Editor's Note: I have started to go back over my entries from the comfort of my armchair. It is my plan to polish things up a bit (but not too much!) fix spelling mistakes and flesh things out with additional pictures and video content. When I am finished I will release one final update to my distribution list.

I put this entry in so my stickpin map would start from Edmonton.

I purchased my first motorcycle in 1989, a red 1980 Honda Shadow. I went on a long weekend trip to Drumheller with a childhood friend of mine Alan Firt. The highlight of that trip was sitting at a picnic table in my rain-suit, in the driving rain, drinking off sale draft beer out of a plastic jug. I do not remember where I slept on that trip, but I do know it created a lifelong dislike of rain-suits!

From that humble beginning sparked a life-long passion for long distance motorcycle trips of which I have had 1 every year, with few exceptions, since 1989. A few of the stand-outs are;

• 1991, Edmonton to New Orleans
• 1992, Screamin' Lou's One Lap of North America
• 1998, Baja Peninsula, MX
• 2000, Brownsville, TX (I mistakenly thought that was the furthest point south in the US!)
• 2004, Attempt to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska stopped 275 miles short (Blog coming soon!)
• 2009, Tucson, AZ: Boneyard & Pima Air Museum (Blog coming soon!)
• 2010; Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute (Blog coming soon!)

In the years in between I would often to just go to the Great Basin National Monument in the NV/AZ/CO/NM area and hang out. I love the desert! I only missed 2 years that I can think of over that span. A rough calculation of my trip mileage over the years is around a quarter million kilometers.

Our goal this year is to ride from Edmonton directly to Atlanta where I have a CSAPS plastic surgery shoot next week, then continue on to my ultimate goal; Key West, Florida. From there we will drive to Daytona Beach, FL and store my bike for a few days at a Triumph dealership, get a new rear tire and fly to Philadelphia for a second CSAPS shoot.

Returning to DB I hope to visit an old friend in nearby Ft. Lauderdale, then fulfill a childhood dream to see Kennedy Space Center, then drive home.

Although I have a number of commitments and locations to stop at en route, the essence of any motorcycle trip is about the journey not the destination. My reason for going to Key West is simple; although I do not personally embrace the term 'Bucket List' I have been as far West & East as you can drive in Continental North America, and narrowly missed accomplishing the same North. The 'Knob' at Key West accomplishes that goal to the South.

You will find that my writing style is in the second person, which can be confusing. I often use the terms 'we', 'us' or 'our' but this is a solo trip. When I speak that way I feel it more like I am bringing you, the reader, along with for the ride.

I used to ride with other people, but short of riding with Eryn, my wife, I have grown to loathe riding with other riders on a long distance trip. You are either waiting for them, or feeling guilty they are waiting for you. I often see large groups, sometimes 20 or more of riders together. I cannot comprehend how that can be enjoyable? Also being with even 1 other person makes it hard to meet other people.

It is my goal to regale you with tales on a daily basis, submitting my daily entry supported with pictures and video from each days ride. Naturally I will be a slave to the strength of my Internet connection, and how bagged I am each day. In my youth when on trips like this one I used to spend every evening closing down the nearest bar but the passage of time, and some maturity has toned down that activity.

That being said I still enjoy tasty adult beverages in great abundance, and the self medicating properties of that elixir cannot be understated once you've sat on a motorcycle day after day for hours on end!

Please feel free to share this blog with anyone you might think would enjoy it. It is my ultimate goal to inspire others to travel, not necessarily by motorcycle, but by any means you can afford.

I will leave you with a few favorite quotes of mine, meant to inspire and motivate, I think the Robert Louis Stevenson one is the most appropo! We'll talk soon from the road!


Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt"

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”
- Robert Louis Stevenson