Ten years ago, two friends set out on a bike trip that started in Oregon, traversed Mexico, Central America, and South America, and ended in the Patagonia region of Argentina. Jedidiah Jenkins, an aspiring author at the time, orchestrated this “spirit quest”, as he called it, after finding himself fast approaching his 30s and grappling with his career path, his sense of purpose and meaning, and his sexuality as it relates to his Christian faith. Not long before the trip, Jedidiah invited his friend, Phillip Crosby, along for the ride. Jenkins later wrote a book chronicling their adventures titled “To Shake the Sleeping Self.” In this beautifully written New York Times Bestseller, Jedidiah lovingly refers to Phillip, his dear friend and travel companion, as “Weston”.
At the beginning of this year, I listened to the audio version during some of my own rides. As a cyclist and traveler myself, I found the book endlessly fascinating. Jedidiah’s writing and narration of the book are equally moving. But this story is Jedidiah’s story. It was born from Jedidiah’s life experience and ethos culminating into his wisdom, interpretations, insights, and his spirit. “Weston”, while brilliantly portrayed in Jedidiah’s writing, is not the main character.
When I finished the book, I just couldn’t shake my curiosity about this “Weston” character. He struck me as wise beyond his years, wild, tender, a little bit reckless, good hearted, and deeply layered and complex. He had profound and sometimes radical ideas on money, society, politics, spirituality, and drugs (or “plant medicines”, as he calls them). I had to know his story. Who is “Weston”? What spirit quest was he on? I flew to Phillip Crosby’s 20 acre farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to find out.
Leading up to this trip, Phillip had left behind a multitude of unique career paths, a failed business start up, and more recently, the “high life” in NYC throwing swank parties for celebs and high ranking politicians. In an intentional deconstructive phase, he gave away nearly everything he owned and moved to the West Coast with no money and no plans in pursuit of a radically different way of living. That’s where he reconnected with his friend Jedidiah, and agreed to ride his bike across the Americas with him. Phillip arrived at the start of this bike trip with no money, an old pink road bike he’d bought for cheap on Craigslist the day before, a small throw blanket, apparently not a lot of shirts 😉 , and only his friend Jedidiah and his internal compass to follow…
EPISODE SPONSORS
Old Man Mountain ~ Check out their new line of bikepacking bags and panniers. Use this link and get 15% off your order! **Must use https://oldmanmountain.com/bikesordeath to get 15% off order. It’s the only way to beat the robots!
🎉 New Patrons 🎉
Paul Mendricks
Matthew Trinneer
Join them won’t you? Find out more at www.Patreon.com/BikesorDeath
