While many will be interning or working summer jobs, three students have chosen to take a bike trip from Maine to Florida.
Josh Bullis, junior philosophy major, came up with the idea of taking the two-month bike trip — 2,638 miles from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Key West, Fla.
Two of his friends then agreed to join him in the endeavor: Peter Riggs, junior philosophy major, and Will Burke, junior music theory major.
While the trip planning is well under way, the three men still need to find a way to Maine because their original ride fell through.
Riggs said that Bullis came to him one day with the idea, and he was immediately interested. Riggs and Bullis will be trying to receive philosophy credit toward their degrees during this trek.
Riggs said that through their professors, they are putting together material that will serve as a syllabus for the trip. The syllabus will consist of journaling, writing, blogging, keeping their experiences and relating them.
“My dad, Wesley Bullis, did a similar trip when he was an undergrad at Christopher Newport University in Virginia,” Bullis said. “He and my uncle, Chris, biked from the California coast to Virginia beach. I always thought that story was amazing, and I’ve talked about wanting to do the same trip ever since I was a freshman in high school.
“We had to take a shorter route because of time and money, but maybe someday I’ll be able to do that trip.”
Beginning at the end of May, the three plan to camp along the way or lodge with strangers.
“We want to meet people and ask them if we can camp in their yard and see if they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, you can even stay in a guest room’ or if they’re like ‘No, I’m not okay with that,’” Riggs said. “We will have gear on the bikes for camping. If all else fails, we have money saved up so we will stay in camp sites or hotels.”
Riggs said the group plans to spend $100 to purchase maps from adventurecycling.com, a nonprofit organization that produces cycling maps. The maps contain bike-friendly routes, camping spots and bike stores in case they need repairs.
Riggs added that the group plans to bike 50 to 60 miles a day.
Bullis, Riggs and Burke made an agreement to have a bike and $1,000 ready before they left. While Bullis and Burke are still raising funds, Riggs already has his money in order.
Peter’s Night Live, a comedy- sketch similar to the latenight television show “Saturday Night Live,” was performed by Riggs at Union April 15. Selling 150 tickets, Riggs raised $600 for the expenses.
“I’ve done a lot of research,” Riggs said. “I get 100 percent the same information from so many sources because it’s surprising how many people have done this. Every single person says the exact same thing: to not worry about the physical aspect — worry about the financial aspect.”
Riggs said after reading through numerous biking resources, he discovered that no matter how much training a person puts in, the first two weeks will always been strenuous. The men plan to push through without training for the trip.
“When your best friend asks you if you want to bike across the United States, the answer should always be ‘yes,’” Burke said.
