How to make a memorable moment
In celebration of my website’s 20th anniversary and my 50th lap around the sun, I’ve written an extra-special story about how I live a life worth living, including making memorable moments and how friends shed new light on life.
Old friends never die
A heart-warming story about how our true friends never leave us even when they take that last great adventure into the sky.
2019 Summer News
- We've rebuilt our website (again)! We hope you like the new modern look. Please leave a comment. Unfortunately, all the previous comments got lost.
This summer our website celebrates its 20th birthday. Stay tuned for some new stories from our favorite adventurers. And we'll be modernizing our site a little bit. We've been doing this in stages. Last time it took months to move almost 1000 pages into a database. Our website is so old — predating blogs, wordpress and every kind of content management system — that everything was hand-coded page by page—and that had to all be stripped out manually! We still have a lot of work to do as we try to unify our brand. It seems a lot of our peers our are giving up websites and moving to social media platforms.
Whoa! Surprising news. The new 10th-anniversary edition of Falling Uphill has won a finalist award at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in Memoirs (Personal Struggle). Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest not-for-profit awards program for independent publishers. What a big honor! - Visit Dreamaplay.com our new children's website that teaches kids (and adults) how to dream and how to turn those dreams into reality.
Super big, life changing news. After 4 years in development, we're excited to announce that Dream It! has been published by Magination Press "Self-help books for kids and the adults in their lives, written by experts and published by the American Psychological Association." We feel this is the perfect publisher for the Playbook's themes of passion, optimistic thinking and social emotional learning. We couldn't be more excited. The Dream Playbook has grown bigger than us and we just couldn't do it alone.
Previous highlights:
- After 1 year in the making, I'm proud to introduce a brand new 10th-anniversary edition of Falling Uphill with a new introduction and afterword, new lost chapter "Were you scared?" Excerpts from the original journals that were lost for over 10 years, including the fateful day of 9/11. And many more additions. There is also a new e-book with color pictures and an audio book.
Why did I write an anniversary edition? Because a lot of friends and fans have been wondering how my life has turned out since the big trip, and because I wanted to include a new afterword about my biggest discover yet, one that could only occur after many years of integrating everything that I had learned from my trip. This is what makes Falling Uphill different than most travelogues — it doesn’t end happily ever after in some foreign land, but continues after the return home, profound culture shock and the difficult struggle to integrate everything I had learned. Are you wondering if the trip was worthwhile, did it change me or make the world a better place? Are you wondering whether to make your own big journey or change? Then this is the book for you.
Since we last spoke, I've also written a new book about monarch butterflies. This was part of a year-long author-in-residence project at a local elementary school. I didn't think it would take a year, but it required a lot of organizing, and we did so much more than just make a book. We actually increased the number of monarch butterflies in our neighborhood. Read all about how we helped save the monarch butterflies. I'm super proud of this. We donated over 600 books to students, teachers, schools and libraries.
Ooh! I'm honored to be among the great legends of bicycling in this new book by Anna Hughes. Pedal Power: Inspirational Stories from the World of Cycling. Synopsis: A bike can be so many different things—a simple way of navigating busy city streets or enjoying quiet lanes, a cross-country steed to take a rider up hill and down dale, or even a world-beating racing machine. What unites everyone who rides is that they each have their own cycling story to tell. This book collects inspirational stories from riders around the world, both ordinary and extraordinary, from the London cyclist who rode 10,000 km in a month, to the daredevil trials rider who hops from building to building, to classic tales of grand-tour rivalries and legendary cycling records of days gone by. Essential reading for anyone who loves life on two wheels. Available on Amazon.
Visit Our New Kid-Friendly Website
Because we believe everything is an adventure and all good adventures start with a dream, in 2018, we published our book, Dream It!, to teach kids (and adults) how to dream and how to turn those dreams into reality using our easy 3-step formula: 1) Dream it! 2) Map it! 3) Play it! And to help, we launched a matching website — Dreamaplay.com. It has a bunch of free resources, including a facilitator’s guide and more downloadables for kids. It was over 4 years in the making and everything was battle-tested in the classroom.
Jason and the Argonauts
The Archetypal Adventure
The word argonaut is synonymous with adventurer. I recommend you read about the original Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts (or the illustrated kid’s version) including the history, culture and the actual story. I’ve been collecting this info for years; and I find it fascinating how this myth has embedded itself in our culture. Or read about: What is an argonaut?
Bicycle Quotes
The Oldest and Best site for cycling quotes on the web
“Life is like riding a bicycle.” by Albert Einstein is one of my personal favorites, and which our website made famous. Back in 1999, when we started, hardly anyone had heard of these quotes. Now, it is probably the most famous bicycle quote of all time. See how Life is like riding a bicycle quote has been shortened, or paraphrased, over time. And see the Top 100 bicycle quotes of all time.
Welcome to The Argonauts featuring:
Scott Stoll's Bicycle Ride Around the World
Scott asked himself, "If I could do anything, what would I do?" His answer was to ride a bicycle around the world and search for happiness and the meaning of life. This was one of the first circumnavigations around the planet on a bicycle using only paper maps. Discover what happened during the 4-year journey. Read about the trek around the world on a bicycle.
Above: The map of Scott's quest. One of the first circumnavigations around the planet on a bicycle. Below: Re-imagine the journey in the best-selling independent book Falling Uphill.
Falling Uphill:
One man's quest for happiness around the world on a bicycle.
2017. New Anniversary Edition. In one week, Scott Stoll lost his job, his best friend, his girlfriend and his confidence. Disillusioned with society, full of angst, a lost and wandering soul with nothing left to lose, Stoll asked himself a question: “If I only have one life, one chance, if I could do anything, what would I do?”
His answer resulted in a 4-year and 25,752-mile odyssey around the world by bicycle, seeking answers to the great mysteries of life, vowing to find happiness or die trying. The quest wasn’t easy. He was imprisoned, held hostage, mugged, run over, suspected of terrorism, accused of espionage, trampled, diseased, heartbroken—he nearly died a dozen times. But more importantly, in the most unlikely places, he also discovered the wonders of the world, kindness among strangers, the meaning of life, peace, love and — Yes!— happiness — in the last place to look — and much more than he imagined possible.
Re-live and re-imagine a journey around the world on a bicycle as a man stumbles through moments of pure survival and moments of pure enlightenment. More info. or Buy now.
Falling Uphill The short film: A montage of photos and videos from Scott’s 4 year, 26,000 mile bicycle tour around the world. Previously a Youtube Feature Video and specially requested for the Boston Bicycle Film Festival. “I nearly cried watching this video. Just a normal guy and look what he has achieved.” ~ Ingrid K.