A good, but short, collection of motorcycle travel essays
It doesn’t matter if you ride a Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Victory, Gold Wing or BMW, there’s one thing that most agree on. Riding the interstate is a necessary evil. We do it when the dictates of time force us to.
But if you believe Rand Rasmussen, spending solitary hours on the super slab can be therapeutic.
He admits to motorcycle heresy when he paraphrases this quote from the bible of motorcycle riding (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) “Joy may be found as readily in the lanes of a freeway moving forward at speed for uninterrupted hours without towns or stop signs or speed traps, as on curvy back roads.”
Heresy indeed, but I admire his courage in saying what many of us have discovered. There is a certain “zone” akin to meditation that comes from pinning the throttle at 85 or 90 mph for an hour at a time with little or no traffic to contend with. It’s not something you can do comfortably on two lane state roads.
I received a copy of the Revised I-94 Reader from Andy Goldfine at Aerostitch as a Christmas present. I tucked the small book away for the time when I’d need a diversion from the stress of publishing.
After sending the February issue to the printer, and not having enough time for a short ride, I pulled out this book hoping it would help ease my “deadline” nerves that plague magazine editors. Not expecting very much in the way of entertainment, I was pleasantly surprised and (within a couple of pages) fully engrossed as I shut out the world and rode along with Rasmussen through the Minnesota and North Dakota country side as he recounts his monthly trips along I-94 from Minnesota St. Paul to Fargo North Dakota.
All too soon I reached page 64, and the end, a little bummed there were no more stories.
Rasmussen has a talent to paint even the most mundane of circumstance with language so colorful you can almost smell the air, and feel the frost on your faceshield. This talent must come from his curious nature and the long hours of introspection on the freeway he spent has years logging thousands of miles upon.
If you like a good diversion, you owe it to yourself to download Revised I-94 Reader from Amazon.com ($3.00) for the Kindle reader. If you don’t own a Kindle or a smartphone, I’m sure you can contact Aerostitch and get a hard copy.
– Scott Cochran, Editor USRiderNews
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