Adventure found on trip from Fairbanks to Key West

Matthew Pellegrini, 34, of Fairbanks, Alaska spent last weekend at Oliver Reservoir because of the storm.

He has spent the last five months traveling from his hometown of Fairbanks to the farthest point south in Keywest, Fla.

This may not seem like a big deal, but Pellegrini's trip is projected to take 14 months because he is traveling by bicycle.

Pellegrini said that he has always been somewhat adventurous and his first long trip on his bike took place the year he graduated from high school, in 1992.

His trip started in November of last year when he left Alaska, biked along the Pacific coast line to San Diego, then to New Mexico and back up to Idaho, he stated.

This will be his longest trip by far, totaling around 10,000 miles from start to finish.

Pellegrini reached the state of Wyoming on the April 8, and traveled from Cheyenne to Oliver Reservoir last Friday.

When the weather changed for the worse, he decided to hang out at the lake campgrounds in his tent before heading to town Monday morning.

"I have ridden across the country before, but this is my first time in Nebraska," Pellegrini said. "I rode the northern part of the country a couple of years ago, on the Trans-America Route."

His cycling passion used to be in racing mountain bikes in his home state until the fateful day 10 years ago when someone hit him during a competition.

They never found the perpetrator who broke every one of Pellegrini's ribs and caused injuries requiring the then twenty-four year old to have hip and knee replacement surgeries.

It took Pelligrini a total of four years to completely heal after the hit-and-run accident but that wasn't going to slow him down.

"I've traveled by car and motorcycle," he said. "But I find that when you travel by bicycle you see things on a different level and interact with your surroundings on a different level."

Pellegrini pays for his time away, with monies that he receives on a cabin that he owns in Fairbanks.