Rhode Island.
Where the ride actually starts: a heavy trailer, a bus she almost could not get on, and the realization by day two that a regular bicycle was not going to make it across the country.
← Back to the full catalogue | 3 videos, days 1, 2 and 4
The ride begins in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and ends the same day in Providence, Rhode Island, which is the city Marissa keeps calling home base through these early videos. Day one is honest about how it went: a fully loaded trailer that dropped her average speed to about 3 miles an hour, a headwind down Route 6, and a bus ride for the last stretch into Providence after she realized she would not make it before midnight on the bike alone. She still climbed the hill into town on foot with the trailer, sixty steps at a time.
By day two the math was clear. Sixteen and three quarter miles in a full day of riding was not going to cross a country, so she went shopping for an e-bike instead of pushing through on principle. Two days later, from inside a bivy with no place to pitch a tent, she reports the difference: the same effort now covered 32 miles instead of 16.75. The trip did not start with everything figured out. It started with a plan that broke on day one and a rider who adjusted instead of quitting.
What she filmed here.
She paid for this whole ride herself, $6,000 before she asked anyone for anything, and she is still out there riding.
Help her document itThis is one state in a ride that is still going. See the full travel catalogue for where else she has been, or the channel itself for everything, sorted and unsorted alike.
Goes straight to Marissa’s own GoFundMe. No set target, so give what it is worth to you. This is a personal fundraiser in her name, separate from We Them Media’s Fractured Atlas sponsorship, so it is not tax-deductible.
8 supporters at $178 a month pay for this work, on the way to $1,000 a month. 61 people have been asked One Question on camera. This season's campaign runs to Thursday 10 December.