The Road Less Traveled

Roel Mazure, and his saxophone, dropped into our office in September of 1997. The 39-year-old freelance journalist left his home in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, intent on cycling from New York City, to San Francisco, California using the TransAmerica Trail for the greater part of the journey.

But the bicycle journey turned into an inner journey. “The TransAmerica Trail for me has nothing to do with the bike riding or the USA. In fact this is more an inner experience. Actually the most important thing that happened to me was running into the books of Scott Peck. His ‘lessons’ gave me a lot to think about and made me dive into my own history. In fact, I’m evaluating my whole life during this trip. A worthwhile exercise, especially because I am traveling alone.”

Roel also changed his views of Americans during the trip, “Americans treated me very well. So many of them really supported me with their friendliness. Europeans tend to think Americans are superficial. This I found is not true. I’ve opened my heart regularly to them and got into really good conversations.”

“This is definitely the most important experience of my life.”