Motorcycle Misadventures

Motorcycling in Europe this summer? Here's the rule book

Mike Werner has helpfully posted some legal pointers for motorcyclists visiting Europe. In all countries, it is mandatory to ride with a helmet. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, German, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, UK. Going to Spain? Take note: Motorcycles and sidecars are not allowed to have a trailer. It is also mandatory to have spare light bulbs for your front and rear lights. Thanks Mike! I also read somewhere that those Spanish highway patrol are merciless, so if you see a car flashing lights at you, slow down, your fellow motorist is warning you that a speed trap lies ahead.

America's Back Roads

Joe, loved your piece, but I think that motorcycles are still the most versatile and gratifying of traveling devices, no matter where you are. You just gotta take the back roads. I mean, the back back roads.

My attitude toward travel, particularly the sort of travel that is readily accomplished on a motorcycle, has become somewhat conflicted with the passing years. A measure of my tainted mood can be attributed to creeping curmudgeonism, but the changing profile of America is equally culpable...It is hardly news that America’s “Blue Highway”, small town charm has been leveled by franchise culture. We all know too well the kid zoo-lined landing strips that make us “feel at home” as we enter Boca Raton or Laramie. More insidious and distressing are regional human peculiarities that are being subsumed by a universalism that is as codified as a Target floor plan. -- Joe's Corner, City Bike, November 25, 2003

Responsible Land Use: Bush's Budget Cuts Acquisition

As I prepare to go to Colorado this summer to explore the great outdoors on Sam Correro's Trans America Trail, I continue to hope that we will have the wisdom to keep some of that great outdoors for generations to come to enjoy. Today the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sent out a press release that disturbed me, part of which I've pasted in here:

While the Department of the Interior's budget is slated for a record $11 billion increase for FY05, the highly successful Land and Water Conservation Fund, which pays for land acquisition for parks and wildlife refuges and provides grants for land restoration and conservation, would be funded at a level $100 million below what Congress approved last year. The Interior budget request also contains deep cuts in endangered species programs. While the president requested increased funds for listing species as endangered, funding for recovery programs would be slashed by more than $9 million. The budget seeks to increase National Park Service funding by over $100 million, with about half of that total targeted at reducing the backlog of maintenance projects at national parks.

Continue reading this post for information on action you can take.

How I Got Started as a Travel Writer

People used to wait eagerly for news of the traveler; reports from Constantinople and Cape Town, remote locations most would never visit in a lifetime. Only a couple of decades ago, explorers would pack up their donkeys and their Sherpas, returning years later with a literary masterpiece. Today…well, we have instant gratification. I remember when it started, because that’s when I started my career as a travel writer.

Gadget Lust: International Cell Phones

Going overseas but confused about international cell phones? The Travel Insider has run an excellent 4 part article that details how to buy one. First," be sure it operates in all three bands and is 'unlocked' to allow it to work with any service provider in the world." International Cell Phones Michael Shapiro reviewed several services, too, in his TravelTech column in the San Francisco Chronicle in January, including rentals. I rented a RoadPost rental phone my last trip, and it worked great!