Since crossing the Wyoming state line, there has been a “Head wind right from the start,” said Timothy Williamson. No surprise to Wyoming residents. It has taken him six days to pedal his 100 plus pounds of bicycle, gear, and dog to Walcott, and he hopes to make it out of Wyoming in another week or so.
It’s a long journey for Williamson who left Florida in late April and hopes to arrive in Spokane, Wash., in September, making his way with his dog Milo.
Williamson used to be a long-distance truck driver until he had a stroke a couple of years ago. Since then, the now 58-year old, has been trying to find work but is finding that while he is too young to retire many people think he is too old to start a new career. His bicycle trip across the country is giving him new faith in humanity.
Traveling across the United States on a bike has been a dream of Williamson’s since he was a child and this trip has taught him his “wants are a whole lot less than I thought they were.”
Williamson went though a divorce before moving to Florida, and he had his stroke the first day he was in the Jacksonville Beach area.
He used to live in Spokane and decided that it was time to make a new start there. So, he packed up his few belongings and loaded them into his homemade saddle bags, reusable Wal-Mart bags, put a dog bed in the basket on his handle bars for Milo and set out across the country. He has almost no money, and has had to rely on the kindness of strangers.
After Williamson’s tent was destroyed in a Kansas storm, a kind Wal-mart employee toldhim to go back to the camping section and get what he needed while she watched Milo the dog. When Williamson returned , the Wal-Mart employee arranged for an exchange of his broken tent allowing him a free replacement of his only shelter. In another instance, Williamson got to talking with a woman while taking a rest stop to drink some water. After asking him to wait around for a minute she returned with a key to a motel room and told him the restaurant across the street would be serving him breakfast. Williamson believes there is still a basic good in the people of the world.
If you are traveling west and see a man with a dog in the handle bar basket, stop and say hello. Williamson said the donations people have given him don’t just come in the form of money, food, or a place to sleep, but some of the best donations he’s had are conversations.
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