It sounds like this guy’s ride across the country [linkie]

^{Image credit: www.thenewsstar.com}

is toast, if I’m interpreting his most recent webcast [linkie] correctly.  It looks like Eric Hites is back in Indiana with his wife, his dog, his RV and his bike after spending over $15,000 of other peoples’ money saying that he was “riding across America” for the past year.  The comments folks left him on the webcast are, err… interesting, to say the least.

I’m trying hard not to be judgmental, but Mr. Hites said at various times he was riding to “win back his wife (who had apparently left him for another man),” “get a new start to his life,” “lose weight (he started at over 500 pounds/`225 kg),” “find religion,” “get material for a book,” along with a bunch of other reasons.  Never once, though, have I heard that he said he was doing it for the sheer joy of riding his bike a very long, long way.  Some call what he has been doing a scam [linkie – not for the faint of heart].  I just think the guy never set his priorities in line with what he was ostensibly setting out to do.

And he shouldn’t have expected to do it with other peoples’ money.

David Edgren