My Gump Ride: How the love of bike riding helped heal my sorrow

Introduction

The majority of this book is based on a blog I wrote between September 16, 2016 and December 1, 2018 called My Gump Ride (I have since taken it down), an homage to Forrest Gump’s run across America in the movie Forrest Gump. I’m not sure when the exact thought came to me in 2016, but I decided to incorporate the movie into a blog that would help me process a massive grief six years in the making. Something about Gump’s journey spoke to me at that particular time, becoming the springboard from which I leapt. I’ve loved the movie since the first time I saw it in 1994, ultimately purchasing the DVD (and later a digital download) after renting it and watching it multiple times from the local library. The story of Forrest Gump inspired me to tell my story as I grieved multiple losses in a short period of time. From the very first post of that blog, I knew from the beginning that it would end exactly three years, two months, 14 days and 16 hours later. I’ve learned to set parameters for myself with any given project. I tend to ramble (i.e. ADHD). Being a very specific time limit, it became a focus goal and my motivation to keep writing.