Ed Rodriguez of Santa Barbara has embarked on a 4,200-mile ride that will take him from Bellingham, Washington, to Annandale, Virginia. 
Taking a breather at 4,310-foot Wauconda Pass in the Cascade range of northern Washington. 
Home sweet home for the night. 
Ed Rodriguez pauses for a photo opportunity with a friend near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 
The famed Winthrop Emporium in the Old West town of Winthrop, Washington, is worth a stop. 
At an elevation of 5,477 feet, Washington Pass in Washington’s North Cascades can be snow-going even in summer months. The pass is east of the Pacific Crest Trail. 
Sometimes you’ve just got to stop for ice cream.
A Santa Barbara cyclist is currently on the adventure of a lifetime as he is biking across the country on a route more than 4,200 miles long.
Ed Rodriguez, who previously worked for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, has been on the road with his bike since May 29, when he started his journey from Bellingham, Washington, following the Adventure Cycling Association’s TransAmerica trail across the country to Annandale, Virginia.
“Why am I doing this trip?” he asked. “Because I can, I guess. It’s been on my bucket list for a while.”
Rodriguez has been cycling for several years, with his first, short bike tour taking place in 1979.
He said he’s done shorter trips with other people over the years, but couldn’t do longer trips while he was caring for his wife, who had cancer.
After his wife died two years ago, Rodriguez decided to go for it and finally take the trip himself.
As of Wednesday morning, Rodriguez was in Crowheart, Wyoming, heading south toward Colorado.
Throughout the trip, Rodriguez has been stopping to visit friends — such as in Kalispell, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming — as well as meeting new people along the way.
He spoke about the many generous “trail angels” he’s met on his trip, such as one woman who invited him to a brewery with her friends and ended up buying his dinner, and a man he spoke with briefly about his journey in an Idaho bakery, who then paid for his cinnamon roll and coffee.
Another time, after discovering he had left his iPad in a hotel, the hotel receptionist had a friend drive 30 miles out of his way just to deliver the device to him, even when Rodriguez offered to pay for overnight shipping.
“Those are the sort of things that keep happening,” he told Noozhawk. “It is putting a lot of my faith in humanity that I always knew was there, but you don’t always see.”
While he’s had to endure wind, rain, some difficult terrain and detours, Rodriguez said the people and the scenery have made it all worthwhile.
Another story Rodriguez shared with Noozhawk was when he was lost in the middle of nowhere after a detour that took him seven miles out of his way.
“I was led to the middle of nowhere,” he said. “I didn’t see a soul.”
After following his compass in the direction he believed a nearby town would be, he came across the house of a man who gave him directions and put him back on his way.
“When I asked his name, he said his name was Pat, which was my wife’s name,” Rodriguez said. “It was kind of surreal.”
As a friend once told Rodriguez, while on a bike, a person is the most vulnerable, but also the most approachable.
Along with meeting new people, Rodriguez said he’s been enjoying the scenery and sights, having crossed the Continental Divide three times already and coming across different animals and beautiful views — things you normally wouldn’t notice while driving on the highway, he noted.
There was one day that Rodriguez saw a moose with a baby calf — who he said must have been just a day or two old — crossing the road, and he got to watch the moose patiently walking with the calf.
“You just don’t see that every day. … Those are the kind of experiences that I encourage,” Rodriguez said. “It gives you such a different perspective about people, about life, about scenery — the kind of stuff you miss when you’re in a car going fast.”
Rodriguez has been chronicling his journey for family and friends on his Facebook page and — while he doesn’t have a specific target date to finish by — he said that, averaging about 60 miles per day, he expects to complete the 4,200-mile route by the middle of August.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.