I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Laura Killingbeck and have her share her experiences of spending 8.5 months cycling solo across the US and Canada for Seek Travel Ride. But you’d be wrong to assume this has been the only adventure in Laura’s life. Indeed, she has lived a life of adventure since she first started travelling solo when she was an 18 year old when she stuck out her thumb and hitchhiked her way to Mexico.
Since then Laura has had what many would deem to be wild experiences. It was when she worked as a dancer in a club that she realised she needed a change in life. She booked a trip to Iceland and spent a month cycling around the island on her touring bike. Laura enjoyed that time of slow travel on a bicycle but she quickly fell back into that environment she had escaped from once again.
She once again chose bicycle touring as her way to ‘escape’ and she rode from Alaska all the way to San Francisco before spending the next 13 years living and working in experimental communities in Costa Rica.
The need to leave that lifestyle became clear to Laura and so much like she did 15 years ago, she chose the bicycle as her mode of travel. This time she would depart where that first long trip ended – San Francisco. She spent 8.5months cycling solo on her bike named Enigma. She cycled the Pacific Coast Route, the Chihuahuan Connector and then the full length of the Great Divide. She immersed herself fully in the outdoors on this trip, including spending 3 months living in caves in the desert.
Laura speaks candidly about all these life experiences and we chatted about what it has been like for her to break free and discover more about herself as she lives this life of adventure. Hearing her talk about how she used the bicycle as a way of changing the trajectory of her life was quite an impactful story for me to hear. If you want to listen to the full interview you can check it out on the Seek Travel Ride podcast – available on all podcast players or directly via [https://www.seektravelride.com/podcast-ep-50/](https://www.seektravelride.com/podcast-ep-50/)
The pics below were taken by Laura during her trips and shared with me, and give an insight into what touring solo on this trip was like, with the landscapes she went through as well.
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by elbearo_BM
1 Comment
Mad respect for Laura what a trooper