FEATURE

When the spring semester ended, Jesse Scanlon quit his job, gave up the room he was renting, and put his cats up for adoption.

He was getting ready to take a summer vacation.

The junior left on May 13 for a solo bike trip from Florida’s Atlantic coast to California’s Pacific coast — about 2,600 miles. Last month, he returned with a new lifestyle.

Scanlon got so attached to the transient lifestyle he led on his trip that he’s decided to stick with it for a while. So, now he is homeless by choice, gets around Palm Beach and Broward Counties exclusively by bike, and picks up odd jobs when he needs the money.

He usually crashes at a friend’s or, on nights before he helps out his dad, at his dad’s house. But he spent his first night back sleeping behind a Fort Lauderdale library.

His first weekend back, he picked up some extra cash by hanging 5,000 door hangers for a friend’s family. Since then, he’s also worked for his dad’s home remodeling and carpentry business.

“I’m kind of swimming in this little river that just expanded into a lake of a lifestyle, which I’d really like to soak up as much as I can before I move back into a conventional lifestyle of work and school,” he said.

He’s even planned another trip: At the end of September, he’ll hitchhike to Canada before returning to FAU for the spring 2011 semester.

“This is the most enlightened, enlightening part of my life that I’ve ever been in,” he said of the summer trip. “It kind of changed the way I think about certain things, and it really did broaden my perspective, which is what I was looking forward to, and because of that I think it would be really healthy for my future if I did this again.”

Although Scanlon, 21, didn’t take his last trip to run away from South Florida or the typical college lifestyle he then lived, he did set out in search of new experiences in order to get more out of his life.

“That was why I did this trip: I’m seeking what here is not enough,” he explained. “This trip wasn’t really a bicycle trip to me. It was more of an adventure, and that’s usually what I tell people: I did it for the adventure.”

Though Scanlon didn’t know exactly what he was seeking when he left home, Jacelyne Garcia, a good friend who attends Broward College, agrees the trip brought him closer to it.

“Since he’s been back, I know that he’s kind of falling into the same routine now, and that isn’t what he wants,” she said. “He can’t wait to go on his next trip, and that’s what he looks forward. So, I think now he’s just kind of starving for more new experiences.”

Perhaps the greatest experience from Scanlon’s last trip was a lesson in love.

Throughout his trip, he encountered strangers who wanted to help him through offerings of food, shelter or money.

“The entire time, it blew my mind. I couldn’t understand it. I couldn’t make sense of it,” he said of the unexpected generosity. “I learned a lot about love, and I learned a lot about the fact that there are people in America that care and that love. There truly aren’t that many in South Florida, but the whole Southern hospitality stereotype is completely true. They’re proud of it. They’re proud of the fact that they love to help.”

Another unexpected positive encounter was with the bums, drunks, and drug addicts Scanlon ended up hanging out with throughout the trip.

Hanging out with them was like hanging out with anyone else, he said, but he particularly appreciated their company because they didn’t judge him for his choices.

Besides encounters with others, Scanlon’s visits to abandoned gold mines were perhaps his favorite experience.

More than halfway through the trip, he took a couple of days off to hike mountains and explore abandoned mines in west Texas. He even climbed into a few mine shafts, which he had always been afraid to do.

Not every experience was positive, however. Scanlon witnessed as much beauty as he did ugliness.

In Biloxi, Miss., he witnessed a “crazy” homeless man get whipped with a heavy chain by an “even crazier” homeless man after the two argued over crack cocaine. They and Scanlon were part of a group waiting in line outside of a church that was offering meals to the homeless.

He also tried panhandling in Arizona when he was broke and hoping for enough to pay his cell phone bill. He made $250 in one day yet never begged for money again.

“It kind of disgusted me a little bit, and that’s why I want to call it a social experiment,” he said of the experience.

“Because you can be greedy, and I really don’t feel like I deserve that help. I really don’t feel like I do. I did it just to see.”

