Kawasaki invited me out to SoCal wine country to try out the updated KLX300 dual sport and KLX300SM supermoto. By the end of the day, I wished I had begun my dirt riding career on one of these instead of the bigger, heavier KLR650 I rode for three years. I’m not knocking the KLR, either. It’s a strong, solid bike that fit my needs until those needs changed when I got out west. I wrote all about it for ADVRider. Check it out.
Website Relaunch
Back in southwest Arizona for the winter, I have a bit more time on my hands now that I’m not traveling so much. I’ve just completed a major overhaul of this website to reflect my pivot to more editing work these days. My passion is still writing, and I’m definitely interested in writing opportunities, but editing work has been easier for me to find.
The biggest news is that I’m diving into offering book editing services for self-published authors. After doing a couple of books for a friend and other friends asking if I could edit theirs as well, this seems like a good opportunity to find a bit more work, so I’ve added information about this to the site.
To find out what I’ve been up to in my adventures on the road, be sure to check out Smokey Da Van. That’s my travel blog, while here I focus strictly on my writing and editing projects. Follow whichever site interests you — hopefully, both.
Gone Viral, Five Years Later
This morning a friend sent me a funny news clip about a Ford Crown Victoria that had been modified into a unique “cattle car.” Part of the body is cut away, a ramp added, and the passenger was a full-sized bull on the way back from a show.
What my friend didn’t know was that I wrote about this exact car for The Drive five years ago. It didn’t have the horns on the hood back then, but other than that it looks like exactly the same car.
It seems that I was truly ahead of my time.
The Back of the Dragon
Most car and motorcycle enthusiasts have heard of the Tail of the Dragon. But have you heard of the Back of the Dragon? This section of Route 16 connects Tazewell and Marion, Virginia. It boasts 438 curves in 32 miles, and 3,500 feet of elevation change as it crosses three mountains along the way.
I visited and rode the Back of the Dragon on my way north this past May. ADVRider just published my article about it.
Adventure Bikes at the Barber Museum
Here’s another example of my #vanlife travels leading to a feature article. Birmingham, Alabama is far off my direct route between Florida and New Hampshire. But this life isn’t about taking the direct route, so I made a big inland detour to visit the Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum. I could write so much about this place, with not only the biggest motorcycle collection in the world but also displays of famous race car drivers, as well as an entire wing devoted to the history of Lotus in racing.
I had to narrow it down a bit for ADVRider, so for this article, I focused on the stories of three adventure bike displays at the museum. One of them is the first motorcycle to cross the treacherous Darien Gap, an 80-mile section of dense forest between Panama and Columbia with no roads and lots of cartel activity. Another is a couple who rode around the world after he made a killing in the investment industry and retired at age 37. Must be nice. Finally, Longhaulpaul’s first bike, the Cure Chaser, is on display. I know Paul because we both hailed from New England when not traveling all over the country. We’ve crossed paths at a few shows and events. It was cool to see his original New Hampshire license plate, “NOCAR,” still on this bike.
I also spent a week in the area of the Tail of the Dragon on the Tennessee/North Carolina line, riding that famous road, the Cherohala Skyway, and part of Moonshiner 28. It was a good time, but I’ve already written about riding there and had little new to add except that my V-Strom worked better than my KLR. I also traveled to Virginia’s Back of the Dragon for the first time. That will be the subject of a future ADVRider article.
Justin Hughes 