The story of a journey is not always just about the journey.
Sometimes what prompts a ride is part of the story. These two journeys were responses to a black wall of stress and depression that threatened to overwhelm the author. The first ride (Northeast) became a journey that reawakened faith in humanity and restored a balanced view of the world that had been slipping away, and the second (Northwest) was a preventative measure to fend off a return to that darkness and retain the progress made by the first.
This ride across the North American continent revealed the overwhelming beauty of the natural world and the goodness of people along the way. Stress may return, but the great wide world is always out there, waiting to restore and reaffirm the value of life in it for anyone who takes up the challenge of experiencing it.