done with the ride and went up to Alaska to celebrate in backpack. Now you flew up to Alaska, right, flew up there. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1:

There you go. Yeah, because that ride from Oregon all the way up to.

Speaker 3:

Alaska is amazing.

Speaker 1:

It's amazing, I did the drive as a kid, but I didn't uh, not as a bike.

Speaker 2:

If you're a person listening to this, I mean, think about that. You take three months of your life off just to ride a bike all the way across the United States dealing with all that shit. I mean that's that is. I mean that is crazy.

Speaker 1:

What's the what's the one big takeaway from this for you, rich that, like you, learned about yourself I'd like to get myself in over my head and see if I can get out there you go and I get that and I think I can get out always right you're sitting here right yeah, yeah, that's, that's that, and I think people in general don't suck.

Speaker 1:

There you go, that's good yeah, which is crazy to so, so tying this back to the flight attendant thing, so like, did this, this, this renew your uh value and or your faith in humanity?

Speaker 3:

as long as I can get more time off of work.

Speaker 1:

Copy that man I mean, like you know, our job as a flight attendant is a is a tough one when we're dealing with public and dealing with stuff and and they're not as friendly as these people. You're talking about your story, right? Well, yeah, sometimes, sometimes they're friendly, sometimes they're not.

Speaker 2:

All right, tell me this Since you accomplished that, what's next? What?

Speaker 3:

would you like to do Bucket list? First of all, how old are you? Rich 51.

Speaker 2:

So you're 51 years old. Now go ahead. What's this bucket list? What's next?

Speaker 3:

I want to bike both islands of New Zealand. All right, take the ferry in between the islands, self-contained the whole time. I want to bike around, or through Iceland Loop road that goes around the outside, or there's a trail that goes through the middle, and I want to do the Great Divide which is Canada to Mexico, along the fire roads, through the Rockies, and oh, there's so much stuff. I want to do a half marathon in every state, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. But I want to bike across every state too.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's that's any hiking.

Speaker 3:

I mean I'd like to do the Appalachian in the pack, but we'll see I'm getting along.

Speaker 1:

I can. You're running out of time, dude.

Speaker 3:

I'm too young for that. No, that was a cool thing too. Like on the, on the trail, you'd meet people that were were like 65, just retired. That was a big group of people. Then you'd meet people that were just right before college or just right after college Right, because they all had the time. They had the time. People around my age. At the time I wasn't finding them.

Speaker 1:

No, there's a lot of people that can't do that check out for three months to be able to.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but you wonder at a person at 65, right, we're sitting right next to one. Right when he when he turned 65, he's going to be out there on one of those trails backpacking.

Speaker 3:

I better be.

Speaker 2:

That's what I said. You will be.

Speaker 1:

I mean I actually know you and and and I believe that when you turn 65 you'll definitely be out there. I I need to be right, yeah, that I mean you know what this is, uh, the this, this whole thing with the biking and hiking and all that stuff. Like I love to be able to have that me time, you know, yeah, like I think everybody enjoys that, like we gotta get our me time and all that stuff. But like you're saying, getting yourself in over your head and stuff like that and figuring that you can get yourself out, that's a. People don't normally challenge themselves like that and commend you for that. It's a it's. It's a scary thing to even attempt to like let yourself go there.

Speaker 2:

Rich.

Speaker 3:

I'm not doing it, I don't give a shit what he's saying over there. My ass is not doing it. I mean, we had this conversation, no bullshit.

Speaker 2:

We had this conversation a long time ago and I told Rich. I said it was freaking amazing. You know the shit that he went through and all I could think of is him being in that damn field in Deliverance, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3:

I mean that's it.

Speaker 2:

You're just out in the middle of some you know bohunk field in Kentucky, in that little bitty tent, and you know just a nightmare is going to happen.

Speaker 3:

The banjo music Exactly.

Speaker 1:

How many times did you get encountered with the law?

Speaker 3:

You know some of the places. You could actually sleep at the city park right across from the police station, and they were cool with that. I remember one time we were like in some city pool when we weren't supposed to be. It was in the middle of the night. Just climb over the fence to go swimming, Right, but nothing, Nothing. We were pretty, pretty good with the law.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, you didn't get encounters with them like people stopping you for any reason. No, people were good, that's good, that's good, yeah. So you know what? Your adventure is unbelievable. I'm with G over there.

Speaker 3:

I ain't doing it.

Speaker 1:

First of all, I got to commend you to be able to even have the body to be able to do it, because my body will not let me do that anymore, period. And and you know, some people, when they get to that 65 or then their 60s, and a lot of, most people, a lot of people, the majority of them, we're not going to be able to do a lot of those things. But so, man, I hope, I hope you can do, he could do it.

Speaker 2:

I hope so. He's going to do it. We're going to. I guarantee you we're going to hear about his ass doing it.

Speaker 1:

I mean, he, he, he's keeping himself all together to be able to do that stuff. It's, it's awesome. But uh, hey to um, we always wrap up our show and, uh like, talk about a little bit of things that are happening in the news lately and I don't know if you and you could chime in on this when we're talking about it. But, um, did you guys see that uh, female pasture that was thrown down by a flight attendant the other day?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I did in the first class cabin.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, she was in business class and they thought she was like gonna try to be breached a deck and I mean there's video of it and looks. Attendants are like body slams are down in the ground and yeah, it was pretty wild.

Speaker 2:

How about that? Did you see that cruise line brawl?

