Overview
In 2015, at age 57, the author set off on a motorcycle for his "journey of a lifetime." He took three months off from his work as a government analyst to ride across North America, and to document what he saw and felt. Inspired by a series of quasi-extreme challenges, he planned a route that connected Key West, Florida to the Arctic Ocean, including several thousand miles of nerve-wracking, unpaved roads in the Canadian sub-arctic and arctic. Traveling mostly alone, he was ultimately gifted with a profound sense of awe, finding—literally, figuratively, and spiritually—his modest place in the universe.
Though carefully planned, his journey included many surprises, from dire to delightful. Each near-death experience felt like a "strike," but each unexpected treasure, a stroke of serendipity. The theme that connected many of his planned excursions was the Earth's natural history, but in addition to dozens of the unique natural features and biomes of North America, he also encountered a cowboy on a triceratops, an oasis-slash-truck stop in the middle of nowhere, and a one-night-only concert by a favorite artist he'd never planned to see. At every stop, he talked to people, and everywhere he went, they were fascinating.
Partly inspired by, and partly in spite of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, this book is an account of a modern-day odyssey that is sure to resonate with readers who have ever traveled outside of their comfort zone, or who dream to do so someday.