John R. Tharp was issued a challenge while preparing for a class reunion: Could he bicycle all the way to the event? The author's wife, however, decided to make it more interesting. "Why don't you just cross the whole country?" she asked. After all, she knew her husband was no stranger to adventure. Scuba diving, mountain climbing, skiing, and trips to Hawaii, Africa, the Middle East, numerous islands in the Caribbean, Panama, St. Luci, Australia,...