Even I get caught up in the romantic notion of riding a motorcycle across the open landscape under sunny blue skies with the wind in my face. The reality of the road brings me back to earth. Every time. Last…
Category: Adventure
Finding Strength and Serenity on Gravel Roads
My mission for the day was to get through it without backing down or crashing. It was a tall order but resolve under the guidance of an expert instructor won out. I didn’t expect the strength and serenity that came…
Preparing for Travel: Choose What to Bring Along
All going as planned, two weeks from today I’ll be riding through northern Michigan on Day Two of the Long Road Home moto-book tour. The next six days of riding and camping will take me across the northern states and…
Celebrate Life and Party Like It’s 1999!
I’m not a party animal but Prince’s Party Like It’s 1999 keeps playing through my mind. Why now? Written in 1982 it impelled listeners to let go and revel because why not? The world was ending in 2000. There were…
Porcupine Wisdom and Speeding Through Life
The irony of last week’s blog title, Caught Speeding, only dawned on me yesterday. It’s not the first time I’ve been caught this year. But it was an unexpected encounter with porcupine wisdom that made the lesson stick. In January,…
Dancing on the Edge of Comfort—Without Crashing
Sunshine, blue skies, and mid-70s-breezes embraced me as I set off for home from the Horizons Unlimited Travellers meeting in Virginia last Sunday. Perfect riding weather belied that I’d be dancing on the edge of comfort before long. I’d taken…
Mennonites and Motorcycles, and Magic
Motorcycles and Mennonites merged at last weekend’s Calgary Motorcycle Show. Events like this connect you with community, culture, and others who share your interests. While you know you’ll rekindle old friendships, common bonds and shared roots quickly transform strangers into…
Shattered Plans Usher in Day One of 2019
When the phone rang at 6:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, I knew my plans were about to change. I’d made space for a peaceful, Zen day of meditation, hiking in the woods, and envisioning the coming year. The nurse…
The Story Behind the Story of Crash Landing
by Liz Jansen In 2014 I set out on a solo motorcycle adventure, expecting to be on the road for twelve- to eighteen months, traveling the Americas. My purpose was to seek the answer to who I was before my…
Finding Calm When Quitting is Not an Option
by Liz Jansen It was a two-part challenge. First came a day of riding big-rig-dense Interstate 20 across Texas during autumn storms. The second, heralded by foreboding skies, came the next day and took the first day’s lessons to a…
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