Travel

"Holy shit!" When I crested the camels hump of a hill, the suspension on the Tiger completely unloaded leaving in its wake an unnerving floating sensation. During that millisecond of weightless hang-time strangely enough there's plenty of time to contemplate your own idiocy. Maybe I should've slowed down. I hope ...

When I pulled up at the edge of Noble Park in Paducah the word "Wow," escaped from me. Even though it was the 10th Whispering Giant I visited, I didn't expect how striking his appearance would be in person. Having seen Wacinton in photos from other grand-tourers I knew that ...

You wouldn't think that writing your own story could be difficult. After all, you live it, it's right there in front of you. And yet finding the loose thread to pull at the end of the day is hard. I'm reading a book about how put my life on paper ...

At breakfast in Morehead, Kentucky I spent most of my time eavesdropping on a man talking about his work. His job was to pull around a Jack Daniel's Airstream party trailer. It is basically a rolling bar. Not a bad gig, I'd say. When you pull up, throw open the ...

While riding through rural Kentucky, past lonely tobacco farms I couldn't help but wonder about the lives of the people who toil away on them. The farmhouses sit far apart with big fields and tracts of land between them. How do people find each other and fall in love there? Are small ...

As I wound my way across West Virginia towards Kentucky, I spotted a few great pink roadside attractions. A super-duper pink elephant in Barboursville on Route 60. Just down the road from the pink elephant in Huntington, WV is a pink giraffe with green spots. Naturally. And smack in between ...

On Sunday morning as I rubbed the I think I drank one too many pints from my eyes I wondered how in the world my weekend had gone by so fast. What started on Thursday evening, riding out to State College, Pa. for a pre-rally dinner, moved in to doing ...

Traveling by motorcycle opens you up to meaningful exchanges. I’ve been wondering about why people move in and out of your life. While I was on my road trip last week, I had several experiences meeting people which have stayed with me. The exchanges that we shared carved out a ...

Last Thursday after tidying up the last of my pressing tasks at work, I set off on my motorcycle. With a week worth of vacation time blocked off on the calendar, I had a few things scribbled on the notebook of my mind to visit. Sightseeing, that’s what I would ...

Do kids who live in rural areas (the kind of towns where houses are like a half a mile apart) go trick or treating? While riding in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois I've been encountering long stretches of road with sparse housing, especially in farming areas. It makes me wonder what ...

After finishing the Void Rally in Fredericksburg, Virginia instead of going straight home, I decided to use up some of my vacation time and take a little road trip. I left Virginia on Sunday morning heading southwest. I don't really have much of a plan other than floating around trying ...

The phone sitting on the seat of my Tiger rings. "Hey, babe. What's going on?" "Wow, you went far. What are you doing?" "I'm standing in a gas station eating a turkey sandwich. I'm at my turn around point. I just rode 300 miles to take a photo." "Not a ...

While I was wandering through Pennsylvania in July, I was able to stop and visit some Whispering Giants for the Grand Tour. Though bummed to find the Giant in Williamsport, Pa. had been removed I did strike gold in Akron, Oh., Dunkirk, Ny., and Sharon, Pa. Sharon, Pa.: Unfortunately, the ...

While sifting through photos on my iPhone this morning, I found a few (terrible) images that I'd snapped of a steam powered motorcycle that was on display at the Musée Mécanique in San Francisco. The Steam Flyer -removed- My pic of the informational card stinks. Thankfully, you can read the ...

The "favorites" list in my GPS is sprinkled with all sorts of places and things that I might stop at as I'm passing through an area. I often pull up the screen and just let it stay in view. When something in the list is a short distance away, I'll ...

My dog Lilo licked my face, my eyelids slowly parted and I looked at the clock; 6:45. On the weekends, I think she does this to see if I'm still breathing since I've slept "so late." She helpfully wakes me up and then goes back to bed. Just checkin' to ...

My mother in law lives in a small town in Maine. So small, it feels like you could throw a rock from one side of it to the other. (And I suck at throwing.) Each year that small town hosts a great Fourth of July parade and an all day ...

The Aiguille du Mdi in Chamonix, France was a once in a lifetime experience. Teetering at the tip of a mountain peak at over 12,000ft up, it was about as much as my wimpy little heart could handle. From the moment I stepped into the cable car and we began our ...

Sometimes I go through periods of time where nothing seems to make any sense. I think I have mental problems. I can't sit still, I can't write, I can't relax, I can't be alone with my thoughts because I feel like I'm going to burst into a million pieces. When these times ...

Packing The Givi box liner worked out fantastically. Packing all of my clothing into gallon ziplock bags then packing them into the Bestem bag kept everything neat and tidy. This represents all the clothing and toiletries I packed for a 10 day trip: Flying The Oxford Handysack backpack again worked out ...

It's my Dutch brother from another mother, Pimmie! The internet is really amazing. But it seems that not a week goes by when I don't read about someone lamenting what childhood was like when we were growing up in the 70's and 80's. We actually went outside. Kids just stare ...

We found our home ...

Can you tell from my super-toothy grin that I was pretty excited to be at the top of the Col de L'Iseran? After seeing pictures of that dang sign on the web for years, it was incredible to be able to stand there soaking in the view with my own eyes ...

When Kenny and I decided to call it a night on Friday, we were still on the Little St. Bernard pass. As we started our descent from the top of the pass we pulled in to a hotel that our friend Ed mentioned he was going to try to stay ...

Just before Kenny and I started our ascent up into the mountains on the Col du Petit St. Bernard, the wind picked up began to thrash the trees about. We were going to get wet. This Alpine trip would be the first long term test in variable conditions of my ...