Speaker 1:

No, oh, carnival.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, carnival, they had a big cruise line brawl. I'm surprised you missed that one. That shit was funny. That's like the Chuck E Cheese of the Seas. They were like, oh, all those people have been banned, like they're coming back anyway, right, right, I mean they're banned for life from carnival. The brawl in the sea or whatever. Yeah, it was something about their bags or something, right?

Speaker 3:

I don't remember, I just remember seeing them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so your travels and any new stories or anything you got to share lately, anything good In your world of flight attendant.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, nothing much, nothing crazy. Just did a little short cruise out to the Bahamas for the heck of it. It was like a Christmas kind of thing, but yeah, nothing too crazy planned right now cool cool, cool.

Speaker 1:

yeah, and there's one other story I wanted to bring up and on this airline where this dude like freaked out and he started kick, trying to kick open the window on the plane. Like I mean, he was like just beating on the seats and all this stuff and I guess he got into some type of like a little bit of a conversation with the lady in front of him and then just went berserk and he started trying to kick out the window on the plane, literally broke the plexiglass on the plane. Oh, that's some crazy stuff. And then he like injured himself. There was blood all over the place and like, yeah, I'm like did you see that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but there's another one too the bomb threat in Clearwater Airport. Did you see that one? No, Shut down Clearwater. You know the little airport Clearwater-St Pete? Yeah, they shut it down. They had a bomb threat For sure. Yeah, I mean, we say it every week there's crazy shit that happens across the globe. I mean, there's just a couple things more. This week was more about uh, with rich um going across the united states and still blows me away and there ain't no way I'm ever going to do anything like that that's absolutely crazy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they were like I pulled up a lot of the statistics about this trip that you took and I was like you know what I mean they say. They say you you've actually like your elevation. You did a hundred thousand feet of total elevation gain on that ride. That's the average trip. Well, that's good to know, but the crazy thing is that's like three to four times up Mount Everest. That's crazy. All in.

Speaker 2:

Kentucky.

Speaker 3:

Now I realize that Okay would you do it again?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'd do it tomorrow.

Speaker 3:

All in Kentucky, I didn't realize that, okay, would you do it again? Oh, I'd do it tomorrow. Really, yeah, even if I'm out of shape, just like I am right now, I'd do it tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, man, I mean.

Speaker 3:

But now I've got to bring the kids, so I've got to do it on a tandem.

Speaker 1:

On a tandem?

Speaker 2:

No way, but you already did Okay, real quick though he already did a tandem, though he did a tandem across Ireland Ireland.

Speaker 3:

With who An old friend.

Speaker 1:

There you go. It matters who you're doing a tandem with, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

A distant friend.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the tandem wasn't long enough.

Speaker 2:

He would have cut the tandem off and made it a single.

Speaker 1:

And if you're doing it with kids, they ain't pedaling that hard. No, no, it's a whole thing. Like you were talking about five pounds of weight, now you're toting kids.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, because I've done the goba ride with the kids. I do it on a tandem with a tag along attached to that, so it's a three-seat bicycle. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

So they're sitting back having a conversation. I'm maxed out heart rate, eyes popping out my head. Hey, you know what that is right. That's called, I guess, love, because I wouldn't do that for just anybody it's something right. I probably should take medication for it I complain when I go out on a kayak with my wife and she's not paddling. I can't imagine two kids paddling.

Speaker 2:

Imagine seeing him and Carol out in a kayak.

Speaker 3:

And he's made it out. I'm surprised she hasn't smacked him over the head.

Speaker 2:

He's like what the hell are you doing back there?

Speaker 1:

Alright, anyways, rich, awesome having you on the show man. I really appreciate you coming out here to do this because we really enjoy having you on the show man. I really appreciate you coming out here to do this because we really enjoy our guests in the show and thank you for doing that. No problem, it was fun.

Speaker 2:

Like I said, me and Rich talked about this a long time ago and this was something I definitely wanted you to come in and talk about, because there's not a lot of people that do this, and that was amazing. That was absolutely amazing. It wouldn't be me, but that was amazing. That was absolutely amazing. It wouldn't be me, but it was amazing yeah, I'm, yeah, I couldn't you either.

Speaker 1:

I couldn't stand myself after a week. There's just no way I could.

Speaker 2:

I could not imagine your ass smelling myself.

Speaker 1:

You smelly man I'm ex-military and I didn't like shower for many, many days in the field and I could tell you stories about funkin, and there comes a time too, and that whole thing, where you really don't smell yourself anymore, right, like start to enjoy it, right. And then then when you're with a group of friends like I was in the military we all smell the same.

Speaker 2:

It's like yeah, that's where another hole. Yeah, I'm telling you you're that's for another hole. Yeah, I'm telling you You're enjoying your stink. That's good, all right, sean.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, we want to wrap it up here with our quote here, and the quote here is you're the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told to forget. It's all there. Everything influences each of us and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive. I like that. I thought it fit for this episode here with Rich, because he's definitely the sum total of all of his experiences.

Speaker 3:

For better or for worse.

Speaker 2:

Exactly All right. Thanks again, Rich. Hey, you guys had a great time this week and we will see you next week on cabin pressure, see you guys, see ya.

Speaker 1:

If you laughed, learn something, or just feel a little bit better about your own job After hearing about ours. Do us a favor subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with your weirdest co-worker. You know the one. Hit us up on Facebook. Drop your wildest airport story. We just might read them on air Bonus points if you involve questionable clothing decisions. Until next time, stay strapped in, stay hydrated and, for the love of TSA, keep your clothes on in the terminal.

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Gary Miller

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Shawn O Smith

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