Perhaps the most difficult part of the trip, however, was coping with the “psychologically traumatic” toll that the trip’s highs and lows took on Scanlon.

At the end of each day of biking, his body experienced a “massive crash.” His physical stress was also compounded by greater mental stress: Although having a phone helped, isolation and loneliness caught up with him at night:

“I’d get these pangs of loneliness at the end of the day, and ‘Where the fuck am I going to sleep?’ and ‘What does life mean?’ and those kinds of situations.”

How it all started…

In 2008, Scanlon bought his bike for about $220 at Walmart.

He had heard that road bikes are fast — and did reach speeds of 45 mph on his summer trip — but quickly found riding “peaceful.” It wasn’t long before the idea of a long-distance trip first crossed his mind.

So, in December 2009, to help focus his mind before the spring semester, he took a solo ride to the southern border of South Carolina. The 600-mile trip took one week, and he returned home on an Amtrak train.

After that, he was hooked. Given his newfound love of adventure, academic stressors, and his car breaking down, Scanlon’s summer trip became inevitable.

“The routine really got to me during this past semester, and the pressure and all that stuff,” he said of his first semester back to school after earning his high school diploma and associate’s degree at the same time in 2007.

“So, I got really antsy. Toward the middle of the semester, I started thinking about it,” he said. “I just knew that I really wanted to do it, so I was super stoked on it, almost obsessed with it.”

Once the spring semester ended, he gave his two weeks’ notice at the Broward Division of Parks and Recreation, where he had worked for more than three years. And after saying goodbye to his room, his cats, and his friends, he was off.

When Scanlon returned, he was surprisingly well received.

“I’m catching a lot of these terms like ‘admirable,’ ‘inspirational,’ ‘dude, that’s so courageous,'” he said. “It’s not. I’m just some impulsive, curious kid who has no idea what he’s doing and has no idea what he knows and doesn’t know. I’m not coming back as a wise guru.”

If others take anything away from his trip, though, Scanlon just hopes that it inspires them to action.

“All I want this to come off is, if it’s going to be inspirational, then use that for something, use that to do. This whole thing is about doing,” he said. “Sometimes all it takes is dropping everything and going.”

To learn more about Scanlon or to see more photos from his trip, visit his blog: americaiscashed.blogspot.com.

How he did it…

Over the summer, English major Jesse Scanlon rode his bike from Jacksonville Beach, Fla., to Rosarito Beach, Mexico.Here’s how he pulled off the 56-day trip alone.

Packing

Scanlon packed as light as he could. He left with a couple of changes of clothes, a few days’ worth of food, a one-person tent, and a sleeping bag. He also took his phone, which doubled as his camera.

He strapped the sleeping bag to his handlebars and fit everything else into a small duffel bag and two saddlebags.

Traveling

Taking a combination of interstates and local highways, Scanlon traveled across the southern United States. His route cut through the Florida panhandle, the southernmost sliver of Alabama, and the coast of Mississippi. From there, he biked through the southern sections of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. After he reached California, he crossed into Mexico and finally reached the Pacific Ocean at the city of Rosarito Beach.

Eating

What Scanlon ate depended on what he could afford to eat.

When he had money, he dined on cold Ramen noodle soup and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The combination provided the carbohydrates and protein needed to keep him going, Scanlon said.

When he ran out of money, he often resorted to dumpster diving. Scanlon preferred to loot the dumpsters of bakeries and Dunkin’ Donuts, he said, because they usually throw away any baked goods that are left over at the end of each day, even if they weren’t spoiled.

Sleeping

Because his tent got hot, Scanlon only used it if it rained or if he was in a rural or wooded area. In fact, he slept in it only about 10 times.

When he didn’t pitch the tent, he usually slept on his sleeping bag in an alley or behind a dumpster — “anywhere secluded from dangerous people and secluded from police.”

Over the course of the trip, Scanlon, now homeless by choice, got used to such conditions.

“At this point, I really don’t care,” he said of where he sleeps each night. “It’s weird sleeping in a bed.”