Tours

Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content

Skyline Drive, Virginia Shamrock Tour®

The Great Appalachian Valley is a gigantic trough that stretches 700 miles from Canada to Alabama. The eastern boundary, for most of its length, is the Blue Ridge Mountain Range. Skyline Drive threads its way along the top of these mountains in north central Virginia for 105 miles; it will

Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content

California

It's as much about the time - and the roads - leading up to the race, as it is about the race itself. In July 2010, my brother Jim and good friends Pete, Gary F., and Gary K., and I spent five days of motorcycle touring together, logging

Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content

Part III: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio via Route 50

For the better part of our journey across the United States, Kathy and I have felt that we were being followed. Like the incessant footfalls of an unseen pursuer, the potential for rain and nasty weather has plagued our daily routine. Though drops have not always fallen, the need to

Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content

World Travelers: Brazil's Amazon Jungle, Part II

The fall from the bridge was this morning. The day has been a blur of failed mechanics interspersed with lost consciousness. I can't choke back any more drugs, especially as we have so few and no soon opportunity to gain more. As the daylight disappears the thick Amazon

Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content

Northern Arizona

Something is rustling outside. I'm lying in the tent and my thoughts circle around bears. But bears here in this semi-desert area of Arizona? Can't be! I just want to continue sleeping. no way. The strange visitor outside rustles more. I shout through the canvas of

Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content

Reader Ride: Florida Coast

St. Augustine, FL, the nation's oldest city, is a twenty-minute ride south on the super-slab from Jacksonville, but where is the fun in that? Instead of the Interstate, I opt to take a more circuitous route. I leave Jacksonville on State Road 13, through Fruit Cove, towards the

Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content

World Travelers: Brazil's Amazon Jungle, Part I

It's been said that what we do defines us. Yet perhaps it's as much about what we do, as it is what we endure and what we learn from? We find out who we really are only when we're pushed past what we thought

Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content

Riding and Eating in the Berkshires, Massachusetts

It's one of the ironies of motorcycling — you sit there on the bike, the motor doing all of the hard work, and you get hungry. Really hungry. It's understandable on a bicycle, your legs pumping like Lance Armstrong and your furiously beating heart making you regret

Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content

Las Vegas to San Francisco

Everybody warned me not to go through Death Valley in summer, but nobody said a word about Las Vegas! So I find myself in the stop-and-go traffic on I-15, as I try to get out of the city. The thermometer on the bike shows exactly 105 degrees. Underneath my riding

Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Hannibal, Missouri

Designate a pivot point for the Midwest and it could surely be Hannibal, MO. Located on the Mississippi River north of St Louis, MO, and south of Quincy, IL, it's darn close to dead center. It's the bastion of Midwest "manners," a mix of

Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content

Reader Ride: Michigan

Thirty years ago, in an attempt to replace a native herd hunted to extinction in the 1920s, the state of Michigan re-introduced elk to the Pigeon River State Forest. A great success, a large herd of the impressive beasts now call the northeast corner of the lower peninsula home. One

Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content

Coast to Coast on the Cross Country Part II: Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri via Route 50

The cool, dry May, desert air carries a slight nip as it pours over the Victory Cross Country's short windshield and proves an excellent adjunct to the pick-me-up qualities of our breakfast caffeine. The early morning traffic is light, the road lonely, and in the distance, the fabled

Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Bristol, Virginia

A late spring tour in the southern mountains often brings rainstorms along for the ride. On the way to Bristol, the dark and ominous clouds chase us wherever we go. Then, finally, in Jefferson, the rain gets a hold of us and doesn’t let go until we get back

Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content

Apostle Islands, Wisconsin, and Minnesota

The rustle of autumn leaves and the sight of a golden pumpkin can bring back memories of high school football games, neighborhood battles of Kick-the-Can, and the sweet smell of leaded exhaust from your first bike. This kind of nostalgia can be dangerous, especially if you still own a bike

Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content

Part II: Four-State Anasazi Archeology Tour: Utah, Arizona and New Mexico

The modern-day popular media has often portrayed the Anasazi people as having mysteriously vanished without a trace. Some have even implied that there is a paranormal or extraterrestrial explanation for their “sudden” disappearance. In our quest to better understand the more earthly explanation for the Anasazi’s disappearance, Steve and

Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content

Part I: California, Nevada, and Utah via Route 50

While the Interstate Highway system may be the quickest way to wheel from sea to shining sea, it certainly lacks the personality that most motorcycle travelers seek. On the other hand, the process of discovering small towns, local color, and scenic stretches can eat into those precious vacation days. Well,

Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content

Malaysia, Motosikals & MotoGP

Malaysia Tourism asked RoadRUNNER if we'd like to come and see what this booming Asian country has to offer. The roots of this tour really began back in 2008 when I rode a Borneo expedition with the "Bumi Bikers," a large group of prominent motorcyclists active

Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content

The International Selkirk Loop

Here we are in Castlegar, Nelson can't be very far. Climbing out of Castlegar on Highway 3, the view of British Columbia below is so captivating that I pull over to fully appreciate it. The Columbia River glistens in the afternoon sun like the chrome on the 2009

Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content

East Texas

And left my self-respect, on down the road I guess. And they won't catch me. I planned my getaway. And things are lookin' great 'cause it's a one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight..."Longneck"by The Von Ehrics* The raucous vocals and jackhammer drum lines of Texas

Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content

Southeast Asia

Our plan is to not have a plan; to let things happen by chance. Herbert and I have spent a good part of our lives riding to the last corner of this big round rock: 40 years and 595,000 miles collectively - enough experience to rely upon. This time,

Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content

New Mexico and Colorado

It's early September and the summer tourists have abandoned the 130,000- square-mile red rock landscape known by geologists as the Colorado Plateau. It contains the largest concentration of scenic wonders in America. Roughly centered where the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona meet, the plateau

Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Greenwood, South Carolina

When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road."Blue Highways" by William Least Heat Moon ..."Amersham 2411. I still remember her phone number." His

Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content

Reader Ride - Shaniko, Oregon

Don't call it a ghost town; Shaniko, OR, has maintained a population of 30 people. A far cry from the turn of the 20th-century town that billed itself as "the wool capital of the world." By 1911, a competing railroad line diverted much of the town&

Jul/Aug '10 Premium Content

Lake Superior - Canadian Side

Two countries, one lake. On the US side, Lake Superior abuts small towns, local businesses, and large industrialized cities. People abound. Yet, along the Canadian border, with the exception of Thunder Bay, the land is pristine, green, and seemingly untouched by man. As John, Jim, and I continue our Circle

Jul/Aug '10 Premium Content

Central America - Moto Mundo Maya, Part 2

As we continue our journey through four time zones and seven countries, we cross the border (frontera) from Mexico into Guatemala, near El Carmen. We're surrounded by chaos. At least a dozen pushing and shoving street hustlers encircle us, yelling simultaneously in Spanglish that they're the