Ross Mantle for The New York Times
The timing was terrible for a trip like this.
On the other hand, it was perfect.
On July 1, three teenagers from San Francisco pedaled their bicycles to Ocean Beach and ceremoniously dipped their back wheels into the waters of the Pacific. With that, they pushed east, beginning a transcontinental journey that appears on course to wrap up later this month in New York.
The vague spirituality of their departure echoed the journeys of idealistic travelers across generations who have made the act of traversing the United States — on a bicycle, by foot, behind the wheel of a car — one of the evergreen sacraments of the American psyche.