Jenn Levine is about to finish 2,800 miles on two wheels
Most people wouldn’t consider riding a bike from Michigan to California. And just about no people with epilepsy would give it a second thought. But that’s not how Jenn Levine works. Despite battling epilepsy for most of her life, further compounded by a traumatic brain injury, the determined Alameda resident has been on her bike since May of this year making her way from Michigan back to California.
Jenn is making the ride to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation. She went to Michigan to celebrate her son Jacob’s graduation from college, and then to make the ride home with her two children since she cannot ride alone. In an article she wrote describing her plans for this odyssey, she says, “I came to bicycling as an adult, because as a child I was plagued by severe epilepsy. My family was cautious about letting me ride a bike until I was 12 years old. After subsequent falls, they took the bike away and I never really picked up biking until I was 21.” She went on to explain, “I cannot ride alone because of my seizure risk. So my kids will carry all my gear, and be my [support] Vehicle.”
She’s been documenting her 2,800-mile trip along the way on her Instagram account, tracking her progress, successes, and challenges. Along the way, she celebrated her 47th birthday in St. Louis, met her favorite YouTube creator, and made it up and over the Rockies. She also suffered flat tires, mechanical failures, major thunderstorms, and seizures on the ride. But, according to her latest post today on July 14, she intends to arrive back at Alameda’s Crab Cove on Sunday, July 16, sometime in the early afternoon. We plan to be there to greet her, and we hope you can find time to come down to Crab Cove and celebrate her amazing accomplishment with a big Alameda welcome!
Adam Gillitt is the Publisher of the Alameda Post. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Adam-Gillitt.
