Tours

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Boise, Idaho

Departing from the heart of Idaho's capital city of Boise, you can be riding the open road in about 10 minutes. Since the state's principal claim to fame is its potatoes, you might expect to find yourself among potato plants. But those farms are elsewhere. You&

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Texas: Wandering the Wide Open Spaces

As I spur the big Heritage Softail® west out of Abilene, the light mid-morning traffic allows me to take an earnest survey of the immensity unfolding in every direction. Only smatterings of manmade structures and distant clumps of trees mar a limitless horizon that wouldn't budge the bubble

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Washington: In the Horse Heaven Hills

If you've never heard of Bickleton, Washington, don't feel bad; you're not alone. Little more than a general store, a tavern, and a 90-student K-12 school, the town lazily straddles a quiet county road (the grandly named Bickleton Highway) in the baked brown hills

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Canada: British Columbia, Coast to Cariboo

"Ho-hum," a friend of mine remarked, tongue-in-cheek, as we stood looking across British Columbia's vast Shuswap Lake, "just more mountains, forests, rivers and lakes." Well, for once, he was right. Southern BC is mostly forests, rivers, lakes and mountains. And as motorcyclists know, these

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Turkey: Scenic, Safe and Sensational

There is much to be said for seeing Turkey on a motorcycle. The roads, ease of traveling from the U.S., the unequalled historic and archeological wonders, and the excellent hotels and restaurants make it as convenient as touring in Europe. But the best reason for coming here is to

May/Jun '07 Premium Content

Canada: Newfoundland - To Terra Nova

We couldn't recognize much of what the attendant was saying as English, nor did we understand him when he smiled and rattled off a rapid-fire warning, "Yobettagedyoassoutofhere!" But we quickly got the message as the big truck approached. The man's dialect, we later learned,

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

Cruising Nevada's Lonely Roads

For a brief 18-month period between April 1860 and November 1861, the east-west route across central Nevada was the busiest it had ever been. Spurred by the looming civil war, California Senator William M. Gwinn proposed a fast mail service from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, provided the mail could

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Glens Falls, New York

The curves up the mountain are so tight that you are just peripherally aware of the rock alternating with the forested ravine, first left, then right; you're going so fast, you strain not to bang into the one or go sliding down the other. Your riding companion'

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

Southwest Georgia: Spring Below the Fall Line

Fleeing south on Interstate 85, I'm feeling relieved to have, once again, successfully completed another circumnavigation of the city of Atlanta. The sheet-metal maelstrom known as Interstate 285, encircling the Capital of the South, arguably has the capacity to supply more "interesting moments" than any road

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

Montana: Into the Big Sky Sunset

Heads still awhirl from a day of amazing sights in Yellowstone National Park, Kathy and I exit the West Entrance and suddenly enter the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. Even though the shadows are lengthening, we decide that it's better for us to push on past this crowded

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

North Carolina: Nags Head Revisited

Up until a few months ago I didn't have any fond memories of Eastern North Carolina. The unfavorable impressions that I retain spring from long-ago drives to Nags Head on the Outer Banks  -  dull, dispiriting trips taken in old, mephitic cars packed with battered musical equipment and

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

Canada: Meandering in Manitoba

You don't always need a Paris-Dakar race-rally replica with a jacked-up saddle, a monster fuel tank, and knobby tires to ride in exotic places. Equipped with a normal street bike and a healthy sense of adventure, you can leave the pressures of daily living behind and easily escape

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

Colombia: The Far Side Of The Moon

Riding a motorcycle around the world is the ultimate learning experience. Take Colombia. Whenever Uwe and I had thought about the northwestern-most country in South America, we immediately imagined drug cartels, chaos, and danger. We could only visualize the dark side of a country whose people have lived through many

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

Connecticut: Cruisin' the Constitution State

Despite being one of the most heavily industrialized states in the nation and occasionally being derided as nothing more than a "suburb" between Boston and New York, Connecticut has plenty of attractions and sites of historic import, as well as some beautiful and scenic roads to offer the

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

Alaska: A Ride Under the Midnight Sun

The sign is in bold black letters, and reads: "Stop. Authorized vehicles only." So we stop. We are in an Indian reservation called Mentasta Lake. Riding on the Alaska Highway from the Canadian border, we were heading southwest from the town of Tok on Hwy 1 until we

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

Wyoming: Of Prairies, Peaks, and Pronghorns

Loneliness must have come to the rolling hills of southern Wyoming just to get away from it all. It liked what it saw and settled down. And we can feel it trying to grab hold as we cross the treeless landscape, rolling along over the smooth surface of Highway 191.

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

Iceland: Reykjavik and the Golden Circle

On the basis of its name, you'd expect Iceland to be swathed in snowdrifts and its shores locked in a frozen sea. But thanks to the warming influence of the Gulf Stream's ocean currents, the coarsely serrated coastline that looms through swirling clouds in the window

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

Peru to Ecuador: In the Footsteps of the Incas

The cobalt blue waters of Lake Titicaca are dotted with fishermen in their reed boats. At an altitude of 12,628 feet, the air is crystal clear. White clouds hang low over the red and brown hills of the Altiplano, reflected in the mirror-like surface of the lake. Irrigated maize

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

The Flight of Davis and Lee

From the beginning of the American Civil War, "On to Richmond" became the rallying cry of Union troops. The Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 was a turning point in the war, and the bulk of both armies eventually entrenched and fought around the cities

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Bardstown, Kentucky

In many places, life is governed by stressful, pell-mell routines. Rush-hour traffic, get it done yesterday, I need that on my desk by five  -  now move, move, move! No wonder there always seems to be an underlying need to escape. That's why many of us ride. Out

Jan/Feb '07 Premium Content

Around the Delaware Bay

Hot humid weather makes the conditions for this day trip less than ideal, but I hardly notice any discomfort. My 1989 Honda GB500 single is sending lovely vibrations throughout my body as I rumble through one of the most historic areas in America Anchors Aweigh My 250-mile circumnavigation of Delaware

Nov/Dec '06 Premium Content

Northeast California

It's 6:00 a.m. when I awaken in my room at the River Inn in Redding, California, the sun streaking through a gap in the drapes. It's early summer and the city is sleeping off the pyrotechnic display and festivities of last night's

Nov/Dec '06 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Lexington, Virginia

According to the road signs, we're closing in on Natural Bridge, Virginia. Normally, it's a good thing to be nearing the night's comfort zone, especially after nine hours of riding on a hot summer day. But this evening is different. Kathy and I are

Nov/Dec '06 Premium Content

Pennsylvania's Great Lakes Region

Pennsylvania's historic Oil Heritage Region and its border on lovely Lake Erie beckon us northward from central Ohio for a three-day motorcycle tour. Running late, we fly up Interstate 71 toward Cleveland, then head northeast on I-90 toward the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, and I'm wondering

Nov/Dec '06 Premium Content

Classic Roads: Highway 191 - Utah

As the remaining miles of Arizona's claim to Highway 191 dwindle to single digits, we look back on all we've seen. From its cool, high-mountain passes to sweltering, wind-blasted deserts, the Copper State has presented some of the most imposing scenery we've ever encountered