Lehi People
Utah County couple marks 40 years of marriage with 4,000-mile cross-country bike ride
Megan Wallgren | Lehi Free Press
On June 20, their wedding anniversary, Robert and Bliss Sawyer will dip the back tires of their touring bicycles into the Pacific Ocean in Bellingham, Washington, where they first met, and start their journey. Roughly three months later, they will roll onto a beach in New Jersey and place their front tires in the Atlantic Ocean.
As they ride, the Sawyers will be raising money for charity. “We are calling our ride Hope Across the USA, because of our hope to help people through our efforts, and to give hope to others,” Bliss said. “We are dedicating our ride to raising funds for Habitat for Humanity and Tabitha’s Way Food Pantry. Early in our planning, we came up with the slogan ‘Everyone Deserves a Warm Bed and a Full Belly,’ which inspires us to take on this formidable task.
“I needed a higher reason than just accomplishing something personally, and so we decided to make it a charity event,” Bliss said. The fundraising effort has already gained significant momentum, with more than $17,000 raised toward their $100,000 goal.
Bliss has been in the mortgage business for 35 years, and Robert has volunteered at Tabitha’s Way food pantry for the last 3 years, so it was an easy choice to support those organizations.
The Saratoga Springs couple will take the northern route across the US, a 4,000-mile trip with 142,000 feet of elevation gain. They’ll pass through Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey.
The Sawyars have had a cross-country ride on their bucket list for a while. Celebrating their years together with something they love to do together seemed like a natural fit.
The couple started riding bikes together in 2000 and enjoyed participating in 60 – 100-mile supported rides. Bliss set a goal to bike 50 miles in all 50 states, and that led the couple into bike camping.
“It’s completely unsupported,” said Bliss. We take all of our camp gear and cooking stuff on the bikes.” With no one following in a car to carry food and gear or pick them up if there’s trouble, it’s a challenging but rewarding experience. “It’s a super fun way to travel, you see things so differently than from a car. You meet people differently,” she said.
For this trip, the Sawyers will be doing a combination of camping, sleeping in hotels, staying with people they know along the route, and using warmshowers.org, a website that connects cycle tourists with other cyclists who are willing to open their homes to travelers for a short stay. They are hoping to finish in three months, barring injury, illness, or equipment problems.
While the journey is ambitious, the Sawyers have experience behind them. They have spent nearly two decades taking cycling trips throughout the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway. They have traveled by bicycle together for the last 12 years, with their longest trip covering about 1,100 miles.
Robert and Bliss know that many people find the idea crazy, but they credit their cycling hobby with keeping their marriage strong.
“It’s not a secret; you just keep going. We’ve gone through hard times, and we’re very different people from the ones we were when we married. Cycling is one of the reasons we’re still together,” said Robert. “Hard things make lifelong friends. The struggle we share brings us together. When it’s hard to do, and you’re doing it together, the victories you have form a tighter bond.”
As their departure date approaches, the couple is eager to stop training and begin the real adventure. They are especially looking forward to seeing parts of the country they have never explored before, including portions of the Allegheny Trail.
Family members, including their children, grandchildren, and parents, plan to be in Bellingham to send them off from the same place where their story began four decades earlier.
The Sawyers will share updates, photographs, and stories throughout the journey on their website, hopeacrosstheusa.com, and social media pages. To keep supporters involved, the Sawyers created a “Bike Bingo” game. Anyone who donates at least $25 and submits their donation receipt through the couple’s website or social media can participate. Each week, the couple will share stories and events from the road, allowing followers to mark off squares based on the surprising, funny and challenging experiences they encounter.
