Biking Through All U.S. Capitals in One Year
Wayne County resident Bob Barnes, now 56, is believed to be the only person to ever cycle through all U.S. capitals in one year. He talks about his 2021-22 trip
By Tim Bennett
Some people dream dreams and never pursue them. Others dream and do, like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars when he was attempting to lift a spacecraft with his new Jedi powers. At first, Luke complained to Yoda, “I’m trying.” Yoda simply said, “Don’t try. Do.” In other words, “Luke, believe.”
Such was the case with Bob Barnes of Clyde, Wayne County, in 2018, when he had the dream of cycling across the United States from Syracuse to California. Then 48 years old, he didn’t try or come up with excuses. He just believed he could. He prepared and went for it.
Yet, when Barnes achieved his goal, he was not satisfied. He yearned for a greater challenge.
A question came into his mind: Why not cycle to all the capitals of the United States?
And to make it harder, do it within a year.
Working for Uber, Barnes knew he would have no problem taking the time off from his job and picking it up again. The money, however, was a different story. He decided to open a GOFUNDME account. Barnes was delighted when many strangers from around the world believed in him and his dream.
On Aug. 1, 2021, Barnes embarked on the greatest adventure of his life from the north side of Syracuse to cycle to all the U.S. capitals. He completed it on July 26, 2022, in Honolulu, Hawaii, just days before his goal date. The distance covered 16,661 miles. And this time, Barnes felt victorious and celebrated by spending the next nine days on the beaches of Hawaii.
Barnes, now 56, says he is a proud resident of Clyde, still drives for Uber and now enjoys volunteering at the Clyde Welcome Center to introduce bike riders to his hometown during the Erie Canal’s 200th anniversary. If Barnes sees someone biking down the trail, he rings a cow bell to attract their attention and then gives them water, info on the local eateries or places to stay and an ear to hear about their biking adventures.
The following interview took place at the Onondaga Free Library in Syracuse where Barnes talked about his cycling trips to all the U.S. capitals — or what he dubbed, “The Great American Triple Switchback.”
Q. Where did this idea, to cycle to every U.S. capital in a year, come from?
A. Actually, the idea for this trip came after I completed a previous one in 2018 of 5,883 miles where I took the northern route across the United States. That took me 120 days. When I finished in Santa Cruz, I remember feeling that I didn’t want it to end. I felt unfulfilled somehow, like it was too easy.
Q. Too easy? How is cycling over 5,000 miles across the U.S. in your late 40s easy?
A. I mean it almost went too well and a lot of people have done that. So I thought, how can I make it more of a challenge that nobody has done before? I knew there were people who had cycled to every state, so why not go to every capital? This would force me to really go into the state and not just go to a corner that borders four states and say that counts.
Q. Did you do any physical training for that first trip across the country?
A. I did for the first trip. I went to a fitness center and rode on a stationary bike for 30 miles every day for 82 days in a row just before I left. I thought I’d be doing that many miles a day on the trip. I ended up doing 48, but the prep work really helped. I didn’t really train for the capitals trip and I paid the price early on. I was overweight at 192 pounds, but I rode off the excess weight. I was 170 by the time I finished.
Q. How did you plan your route for your big capitals trip?
A. I just sat down with a map and started drawing. This is what I call my “Rain Man” moment, like Dustin Hoffman in the movie — figuring out something hard, quickly. I used only two sheets of paper and had my route planned in 45 minutes. I asked myself things like, where should I go first? Albany, then where? OK, let’s try Montpelier. Then I asked myself, when should I start heading west? I knew I had to figure in the weather. Like, where do I want to be in December? Some place warm, hopefully. So I started in the east coast and then took a bee line from Raleigh because the capitals were almost in a straight line heading west. Of course, I’d have to crisscross the country three times to hit all the capitals.
Q. How could you afford to take a year off financially?
A. Money was a big thing. I left knowing I didn’t have enough money. But I had a cult-like following, which eventually rose to 6,000 followers by the end of the trip. They let me be me. It’s like the music groups Phish or the Grateful Dead. This is Bob. This is what Bob does. He screws things up, but we love him. I signed up with GoFundMe and people donated to my account.
Q. So you just put down what you want to do: I want to bike to all the capitals, nobody’s ever done this and can you help me out?
A. Yeah. That’s basically how it works. I did three blogs a day and posted photos on my Facebook page (see photos and blogs at bibbery travels) so people could feel like they were doing the trip with me.
Q. So how much did you raise that way?
A. On that trip, I raised around $22,000. I drive for Uber so obviously I’m not wealthy. I am good, however, at logistics and riding a bicycle cross country. I cut costs by sleeping outside and preparing my own food most of the time. Once it got out that I was cycling to all the capitals, people would sometimes gift me with a hotel room, which was wonderful. Believe it or not, some of those rooms were bigger than my whole apartment back home!
Q. What was one of your favorite capitals?
A. Jefferson City, Missouri. When I arrived at the capitol building Oct. 1, 2021, there was a formal, outdoor swearing-in ceremony for new Missouri lawyers who passed the July 2021 state bar exam. It was right on the grounds and steps of the Missouri State Capitol. It was amazing to see all the State Supreme Court judges applauding the achievement of the students and all the happy parents. I guess you could say I entered into the joy of the momentous occasion.
