Many many years ago, I read a book by Alastair Humphreys about his journey around the world on a bicycle. His book changed everything I thought I knew about what I wanted to do with my limited time on this beautiful planet.
I wanted to traverse strange and foreign lands. I wanted to meet people from many walks of life and experience cultures I had only heard about second hand. I wanted to push my body and my mind to its limits to see what I was capable of. Most importantly, I wanted to feel and experience this world we have made. All from the seat of a bicycle, the best tool for the job.
Over a year ago, I had finished crossing North and South America on bicycle. That was only a small piece of the puzzle, and now it’s time for me to finish my around the world journey by crossing Asia and Europe by bicycle. Just like last time, I want to share my feelings and experiences with you all here.
It is a bit late to announce this, as I’m already over a week into the journey here in Japan. It was a rather stressful beginning to the trip with over analyzing the preparation phase, and also feeling out of place for a few days after starting, so I never really felt comfortable writing and sharing this post. I can safely say now that I feel back at home and exactly where I dreamt of being and I’m excited for the path ahead.
The Past Year
After finishing in Ushuaia a little over a year ago, I spent another 5 months traveling around South America. My parents came to meet me in Buenos Aires for a wonderful trip, I sold my bicycle, bought a motorcycle in Paraguay, drove that motorcycle across Brazil, traveled the Amazon River by boat, and then spent a few months in Colombia with my girlfriend. I intend to write a blog post about all that one day, so I’ll keep that story short for now in the hopes I finish it.
Then I came back home to the United States of America to live with my parents while I figured out what was next. Part of me thought that I didn’t even want to finish biking around the world. It was a difficult time for a few months. It was really easy leaving everything behind when I first left three years before, but it was much harder coming back to nothing. I had no job, no place to call my own, and I was living with my parents in a city where I had no friends. I started to imagine where I could have been in my life and career had I never left it behind and compared it to where I was now, sitting in my boxers alone on my 30th birthday on my parents couch. Had I made a mistake? The field I had studied, computer science, had changed greatly since I left due to AI. All I read about in the news was about massive layoffs with the major tech companies. Could I even go back to the career I had left?
I had to remember why I left. I had to remember all the incredible moments I had on my trip. I could think back to so many moments and feel what I felt in that moment. The immense feelings of satisfaction to arrive to a mountain pass with a beautiful view. The taste of a cold coca-cola after many days without passing a town. The shock my skin felt as I jumped in the many rivers and lakes to clean all the dirt and grime off my body. Above all, the feeling of freedom and control I had over my life and my destiny. I felt like I could do anything and go anywhere. I tried, but I couldn’t remember much about my days working. I had made the right choice, but I wasn’t done yet.
I was nearly broke after my last trip, so I needed to make some money. Right before my parents were about to move from Florida to Kansas, I got a call from my great friend, Wes. Wes was a quadriplegic after a motorcycle accident nearly 20 years ago. I met him through a friend I met and cycled with on my first crossing of the USA. Since meeting Wes, he’s become a great friend and a great inspiration to me to keep me pedaling thanks to his constant support while I traveled. He called me to offer me a job for a few months as one of his caregivers. I was pretty scared of accepting at first. I knew nothing about caregiving and was worried I’d mess up. The more I thought about it, the more perfect of an opportunity it seemed. I would get to hangout with Wes all day, cooking meals, playing games, watching movies, and I would get paid to do so. So I answered his call and then spent the next three months living with his family and doing what I could to make Wes’s life better. It had its challenges, but ultimately it was a great time that deepened my friendship with him and improved who I was as a person.
With my parents now set up in Kansas City, I flew there to live with them, and was forced to figure out what to do once again. Thankfully, I quickly found a great job working at Eriks Bike Shop where I worked with some great people and got to spend most of my days talking about bikes. While working here, surrounded by bikes, is where the idea of finishing my trip really started to resurface. I started dreaming of that feeling that I had forgotten. Slowly, the decision became clear and I finally had confidence in what felt right.
The Prep
While still biking in South America, I was already planning my next bike. The bike I had was great, but there were a few things I wanted differently. I wanted to build something custom to me, and I had been in contact with a Chinese Titanium frame builder Waltly. With them, I could get a custom titanium frame and fork for cheaper than just a custom steel frame in the US. After weeks of back and forth on the design, I sent the payment and the design was put in queue to be made. A few months later, the frame and fork arrived to my parents house and would be waiting for me when I got home.
Once I was home, I had the frame and nothing else. Even though I was still unsure of what I would do with the bike, I felt compelled to build it. So I spent the next few weeks sparing no expense buying the parts for my dream bike. I even went to the length of learning how to build wheels so I could lace a custom wheelset.
I’m very happy with how the bike came out, it was just like I had it envisioned in my head. When I find the time, I intent to make a page on my website with a deep dive on the full build specs and gear load out.
With the bike done, the next part was the bags. I had this itch to learn how to sew and make my bags myself, further making this rig my own. Once in Kansas City, I set up a sewing station in my parents storage room where I began learning how to make bikepacking bags. This is where things became a bit stressful. It was very time consuming and challenging to learn how to design bags, template them, then cut and sew them. While also having them be to the caliber that I expect my equipment to be. I was more than aware of the beating these bags would take, and I constantly would have to prototype and redesign multiple aspects of each bag. This is where I ended up having to push back my planned start date. I was working nearly 8-10 hours a day, everyday, leading up to my departure date. I was anxious and stressed. I thought all my bags would fail and I wasted all this time and money trying to make them myself when I should have bought them from a reputable brand. Pushing through the pain, I kept going and ultimately finished what I wanted, and was happy with the result.
Next thing I knew, the date for my flight was around the corner. It didn’t feel real. I was having a hard time accepting everything was about to change. I doubted if it was what I really even wanted. I had grown so comfortable here. Sleeping in a bed, eating delicious meals, spending time with my family. I was about to throw all those comforts away. I would be sleeping in a tent, eating the most affordable food I could find, exposing myself to the extreme temperatures and weather, all for what? Even though I was doubting myself, something deep down felt it was right, and I pushed on. I was scared, but sometimes that means you are doing the right thing, because the safe way is rarely the right way.
Then at 6:00am, on August 20th 2026, I boarded my flight to Tokyo, Japan.
Thank you to everyone who has been following along since my last trip, and to everyone who is just now joining for this one. It means a lot to me to have people interested in my blog and my writings. I aim to have the first blog post about the first section of Japan done soon, so stay tuned! Don’t forget to subscribe your email for notifications!