 Boop, boop, this chair doesn't roll very well on carpet, but I'm gonna get there. I'm coming for ya. I'm coming, here we go. We're getting close. Hello, my friends. Happy New Year's Eve 2022. Can you believe it? We're here, we did it. We are on the cusp of 2023. And that sounds pretty futuristic. And I just wanted to make a video essentially to say thank you and I love you. And I wouldn't be here without you. Well, maybe I'd be here in Boulder, but I wouldn't be here on YouTube talking to you. And I wanted to thank you for sticking with me for so many years and watching my videos and following my adventures and interacting with me. It really means the world to me. You've heard me say this many times, but this is an absolute dream come true to be able to share my adventures on YouTube in the hopes of inspiring you to get out there and get off your couches. And every morning I wake up and I pinch myself and I'm like, oh, this is real life. This is actually what I do for a living. And I'm so incredibly grateful to each and every one of you. And this year, 2022 started out on a bit of a rough note. I was feeling really unmotivated and I was questioning my place in the world, essentially. And that was a new feeling for me. Usually I'm go, go, go at all times and I have 15 goals that I'm working on. But at the beginning of last year, I was really just wondering what to do with my life. I was wondering if I could continue creating these videos at the pace that I've been making them and going on adventure after adventure. And did it matter? Was I still putting out value into the world because that's my number one goal. I wanna create something that brings value to you. And it felt like I was just doing the same thing over and over and over. And that was hard for me to grasp that idea at age 43. Oh my God, what am I doing with my life? I love this, this is my dream job, but can I keep doing this? And I really needed time to think about that and process things. And I appreciate you being so patient with me. And I made a video at the beginning of the year talking about all this and I took a lot of time off. And where I go when I need to think and I do my best thinking, I go outside, I get out there, I take my own advice and I get on my bike. And it was nice to do all of this without having the pressure of filming absolutely every moment of my life. And it was very healing. It was so important just to take some time for myself and really reevaluate life. And it was so powerful that I came back super charged. I feel better than ever. And thank you. Seriously, thank you for still being here, for continuing to watch my videos. I feel lucky and I'm sitting here on December 31st with a big smile on my face and I'm really excited about the adventures to come in 2023. And let's go through a few of the highlights of 2022. You know, started off a little rough but during that time that I took some time for myself, you know what happened? Love found me. I found Amelia, we found each other and it's been really amazing to share myself with somebody in this romantic fashion that I hadn't done in a long time. She's so wonderful and caring and thoughtful and beautiful and athletic. And she laughs at my dumb jokes, which is really important. So that's been an absolute highlight of the year. And as far as YouTube goes, as far as adventures go, I didn't do as many adventures this year as you probably noticed. But Raghbri was definitely a huge highlight. I love Iowa. I love going out there. I love the vibe. I always tell people that Raghbri shows off the absolute best of America, small town America. And it's not so much a bike experience. It's a human experience. You know, every single day, you have 50 conversations with wonderful people from all over the country and all over the world. So, Raghbri. Oh, yeah. I went on a few other adventures this year. You know, I did the Boulder Weekend Loop during the fall season and got to really just be inundated with beautiful aspen trees and colors. You know, Colorado is magical in the fall. Amelia and I did the White Rim Trail, which is a day that we will never forget. 100 miles of absolute stunning desert beauty. And we finished it late into the night into the dark. And it was cool. It was fun. It's rare that I ride my bike on adventures at nighttime. And it was magical. Is this your idea of a romantic Friday date? Clearly. It's amazing. We're just walking in the desert with our bikes. I mean, what could be more amazing than that? At the beginning of the year, we, you helped me, us all together, raise $60,000 to get kids on bikes. And we gave all of that money to Dana's Foundation, the KRD Foundation. And you all know and love Dana and Xanta and their commitment to making the world a better place. And it feels so good that we were able to raise so much money. Thank you so much to Priority Bikes for donating the 600X that we could raffle off and stay tuned for another one this year. We're gonna keep on doing this. It's been so successful. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Let's give them a kiss. Muah! Muah! I was actually supposed to go to Sweden this summer. That was gonna be my big adventure of the year. I was gonna ride from the Arctic Circle all the way down south to the village where I lived as an exchange student over 20 years ago. I was so excited to finally experience the midnight sun way up there. And 24 hours before I was supposed to get on the plane, Scandinavian airlines went on strike and they canceled all the itineraries. And I was pretty bummed out. But because of that, there's always a silver lining, right? I was, I had a little pity party for about a day. But then I was like, okay, well, now this means that I'm gonna be in Colorado longer and I can run more. And I know that most of you are bike lovers, but running is my first love. And I got to run and train a lot more than I had expected for the Leadville 100. And I had a great race at Leadville. Amelia came and paced me once again. If you remember the Leadville the previous year is where