This father-son duo from Wisconsin just biked across the U.S. and went viral doing it
Every morning for the past 42 days, Sam and Chick Westby woke up, hopped on their bikes, and pedaled more than 80 miles, headed east.
The father-son duo from Fort Atkinson set out to bike across the United States this summer, encountering unexpected internet fame along the way.
Sam began uploading video summaries of the daily rides to TikTok and Instagram, hoping to keep friends and family updated on the trip. To his surprise, the videos took off, and he has accumulated more than 70,000 followers between the two platforms.
“I’m shocked at the response,” Sam said.
The Westbys pedaled 3,626 miles from Pacific City, Oregon, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on their trip that they completed on July 12 — an average of 86 miles per day.
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@samcwestby Day 23. Great morning at the campsite and warm humid riding. The headwind didn’t fully disappear but we didn’t mind it much. Still on US 6/34 the whole day and had a consistent wide shoulder. Time really flies when you don’t have to think about directions. June 23nd, 2023. Total mileage: 1986 #trek #bikepacking #biketouring #transamerica ? original sound - Sam Westby
A cross-country bike trip years in the making
Sam grew up biking around southeastern Wisconsin and was introduced to bicycle touring on a four-day family bike trip through Door County when he was 9.
“We camped every night,” he said. “It was such a great time.”
The younger Westby continued to go on bike trips in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he and Chick pedaled more than 1,000 miles around Lake Michigan.
They had talked about attempting a cross-country trip for a few years, but this summer they worked out the logistics. Chick had just retired after teaching high school science for more than three decades, and Sam, now pursuing a PhD at Northeastern University in Boston, negotiated time off from his advisor for the unique excursion.
“It’s always been in the back of my head,” Sam said. “My dad, he's been touring since the 1970s. He's never done the full U.S., so he jumped at that opportunity.”
After months of route planning — including a lot of road scouting on Google Street View — the duo set out on from Oregon on June 1, but not before dipping their bikes in the Pacific Ocean.
The early going had lots of climbing mountain roads, including one of Sam's favorite moments of the tour, climbing to Loveland Pass in the Rocky Mountains, which sits at 11,990 feet on the Continental Divide. The duo ascended for nine straight miles to their highest point of the trip, pedaling hard in the lowest gear.
Another moment Sam reflected on fondly was riding the emptier roads of the midwestern U.S.
“That's the kind of riding that I grew up doing with my dad in the south central Midwest, south central Wisconsin area,” Westby said. “One thing I love about biking in general is getting out into where there aren't many cars and it's just quiet and peaceful.
The trip was not without difficulty. The Westbys spent long stretches pedaling on narrow and precarious highway shoulders, and Sam developed a penchant for getting flat tires. As of day 33 of the trip, he had gotten eight flat tires to his father's zero.
“He might be a little more cautious where he chooses. I'll kind of just ride through a gravel patch on the shoulder where he'll avoid it,” Sam said.
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Dispatches from the road, and love for Casey's
On top of the biking, Sam took up the role of video editor on the trip, spending almost an hour each night in camp compiling their videos from the day and turning them into a vlog for his followers.
A strength of Sam’s content was his narration, which was always personable, cheery and observational in a way that viewers can relate to. He said he wrote a script before shooting, shaping it by what he found particularly interesting or novel about the day.
“I think it's been a great source of entertainment,” Sam said of the videos.
The dispatches from the road also opened the Westbys to new opportunities, particularly in the realm of food. Since they were burning so many calories biking, many of their updates were about what they were eating and drinking, which caught the attention of several brands.
@samcwestby Not our healthiest day but we’ve been doing this for a month and feel good. This is from day 27 btw. Here’s the list: 1100 - two muffins 400 - hyvee brand maple brown sugar toaster pastries 270 - candy orange slices 220 - big pretzel rods 750 - three peanut butter and honey tacos 360 - more candy orange slices 25 - Half a real orange 150 - granola 360 - laffy taffy bites 400 - trail mix 600 - hyvee brand nutter butter cookies 110 - half a Casey’s slushee 350 - Casey’s pizza slice 110 - Tuna packet 500 - yakisoba 0 - cauliflower Total: 5705
? original sound - Sam Westby
In the early days of the trip, Sam was a vocal booster of Bolthouse Farms smoothies, and as the duo reached the Midwest they often spotlighted the pizza from the convenience store Casey’s, which became something of a recurring character in the videos as they traversed from Nebraska to Ohio.
“Everyone loved Casey's, it got a big response,” Sam said. “We kept going to more Casey’s and then Casey's started commenting on my posts, and then they sent me a message and ended up sending us some Casey's cash.”
Sam also took advantage of his newfound platform to fundraise for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that converts old rail lines into walking and biking trails to promote accessibility to the outdoors.
For Sam, the most striking part of the trip was the kindness of the people they met along the way, as much as the biking itself.
“Everyone we’ve (met) across the whole U.S. has been really kind and gracious to us,” he said.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin father-son duo bike across U.S., garner TikTok following
