The story of a journey is not always just about the journey. Sometimes what prompts a ride is part of the story. These two journeys were responses to a black wall of stress and depression that threatened to overwhelm the author. The first ride (Northeast) became a journey that reawakened faith in humanity and restored a balanced view of the world that had been slipping away, and the second (Northwest) was a preventative measure to fend off a return to that darkness and retain the progress made by the first. This ride across the North American continent revealed the overwhelming beauty of the...