For the last several weeks I’ve been anxiously waiting the next installment on YouTube of Welshman Mat Ryder’s ride across the United States. He began in Astoria Oregon and followed the Adventure Cycling TransAmerica Trail as far as Dubois, Wyoming. There the TransAm dips south through Colorado and Kansas. Frustrated with traffic, Mat took a more direct route, called the Bike NonStop, east across Nebraska. He ended up riding about the same number of miles (4,344) as the TransAm.
Making the YouTube videos brought him some pleasant surprises in the form of viewers meeting him and helping him with routing, shelter, food, and beer.
As I have said before, this series of videos is the very best account of a cross country ride I’ve seen in that it gives the viewer a sense of what each day is like from waking up to bedtime. Mat endured wildfire smoke, rain, headwinds, tedious climbs, traffic, saddle sores, and fatigue but he also encountered tailwinds, sunny days, epic downhills, car-free trails, and innumerable instances of kindness from strangers and, as I mentioned, viewers. From nearly abandoned towns in the plains to the chaos of Times Square, he saw it all.
Mat had zero flats (as did I), was chased by only a couple of dogs (he didn’t ride through Kentucky), not a single crash, and barely any mechanical problems.
Check it out from the start.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
This is too cool. Thanks for sharing.
Pick a rainy day and watch it. He’s pretty entertaining
He does a good job on his videos. 🙂 Like his accent too. 🙂 Lots of work to be filming and doing the drone work while trying to get alot of miles in! Too bad I didn’t know about his arrival in DC – I would’ve gone to meet him to say hello!
People were tracking him somehow, I could never figure out how. His videos came out with a week lag so I missed his 4-day stay in Mt Vernon