What is Wheels to Adventure?
Wheels to Adventure is newsletter about and for people that have heard the call to adventure and have set off to answer it on a bike, car, or motorcycle.
What is the Call to Adventure, you ask?
It’s why farm boy Luke Skywalker sets out from Tatooine. It’s why Bilbo and Frodo leave the Shire. It’s why Leif Erickson and Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. It’s that urge humans get to see what’s over the hill, through the woods, and across the oceans. The Call to Adventure is the founding principle for the Hero’s Journey, one of literature's most enduring archetypical concepts, from the Odyssey to Call of the Wild to the aforementioned Star Wars (original series) it's the structure of all the grand stories that have hit the heart of the masses and become beloved.
In humans the need for adventure is foundational. We all feel it at some point in our lives. The need to go forth and seek. In the modern world, we don’t all answer its call. The vicissitudes of modern life often crowds out our natural desire to explore or seek adventure. Video games and movies often act as visual proxies. Dopamine producing substitutes to real life.
Some people don’t ignore the Call. Some of us remember that pull we felt as kids to go forth and explore. If you heard that call and answered, or hear adventure’s siren call in your heart and soul, this newsletter is for you.
Why subscribe?
A news report on America’s Great Rail Trail lit a fuse in me. Adventure stopped being an idle daydream and became a demand. The thought of crossing the country on two wheels dug in deep, until there was no shaking it. I managed a stretch from Washington, DC, to Indiana before obligations pulled me home. But the spark had caught. Now, every time I climb onto my bike, I chase that same wild freedom we all once knew as kids—roaming far from our front doors, bound only by daylight and curiosity.
The Wheels to Adventure newsletter will carry the story. Every ride, every setback, every victory as I train, plan, and push toward the Freedom 250—America’s 250th anniversary ride. It won’t be theory. It will be the raw, start-to-finish account of my journey: the sweat, the gear, the decisions, the people met along the way, and the unexpected corners of the adventure biking world.
If you already live on the road, in the woods, or behind the handlebars, this will remind you why you choose asphalt and dirt over cruise ships and resorts. If you’re still standing on the edge, wondering, you’ll see the choices laid bare—financial, family-wise, equipment, and mental. A new world waits out there. I’m discovering it in real time, and I’m inviting you to ride it with me.
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