This route leads through central Wasatch Mountain State Park and offers stunning views of the surrounding valleys and peaks. The best time to travel is in the summer, but even then unpredictable weather can bring snow. Autumn is especially beautiful. The loop is intentionally short to allow riders time to stop and take in the Wasatch Mountains. Clockwise is the best way to follow it. Pay attention to the weather as it can change very quickly.

Enjoy a relaxing ride through small towns and farmland to the northwest before dipping south into the Irish Hills, which got its name from the Irish immigrants who settled there in the 1800s. Some of the best scenery and roads in southeastern and central Michigan are incorporated in the route. May through September is a good time to go. Spectacular fall colors make the ride most gratifying September through October, weather permitting.

Peel back the thin veneer of modern life and you will find layers and layers
of history, stories of struggle and conquest, innovation and revolution. Turn your motorcycle into a time machine and immerse yourself in the past.

The Columbia River Gorge’s breathtaking vistas owe its heritage to a series of geological cataclysms during the last ice age. A huge 2,000-foot-deep glacial lake had formed over present day Missoula, MT. The ice dam, impounding the glacial melt, gave way, sending a massive torrent of destruction down the Columbia River. Geologists believe the ice dam may have formed, reformed, and collapsed more than 40 times, violently carving out the stunning basalt-lined gorge we see today.

A tawny, striped face stares at me, unblinking. The Bengal tiger must weigh almost 400 pounds, and she is only a few steps away. I didn’t know there were tigers in Arkansas. Her name is Crysta and she is a permanent resident at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, seven miles south of Eureka Springs. Thankfully, two stout fences stand between us. This is the best home she has ever known.

Arriving in Costa Rica a day 
early, Kris and I decide to take a walking tour of San José, the 
small country’s bustling capital. 


“Look for Big Al. Tell him Tall Paul sent you …” With a wave, these words end our first black cab ride in London. Who’d have thought our cabbie would know someone at the one Royal Enfield dealer in East London, where we are staying, on a trip that will have us riding two Enfields—a Bullet 500 and a Continental GT—counter-clockwise around England.

“WANTED: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to 
risk death daily.” I meet none of the prerequisites to qualify for this trip as the 1860 handbill 
advertised. Yet I’m intrigued by the history of the Pony Express Trail and reckon it’s as good a 
way as any to get to California.

It’s the most off-road-capable model bearing the Adventure name. The 1190 is no longer, having been replaced by the 1290 Super Adventure R with an increase in displacement. Visually, the Super looks similar to the 1190. The lighter, more agile 1090 Adventure R is more enduro than travel yet still puts out 125 hp. Packed with all the fancy electronics that make a good rider out of the average, especially on the loose stuff, it costs less than $ 15,000.

Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, Honda introduced America to the fun of smaller-displacement motorcycles. With its “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” advertising campaign—and a slew of low-cost and lightweight machines—the company put the Baby Boomer generation on two wheels and made lifetime enthusiasts out of many of them.