New Adventure, new Bike

Well, I’m off on a new adventure. It’s the tame sort, I suppose, given all that I’ve been fortunate to do and see in the past year.

I’ve gone back in time a bit, and just picked up my (new to me) Suzuki DR350.

Back to basics--literally--on a small dual purpose bike.
Back to basics–literally–on a small dual purpose bike.

This the same bike I traveled on in the summer of 2009.  Edward and I crossed America that summer–TWICE! (Ok, thrice to be precise.) We started from CT and rode the ‘Trans America Trail”–a series of dirt roads, farm roads, mountain tracks, and forest roads that enable one to travel from Coast to Coast ALL on dirt roads.  We arrived in Port Orford, Oregon, some 6 weeks later.

Along the way someone mentioned the Continental Divide Ride (also known as the Great Divide Ride or the Continental Divide Trail for hikers) and, well, we’d both quit our jobs, had nowhere to be, so we thought that sounded like a pretty cool thing to do.

So then we set out for northern Montana and followed the trail along the Continental Divide crossing America again, this time from North to South. A few weeks later we ended up in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. By then it was getting close to my time to leave for South America, so we headed on back East.

Now after almost four months of hard use, and about 15,000 miles, that little DR350 was worn out. Somewhere on the way back home a mechanic mentioned to me that if I liked the 350, perhaps I’d get along with the Dr650, and voila’! I got it into my head, after heaps of research, that the DR650 was the best bike for my South America trip, and thereyago. I found a mint one to purchase, Twisted Throttle sponsored me, and I was off.

That’s where this blog started, more as a means to keep in touch with family and save me the trouble of having to call my Mom every night 🙂 Now Ive rambled quite a bit in the past 4 years, and the blog has followed. So I guess I am back full circle, both in bike and in blogging. It will be interesting to see where this little bike takes me.

If you are interested in an article I wrote on riding the Trans-America Trail, click here.

If you are interested in an article I wrote on riding the Continental Divide Trail, click here.

If you work for a company that publishes personal empowerment stories or read a magazine you’d think my adventure articles (on or off the bike) would be a good fit for, I’d love an introduction. That’s how I fund my travels.

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