His fascination with them began at a young age. Hoffman recalls the days when, at age 5, he rode countless laps around his neighborhood on a training bike. A pedometer helped keep track of the distances — often up to 15 miles before parking his bike for the day.

“Biking was a way for me to fill a void,” Hoffman said last week. “My early life was devoid of accomplishments because of some developmental challenges that offset my learning and motor skills.

“As a result, I led a pretty isolated life and didn’t really have friends,” he added. “My bike kind of served as a playmate, a friend I never had.”

Forty-five years later, Hoffman said, his friends and relatives would not have been surprised to find him riding along U.S. 301 toward the Flying Eagle Gas, Grocery and Grill in Benson. Hoffman, normally a nighttime janitor at a nursery school, stopped at the store last Tuesday afternoon to repair a flattening tire.

It was just the latest in a series of occasional mishaps Hoffman had weathered on his trek from New Jersey to Florida. This year’s trip is the 30th such journey Hoffman has made since he began raising money in 1978 for the American Leukemia Society.

Hoffman took up the cause when doctors diagnosed his mother, who has since died, with the disease. He’s amassed a long list of donors — more than 5,000 strong — who pledge money to ALS on his behalf.

“Some of them just pledge by the mile, and others just give a flat amount,” he said. “I’m grateful to them for their commitment.”

Hoffman said he has raised more than $1 million for leukemia research since taking up his yearly bike rides. He said he has stuck with the ALS because of how science prolonged his mother’s life. Hoffman said his mother was among cancer patients who underwent a then-experimental treatment called chemotherapy.

“When she was diagnosed, the doctors gave her six months to live,” Hoffman said. “But she was no quitter. If there was a 1,000-to-1 chance of survival, she wanted to take it. Because of the treatments, she ended up living another 15 years.”

Hoffman said his travels are often hard because he rides alone. During an average, eight-hour day, Hoffman rides for as many as 65 miles. He carries just enough supplies — water, clothing and spare parts, among other things — to get by. But those items increase his bike’s weight to about 100 pounds.

The occasional souvenirs Hoffman picks up along the way, such as the stack of VHS movies he bought in Smithfield, are mailed back to his home in New Jersey. “So that makes things a little easier,” he said.

From Johnston County, Hoffman said he hoped to reach a cousin’s home in Charleston, S.C., within a few days. He said he looked forward to trading the narrow shoulders of country highways for an amenity on a new bridge in the coastal city — a bicycle lane.