I sat up straight in my bed. An inner voice was telling me to ride my bicycle to Alaska. Why? The reason really wasn’t important to me. More than anything, I think I just needed to be alone with myself in the wilderness for a long time. The Native Americans might have called it a soul quest. That my ten-month-old kitten, Charlotte, would accompany me on my journey was a last-minute twist of fate.

This is the story of my soul quest as it unfolded day by day, as recorded in my journal. In 57 days, I pedaled 4320 miles across the North American continent, from Young Harris, Georgia to Anchorage, Alaska. I found new friends, I found new places, and somewhere along the way, I found myself.