Road Trips

California Love: Rendezvous at the Big Shoe

When you're on the road, it can be difficult to coordinate times and places to meet up with people. This is espcially true when you don't have a set route or plan. Meetings require a bit of flexibility on everyone's part. Kenny and I called our dear friend Ed when ...

California Love: Chasing Lightning on Route 58

By the time we'd pulled in to San Luis Obispo and found a hotel, the sun had packed it in for the night and a wet fog hung on Route 1. It had been a great day of riding. The following morning I woke up to the sound of steady ...

California Love: Seaside Sandwiches in Big Sur

Wow, What a View Do you think it's possible to tire of looking at the Pacific Ocean from the seat of your motorcycle? I had plenty of time to ponder that question while Kenny and I rode south on the PCH. This was our second time riding down the coast ...

California Love: Mount Hamilton and Lick Observatory

What better way to give your new livery a test than with a winding road? As the sun rose higher in the sky, we made our way from the cool air of San Francisco to the golden hills of Route 130 to visit the Lick Observatory atop Mt. Hamilton. If ...

California Love: It’s Time to Hit the Road

If there were roosters in San Fancisco, I'm sure I would've woke them up while making my morning coffee. I was up long before the sun rubbed the sleep out of it's eyes. By the time blondie finally came to and began his usual morning scratch, I'd already put the ...

Trip Planning: Northern California – Can You Help?

Kenny decided he wanted to go back to northern California to do some motorcycle riding. As a good girlfriend, I obliged him and agreed to go along. My arm was killing me from all of the twisting but whattayagonnado? 😉 Though we are pretty loose when it comes to planning ...

The Post-Road Trip Hangover

When setting off on a road trip your imagination is full of best laid plans and wonder. There is an excitement that takes over your thoughts as you watch your shadow riding along with you on the road. You wonder - What will this adventure have in store for me? ...

People Watching on the Ferry

Though I was on line for the early ferry, the heat of the day was already rising. It was going to be a hot one. I was the only motorcyclist on board the boat. And as such, people were apt to look at me. I was after all dressed in ...

Following My Heart Back Home

I stood in the gas station near Windham, NY, sweating. My shadow stretched out on the ground in front of me, surrounded by an orangey glow. This was it. Decision time. In an instinctive move, I stepped forward, swung my leg over the saddle of my bike and turned the ...

The AltRider Giant Loop Adventure Ride – Pennsylvania Style

What better way to spend a Wednesday than behind the bars of your motorcycle? On the eve of the BMWMOA event in Bloomsburg, Pa. - AltRider hosted it's 2nd Annual Giant Loop Adventure Ride through the wilds of the Seven Mountains area. Ben, Kenny and I hauled ourselves out to ...

The Long Shadows Were Calling Me Home

When the shadows start getting long, that's when I start missing home. I continuously walk the line of having the curiosity of a person who likes to wander and one whose heartstrings reel them back home. Those two facets of a life can be hard to manage. I'd wound my ...

Welcome Back to the Empire State

Following the Hancock Highway, I crossed the border from Pennsylvania into New York in the town of Hancock. For hours and hours, my belly had been growling. I felt the pasty, dry, mouth that comes from being foolish enough to not stop and take a drink when you should. With ...

Sometimes You Have To Go It Alone

I sat on the curb in a Pennsylvania gas station and looked up at Bill. The backdrop behind him was a rolling green mountain, under the brightest blue sky. We'd already put just about 100 miles in for the morning. In that moment, I began to rattle off several reasons ...

Laddering Across West Virginia

Rolling in through the town of Marlinton on route 39, I was disheartened to see that the lovely little train depot that had burned in 2008, was in the same state. I was hoping to round the corner to find that it had been rebuilt. I suppose money for such ...

A Great Way To Start The Day – Heading West on Route 39

Breathing in deeply, the morning felt cool. As our wheels turned past the silent rolls of hay and red barns of the landscape, I felt like a giant. This was my day and anything I chose to do with it would be spun into gold. With my camera collected from ...

Virginia Is For Motorcycle Lovers

When we left Long Island heading south, we were three. It was Graham, Bill and myself. We were set to meet up with the other Bill in Virginia, which we did on Saturday night after our fab ride along the Blue Ridge. And then we were four. As it turns ...

Late Afternoon on the Blue Ridge Parkway

It's really no wonder that the Blue Ridge Parkway was on AMA Magazine's 15 Best Roads in America list. It is, in short, a great ride. 469 miles from top to bottom of beautiful riding. After leaving Long Island at o'dark-thirty, Bill, Graham and I arrived in Staunton, Virginia in ...

