What do you get when you combine a historian interested in learning about people and a love of bicycling? A 12,000-mile, 420-day perimeter trip around the USA.

When Anne Winkler-Morey and her husband set off, she thought they might only make it through Wisconsin. But pedal by pedal, they made it all the way around the perimeter of the United States.

They stayed with 143 hosts during their trip; many of them were Warmshowers connections. Along the way, Anne learned that radical hospitality could be a possible antidote for the political divide and how trust in others we fear can actually make us safer.

Here are a few interesting facts about Anne’s trip:

• She and her husband biked over 12,000 miles, taking fourteen months, and collected stories from hundreds of individuals.
• Anne has a Ph.D. in history and is able to place stories in a historical context.
• They experienced two major hurricanes, a major drought, months of headwinds, temperatures over 105 degrees, and snow drifts over 30 feet high.
• Anne doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she believes in history and felt haunted during the trip.

Learn more about Anne and get her book, Allegiance to Winds and Waters: Bicycling the Political Divides of the United States, on her website, Anne Winkler-Morey. Read her Life stories through a social justice lens for the Minneapolis Interview Project and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Join our community at Warmshowers.org, follow us on Instagram @Warmshowers_org, and visit us on Facebook. Contact Tahverlee directly at [email protected].

Today’s episode of Bike Life was guest hosted by Jerry Kopack, Warmshowers Board member and finance chair.

Theme Music by Les Konley | Produced by Les Konley

Happy riding and hosting!