we met essentially. And so it all came together. And this year's Leadville, I had a great race, 100 milers are such an insane experience of emotions and highs and lows and you're out in nature all day long. And as hard as they are, they are really special. I love them. I don't wanna do 100 miler every weekend but I absolutely love 100 milers. I feel like they make me a better person when I cross that finish line. I'm just more loving and generous and kind. And you've heard me talk about this. But when I go on my adventures, my heart cracks open. And I'm just a lot more tender. And I just feel the world more and this gratitude comes pouring in. And I think about everybody I love. And it's just, that's why I love going outside. That's really why I love going outside. And I think a lot of you can relate to that as well. When you have a long time on your bike, you do your best thinking, right? And I cherish every mile I run and every pedal I pedal. We're getting there, we're getting there. Little by little, and the view is still stunning as you can see, whoa. A lot of you know this because I've spoken about my Nana, my grandma on this channel throughout the last few years but she had been suffering from dementia and it's a horrible disease. And it reduced her once vibrant mind to the level of a five year old essentially. And it was really hard to watch her suffer. And she was just so scared and lonely. Imagine waking up every day and not really understanding the world around you and how confusing that can be. And I know that every day was really hard for her. Luckily on the bright side of things, I got to see her more than ever. She lived in New Hampshire for most of my life. We brought her out here a year and a half ago so she'd be close to us. And I got to see her all the time and share a lot of beautiful moments with my grandma even though she wasn't all there. She was there enough to recognize me and my mom and my brothers and sisters and family and we would sit and just laugh and talk and she would tell these crazy stories and I would just tell her over and over that I loved her. That was the most important thing. Nana, I love you. Nana, I'm here to tell you I love you. So good to see you, Nana. I love you. I just wanted her to hear that over and over and over. And she died this year. She died in late October. And I was lucky enough, it sounds weird to say lucky, but to be with her when she took her last breath and I was with my mom and my sister. And it was a gift. It was an absolute gift to be with her as she transitioned. And again, I was just telling her over and over, Nana, I love you. She was a little comatose. Her eyes were closed. She wasn't interacting with us. She was breathing heavily, but I know that she could hear us and we just infused her with love as she went on her voyage to wherever that is. And that was an absolute gift. And I'm really grateful that I got to be with her. And when stuff like that happens, which is not very often, it was the first time in my life where I've experienced that, you really appreciate life. You appreciate the moment. You appreciate the right now because tomorrow's not guaranteed. Something could happen. You could get a bad disease or cancer or dementia or hit by a car or whatever. There's so many things that could happen. So it really helped me to realize that right now was amazing. And I've been much more present this year because of that experience. And I thank my Nana for teaching me that. What do you think about that, Nana? I think you're lovely and you're wonderful and I love you so much. Now go bed, Barry. Nana, here we are. My Nana. One of the most exciting things of the year and my life actually is my new book. I wrote a book and it came out a few weeks ago and I'm so incredibly proud of it. It's about my first bike adventure from Honduras to Boulder and how it led to my life today. And 17 years ago, when I was riding my bike on this adventure, I took all these detailed notes in my journals with hopes of someday writing a book. And it's finally here. It took a long time, but I think it's better now than it would have been if I had written it back then. It has a lot more wisdom and perspective. And it's exactly what I wanted it to be. You know, just like my videos, I want people to read this book and feel inspired to get outside and challenge themselves or to interact with humans that they might not normally see on a day to day basis and connect with nature and that's what the book is all about. Okay, that's enough talking about my book and my adventures. Let's talk about you and how proud I am of you. That's right. You know, you send me your videos and your photos of your own adventures all the time and I love getting these updates from all of you. So please keep it up. I've heard about all of your triumphant stories of bike trips and running races and everything else. And it means a lot that you share this with me because we're a team, we're team dozer and I'm proud of you for getting up off your couch and risking something and having the courage to do this. And so that's the whole point of this channel. From when I very first started this thing, it was to inspire you to get up off your couches and you're doing it, which makes me so happy. You know, my adventures are great. I love doing them, but I really love hearing from you. So keep it up, keep sending me all your stuff and especially when you go under those tunnels and you sing, oh lay, oh lay, oh lay, oh lay. I should make a montage someday of all the people around the world that send me these videos, it always puts a smile on my face. So I'm gonna go back to the theme of this video from the very first part where I said thank you. Thank you, thank you so much for sticking with me, for watching my channel and my videos and supporting me. And let's go have an amazing 2023. What do you say? I'm ready, aren't you? And now you, I'm talking to you right there, sitting on that green puffy couch. It's time to get off that couch and get out there. And don't get too wild tonight, woo!