- How many people can say they've ridden a bicycle across the United States?

[car swooshing by] and then how many 14 year olds have done that?

[crowd cheering] - The longest I had ridden before?

Maybe 10, 15 miles.

- I didn't know how to shift gears.

That's how bad I was.

[camera flash sounds] - This is gonna be something else.

Wasn't gonna be a walk in the park.

- I do remember thinking, what have I gotten myself into?

- The first couple days.

I was real gung-ho and then it's like it's long damn way across.

[dramatic music] ♪ - I've long been a person that has needed to look back so I was able to track down most of the riders, to find out what it meant to us then and what it means today.

[dramatic music] - I never walked through graduations or anything 'cause it didn't matter to me.

That wasn't important to me.

This was.

♪ "A Million Miles Away" ♪ by the Plimsouls - What's motivating them to ride from one coast to the other?

- [Speaker] A young man named Chuck Williford had a dream.

He was a big talker.

- He was a very charismatic guy.

- Chuck was the energy and the motivation.

♪ - When I do come across challenging things I can look back and say, you can get through this, look what you did.

- Someday I'll probably be limited to a wheelchair but I'm putting it off as long as I can.

♪ A million miles away ♪ - We were on the same road but we all saw it from a different viewpoint.

♪ - Just one push of the pedal or one hill at a time.

♪ Mentally, you just have to keep going.

- This ride changed us and continues to help us through the struggles of life.

♪ I'm a million miles away ♪ - I looked everybody's parents in the eye and said I will take care of your child this summer.

What were your parents thinking?

[laughing]