Someone is about to leave on another grand adventure while someone else is staying home. Any guesses? Let me give you a hint.

The first someone has taken to calling herself “semi-retired” while the second someone is still adjusting to sitting behind a desk all day. One would think after six months that desk-jockey life would start to become routine, habitual, just that thing you do to fund your 401K and buy your groceries and give you something to say when that friend of a friend at the holiday party asks What do you do for a living? and you’d accept it and focus on other things like the bright side, the side lined with paychecks and healthcare coverage and having a purpose Monday through Friday and counting your blessings because you know, deep down, that you are blessed and that income, spent (and saved) wisely really can contribute to your happiness despite what anyone else says and you know that while all of that is true, it doesn’t mean that desk job is the one thing you love doing most in the world. That would be what the first someone is doing – that thing she loves most in the world – flying across the country with her bicycle in the cargo hold in order to turn around, point her front wheel westward, and cycle her way back home. Now that is a day job worth envying.

Yes, our little Gina heads East today where she will dip her front wheel into the Atlantic Ocean (well, maybe her big toe instead, as saltwater might be good for some things, like taffy, views, and sinus infections, but not so good for gears and brakes and other bits of the bicycle that need to spin and shift) along with 11 other travelers before mounting the saddle and turning back toward home. She’ll be cycling the TransAm Route, a whopping 4,325 mile ride across 10 states, starting in Virginia and then continuing West through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. It’s a route peppered with small towns, big dogs, and all of the ice cream that her $300 “treat budget” can buy.

Many people have asked if Gina will be blogging her trip. The answer to that is both Yes and No. Gina, by my decree, is not actually allowed to touch the blog. I know that sounds harsh but it’s really in the best interest of everyone. You see, Gina talks to the computer every day (and I should know, sitting one desk over) and it’s not sweet talk. There are programs that misbehave, documents that disappear, and icons that end up in the trash bin, all happening to a soundtrack of “I hate this program”, “Now where did that Save?”, and my favorite that captures it all “This thing is just stupid.”

For these reasons, Gina will not be blogging her cycling trip but instead, I will. In fact, the goal is to blog every day while she’s away, painting pictures of her world on the road vs. mine here at home. I’ve dubbed it the “TransBallard”. Who says every day can’t be an adventure no matter where you are?