Many dream of riding across the USA on a motorcycle. A few actually get to do it. Not many are able to take four months to ride over 21,000 miles and achieve their lifelong dream. That is exactly what I did. I shipped my own Harley-Davidson across the Atlantic and set out on a remarkable journey of discovery in America. My ride took me to twenty-seven states in New England, the Midwest, the Rockies, the deserts of the south west and along the Californian coast. I saw some of the best that America has to offer. I was lucky to be able to plan my tour of the USA to include such iconic places as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, New England, the Great Lakes, the Rocky Mountains, Death Valley and many more.
I experienced the hectic pace of life of the big cities, visiting many, such as New York, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but preferred seeing the wide-open plains, mountains, back roads and the small towns of rural America. Wherever I stopped, I enjoyed talking to the locals. America is amazingly diverse, with so many things to see and people to meet. Almost everywhere I went, people greeted me warmly and wanted to hear my story about travelling across their country. They were genuinely interested in understanding what an outsider thought about where they lived.
Finding great roads to ride was a must. My pre-trip research meant I would get to ride some of America’s most stunning roads. The Million Dollar Highway in near Ouray in Colorado is spectacular, but the Beartooth Pass, on the border of Wyoming and Montana, is just breathtaking. I also took my Harley-Davidson to the top of the highest road in America, at Mount Evans on the outskirts of Denver. Like most bikers, I like to stay away from long straight roads and seek out those that twist and turn, and inevitably this meant I spend a great deal of time in the Rocky Mountain states. The map of the route I took certainly bears this out and explains why I was able to ride over 21,000 miles crossing a country that is a little over 3,000 miles at its widest point. My route bizarrely snakes through the western half of the country as I sought out the most wonderful roads in the mountains.
The road trip was such a huge success that I wanted to record it in some way. It seemed the best way I could do this was to write a book about the whole trip.
