Six years ago at St. Luke’s Hospice in Bethlehem, Penn., Tara Wright turned to her son, J.W. Frye, and sent a spark into Frye that would prompt him to ride across North America. Frye, back in Sarasota following his six-month ride from Key West to Alaska to benefit hospice, described the conversation with his mom to an audience on Sunday at a Sarasota Celebrates Volunteers event at Payne Park Auditorium. He asked his mom how she was feeling about her diagnosis with terminal brain cancer.  “I asked my mom, ‘Are you sad. Are you angry? How do you feel?' ” Frye said. “And she looked at me and …

The message has been sent from Key West to the northern slope of Alaska, and at all the gas stations and coffee shops and community events in between. Six months, everybody. A lifetime can be experienced. Tell them all about it, J.W. Frye. They heard the 28-year-old Sarasota resident in 18 states, two provinces and two territories – hospice is a journey all its own. How much life can someone live in six months? At a hospice, a typical stay is six months. Patients spend their final moments in freedom, sometimes surrounded by family, a therapeutic experience. Frye saw it when his parents died …

Nothing was assured for J.W. Frye on the Dalton Highway in Alaska during the final stretch of his 7,500-mile bicycle ride for hospice. There was no potable water, no food outlets, for about 100 miles, and for the first time during the entire trip, Frye questioned whether he would finish. Yet the 28-year-old Sarasota resident finished, entering the oil-field town of Prudhoe Bay, AK, on Aug. 23, six months after leaving Key West. He rode it all for hospice. Partially to honor his parents, who receive hospice care that inspired Frye before recently succumbing to cancer. “To be honest there was a…

Almost six months ago, J.W. Frye left the balmy beaches of Key West on a 7,500-mile bicycle ride for hospice. After peddling up the eastern seaboard, across the midwest and through Idaho and Oregon, the 28-year-old Sarasota resident rode through "the bush," as many Canadians call the wilderness. On Tuesday Frye arrived in Alaska, about two weeks from the end of his journey to benefit hospice. He rode an average of 100 miles each day before crossing into The Last Frontier. Frye is in survival mode. Often isolated on remote highways in the mountainous wilderness of British Columbia, it is just …

J.W. Frye has made it across the U.S. border and into Vancouver during an all-night 140-mile ride from outside Seattle. “I had just worked with Providence Hospice in Seattle and their P.R. representative Christine had implored me to stay and watch the much-heralded Seattle fourth-of-July fireworks from the deck of her friend’s yacht,” said Frye, the 28-year-old Sarasota resident biking 7,500 miles from Key West to Alaska to benefit hospice. “But in order to stay the extra evening I had to make the entire distance in one shot and thus the night ride.” Frye left Key West Feb. 23 and has stayed …

Shortly after passing a church, a voice like wind in his chest prompted J.W. Frye to turn his bike around. But which church he felt he needed to visit, Frye was not yet sure. A stop at a convenience store led the 28-year-old Sarasota resident back to the church he had passed. After knocking on all the doors, without an answer, Frye moved on. However, as has been the case throughout his 7-500-mile bicycle ride from Key West to Alaska to benefit hospice that began Feb. 23, Frye prayed before proceeding. “I figured, ‘Well I did my due diligence and listened to my inner voice,’” Frye said. “But I…

Each time J.W. Frye opened his eyes, there was the bobcat, its hideous face snarling at him from the roof of the cabin. Frye no longer wanted to look around. The bicycle ride for hospice that had taken the Sarasota resident from Key West (and eventually to Alaska) now landed him as a guest at a tiny, dank cabin on a river basin in Tremonton, Utah.  The scenic mountains and valleys that laced the region betrayed the cabin's darkness. A voice, that of the man in Salt Lake City who set up Frye with the cabin's owner, lingered in Frye's head: If anything gets weird, call me. Tucked under a dirty …

Two weeks ago, shortly after consuming a monster cheeseburger with onion rings and ham and the works in eastern Colorado, J.W. Frye decided to stop eating meat. “During morning meditation … ,” Frye said. This week, Frye, the Sarasota resident biking some 7,500 miles from Key West to Alaska to benefit hospice, made it to Berthoud Pass in northwest Colorado where he stumbled into some cattle. Soon, though chance conversations at a coffee/bicycle shop and yet another invitation, Frye was at a cow-branding event at the luxurious Coors Ranch, where he wrangled cattle in bicycle shoes. “I didn't …

J.W. Frye hopes extra socks underneath his open-toed sandals will be warm enough as he prepares to ride out of Denver and through steep mountain passes en route to Salt Lake City, Utah. For the past week, Frye has been in Denver, where snow drifts as high as 12 feet form walls along some of the roads. Frye set out from Key West Feb. 23, headed for Alaska this summer to benefit hospice. It has been “feast or famine” for Frye as he has stayed in four-star hotels or on picnic tables in the rain. Frye is feasting in Denver. “I've been wined and dined here and treated like a prince,” Frye said. …

J.W. Frye awoke on a park bench in St. Francis, Kan., about 10 miles from Colorado, to sprinting winds and 45-degree temperatures. The rubber, grated bench probably left barbeque marks. Frye checked the weather report on his cell phone, which indicated a chance of hail, thunder and snow. “Like always,” Frye said. The 28-year-old Sarasota resident, riding from Key West to Alaska – about 7,500 miles – to benefit hospice, walked into a local coffee shop. Before leaving, Frye engaged in conversation with a man named Miller who told Frye he had a cousin some 100 miles away that might be able to …

