I wrote Hit The Road, A Woman’s Guide To Solo Motorcycle Touring to help readers experience the joy that a solo road trip gives me. It includes practical tips that anyone can use—whether traveling alone or with others, and regardless of sex. Solo-wanderlust or solo-curious? Group riding is great, and so …
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When you hear the word “Shaker” you likely think of 19th-century furniture. Fair enough. That said, Shaker innovations went far beyond furniture and crafts. They invented: The flat broom The circular saw blade The spring clothespin Chair tilter buttons The paper seed envelope. They also developed social reforms that provided …
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Orvieto's morning air delights my soul, encouraging me not to think about the tour’s end in the afternoon. Instead I remind myself to wring joy and memories out of its last day.
The Umbria town of Orvieto sits atop a plateau of tufa rock—consolidated volcanic ash that we would call “tuff” in English. The rock was thrown from the large crater that is now Lake Bolsena, which we visited four days ago.
After leaving San Gimignano we head to Greve in Chianti, the birthplace of Giovanni da Verrazzano. He is famous for being the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and Newfoundland, and for discovering the New York Bay in 1524. This discovery is why the bridge spanning the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island bears his name.
I awake on the third day of my tour in a 17th-century country house and it occurs to me that human beings have been conceived, born, lived, and died in this very room for over 400 years. The walls are freshly-painted plaster, their yellow hue the perfect shade for the faint early morning light.
There are lots of motorcycle "bucket list rides" in Appalachia, especially the Blue Ridge province. As a matter of fact Motorcycle Roads website ranks 30 of the top 100 motorcycling roads in America in the region.
I’ve been chasing an Italian man riding a BMW GS Wasserboxer motorcycle for the last six days through Lazio, Tuscany, and Umbria. Tomorrow we’ll be back to Rome, where the entire adventure began.
My travels have blessed me with countless—countless—chance encounters. From a fry cook walking across America before he goes blind, to a homeless Vietnam veteran, and the people who shared their journeys with cancer with me, I have been blessed, and my character molded by each one of them.
Six years ago this month I decided to learn to ride a motorcycle. Since then I've traveled 47 states and 5 provinces on my trusty BMW G 650 GS—often solo.
