When two Anderson residents tell friends what they did one spring during their youth, it won’t be that they went to Cancun and partied.

These guys took a 63-day odyssey from Florida to San Diego. Along the way, they discovered their country not from the window of a car, but from the seats of bicycles.

Matt Tagliaferri, 24, and Peter Lown, 22, took a year to prepare, ending their trek on April 20 at the Pacific Ocean. They had traveled more than 3,125 miles.

“I’m not really an emotional guy,” Tagliaferri said, “but I was jittery when I began to realize we were five miles from the end. Nothing could stop us; we had the strength to take on an army.”

Lown said that during the trip he imagined reaching the ocean and jumping in, but when he got there, he was all but paralyzed. He said instead of running to it, he went completely weak and could do nothing but take it all in.

Neither rider had any real experience when the two decided in February 2007 to make the cross- country trip. They gave themselves a year to prepare, and within that year, they trained and accumulated the proper bikes and supplies to make the trip. With a planned route in hand and a mutual goal to finish the challenge, they departed on Feb. 18.

Tagliaferri and Lown had several friends and Internet contacts along the way who provided shelter, but during most of the trip, they were forced to camp on the side of the road or in parking lots. They also endured heat that neared 100 degrees in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.

“The wind was probably the most consistent challenge,” Lown said. “But the mental challenge was even worse. You never realize the mental games you play with yourself when you’re biking for hours on end in the middle of nowhere.”

The riders spent 63 nights and days with each other without a break. Lown said that after a week or so, the communication between the two got better because it had to, while Tagliaferri admitted he had a hard time adjusting his own high energy level with Lown’s more laid-back approach to the trip.

The most difficult part of the trip was when the pair hit Texas and New Mexico, according to Tagliaferri. While both enjoyed the scenery and people in Texas, Lown said the state seemed to never end, which was discouraging, especially when they had made good time through Louisiana and Mississippi.

For Tagliaferri, the blind turns, punishing hills and dark tunnels in New Mexico were equally taxing. Add to that rock-throwing teenagers in Phoenix, and the two had a fairly difficult last leg of the trip.

“You really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” Tagliaferri said, “Our trip would have been so much easier if we had flat, Florida roads the whole way across the country.”

While there were several obstacles to overcome, both riders said the trip was mostly a delight. The pair constantly beat their own biking records. Near the middle of their trip, they rode 126 miles straight, only to break that record two days later by riding 140. Lown even recalls reaching the scary speed of 45 miles per hour.

When asked to reflect on the stops they made and the cities they saw, both riders acknowledge that the great people they met in the cities made the trek worth it. They single out Tallahassee, Fla., as one of the friendliest cities they have ever been to, while Austin, Texas, was the most biker-friendly.

“There were several times during the trip where we met people that wanted to take us in,” Lown said, “People don’t realize how genuinely nice Americans can be; we have a great thing here. We met a German rider who said America was the friendliest country he had ever been to.”

The two also managed to raise money for both of their chosen charities. They rode in support of the Foothills Alliance, which works to help victims of child abuse and sexual trauma, and Steakmart Ministries in Columbia, a ministry for the homeless.

While Tagliaferri and Lown supported their charities, their family and friends made it a point to support both riders during their trip. Tagliaferri and Lown said their families were both supportive the whole way; Tagliaferri’s parents even met the two near the Grand Canyon to give them a much-needed rest.

Kristin Klausing, owner/operator of eCity Java, the coffee shop Tagliaferri and Lown both worked for while preparing for the trip, was one of the many people to support the two on their trip. Klausing said patrons of the coffee shop were constantly coming in to ask the bikers’ progress. She even recalls the two accompanying her to spinning classes for two or three months in order to get in shape.

“When I first heard about the trip, I thought they were both crazy, and I still think they are,” Klausing said, “but time is short. If I could go back and do something like that, I would.”

Despite all they’ve seen across the country, both riders are looking forward to seeing all their supporters and Anderson again. Lown plans on moving to Los Angeles at the beginning of August, while Tagliaferri is ready to begin the interview process for teaching jobs in the Anderson area.

Both readily admit they are unprepared for going back to a “normal” life of sleeping in beds, driving cars and eating things that aren’t canned. They will probably never leave the cycling life behind, and both look forward to future trips, although the next one would probably be on a smaller scale, according to Lown.

“We’ve talked about doing more,” Tagliaferri said, “Cycling across Ireland would be our first choice. It’s a little shorter.”

Both riders said they are better-equipped now to take on life’s challenges and even better-equipped to learn from them.

Tagliaferri said that completing the trip was a huge confidence-builder, while Lown was eager to apply everything he learned to his life and the people in it.

“Before this trip, I always took on challenges as wholes and saw only pieces of people,” Lown said, “Now I want to start seeing people as whole and take on challenges in pieces.”