Whoopsie: Even a Camera Needs to Wear Good Gear

I left home deciding against taking my DSLR because I didn't want to care about it. Instead, I decided that on this trip I would use my iPhone and my old G9 as backup. Apparently feeling slighted by being third banana, my G9 camera made the decision to commit suicide ...

On the Road: A Perfect Moment in Virginia

Sometimes during the course of a ride, you get the distinct feeling that you are bearing witness to a perfect moment in time. It's in the way the sun casts its light. It's in the temperature. It's in the feel of the breeze. It's the clouds, the sky, the scenery, ...

On the Road: The Sunrise Outside My Window

When I got up and looked outside of my hotel window this morning, the sun was rising over the gauzy backdrop of the Blue Ridge mountains. Squeezed beneath the hotel entry way sat bikes from New York, Ontario, Rhode Island and North Carolina. Further proof that if the riding is ...

On the Road: Two Ugly Ducklings

Bill and I danced along the Blue Ridge Parkway on our two ugly ducklings. They kinda make a nice couple though, don't they? ...

On the Road: A Perfectly Named View

Have you ever seen a more perfectly named overlook? Buena Vista Overlook - Along the Blue Ridge Parkway ...

On the Road: My New Favorite Road Sign

Today was a long day in the saddle. I have that tired and windburned feeling you get from riding all day. But, its all worth it because I had a great day. While on the Blue Ridge Parkway today, I finally got a chance to snap a photo of a ...

On the Road: South of the Mason-Dixon Line

For the first time in ages, I'm heading out in the road for a long weekend. The Speed Triple is packed and ready to roll in touring mode. In an effort to take less stuff, I've jettisoned my netbook and will give posting exclusively from my iPhone a crack. We'll ...

2011 Berkshire Big Adventure Dual Sport

I opened my eyes around 6:30 on Sunday morning. I could hear the tap, tap, tap of raindrops on the roof of the RV. As my brain started coming around my thoughts immediately went to wondering just how muddy the ride would be. Everyone seemed to start coming together all ...

Saturday Warm-up to the Berkshire Dual Sport Ride

Bright and early on Saturday morning , with the bikes loaded into the "Free Candy" van Kenny and I made our way to the Port Jeff ferry.  We were meeting up with F'n Hal and F'n Jacqui and heading to the Prospect Pines campground in Granville, Massachusetts. Sunday would mark ...

The Offroad Noobie Blues

I just need a moment to be honest and to get this stuff off my chest. Maybe some of you can relate. I had a great time this past weekend doing the Berkshire Big Adventure dual sport ride. I found it to be pretty challenging at times and introduced me ...

Wet and Wild = Big Fun!

This past weekend was the Berkshire Trail Rider's - 2011 Berkshire Big Adventure dual sport ride. For the better part of a week leading up to Sunday's event the northeast had nothing but rain. That made for a wet, muddy course and boy, was that fun! More words and pics ...

Motorcycle Travel Scenario: 3 Days, 3 Items, $300

It's fun to daydream about hitting the road. Want to play a little scenario game? You have 3 days, 3 items & $300 You have $300 in cash for all expenses You have 3 days to ride You can choose only 3 items from home to put in your tankbag The ...

Great Roads: Kick-Ass Mountain Passes From Our Euro Trip

In September of 2010, Kenny and I met up with our friend Patrick in Italy and spent a little over a week riding around in the mountains. Our travels took us to Italy, Switzerland, the teeny-weeny country of Liechtenstein, and Austria. The trip was, in a word - monumental. Even ...

Barber Museum: 1956 Parilla Corsa

When we saw this Parilla at the Barber Museum, I kinda wanted to hug it. It's just so darned cute! Back in the time of dinosaurs when music actually played on MTV (the 80's) Tom Petty had a video for the song You Got Lucky. During the first minute and ...

The 15 Best Roads in America – Chosen By AMA Magazine Readers

In February of 2011, The American Motorcyclist Magazine and website put out the call for its readers to choose the best riding roads in America. The results were printed in the April 2011 copy of the magazine. I was really surprised to see that I've actually ridden a few of ...

Amazing Motorcycle Road: Italy’s Gavia Pass

The 9th of September was bittersweet. It was a special day in that it marked Kenny's 40th birthday. He got to spend the day doing what he loved; riding motorcycles on amazingly twisty roads. Unfortunately, it also marked the last day of riding that we were to do with Pimmie ...

Riding the Alps with a GoPro Hero Camera: Is This Thing On?

Kenny and Pimmie both rode with GoPro Hero HD cameras throughout our Alpine trip. Kenny mounted his on the side of his helmet for a "you're seeing what I'm seeing" point of view and Pimmie mounted his GoPro on the front of his Tuono near the right mirror stalk. Each ...

