Meet Heather and Dana Arazi.

They just biked across America.

And I met them last Saturday at our monthly dVELO ride. I remembered Heather from our undergraduate days at Gallaudet. We both majored in education. After I graduated, we lost touch. I didn’t know where they both had gone. Until Saturday.

Heather and Dana (who’s an interpreter) both fundraised over $2,500 for their trip across America, to benefit Gallaudet University’s Personal Discovery Program.

In between breaks and rest stops while biking 32 miles to Bethesda via the Capital Crescent Trail and the Rock Creek Park trail, I had a chance to talk to Heather and Dana about their experiences.

Over a mid-morning smoothie, Dana explained to me how he had proposed the idea to his wife, Heather, about biking across America. Heather was at first skeptical, but gave her husband her support, and even joined forces with him. Both Dana and Heather have first-hand experience working for the Personal Discovery program (run by Jean Berube) and it is always an annual obligation for the program to raise its own funds to support staff payroll and the ropes course on the Gallaudet campus. For those of you who are not familiar with the Discovery course, it is right next to the Washburn Arts Building, among the trees, supported by several telephone poles suspended with several miles of ropes and steel cables. The Personal Discovery program is a popular program among Gallaudet students (particularly freshmen), summer camps, and team building activities for groups on and off campus.

Dana told me he had quit his job and with Heather, they started their trip on April 8, at the Bolsa Chica Beach State Park on the Pacific coast of California. They arrived to Washington, D.C., nine weeks later, on June 11.

The Arazis took the southern route through the United States, going through California and Arizona, then up to Utah and Colorado to where they met Heather’s parents in Kansas. Up to that point, Heather and Dana had no support and gear (cycling acronym “SAG” for a car crew that follows a biking group), opting to lug along nearly 150 pounds of equipment daily, including their clothes, meals, sleeping bags, and tents.

Dana even set up a contraption that hooked up his Treo, GPS, and other electronic accessories to a solar panel he had set up on the back of the packs.

While biking across the country, both of them encountered the elements to the extreme. From rain to blazing sun, and even snow!

Heather and Dana are currently working at the Personal Discovery summer program, assisting Berube and her staff in teaching team building skills, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, and just having fun. During our mid-morning smoothie, Dana exclaimed to me that he never knew the Grand Canyon was right in the middle of the mountains. “I always thought it was “FLAT-LAND, STEEP-CLIFF, RIVER. NO ME WRONG. MOUNTAINS-TO-CLIFF.”

(Heather at the Canyon.)

Dana, who lost 30 pounds during the ride, admitted that he wants to do the whole experience again. Heather isn’t so sure. “I’m willing to be SAG, but I don’t know yet if I want to ride again,” she said.

However, both of them aren’t done fundraising. They set their goal for $10,000 and they will continue to fundraise and travel across America to meet with people and host events to explain their experiences with the trip.

If you are interested in finding out about their experiences through their blog, viewing their photos (that’s where I got these photos), or just donating to their cause, go to their website at Bike for Discovery.

They can definitely count on me as one of their donors soon!