One of Angie’s co-workers pointed us at the DVD for Long Way Round which details Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s preparations and journey from England through Russia, down through Alaska and Canada, finally ending up in New York. For any motorcycle rider the story is simply amazing as they travel on unpaved, barely existent roads through countryside where there may be at most 100 people within 100 surrounding miles. Even for non-motorcycle riders the story is well worth the viewing.
There is a second series called the Long Way Down in which they travel down into Africa. I haven’t watched this yet, but it promises to be more of the same.
These videos, and the stories of other riders at BMW Xplor, has given me an itch to go do something crazy like that. We only have one life to live, and the longer I wait the more difficult it will become. We have a book that details rides around the Pacific Northwest. I’ll start there and see where it takes me, but I suspect that there might be a really long ride in the works for 2011 — assuming that I don’t go and sign up for another marathon in the wee hours of the morning.