“It was perfect because I got a lot out of the biking  —  the solitude and yet meeting wonderful people along the way  —  but I also got great satisfaction in knowing I’m helping people who suffer from horrible diseases.”

Dubbed by some as Bob “Gandhi” Lee, the guy is unstoppable. He hopped on his bike on March 29, 2007, in Jacksonville, Florida, and didn’t stop until September 6, 2007, when he reached Bangor, Maine. Along the way, he stopped at Ground Zero in New York City, the Pentagon, Superstition Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

The View from the Other Side

“I got to see everything I’d dreamed about seeing,” says Bob. “Most important, I realized that aging doesn’t have to be about facing a void. Actually, all you need to do is examine what you really love to do, do it, and somehow something spectacular will open up for you. I realized that if I didn’t become roadkill on this trip, I would be doing something pretty significant.”

Bob’s motivation to keep on pedaling uphill is the people he’s met along the way. One in particular is Aimee, a thirty-eight-year-old mom of three young children, who has ALS.

“On a tough day when my stamina was taxed, I thought of Aimee, and then I would go back and look at what I am doing with my life, and how lucky I am to have made it to forty and beyond,” says Bob. “We need to start looking at forty as a marker to say, ‘Wow, there is so much more I can do with the rest of my life. What will that be?’”