All FIFTY, At FIFTY!

On a motorcycle, that is!

Oh yeah ... I drove a motorcycle in all FIFTY states!

Even Hawaii.

But for that one, yeah, I had to actually rent a 500cc Honda road bike, in Honolulu, for a day, as I drove around the island of Oahu, while on my 50th Birthday "AROUND THE WORLD in 64 DAYS" tour thingy!

What a riot that was!

Yeah, all FIFTY states by my FIFTY summer, right here on this planet!

And all on a motorcycle!

I got my motorcycle license (A YEAR before my car license) back when I turned SIXTEEN (1971), and took my first cross-country motorcycle trip two years later, after I graduated from high school at EIGHTEEN. Yeah, then that summer (1973), oh yeah, I drove from Northern New York, to very Southern Arizona, by way of Chicago, and then back home again, by way of a more "Southern Route"!

That got me started!

Then New York to Florida (1974) ...

Then that "Around the Outside Border of the Country Tour", that very next Summer (1975) ...

Then, yeah, I spent a couple of years over in Japan (JUDO!) back in 1976/78, where I bought TWO motorcycles to get around on! First a crazy, small, skinny,"trials bike" that they didn't even export to the States! Very different than any of my other "road" nikes I ever owned, that was for sure!

But yeah! Perfect for those TINY, little, narrow, roads, while driving around on the "wrong side" of the road over there!

Loved it!

Then before I left, yeah I actually bought, and "fixed up", a "REAL" motorcycle! Even brought that one back home with me!

Oh yeah! The classic, Honda CB750cc, four cylinder, touring bike! Which yeah, then I got a friend in my Mortar Section, who owned a pick-up truck, and yeah, we drove up from Camp Lejeune, NC, to where I "picked it up" in Norfolk, VA, on some Naval Base, when it arrived from Japan, a few months, or whatever, via some U. S. Naval ship (I guess)!

Been awhile ...

Crazy, I know!

Then, when I got out of the Marines, like, six months later, yeah, I drove it down to Daytona, Florida during "BIKE WEEK"!

Wild!

And then down to Clewiston, Florida, where my mother, and family, were then living ... I needed to wait until it "warmed up" a bit before driving it up to New York (I got out on 2 Mar 79), where I lived with my grandfather while going to college up in Watertown, NY, for two years, and then over in Brockport, NY (JUDO!), along the old Erie Canal, until I graduated in 1983.

Yeah, but the summer BEFORE my last year at Brockport, yeah, I took a little trip up to Alaska! Yeah, what a trip that was! The "old" ALASKAN HIGHWAY, with the dirt, gravel and all! And when it RAINED, and it did, yeah!

THE MUD!

Wild ride ... And then back to college! Where I "ran into" my old roommates girlfriend. Little did I know, they had "broken up", and yeah, was she glad to see me!

Then, of course, that following summer, yeah, my "famous", two month, "HONEYMOON TOUR" aboard my ("our") very same, BMW R60 (600cc) motorcycle,you know, once we got married after college ...

That was crazy!

Then, she joined the Army, and yeah, there for "a few years", I didn't even own a motorcycle! And we even got stationed over n GERMANY, where yeah, they actually make BMW motorcycles!

I know!

But yeah, we "got around" Europe pretty good on trains at first, and then, get this, in a new Nissan (or was it a "Datsun"?) car we bought right "off the boat"!

Yeah, Bremerhaven, Germany, is a "Port City", way up there in Northern Germany, and yeah, we got the car, like I said, literally, "right off the boat"!

We drove that all over the place!

Even got down to Turkey (on a military flight!) where, while driving a rental car all around, yeah, I came across this "new" BMW motorcycle thing, that was WILD looking! Yeah, with a HUGE gas tank (like 10 gallons)!

Just "CRAZY LOOKING"!

I mean, just sitting there, it screamed "ADVENTURE"!

Something about this wild race from PARIS, then across the Mediterranean via ships (I guess!), and then across North Africa (The Sahara!), to a place called DAKAR, in Senegal, there on the Northwest coast of the continent, which yeah, was a "BIG DILL" back in the day!

The famous, PARIS/DAKAR RALLY! Motorcycles, cars, trucks, you name it!

And yes! BMW motorcycles (like mine!) won it several times!

But yes, I checked ... It is now just called the "Dakar Rally", but it is still an annual event!

Cool.

My FAVORITE motorcycle, like EVER!

And the one I owned the longest (what? Like TWELVE YEARS)!

Which I then "gave up" after a motorcycle "Camping Tour" trip thing out West, while "working" (photos and article!) for a motorcycle magazine (what? Like, ROAD and BIKE, or some such thing?) ... Yeah, which turned out to be "The Last Straw" in my twenty year marriage, which, I might remind you, all began, like, right after that "other motorcycle trip" up to Alaska, the summer before (ON THE SAME MOTORCYCLE!) my Senior year at college!

But I won't go there ... Talk about a" CRASH"!

By biggest regret.

