Somewhere south of the abandoned real estate developments and failed dry land shrimp farms in central Florida, floating ash began to hit their windscreens. All around them ash fell, silently, covering the roadside and the fields beyond, transforming them. They were both stunned, unable to comprehend, staring at the transformed world, carpeted by ash. A […]

Marlow had the lead for the day. They were traveling on roads with which he was very familiar. Oblivious to any residual bad luck, they putted past the scene of Steve’s final breakdown on US 19 before joining US 27. The Florida section of this original northern Indiana-to-Miami road still possesses much of its charm. […]

Editor’s note: Many years after Steve’s decision to keep his Valkyrie he still has it along with a new Gold Wing. His devotion to this almost twenty year old family member prompted this loopy piece. Advances in modern motorcycle technology mean that motorbikes are living longer than ever before. This raises important end-of-road-life issues, as […]

Is there anything a man don’t stand to lose When the devil wants to take it all away Cherish well your thoughts, keep a tight grip on your booze ‘Cause thinking and drinking are all I have today – chorus from the Grateful Dead’s Mexicali Blues The road had thought differently about the bikers’ plans […]

Their bikes had been grooving and gliding the past two days. They had made good time and covered beaucoup miles across the southwest desert emptiness. If the bikes had been their dancing partners, they would have said that they were cutting a rug like they used to say back in the 1920s. None of them […]

During the previous day’s wanderings, they had another near out-of-gas experience in the west Texas outback along US 380. It seems that these desert Bible-belt, God-fearing folks don’t operate their gasoline stations on the Lord’s Day. Their engines-off coasting into a Rotan Texas gasoline and quickie mart station occasioned several new candidate nicknames for Augustus […]

Editor’s note: Plain everyday observation and recording of yesterday’s long ago road roam came in dribs and drabs in the author’s journal over many years. Most was a kind of reporting, actually a remembering of the ‘seeing,’ ‘hearing’ and ‘feeling’ from that one night. It was carefully transcribed on found scraps of paper whenever the […]

The room was one of those certain places where road pilgrims sometimes find themselves. They are located in an unseen world of lost opportunity, health and fortune. Most are found within two floors of artless, right-angled shelter that guests look at as a kind of oasis. Modern America sparks from multiple collisions of its tradition […]

After a brief blast on the interstate that morning, the newly reformed trio exited the world of slab concrete super highways and cement overpass columns to wander through the open country. They would sometimes be rolling on barely visible, dust coated roads, where only occasional ruins bespoke the ancient presences that required a road to […]

This day would be a low mileage day of a bit over 300 miles. Unfortunately it would be almost entirely on the I40 slab. It would be the last short day for a spell. They had the remainder of the US’s vast southwestern Big Empty to negotiate. They had a course plotted in the general […]