Terry Murphy had several reasons to ride his Surly Disc Trucker bicycle 2,104 miles alone across six states and two Canadian provinces.
For one thing, his 32-year career in public service in Miami-Dade County was coming to an end.
“I didn’t want to enter retirement by buying a recliner,” Murphy, 68, of Miami Lakes said. “I wanted to go into retirement by having a physically challenging experience.”
A second reason?
“To better know who I am,” said Murphy, who holds a doctorate degree in public affairs and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Miami.
He is a son of a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The family lived in five states and Japan.
“When you grow up a military kid, you don’t have a hometown,” Murphy said. “Answering the ‘Where are you from?’ question is like a trick question,” Murphy said. “I did this to really know where I am from. And now I know who my ancestors were.”
His brother, former Fla. Dist. 115 Rep. Tim Murphy spent decades researching the lives of their Irish forebears and their paths across North America.
Back to the Emerald Isle
Terry Murphy traveled to southeast Ireland early in 2025 to visit those ancestors’ villages in County Dublin, County Cork and County Wexford. Their migrations abroad dated from 1814.
Besides Murphy, family names include McKeegan, Sherlock, Casey, Murray, Sullivan, Hayes, Brown, Donahue, McGovern, Marron and Scallan.
“No kings,” Murphy said. “Nobody that popped up that was famous. These were people very much oppressed, leaving Ireland and having their lands taken, living as serfs, I guess.”
The Adventure Begins
They traveled by sailing ships, covered wagons and trains toward better lives, across the Atlantic Ocean first to Canada and then, when farmland was cheap or free, to Iowa.
Low Gears and a Comfortable Leather Seat
Murphy’s journey began in Spirit Lake, Iowa on Aug. 17 astride two wheels loaded with seven packs filled with camping and cooking gear, snacks, electronics, laundry and other supplies. Six states and two provinces later, it ended Oct. 12 in Quebec City, Quebec.
He rode along roads and former railroad tracks converted to walking and bike trails.
“Traveling west to east, I had the prevailing winds at my back most days,” Murphy said.
He had to walk the bike up some challenging hills in parts of eastern Iowa near the Mississippi River and in central Ohio. He relied on apps: RidewithGPS (for bike navigation), Wunderground (weather and wind); WeatherCAN (Canadian conditions) and DeepWeather (National Weather Service, long-range forecasts).
Sometimes he stayed in hotels. The trip cost about the same as a cruise, he said. What he found: In North America, his people farmed; one owned a wood mill; another was a mayor and tavern owner in a whistle stop Iowa town called Jackson Junction.
He searched church records to trace births and deaths and marriages, and scanned government archives for land ownership and sales. His ride for self-discovery took him along the Erie Canal towpath and places where 100-year-old homesteads, tombstones and other evidence of his family remains. Murphy rode through some of the same landscape that his ancestors saw, and that included wildlife.
“I was on the trail along a river through the woods near the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec,” Murphy said. “I’m biking 15 mph and this large deer came running up out of the woods and ran with me for about 50 yards. I was looking over at her and she’s pacing me, and it was the most magical feeling.”
Though she was big enough to knock him down, she simply ran across his path and back into the woods.
He didn’t find any good scandals in the family. There are some fourth- generation cousins in Iowa who still farm. He lived in the Hawkeye State for a time while growing up, and it is where his father owned 80 acres near Mason City that the elder Murphy leased for agriculture.
“My biggest takeaway was these people were bold adventurers,” Murphy said of relatives who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, to Canada and then to Iowa, the source of his roots.
“You pick up everything you own, put it in a wagon in Montreal and go 1,000 plus miles to Iowa, where you’re transported by horse-drawn wagon? I can’t imagine,” he said.
“And the pace they were going, maybe 20 miles a day, heading west across terrain, it was a major risk back then. What you realize is the family wealth generated from land ownership and is what allows people to advance,” he said.
He took a five-day break to enjoy Niagara Falls with his wife Maribel Balbin, who also retired from Miami-Dade County.
A Book, and Back to Work
They have two children and four grandchildren, who Murphy hopes will be interested in the book he plans to write about their Irish clan.
“I encourage other people who are curious about their pasts to get out and see the history, and not just do it from their computers,” Murphy said.
He may not have much time to write right away, though.
Murphy has worked in the county’s Office of the Inspector General and was chief of staff for Natacha Seijas Millan during Miami Lakes’ incorporation. New Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins has tapped him for her transition team.
Still, he hasn’t put his bike away and gets his exercise during 10-mile rides around Miami Lakes. He would like to create a bicycle tour of the town, with stops at all the historic places.
“My wife and I love it here,” he said. “It’s a great community, especially for biking. It’s walkable. It’s a very pleasant place to live.”
A Mission Accomplished
After an adventurous journey of his own that his ancestors may have admired, Murphy says he reached his goal and can answer that most fundamental question.
“I’m confident in saying my family is from Iowa,” he said.