The state motto of Kansas is: "Ad astra per aspera (To the stars through difficulties)." J.W. Frye now understands. The best part about Kansas, according to Frye? Every city park has a steel bench. Frye spent each of his eight nights in Kansas on such a bench, all the while biking through the hilly, northern-most part. Central and lower Kansas is rather flat. But J.W. Frye, as has been the case for much of the Sarasota resident's 7,500-mile bike ride from Key West to Alaska for hospice, wound up with the worst conditions – constant hills and a headwind so strong his chain snapped under the …

Tornadoes, major flooding, barometer-busting fronts, and, oh yeah – tornadoes. “It was pretty neat riding a bike through all that,” J.W. Frye said. Since leaving Nashville last week, J.W. Frye, the Sarasota resident who left Feb. 23 from Key West and will ride more than 7,500 miles to benefit hospice, has been risking his life during a period of severe weather in the midwest. He arrived this week in St. Louis. At least Frye has retained his sense of humor as he heads westward. “It would have been nerve racking,” he said, “but I saw this documentary once where a young lady was picked up by a …

J.W. Frye bicycled out of  Nashville Wednesday, headed for St. Louis, leaving a two-wheeled wake of memories from the Civil War, a chance hospice experience and a spirit-testing climb in the Blue Ridge Mountains. After biking through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, a flat expanse known for its destruction by fire at the hands of the Union Army during the Civil War, Frye hit an area of the Blue Ridge Mountains in 40-degree weather and 20-to-30 mph winds that gusted to 40. Since the 28-year-old Sarasota resident left Key West Feb. 23 headed for Alaska this summer, the peddling had not been …

Any moment now, J.W. Frye will be arriving in Nashville. Though the Sarasota resident doesn't speak with country twang, he has all kinds of country strong. Five weeks ago, Frye, the 28-year-old began his estimated 7,500-mile ride from Key West to the northern slope of Alaska to benefit hospice. He did not know if he could make it. The hill are just a bit steep, but the grade rarely levels out. Frye has events planned in Nashville, and was asked if he could ride 800 miles from Pennsylvania in 11 days. “I don't know if I can do it, to be honest,” Frye said about two weeks ago. “I've never …

The inspiration for the entire journey, the roughly 7,500 miles Sarasota resident J.W. Frye plans to bike, stemmed from a blast of benevolence in Bethlehem, Penn. Frye, who left Key West Feb. 23 and plans to arrive in Alaska by August, arrived this week in Bethlehem. It was here his parents once received care from St. Luke's Hospice that inspired the 28-year-old to raise awareness for hospice. Frye's parents died of cancer, but not without family-binding hospice care. The time has come to give back. To pedal across the country, sleep in spots unknown until hours before, risk injury – and …

J.W. Frye celebrated his 28th birthday Tuesday in Glendale, Md., 40 minutes north of Washington D.C. The Sarasota resident biking about 7,500-miles from Key West to Alaska to benefit hospice did not have a typical birthday. “I'm doing absolutely nothing,” Frye said. “Just lying around.” Exhale. The hills, like Clint Eastwood, were unforgiving. Ribbon-shaped curves of roads of increasing grade, and those long, steady inclines, punished Frye from Raleigh, N.C. to Maryland the past week. But don't try to define this trip. It isn't just freezing nights in tents or adventurous outings with …

J.W. Frye's eyes have begun to bulge with bags of wariness from wind-whipped bicycling and rainy, 29-degree morning temperatures in tents, which have been pitched in the woods, sometimes among the eerie hoots and shrieks from unknown country people. Yet Frye, the 27-year-old Sarasota resident who is embarking on a roughly six-month, 7,500-mile bicycle ride to benefit hospice, made it to Weldon, N.C. Wednesday. To get there, Frye had help from folks at a Mid-Way Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C. Check out his video at his One Bike One Cause facebook page as Frye and his “temporary family” eat …

J.W. Frye arrived in Savannah, Ga. But not without a flaring knee and a random, emergency massage. Soon after the Sarasota resident began his estimated 7,500-mile bicycle ride to benefit hospice, a searing pain screamed in his right knee during his ride last weekend from Homosassa to Gainesville. Frye, 27, who left Key West Feb. 23 and plans on ending his trip in about six months in Prudhoe, Alaska, figured the pain was just a soreness that would subside. “But the pain just intensified and by the end of the ride from Homosassa to Gainesville, it had begun to hurt inside the knee,” said Frye, …

Leg one is complete. Only 7,000 miles, 18 states, two provinces and two territories to go. J.W. Frye, who began a bicycle ride -- if one could call it that -- Feb. 23 in Key West, stopped Monday afternoon at Ryder Bikes in Sarasota. The 27-year-old Sarasotan rode the first leg of his trip to benefit hospice with friend Chris Christhuringer, also of Sarasota. The journey will end in about six months in Prudhoe, Alaska. With food such as nutrition bars, a tent, stove and cell phone stuffed in black bags hanging from the steel bars of his Surly Long Haul Trucker bicycle, Frye took a break in his…