Tours

Jan/Feb '05 Premium Content

High-Country Idaho

One of the most absurd advertising taglines ever conceived to appear on a license plate has to be the one chosen for the drivers in Idaho: "Famous Potatoes." Arguably, the Gem State contains the highest concentration of eye-popping scenery in the US, with its soaring, snowy mountains, plunging

Jan/Feb '05 Premium Content

Crossing the Delaware

The Delaware River was treacherous with ice on Christmas night 1776 when General George Washington led 2,500 Continental Army soldiers across in small boats during a snowstorm. A bold and dangerous mission, but one that quickly led to a stunning victory over the British and Hessian soldiers occupying Trenton,

Jan/Feb '05 Premium Content

Eureka Springs, Arkansas Shamrock Tour®

My destination, Eureka Springs, an authentic nineteenth-century resort tucked away in the Ozarks, is 992 miles away. While on my way and passing through the Smokies, it was 37 degrees and sleeting. The next afternoon in Arkansas, it was 92 and bright. Quite a contrast, and it set the tone

Nov/Dec '04 Premium Content

In and Around Washington's Cascade Range

The Cascade Mountains of Washington State are subjected to the regular four seasons of the northern calendar: Nearly Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction. So, it's no surprise to find those familiar orange diamonds indicating road repairs on Highway 2. But this summer, a new, more ominous sign

Nov/Dec '04 Premium Content

Missouri

I'm 38 years old and I've only been west of the Mississippi River by air. Today, that all changes. As the miles tick down to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the anticipation is beginning to grow. If I'm going to tour Missouri, I have to complete

Nov/Dec '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Portland, Oregon

As we dismount in the parking lot of Mount Hood's Timberline Lodge and gaze at the still snow-draped peak that towers above us, Christian proclaims, "I'm blown away. It's like God created the world in six days, and then on the seventh, He

Nov/Dec '04 Premium Content

New Zealand: Canyons and Water Crossings

I don't like heights and what stood (actually, swung) between us and the other side of the 450-foot-deep canyon was a single-lane wooden suspension bridge that appeared to be doing the Mambo in the high wind. Ah, New Zealand, the land where bungee jumping originated, where some extreme

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Northern Arizona

I awake in Flagstaff to a dusting of snow on the trees and bushes. More of the same is heaped upon the naked rock that crowns Humphrey's Peak, the highest point in Arizona. This sharp summit, stretching 12,633 feet above this old railroad town, tears holes in

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Norway: Wild, Scenic Fjord Country

Want to explore Europe's wild North? Then traveling western Norway between the historic city of Bergen and Geiranger, along the secluded coast and over the central mountains with its demanding rides around Dalsnibba and Trollstigen, is your best bet. When the Fjordlines ferry Bergen opens its jaw-like flap,

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Eastern Ohio

Why did the black snake cross the road? I don't know either. Maybe he's fleeing to higher ground from the floodwaters that have recently plagued the Eastern Ohio countryside. Maybe the critters on his menu are just a bit more succulent on the other side. Either

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Missouri Rhineland

Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet left the first written account of the land that became Missouri after descending the Mississippi River in 1673. Today, Father Christian Neuhauser, his wife Christa, and their sons Manuel and Florian are on the road with Aprilias and Piaggios to follow their trail. Fathers

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

In search of Washington's Coastal Mountains

At a Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group meeting the president looks over and says, "Robert's just back from an interesting trip."And perhaps a bit too smugly I begin to sketch the details of my recent tour of Washington's Olympic Peninsula; 700 miles in three

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Williamsburg, Kentucky

Two-lane asphalt snakes its way through steep mountain gorges sculpted over millions of years by rushing streams. Lush vegetation presses in from all sides, often overarching the road and blotting out the sun. My feet and hands move with practiced precision, downshifting, tapping the brakes, leaning deeply into the curves,

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Appalachian Trails

Most riders and drivers prefer to wait for autumn's cavalcade of color for scenic tours along the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway. In the summer, these outrageous roads are packed full when loads of city slickers escape the lowland humidity for picnics and maybe some napping in

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Florida Keys

While other parts of the country have mountains with impressive, winding roads, the vertically challenged state of Florida has its share of gorgeous curves, too  -  all courtesy of its renowned beaches, resorts and beauties baking in the year-round sun. Add great fishing, diving, seafood, and all manner of water

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Montenegro: Land of the Black Mountains

Although only the size of Connecticut, the breakaway republic of Montenegro has it all for tourism  -  beaches and mountains, lakes and canyons. Thankfully, most of the tourists haven't caught on yet. Mount Lovcen There's a saying in Montenegro: "To be able to understand the

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Rutland, Vermont

No longer summer, not quite autumn  -  on impulse I stopped by Vermont's newest motorcycle dealership, Lucky's Motorsports. With the Beemer more than a little ragged-looking after my crash in the Berkshires, I was hoping to acquire a photogenic factory ride for Shamrock use. And as

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

A Short Ride the Long Way

It's 6:30 on a July Saturday night in The Dalles, Oregon, a tidy lumber town on the Columbia River. Snagged in a street festival, we crawl the stop-start traffic, boiling inside our leathers, engines pinging, clutches slipping. I spy an outdoor time and temperature display: 102 degrees!

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Southeast Oregon

It was my fourth visit to Oregon in a year. After taking in the tall-treed majesty of the Cascades, the rambling golden grasslands of the northeast and the soaring ridges of the Wallowa Mountains, I was expecting my meander around the high desert of southeast Oregon to send me to

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Kalispell, Montana

Sprawled just north of Flathead Lake in northwest Montana, Kalispell is a terrific spot for a shamrock base. To the east, you have the magnificent Rockies and Glacier National Park; north and west, the rambling peaks of the Salish and Cabinet Ranges; and then the 28-by-15-mile lake and the Mission

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Northwest Wyoming

Yellowstone, the world's oldest national park, is one of the five most endangered in the country. A study in contrasts, the 3,400 square miles (2.2 million acres) of parkland are protected from development yet overrun by smog-spewing RVs and snowmobiles; it's wild and dangerous

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Canada: Prince Edward Island

The topography of Canada's smallest province reminds me of the old joke about a carpenter's dream being "flat as a board." Having ridden my 1995 Honda Shadow along the perimeter of this 135-mile-wide island, I now know a bigger joke: the condition of its

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

High Country Roads

On a cool October morning as I leave my home in Mayodan, the place where the Mayo and the Dan rivers converge, my hometown in the northern Piedmont of North Carolina seems a long way from the Carolina high country. I'm excited though because I know that in

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Australia: Tassie-Mania!

Complacency can kill. I'm accelerating away from a gas station near Wynyard on Tasmania's A2 north coast road when I see a "ute"  -  an Aussie pickup  -  heading straight for me on my side of the road. For a second I'm

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Indiana: Hoosier National Forest

Hoosier National Forest is an amazing sight any time of the year, but when autumn's frost comes to visit, the hills and valleys come alive with a show to overwhelm the senses. When the folks at RoadRUNNER asked me, a Hoosier born and bred, to ride the roads