But yeah, that led to me finding out about, and "working" for, yeah, VIKING RIVER CRUISES!

They were, well, much slower, but yeah, "kind of nice"!

Worked for me.

Took MANY (12) trips with them, over the next ten years, or something!

And when I turned FIFTY (2005, yeah, I had worked out a couple of VIKING RIVER CRUISES, in both Russia, and China, along with a "little" trip across RUSSIA" connecting the two, you know, aboard The Trans-Siberian Railroad, on my own, yeah, it all came together just as I had planned (dreamed) it up!

FIFTY states, on a motorcycle, in the year I turned, you know, FIFTY (50), on an "AROUND THE WORLD ADVENTURE", like no other!

I know, I still can't believe it myself! Let's see if I can even remember how it all came about, but give me a break! It was over TWENTY years ago ...

I started off the summer with an "early", white-water rafting trip out West, where I took photographs for, you know, O.A.R.S. ... A company I had "worked with" before".

Then, I flew to Munich, then met up with an old friend, who was in the Army, and was stationed in Germany, where we had met a few years before. He then got me to the train station, where I must have gotten to Moscow, for a two-week long VIKING RIVER cruise, returning for a night in a real hotel, before I boarded a train to St Petersburg, Russia. Once there, yeah, I got to the train station, met my guide (somehow!), and then boarded the Trans-Siberian Railroad, you know, "THE TRAIN" that then took me all the way to China, with a nice, little "Stop Over" in Mongolia, before boarding my second two-week VIKING cruise through CHINA, and then ending up in Shanghai, where I spent an "extra night", before getting to the airport, and flying to Hawaii, where I spent four nights, and rented a motorcycle, and drove that around for a day, out into the pineapple fields, and then, when I couldn't find a hotel room that night, yeah, I found a nice "quiet" spot on the beach, and slept right there for the night!

Hey! One night, no worries! I loved it. Reminded me of some of my "earlier trips" back in the day!

But yeah, that next morning, I got back into "my old hotel room" once again, for one more night!

Perfect.

Yeah! I know, CRAZY!

But yeah, what a nice, "vacation", while on my CRAZY, around the world, "50th BIRTHDAY TOUR", that was! Yeah, my 50th state on a motorcycle, during my 50th year on earth!

That was fun.

And yeah, my actual birthday was back in April ... Yeah. What a crazy, wild, "50th BIRTHDAY/SUMMER VACATION ADVENTURE" that was!

Or, you know, whatever I called it!

All I remember is that yeah, it was INSANE! Sitting here now, trying to remember everything, yeah! I can't believe it actually, you know, really happened!

But where was I?

Oh yeah, this old Road Atlas photo I have ... Which I took a photo of a few years back (I checked, and found this: 2/17/2019) ... Cool.

Yeah, I keep them around, you know, for times like this. You, and by that, I mean me, never really know when you might use/need them!

That said, yeah, I went up, and grabbed a few of my "old trip notebook" things, that I wrote in on each "Road Trip" I took back in the day, but yeah, I got so "distracted" reading about all "the other" trips, that yeah, I gave up looking for "THE BIG ONE"!

Which doesn't really "narrow things down" that much ... I got "lost" on that whole KATMAI NATIONAL PARK adventure I took, you know, photographing those "Brown Bears" (ahh, GRIZZLIES!), when they come right up next to you, while you kneel there hiding behind your tripod, freakin' out, as they munched on that tall grass, like, RIGHT THERE in front of you!

Close. Real close!

Intense.

INSANE!

Like, really, REALLY, big bears, like really, REALLY close ... What an "overnight", camping experience that was! Lke, RIGHT THERE along the "Bear Highway", or whatever that TRAIL was called that the bears took every day! In the same footprints! For MILES,and MILES, like right there along the whole coastline!

Again, CRAZY!

Sorry.

But hey, it was ALASKA, so yeah, work with me here, people!

Ahh, you know, one of the FIFTY states this BLOG thing is all about!

Look at the TOP of the photo! Up to your LEFT! !

And at the BOTTOM left, right down here!

See it? Yeah, just right above the word "AND" in the above sentence! Yeah, I circled it for you! But yeah, check your atlas (or ZOOM THIS OUT), it is right there where the "Panhandle" starts to stick out of Southern Alaska ...

Or yeah, you know, just "GOOGLE IT"!

KATMAI NATIONAL PARK.

You know how things are done now-a-days! Duh?

Just one of the MANY places you just have to "experience" once in your lifetime!

Oh, and a "few more" other places in the United States are also CIRCLED for you as well, you know, if you are interested in visiting some more places!

Just saying.

Here, I'll make it even EASIER for you:

All the NATIONAL PARKS, and NATIONAL MONUMENTS, in the United States! How's that?

Start there, they should keep you busy for, ahh, your whole LIFETIME!

They have mine!

Or, you know, from the time I could drive, that is!

Or fly.

Or board a ship.

But I'll just leave all that up to YOU!

Enjoy.

I have.

And will.

For as long as I can.

And yes!

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT ONE TOO!

See ya!