Q. So, you did 40 to 50 miles a day hauling that little wagon behind you. How much does that weigh and what’s in it?
A. I never got an exact weight on it. But I’d say it was 100 pounds altogether. I’d carry a tent, cooking supplies, my French press for coffee, clothes, camping stove, toiletries and two lawn chairs. One was blue, one was pink. At the end of every night, if I was camping out, I sat in a blue chair and I set up a pink chair with the hopes that my future wife would stop by.
Q. How did that work out?
A. Unfortunately, no takers on that trip. Still single, still looking.
Q. Did you have a regular daily routine?
A. I liked to leave at sunrise. If the sun was up at five, I left at five.
I never set an alarm clock. Coffee was always first. Usually, I slept at truck stops. I’d set up my tent behind all the trucks, get a good night’s sleep and then study my map over a cup of coffee the next morning. I’d look at the elevation. I’d look at the weather. If there was a headwind, which there usually was, I knew it was going to be a tough day. I loved stopping in the small towns, talking with people and taking photos. By sunset I’d get to my destination and I’d be beat, but happy.
Q. Talk to me about some of the people you met along the way.
A. I’ll tell you about the guy I met in North Dakota. I am pedaling on the highway to Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota and I see this rancher behind a fence in a Gator, which is a side-by-side utility vehicle. And he’s got a bulldog with him. I turn to see what he’s doing and he’s herding the cattle with the Gator, and the bulldog is barking like crazy and jumping around on the seat, like he’s giving the orders to the cattle. I thought it was hilarious. I kept going and then I see the rancher coming back up on my side of the fence. I stop and we got to talking. It was a great experience. He confided in me about a bad winter a few years earlier that had killed a lot of his cattle. He also joked about his bulldog, “He thinks he’s a herd dog, but I think the cattle are on to him.”
Q. Tell me about that little mishap you had in Michigan.
A. I was in Battle Creek and I had a good spot. I was behind these bushes off to the side of the road. They call it boondocking. It was cold and I was tired so I used my camping stove to get warm. Unfortunately, I fell asleep and must have knocked over the stove. All of a sudden, I woke up with cold air on my face and I was lying in a circle of fire with no tent around me. It had burned down, but for some reason the hot plastic did not drip down on me. Divine intervention or luck. I don’t know, but somehow I didn’t get burned.
Q. Did you post that in your blog?
A. Yes. Transparency was my goal, so I told them everything. I’m thinking everybody’s going to call me an idiot, right? But they were all very forgiving and that was the best part about that incident. Nobody said a bad word about me.
Q. Did you ever get concerned about wild animals attacking you?
A. Well, I brought my pepper spray, which I did have to use on some dogs, though I never felt good about it. The first time was up in the Tennessee Mountains. Unfortunately, I missed the dog with the pepper spray and he bit me on the ass.
Q. Ouch!
A. Yeah! Texas is another state where there’s a dog problem. In fact, the dogs run there in packs of six or seven. It’s real. I’ve got a video. I found that the spray is very effective. It stops them cold and doesn’t make them more vicious. Sadly, I had to pepper spray a human on that trip, too.
Q. Wow. Tell me that story.
A. I’m in Three Rivers, Texas. It was a nice day. My spot was on a cement slab where there were some abandoned buildings. I’m sitting on my chair, just taking off my shoes and I can feel the cement is still warm. I’m just having a good night, you know? Out of nowhere, this young guy appears and sits next to my bike. I don’t have a good feeling about this guy, so I look him in the eyes and say, “You gotta go.” But he’s not moving. I say it again, “Dude, you gotta leave.” He still doesn’t move, so I jumped up and sprayed him. He took off like a shot.
Q. You thought he was going to do something?
A. Absolutely. After I sprayed the guy, a group of police cars showed up. My first thought was, they’re after me for spraying that guy. It turns out this young man had been in a high-speed chase with these officers. He had apparently ditched his car and was looking for a new escape plan. I told them, “I think I just pepper-sprayed your guy.”
Q. Did you have any other dramatic or memorable events from your trip you’d like to talk about?
A. One challenging day was when I was going to Flagstaff, Arizona, while it was snowing. I ran into a DOT supervisor and he asked me, “Where are you going?” I said, “I’m going to Flagstaff.” Instead of being rude, he said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll call the Department of Public Works and we’ll have the snowplows look out for you.” Sure enough the snowplows came by and even when they were coming from the opposite direction, they would turn around and plow the shoulder of the road in front of me. If it wasn’t for them I probably wouldn’t have made it to Flagstaff.
Q. Do you have plans to do another trip?
A. Yes. It would start up in Jasper, Alberta, Canada. It’s a 3,000-mile trip off-road through the Rocky Mountains all the way down to the Mexican border. It should take me about two months. One of my biggest concerns is the grizzly bears, because it’s real up there. They tell me, don’t sleep with food in your tent and make a lot of human noise when you’re out there, it works better than horns.
Q. When do you think you’ll start that one?
A. I’ll have to wait until the snow melts. So it will probably be in late June or early July of 2026.
A Unique Feat
How do we know Bob Barnes is the only person to ever biked through all U.S. capital in one year? We’ve asked Google, “Who biked through all U.S. capitals in one year?” The answer: “Bob Barnes, a man from Syracuse, New York, successfully biked to all 50 U.S. state capitals in just under one year, starting August 1, 2021, and finishing July 26, 2022, covering over 16,000 miles to promote blood donation and experience real reality.”
TOP PHOTO: When Barnes crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas, he stopped for lunch.