Life On A B-I7

Reading Goal

My reading goal for 2025 is to read 3 books a month. A lot of people think I’m a big reader, I’m really not. Three books a month will be a challenge for me, akin to riding a bicycle across the country…

This is a good time to take on a goal that will demand a healthy time commitment. Reading is an excellent form of escape. Perhaps you are assuming I’m looking for escape from current events, I am. I’m going to stay engaged in current events, but this goal will provide some much needed relief from the noise going on around all of us.

It will also be fun and satisfying to meet this goal. I don’t think it will be easy. I don’t set goals for myself that are easy. I like a challenge. I think this will be challenging, fun, and healthy.

See you in April 2026.

“Joy Ride” by Kristen Jokinen

“A Bike Odyssey from Alaska to Argentina”

Having done a couple of tours myself, I was interested in reading this book to see if our experiences were similar. To put it simply, the answer is yes.

The book has its faults when compared to other Travelogues, It can’t hold a candle to “Shantaram.” That’s not a problem. Kristen is not a writer by trade but still did a marvelous job telling her story.

My favorite lines from the book were these. They really resonated with me.

“Life on a bicycle, free from the constraints of our former lives, made the world feel both bigger and smaller. When we had been riding the Dalton Highway, a single mile had sometimes felt insurmountable, and now after two months we had completed almost 3,000 of them. At the start of the ride, a day in the seat felt like an eternity. I don’t remember the moment I stopped counting the miles, but I know I noticed them less. My internal voice had been silenced. I was able to still my mind. Thoughts would come and go as I passed through ever-changing landscapes. I felt more peaceful, quiet, and calm. The chaos that had existed in my life before the ride felt far away.”

The question that everyone faces after completing an epic journey is how to hang on to the experience once you’ve returned to everyday life. How do you retain the hard earned state of mind won during the long days and nights of the journey. Holding on to some of that serenity is the point of the journey. If you can do that, you will have made yourself a better person.