{"id":183301873,"date":"2010-10-23T13:11:13","date_gmt":"2010-10-23T13:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=183301873"},"modified":"2010-10-23T13:11:13","modified_gmt":"2010-10-23T13:11:13","slug":"john-stechschulte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=183301873","title":{"rendered":"John Stechschulte"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;<br \/>\n6. How did your Teach For America experience impact your subsequent endeavors?<\/p>\n<p>After completing my two year teaching commitment, I had a few months off before I would start my current job. With all this time, and my newfound sense of possibility, I decided to bicycle from Baltimore to California. It was a journey I&#8217;d long dreamt of, but without my experience in the classroom, it probably would have never gone beyond the dream stage. I rode solo and unsupported; I carried about 50lbs of gear, camped most nights, and cooked most of my dinners and breakfasts on my camp stove. Often I would knock on doors and ask people if I could set up my tent in their backyard (I was only turned down once). Altogether, I rode 4,600 miles over about three months&#8211;I had 72 days of cycling, with a few rest days interspersed. I wore my Cornell jersey for about a third of those days (I only took three jerseys).<\/p>\n<p>On my journey I bicycled through many cities&#8211;DC, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Xenia OH, Louisville KY, St. Francisville LA, Austin TX, El Paso TX, Phoenix AZ, and San Diego CA. Some were more bicycle friendly than others, but I was impressed in each by the efforts being made to encourage bicycling and improve infrastructure for cyclists. Since<br \/>\njust before I left on my bike ride, I&#8217;ve lived car-free in Baltimore. Two years ago I would&#8217;ve rated Baltimore as the least bicycle friendly city I&#8217;d ridden in. However, the city has made significant strides recently, and I&#8217;m excited to be involved in the effort to encourage active transportation.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaezra.com\/archive\/2010\/10\/the_transition_period_i_taught.shtml\">https:\/\/www.metaezra.com\/archive\/2010\/10\/the_transition_period_i_taught.shtml<\/a>oldId.20101023131113973<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; 6. How did your Teach For America experience impact your subsequent endeavors? After completing my two year teaching commitment, I had a few months off before I would start my current job. With all this time, and my newfound sense of possibility, I decided to bicycle from Baltimore to California. It was a journey &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=183301873\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;John Stechschulte&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183301873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-in-baltimore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183301873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183301873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183301873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183301873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183301873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183301873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}