Corvara, Italy and Riding Passes in the Dolomites

Well hello, sunshine! What a difference a day makes. I wish I knew why I am a morning person. I so envy those that can slumber into the late morning. Alas, it isn't in the cards for me. I'm the first one up at home and seemed to be the ...

From Innsbruck to the Dolomites and Corvara, Italy

Oh, Innsbruck. Our time together was too short. On Wednesday morning, we packed up our circus in no time flat and said goodbye to the city. We were heading back up in to the mountains. Following yet another of my whims, we would be heading towards the town of Corvara, ...

I Spy: A Peraves Ecomobile on the Fluelapass

While riding on the Fluelapass in Switzerland we passed an Ecomobile. You can file that under something you don't see everyday! What am I talking about? It's a Swiss BMW K-bike powered, enclosed motorcycle with outrigger wheels that come down when you slow to a stop. I think the model might ...

A Few Short Hours in Innsbruck, Austria

After a long day in the saddle we pulled in to the city of Innsbruck around dinner time. We found a nice,  inexpensive hotel on the outskirts in the town of Rum. We got cleaned up and went for dinner in the hotel's restaurant. By the time we finished up, ...

Riding to Austria: Our Dark Cloudy Day Has A Silvretta Lining

The first thing that I did when I woke up was open up the window and look out. To my dismay the roadway was damp. But... at least it wasn’t raining. I watched four little birds playing in the fountain outside as the chilly morning air crept in. I then ...

Someone Pinch Me – Switzerland is Motorcycle Riding Heaven

When we climbed down from the top of the San Bernardino pass, we had the rain on our heels. If we were going to make the most of our plans for the day we were going to have to get on the gas and hightail it out of there. We ...

One of the World’s Best Motorcycling Roads: San Bernardino Pass

Though it has been in use since Roman times, the San Bernardino pass was first made known to me from the first episode of Top Gear season 10. In it, Clarkson, Hammond and May set off to Europe to find the world's best driving roads. Watching that show on DVD ...

Motorcycle Nirvana: Riding The Splügen Pass

In typical case-of-the-Mondays fashion, the weather report didn't look promising. But, the fact that the fog was burning off and the sun was elbowing it's way through the cloud cover was a encouraging. Three sets of wheels hurtled towards riding nirvana. One beautiful thing about the alpine mountain passes of ...

Killing Time Around Vicosoprano, Switzerland

A low, silvery fog nestled in to the valley while we slept. It was hard to tell if it was raining or not when I looked out over the balcony of our room.  I crossed my fingers tightly that the ground was dry and trotted downstairs for breakfast saying good ...

A Sunday Ride Through the Swiss and Italian Alps

On Sunday, we started our day with a bang, leaving our Bormio hotel and heading straight up and over the Stelvio pass. Winding our way along it's delicious serpentine hairpins, I wondered if my day was figuratively all down hill from there. As we motored on, I quickly found out ...

Cross One Off The Bucket List: Riding the Stelvio Pass in Italy

In realm of people who are passionate about pursuits that involve wheels; cars, motorcycles, bicycles - it seems that everyone knows the name Stelvio. We've seen it in photos around the internet, zig-zagging it's way up and down through the Italian Alps. It has become a legend, a holy grail ...

Visiting Italy: Motorcycling from Lake Como to Bormio

We awoke long before the revelers of the night before and departed Como heading towards the town of Bellagio. The picturesque town sits at the tip of Lake Como's peninsula. From there you can catch ferry boats to different points on the lake. Since we were heading northwest to Bormio, ...

Visiting Italy: Lake Como and a Case of Jet Lag

We touched down in Milan at about 8:30am local time. Looking out the window of our taxi at the big blue sky was in direct conflict with what time my body said it was. Even when you're excited and running on adrenaline, you can really feel a 6 hour time ...

Check Out Our Fabulous Motorcycle Road Trip T-Shirts!

When Kenny and I rendezvoused with Pimmie in Bormio, Italy he came bearing gifts for us.  Apparently he and Novos had been scheming for weeks - making t-shirts for Kenny and I. Novos along with being a great rider and generally great guy is also a great illustrator. He whipped ...

Fly and Ride: Renting Motorcycles Away From Home

Given the obvious hardship of riding our motorcycles from Long Island to Italy, doing a "Fly and Ride" was our only option. In order to take our Alpine trip Kenny and I needed to rent motorcycles. What Did We Look for in a Rental? Unlimited Mileage This was a big ...

Visiting Italy: We Came, We Saw… We’re Tired

After months of waiting, daydreams at my work desk and excited searches for routes to take - our alpine trip to Italy has come to a close. Kenny, Pimmie and I spent a week riding through the beautiful mountains of Italy, Switzerland and part of Austria. It was, in short, amazing ...