MARION (WSIL) -- It's not everyday you meet a cross-country cyclist outside your home.
Shelley Deal lives in Hicks, Illinois, and was tending to her animals when she encountered one.
"I was just in my own little world, drinking my cup of coffee, watching my horse eat, and then I hear this 'Hi!', and I look up, and the horse looks up, and there's a lady on a bicycle... I just said what are you doing out here all by yourself on a bicycle, it was hot, you know, and humid. Then we got started talking about that she's riding from coast to coast and she showed me the map of the trail, and it goes right down my road, which I had no idea."
Cyclist, Treva Inzerillo, says this is a dream she's had since college, when she picked up a book that detailed bicycle touring.
"It caught my imagination, and it made me really want to ride to the west coast... and now that my children are out of the house, it's time to turn my compass, and this is a part of that process."
Realizing her dream, she got started training.
"About 15 months ago, I bought a bicycle and I decided to start with 2 miles around the neighborhood."
After weeks of diligent effort , she's now made it well beyond her neighborhood.
"About 950 miles from the beach in North Carolina."
She's also riding for an organization, back home.
"Rose Haven. It's for the healing of, specifically female veterans... Sometimes, women veterans coming home, face particular problems on top of their PTSD. They have children, they have aging parents that they're caring for. Sometimes those pressures are too much, and I want to do what I can to support the people who have supported us."
Inzerillo is not quite halfway to her end goal. She says her finish line will only be crossed, once she can dip her tire in the Pacific Ocean, off the Oregon coast.
"I expect it'll be about 2400, 2500 more miles. It depends on the curiosity. Sometimes, I'll see a road, that something catches my eye, and I'll wander down there. I have wander lust, I think."
Inzerillo says she's most excited to follow the Lewis and Clark Trail.
If you'd like to show support for her cause, checkout their .
