One man and his Triumph Bonneville across America - poetry, wit and observation as man and machine travel around the United States on a six-month marathon.
Get your motor running ...

NEWS

The Badger is home and ... well, if not loving it then glad to see the folks back home, at least. If you've followed his travels, stay tuned for the next big thing. If you're here for the first time, the whole journey lies before you to discover ... get clicking! Last new pix are at the bottom of the news column - scroll or click here

Badger's badges - Laconia, Sturgis, the lot

Bonny’s passage has been booked home. I am beginning to tidy up and put my bags in some kind of order. I spent a day or so with my dear friends Chuck and Marcia on the Blue Ridge, and if they do read this, yes the Harley IS nice, I just couldn’t admit it publicly. I pottered back to Asheville, where I spent a few days ‘chilling’, the emphasis being on chill. It eventually led to all sorts of things dropping into place. I had a link taken from the new chain, and a new front sprocket fitted. I stopped to do an Open Mike at a coffee shop, but they must have heard I was coming. I say this because the place was closed when I got there. Ah, the price of fame!
Stopping for coffee, I bumped into Candace again. Great way to say goodbye. So unexpected, yet I suppose I should be used to that sort of coincidence here by now. Equally coincidental was contacting Scot, whom I haven’t seen since Glacier Park, to find we were both heading to the Hostel in the Forest. Joel, a new friend who has sent the site some great pics of the Autumn leaves on the Blue Ridge, was also here.
There we have it. www.foresthostel.com - this is where Badgers unwind and come to terms with life and the universe. I came back here and decided to stay and ship Bonny back from Brunswick, then fly up to DC, saving me another freezing. Also it has proved the perfect place to step back from all I have learned and to contemplate a little on what comes next. It certainly feels more like I am approaching the beginning of something new rather than the end of a simple holiday. Some simple words from one person and who knows where it may lead me. Possibly at a complete tangent to all I had previously planned, possibly anywhere at all. I had intended to ride down to Louisiana again, but the Blue Moon was fully booked, and that didn’t leave enough time. As for Ohio, not rideable as it is way too cold for me up there right now. I suspect it will be warmer when I come back, as return I will.
Brunswick it is, a nice backwater, but woe, the fun and games getting Bonny tucked up on a nice boat home! Tucked up is exactly how I felt after all the conflicting information given by ONE shipping company. Follow this if you will ...
Fare aprox. $500, this is good and I am happy, however I need a piece of paper called a dock receipt or somesuch. The office in Brunswick does not issue them, the shipping agent charges $250 and won't give out forms for free, the dock office doesn’t hold them, and no one else has them. This is NOT restrictive practice, but Free Enterprise USA style! Then, surrendering to a VERY helpful agent, I find I need $1000, not $500, ahem, cash please Mr Badger, no cards cheques, and, oh, no banks will release that much to me on my cards. It was a fun filled day, wandering through the 1950s with such aplomb. Eventually compromise was reached, and I was free to fly happily, through gritted teeth, to Washington DC.
This also was a grand experience in the name of ‘Homeland Security’. A line half a mile long, removing jacket, shoes, offending articles (note the best way to reduce the amount of liquid in a bottle of brandy to the prerequisite 3oz is to stand there and drink it, whilst commenting that the last person to get this many clothes off me had to marry me).
DC. I spent a couple of nights at Mairin’s place again, hiring a car and popping to see friends in New Jersey and now Gettysburg. A car I have found is a lot wider than a bike and a lot slower BUT considerably warmer.
In a few days I will be back in England, I am excited to see everyone again and put into action the plans and ideas that are nagging at me. Believe me, all my instincts tell me that this is not the end of a journey, but the beginning.

I am not sure if the next entry here will be from England but I suspect so, as it will be then that I will be able to take stock, thank people and contact individuals that I so want to keep in touch with

A bridge too far
The shadow returns ...
Mealy bug
Why did ... oh, forget it!
Sunshine and motorbikes


PICTURES

Click through to the photo archive to see these and other images in more detail ...

Back in black ...

The Triumph Bonneville - home and looking well-travelled in (sunny) Hastings, but home for how long, eh? And look here at the Badger, grinning like he knows something we don't, in Waterstone's bookshop in Hastings... stay tuned.

Badger in the bookshop!



BADGER'S NEW ESSAY -
'On Adopting a Highway'
Click to read!

BADGER'S NEW POETRY -
Click to read!


Click to go to the Macmillan website

Miles and miles ...

MILEAGE: THE GRAND TOTAL
Reading at return to Hastings: 26062
Reading at arrival Washington DC: 7667
GRAND (and very grand it is too) TOTAL: 18395

This is ridden bike miles, I added 600 by car plus one flight.
Sadly it seems that the CSA Charity team were disinclined to run the mileage sweepstake or add the site as part of their fund raising for 2006.
I would like to apologise now if I have given any wrong impressions about said fund raising. Any queries regarding this should be addressed to the Charity Team at my previous employers. I will endeavour to make a token personal donation to Macmillan Nurses, and I sincerely hope many other readers will be moved to do the same.

(email here)

The Journey
Badger

Badgers may be wise but are not famous for being well travelled, so why this one?
I travelled the world as a boy seaman between 1969 and 1971. I have written and performed or recited my own and others' poetry since 1974 and have started to write several books, but have yet to finish even one ... [more]

Badger - the Man
Badger - the man ...
Poet, parent, doorstep philosopher and romantic idealist ... I have tried a dozen times to introduce myself and every attempt reads like a bad eulogy! Believe me, the journey is far from over yet! [more]

America - the Map
Click to check out Badger's route across the USA
Click the tiny map for a real map showing the route Badger is taking across America! The red line represents the route - any liberties taken with the interstate highways are the webmasters fault!

Visit the website maker