A Ride Across America: Small Towns, Big Issues and One Epic Adventure

On the eve of the 2024 election, a fascinating - and
frequently funny - tale of one man cycling the breadth of America.

’Finally, I emerged onto a sealed asphalt
walkway, with twigs in my hair and blood streaming down my legs. Feeling like
David Livingstone without a machete, I had tamed the impenetrable woodlands of
Eastern Mississippi. Hurrah! But then my sense of adventure sobered suddenly,
when a woman in yoga pants and flipflops wandered past, walking a Bichon
Frisé.’

Frustrated by the shallow headlines focusing only on Trump,
guns and divisions, award-winning travel writer Simon Parker decided that to
better understand the USA he would have to travel across it, slowly.

Did the America of his teenage dreams really exist? And was
it really as fractured as the headlines suggest? On his journey to find out,
Simon cycled 4,373 miles through eleven states and numerous extreme weather
events, via mountains and prairie lands, forests and freeways. Along the way he
visited homes, schools, churches and rodeos, meeting hundreds of
(extra)ordinary Americans behind the clickbait news posts to discover a nation
whose portrayal has become vastly oversimplified.

Praise for Simon Parker’s previous book, Riding Out:

’A truly inspiring journey that celebrates the healing power
of adventure. A must-read.’ - Levison Wood

’Simon’s cycle ride around his own country is a fine
demonstration that adventure and transformation begins on your own doorstep.’ -
Alastair Humphreys

Simon Parker is a British travel writer, author, filmmaker, public speaker and broadcast journalist, working across a wide range of themes and subjects. He has reported on stories as diverse as ’migrant crisis’ in Greece and social inequality in the barrios of Northern Colombia. He’s paraglided solo through the Andes and driven a rickshaw the length of India. His first book, Riding Out, was published in April 2022 to great acclaim. All his travels and adventures are shared with his followers @simonwiparker.