“You know, my parents never do that when I am talking to them. They’re always on their phone or have their computer out when we’re talking. You’re actually paying attention to me.”

As we paddled out, we could see dozens of kayakers and a few whale watching boats gathered in a couple of areas much farther out. All around us we started hearing the whoosh of air in and out of whale breathing at the surface.

Anna is the mother of three children including one named Merritt Levitan. Merritt was killed by a distracted driver in 2013 while riding her bike across the country with a group of other high school students through a summer camp called Overland Summers. Merritt is a big reason why #EyesUpRide exists.

Stacy, Sean’s mom was a big reason he grew up in such an active household. Stacy was more active than most and “she would crank 100 mile bike rides, run marathons, [and do] multiple workout classes in a day.” She was loved and well respected by the Charlotte cycling community in particular.

After Andrew successfully rode his bike cross-country, he committed to the world of competitive road cycling. He moved quickly up the amateur category ranking system, advancing from novice (Category 5) all the way up to “Cat 1” (Category 1) - the highest level in amateur road cycling.

In 2018, Pennie experienced another major setback when she was struck from behind while stuck in traffic by a car moving at upwards of 65-75 miles per hour. This crash could have easily killed Pennie but she somehow never lost consciousness and remembers every moment from the crash.

When I started on this project to speak to more people in an in-depth manner about their experience with distracted driving, I didn’t expect to come across a story where the person affected by the crash was the distracted person and caused the crash.

When I think about distracted driving, the first thing that comes to mind is texting or any other use of a cell phone while driving.

In May 2008, Jacy Good’s life was completely upended just hours after graduating from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.

Two weekends ago I had the privilege of speaking to Greg Cooper on the phone. Greg is from California and has lived in the Washington, D.C. area since 2001. A few weeks ago, Eyes Up Ride received a donation from Greg along with a note saying his dad was killed by a distracted driver and that Greg was a DKE at UCLA. 

A month and three days ago I resumed riding from Raymond, Washington to start Act II of the ride. I certainly did not think I would now be back home in Ridgefield, Connecticut, writing a post about the past five weeks and how they went totally off script. Here we are!

It’s been about three hours since I turned my phone back on for the first time in just over 24 hours. At 5:09 PM on March 4th, I turned my phone off to observe the National Day of Unplugging.

I started seriously thinking about riding cross-country in January 2021. I had a feeling I was in my final year on the Overland year-round staff and knew this would be the first time in my life where I truly had a blank canvas of time to work with.

It’s been a while since I wrote the post on the plane heading back east from California. About 7 weeks have gone by, I’ve ridden my bike for nearly 50 days, and covered about 3,200 miles and somehow made it to Colorado!

In three days, I begin my Eyes Up Ride and start biking across the entire country.

It all starts here.