read online

Underlying the excitement and anticipation are the mundanities of preparation. Instead of jumping on my motorcycle and roaring off, the way the movies would show it, I am buying camping equipment and underwear, stocking up on spark plugs, fiddling with carburetors, and trying to finish the technical manual I contracted to write before I leave.
But it is a hot, sunny Silicon Valley day and the motorcycle is parked one hour away over the hill in the garage of my cottage in Santa Cruz. I swear I can hear it calling me.

And though I want to leave tomorrow, today, now, and though I've traveled enough in my life to know the process, I'm strangely nervous about this particular trip, one that will take me around the edges of the United States. Although I'll also be crossing over the borders to Canada and Mexico, it is the U.S. borders that, up front, seem the most exciting and the most disturbing, and the thought of a journey here is giving me more butterflies than the pre-trip jitters I've had before overseas travel.

http://www.motorcyclemisadventures.com/americanborders/borders01.html