About Brian

Brian Dwiggins.

I grew up in Anchorage and was active in the Dimond High School band, student government, and raising the school spirit level to an all time high before graduating in 1998.   My weekends usually consisted of any outdoor activity that was fit for the season ranging from skiing and snow-machining to mountain biking, hiking, and street luging.  

From Anchorage I headed south and went to school at Colorado State University, where I dabbled in a few different majors before settling into Technical Journalism the year before BikeAmericas.    I was at CSU for two years before I became consumed with an undying desire to drop out of school and hit the road to see the world.  

Fortunately, the opportunity to do this life-changing feat presented itself while I was back in Anchorage over the summer after my sophomore year at CSU.   Erich was my neighbor’s (Deb Hankerd) cousin and he was in town for a few days doing a test-ride of the Alaskan leg of what would expand into BikeAmericas.    This was about the time that the student who had planned on doing the trip with Erich backed out and he was looking for a new team member.   Fulfilling all my wildest dreams in terms of excitement, intensity, opportunity, and world travel, I could hardly pass it up.   I was hooked on the idea of cycling from North to South.

When I returned to Colorado, I hopped on the opportunity to get independent study credit to make a documentary of the up-coming trip.   Our sponsors bought me a video camera and CSU offered me an editing bay to fulfill the task.   Throughout the trip I was envisioning the video that would finally be roughly finished five minutes before I graduated (two years after being back, and after changing my major to Speech Communication with a media emphasis) and after a 65-hour-straight editing binge to frantically get the BikeAmericas Project as close to my dream as possible.

My life since the trip has been fairly calm compared to those on the road, but I still constantly look back and remember the times Erich and I had.    I currently live in Boston and work for an educational travel company helping teachers like Erich bring the global classroom into a normally dull lesson plan.    My desire for travel has not subsided, but rather, grown exponentially.   Who knows where the road ahead leads, but it will no doubt consist of many more stamps in my passport.