From City Of Brotherly Love To City By The Bay, A Young Bicyclist Discovers America

By Nancy K. Crevier

The last time Greg Smith traveled cross-country, he was 12 years old and in an RV with his dad. This time, the 22-year-old 2009 Villanova graduate had a different viewpoint as he traversed the breadth of the United States on his bicycle, on a 59-day journey that began June 15, just outside of Philadelphia, and ended August 13 in San Francisco.

The sojourn was a spur of the moment experience for Greg, the son of David Smith and Kim Smith, both of Newtown. “I didn’t think I wanted to just get a dull summer job after graduating,” said the communications major, “and I realized there was probably not a better time to do this than before I start working for real. The point was just to see things. I wanted to breathe in the different cultures of our country and see what I had been missing, growing up in Newtown.”

Three weeks before graduation, he threw together the trip, using the Trans-America map routes from the American Cycling Association.

Pulling 60 pounds of supplies and camping gear in a bike trailer attached to his Fuji Newest, Greg set off solo. “I’m really not a bicyclist,” laughed Greg. “The first day I biked 54 miles, and that was the longest I had ever gone on my bike at one time.”

The first ten days he biked alone, as he had planned, but in Virginia he met up with three other postcollege students following the same path as he had selected. “It was very cool meeting up with them. We had all just graduated college and were just out for a ride,” he said. From Virginia, to Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and into Kansas, the quartet traveled and camped together, weathering the weather — “We ran into everything from hail to rainstorms to lightning strikes,” said Greg — fighting off vicious dogs, and avoiding aggressive drivers. In Kansas, two of the foursome decided to extend the stay, and Greg and Dan continued on together. Along the way, they joined forces with a 51-year-old visitor from Denmark who was out to see the United States.

“I met so many nice and different people,” Greg said. “You can think you have nothing in common with someone, and then you’re on the road together and you realize how similar you are.”

People like “the Cookie Lady,” a woman who since 1978 has been taking in bicyclists and sending them on their way with cookies, or the evangelist who had been hiking from town to town across the country for six years, will always remain forefront in his memory, said Greg. “Plus, I met over 100 bicyclists along the way, and they all had a story,” he said.

The bikers camped for the most part in town parks and churchyards, with permission, or utilized couchsurfing.org to locate one of the worldwide volunteers willing to accommodate traveling bicyclists. “Everyone is interested in what you are doing, and wants to talk. You have the same conversation five times a day, whenever you stop. Some people think you are, literally and figuratively, crazy,” said Greg.

It was an eye-opening experience for him, he said, to see how willing strangers were to take them in. “People were generous and kind. We had people feed us and let us shower. I learned to really trust people and to trust myself. I learned that no matter what, things tend to work themselves out.” He was also amazed how people in truly impoverished parts of the country were willing to share what little they did have with the bicyclists.

By the time the trio was in Nevada, they were carrying nearly two gallons of water with them to get through each day. With 50 to 80 miles between towns, there was no margin for error in running out of water. Long before then, though, Greg had gotten into the rhythm and physical demand of biking. By August, he averaged 70 miles per day, and one day traveled 126 miles. “The first three weeks were the hardest, and then you sort of get in shape,” he said.

The Trans-America route is not intended for sightseeing, necessarily, said Greg, but more for the convenience and bikeability of the route. The bikers did travel through the Appalachians and over peaks that reached 10,003 feet in the Rocky Mountains, though, and some of the scenic southern parks, including Glen Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Staircase National Park, all in Utah, as well as Arches National Park.

Reaching the California border was exciting, but sad, too, said Greg. “You want it to end, and you count the days, but it’s bittersweet.” The bike route ends with a ferry crossing from Vallejo, Calif., to San Francisco, where the bicyclists are deposited at Pier 32. “You grow into the lifestyle and it’s sad for it to be over,” said Greg.

Greg flew back to Connecticut from San Francisco, hoping that his bicycle, mailed from California, would make it home in time for him to use it as a mode of transportation in Washington, D.C., where he hopes to find employment this fall. Already, he is planning his next bike trip.

“Once you do a tour, you generally do it again. My next trip will be the United Kingdom, 1,000 miles in ten days, and I’d love to do South America some day,” he said. “I’d like to bike for a cause the next time, too.

“I tried to go into the trip with no expectations, and it was better than I thought it would be. I made lifelong friends, and I’ve learned to appreciate the luxuries I have. I would absolutely recommend a trip like this,” urged Greg. “Anyone can do it.”