The first thing incoming freshman Jamshed Jehangir did when he made it to his new home at the University of Miami Tuesday evening was call his mom in Illinois to her know he’d safely arrived.</p>
<p>After all, it wasn’t a typical journey. The 18-year-old pedaled 1,450 miles in 17 days from his Chicago suburb to the campus.</p>
<p>A huge smile broke across the cyclist’s face as he turned the corner from U.S. 1 onto Stanford Drive, the palm-tree lined entrance to UM. ‘‘The best feeling is getting here,’’ said Jehangir, known as ‘‘J.J.’’ to his friends. ``The ride is great but it’s amazing when you look back on it.‘’
Along the way, he met a pair of sheep farmers at an ice cream stand in a small Kentucky town and dined on lamb and spent the night at their farm. When he was poring over a map in downtown Atlanta, he was befriended by an actress who swapped travel stories with him. At another stop in Georgia, red fire ants swarmed his bike while it was parked against a tree.
And on the last leg from Boca Raton to Miami, Jehangir met the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay: rain and head winds of 30 miles an hour.
''He's like Ulysses, who goes on this odyssey,'' his mother said from their home in Downers Grove, Ill.
When her son was first accepted at UM, Veatrice Jehangir bought him a ticket to fly out of O'Hare International Airport. When he told her he wanted to bike to school, she worried about the 18-year-old making the trek alone.
But as the journey went on, she served as his long-distance navigator when he got lost. Now she says she is proud of him for making the trip and solving his problems along the way.
His route took him through Indianapolis, Louisville, Chattanooga, Atlanta and Jacksonville. On his last leg Tuesday, he biked south from Boca Raton, coasting down AIA. In Miami Beach, bad directions sent him across the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Then he biked south on U.S. 1 to arrive at the Stanford Residence Hall.
Tropical Storm Fay slowed him down half a day. ''It got pretty bad today being blown around everywhere,'' Jehangir told his mom on the phone.
He followed a grueling routine on the 17-day trek: up at 6 in the morning, on the road by 7 or 7:30 a.m., and 10 hours on the road with breaks every couple of hours, averaging 100 miles a day. He biked through rain, faced head wind, cycled up hills and fixed as many as five flat tires in two hours.
He claims he's not an avid cyclist; he trained on a 400-mile ride to Michigan and cycling in the Colorado mountains plus small trips near Chicago. ''I like the long haul,'' Jehangir said. What the cyclist didn't like were the saddle sores: ''[It] starts to hurt,'' he said.
He was inspired to bike half-way across the country by a high school history professor who made a similar trip. Plus he wanted some adventure. ''I'd say it's like 70 percent mental and 30 percent physical . . . You just have to be patient knowing you'll get there eventually,'' Jehangir said.
Most nights, Jehangir would camp. A few nights he bunked in cheap motels and every so often, he spent the night at the home of someone he met along the road. His load was light, primarily a tent, sleeping bag and bike tools. Every four days, he'd wash out his bike jerseys. The rest of his clothes and property, including his drum set, will arrive via FedEx.
At UM, the incoming freshman will major in studio music and jazz. Jehangir is one of a handful of the applicants invited by one-time Bee Gees drummer Steve Rucker to join the drum program at UM Frost School of Music.
''Some students come down and they're so dependent on their parents, they can't even brush their teeth before a call to their parents,'' Rucker said. ``I don't think J.J. is going to be one of those. He seems like a really independent, confident guy.''</p>
<p>That plane ticket his mother bought for him is going unused. The flight is set for Wednesday, the day after the cyclist arrived on two wheels. ‘‘I guess he didn’t need it,’’ his mother said.