Louisville man rides 1,000 miles on bike from NY to Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Greeted with a champagne toast outside the KFC Yum! Center by friends and family members, Carson Stewart's 1,000 mile journey alone on his bike began two weeks ago in Manhattan.

"It's a huge journey, and something I've always wanted to do," said Stewart, a St. Xavier High School, Indiana University and Harvard Law School alum.

Stewart set out from Times Square with four rack bags and a Trek touring bike on a mission to see the country. A corporate attorney by trade, a new job offer as corporate counsel at Yum Brands in Louisville got the wheels in Carson's head spinning.

"I've been living in New York for the past six years, and when I decided to move back to Kentucky, I decided that I had this window of opportunity and this was sort of the perfect time to do it," Stewart told WDRB News.

His worn out tires illustrate only a portion of his journey. Averaging 70 miles a day, he ditched his two of his rack bags - then a third - cutting weight and mailing them home after the hills of Pennsylvania became too daunting.

"I was afraid that as I came in I might just end up on a unicycle," Stewart said.

That's just one of the stories he blogged about while documenting his trip. You can read more about it here.

"As I was riding I was thinking about different stories. I was thinking about them in a deeper way than I otherwise would've and I wanted to share it with people along the way," Stewart said.

And what better way to cap off that journey than with some champagne - courtesy of his father, Deane, who stood with about a dozen friends and family members Saturday afternoon.

Full disclosure: I stumbled on Stewart's journey online. Stewart and I both attend St. X and Indiana University together. And my former classmate even came up with a teachable moment from the road:

"It's all about goal setting and the thing about goal setting is if you have a daunting task like traveling across the country - 1000 miles seems like a big task. But if you break it up, anything is possible."