One Ride At A Time
Life Lessons Learned on a Cross-Country Bicycle Ride
At an age when most people are slowing down, Rob Leachman set off on the adventure of a lifetime. In 2017, Rob and his wife had just turned sixty years old and were recreational cyclists at best. But they refused to let their age prevent them from pursuing their goals and dreams. Instead, they embarked from San Diego on a 3,000-mile bicycle tour across the southern United States, hoping to reach the Atlantic Ocean forty-six days later.
Written with humor and deep reflection, One Ride at a Time: Life Lessons Learned on a Cross-Country Bicycle Ride will leave readers captivated by the story of these cyclists pursuing a life-long dream and enchanted by such a unique viewpoint of this vast nation. And like these adventurers, it may leave you yearning to pursue that long-time goal you’ve always wanted to attain. Whether you’re an avid cyclist or an armchair adventurer, you’re sure to find this unique perspective of America and tale of personal growth a ride worth taking.
Now, Rob invites you to join him as he recounts this incredible adventure and the many life lessons he learned along the way, lessons that can help you to…
- Stretch yourself and achieve goals you thought were out of reach.
- Follow your heart and find your own adventure.
- Break through limitations to live your best life.
Reviews for
One Ride At A Time
“His observations of people, nature, the elements and road conditions were mesmerizing… Such an adventure. A wonderful read.”
— Nonfiction Book Awards (Silver Medal Award Winner)
“Leachman crafts an uplifting chronicle of his experience on a cross-country biking trip . . . a candid, relatable perspective that will appeal to readers. . . While the story is a personal one, readers may be similarly inspired to embark on an ambitious excursion.”
— The BookLife Prize
“Travel memoir enthusiasts will likely find satisfaction in this account of an unusual cycling experience.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Preface
“What have we gotten ourselves into?”
It was a question I would ask myself countless times as we worked our way across the southern United States. My wife Bev and I, each sixty years old at the time and recreational cyclists at best, had finally committed ourselves to tackling our long-time goal of cycling across the country, joining seven other riders and two support guides for this once-in-a-lifetime journey. Though we were nervously excited as we departed on this incredible adventure, in many respects we had no business even attempting a challenge of this magnitude. In the first few days, there were times when I felt we were clearly in over our heads, and I genuinely questioned whether we would be successful in our quest to cycle from San Diego to Florida. At a roadside ice cream stand in rural Arizona, a woman asked me, “Are you riding all the way across the country?” I jokingly offered a response that belied a much deeper meaning, saying, “I hope so.” By that time, though we had crossed one state and were making steady progress across another, I still had my doubts that this grand adventure would ultimately end in success.
We did make it all the way to St. Augustine, progressively getting stronger as we increasingly enjoyed the greatest adventure of our lives. Virtually every day for one and a half months, we woke up early, pedaled for six to ten hours, had a couple of beers and a good (and typically huge) meal, got a good night’s sleep, and then did it all over again. We faced challenges even greater than we had anticipated, encountering mountains and deserts, large city parkways and isolated rural roads, bright sunshine and pouring rain, strong headwinds and even a sandstorm.
In the process, this amazing journey changed us, profoundly, and taught us some lessons about cycling that we realized could also deeply impact our daily lives.
Every few days throughout our trip, I sent members of our family a detailed account of where we had been and how we were doing. As we progressed across the country, I began to consider the viability of expanding these emails into a book-length manuscript. But I questioned whether what we had accomplished, as important as it seemed to us, was significant enough to justify the publication of our story. Then, near the end of our trip, another rider was involved in a tragic and life-altering accident, one he courageously overcame. This incident bound the team of riders and support guides even more tightly together, and it was at that point I realized that our story, and the critical lessons we learned in the process, was truly worthy of telling.
This is a story of pushing boundaries to fulfill a dream, of finding great joy in challenging circumstances, of seeing America from a most unique perspective, and of how a unique and eclectic group of individuals bonded together in ways we could never have anticipated. I am honored and excited to share that story with you.
Rob Leachman
July 2021