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Two Wheels Two Countries One Dream

by Daniel Edward Murphy

236 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0782; ISBN 1-55395-068-2; US$23.50, C$26.50, EUR19.50, £13.50

Daniel Edward Murphy had a dream of riding a motorcycle across the Alaska Highway. He quit both his jobs and did that and more.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book How far would you go to obtain a dream? What do you do when the dream career you wished for all your life becomes a reality but doesn't work out? In Dan's case he tries another. Quitting the best job you've ever had to go on a motocycle trip on the Alaska Highway. how about learning to ride one first. What about buying a motorcycle first! The highs and lows of a once in a life time adventure. From Newfoundland to Alaska to the Grand Canyon and other places from the perspective of riding alone on a motorcycle, go with him as he tries to attain a dream. What is your dream?

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About the Author Dan has worked at various jobs such as dishwasher, mail clerk, brokerage & bank messenger, van driver, usher, furniture delivery, courier and actor. He currently lives in Toronto.

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Excerpts

It is roughly two weeks until Christmas. Christmas is looking good. The motorcycle trip is looking bad. I have saved a grand total of two hundred dollars. Far short of the projected fifteen hundred I ought to have saved by the end of December. On top of that, the theatre I work at part-time is closing for about a month and a half, and won't start really cooking again until the musical "Tommy" opens in February. The two hundred I did save will surely be gone by that time. But the completion of my loan this month will help. Still, I can't help but worry about money. I don't even have enough money for the bloody motorcycle yet! I'm still not cooking any meals. But I'll have to start, because I'm spending over four hundred dollars a month eating in restaurants and take-out joints, which is nuts. At least that's what my friends tell me. I HATE SAVING MONEY! ARGHHH!

December 24

It's Christmas Eve day and I'm on a bus going to put a thousand dollars down on my first motorcycle. YIPPEE! YEEHAA! I'm giggling like a child and squirming in my seat. A life-long dream is only minutes away from coming true. I get off the bus, which stops practically right in front of the Bike Shop (not the real name of the store) in Scarborough, Ontario. I grew up in Scarborough, by the way. As I walk across the parking lot towards the showroom, I'm grinning like a Cheshire Cat and laughing. Even when I stop laughing, there is nothing in the world that could wipe the grin off my face that stretches from ear to ear. I walk in the showroom and there it sits -a 1983 YAMAHA MIDNIGHT VIRAGO. It's black and gold, 750 C.C. Even though it's twelve years old, it looks great, mainly because it has only three thousand kilometres on it. BEAUTIFUL! Oh sure, it has some scratches and rust here and there but, hey, who cares? I borrowed two thousand of the $2300 price tag three days after paying off my loan to the bank. You got it, three whole days being out of debt. To hell with it. I got the bike. Another good thing is that they will store it for me until spring. Now all I have to do is learn how to ride the great black beast and get insurance.

* * *

Some people refer to Newfoundland as THE ROCK. Well, I'm riding along and am not two miles into my journey when I pass between two huge sets of rocks. Not too long after seeing the rocks I see large hills (mountains?) with snow still on them. Oh, by the way, my destination is Corner Brook, Newfoundland. The combination of seeing my breath and looking at snow does not fill me with a lot of confidence in the weather. I pass a sign that says GAS SAVING TIPS or HOW TO CONSERVE GAS. Something to that effect. Hmmm. I pass another that says STRONG WINDS NEXT 20 KMS. That's a strange sign. I'm still contemplating that last sign when the wind hits me full force. I'm being steadily pushed by the wind on my right side. Man, they weren't kidding. I'm leaning hard on the right. I'm doing an Ace Ventura with my head sticking out to the left of my windshield. If the wind were to suddenly die down, I would probably crash onto my right side. Never have I experienced such a substantial force of wind. As I make wide left turns, I almost feel like the bike and I will be lifted right off the ground soon. The combined weight of motorcycle equipment and me is about 700 pounds. I'm getting blown all over the road like I'm nothing. I've been riding for half an hour and have yet to see any kind of town. Which isn't too uncommon because I'm on the Trans Canada Highway. But still, I haven't even passed a gas station.

* * *

Back on the highway now and it's raining even harder, if that's freakin' possible. I'm so disgusted with this weather. I will not make it to Jasper today. I'm becoming a little unhinged now. I want to scream inside my helmet! When my feet and hands are this cold, to the point where they hurt, I find it difficult to think straight. I can barely see, such is the strength of the downpour, and my helmet visor keeps fogging up. I'm involuntarily shivering now and all I can think about is getting a motel and taking a hot bath. I'm heading for Hinton, Alberta, which I believe is another half hour away. Another half hour of this and my sanity will surely slip a notch or two. It's only a few minutes later and Oh YESSS! There is the sign for Hinton. I was way off my estimate of a half hour. I was never so happy to be wrong.

* * *

We lift off and fly over a veritable sea of trees. For some reason we are not going very fast. As we get closer to the edge, the music changes. The Grand Canyon awaits. The triumphant music is timed to our clearing the trees and over the Canyon. I'm laughing as we go over the edge of the trees and into the Canyon. Ah, showbiz.

The Canyon is so huge and deep I can only shake my head in awe at its magnificence. The facts about the Canyon have now replaced the music. I can't hear what the facts are, so I reach up and turn up the volume. I still can't hear it. I crank up the volume again. Nothing. I follow the cord of the headset to the panel and, OOPS, I've cranked up the volume on the headset that the guy beside me is wearing. He doesn't seem to notice. I find the correct knob and my headset is already at the maximum volume. It doesn't bother me. It's enough just to see the Canyon walls with their orangey-red surface. I take pictures like crazy, and then for some reason my camera dies. The film won't advance. What could be more perfect than my camera dying over one of the most scenic places in the world?

* * *

I depart from Fulton, Missouri in the rain. It's still warm, though, so it's a comfortable kind of rain. I'm back on the I-70. The green colours of the farms and trees look great in the rain.

I'm about twenty minutes away from downtown St. Louis. I'm looking at the billboards to see if there are any bike shops in the area. It has stopped raining, which is good, because the highway has turned into a big 5-laner. There's a car about twenty-five yards ahead of me. I look to the right and see more billboards. I look straight ahead and see about a four or five foot aluminium ladder directly in my path. I have no time to swerve. The first thought that enters my head is, I will be going down. I don't think of it as a frightened kind of thought, but as a fact. I hit the ladder and I look down as I do this. My front wheel hits the ladder and bounces up in the air at a right angle, the ladder goes right and hits my right foot. The next second my back wheel hits the ladder, a quick bounce and it's over. I look to see if my front tire is going flat. It's not, as far as I can tell. I'm lucky. I had hit the top left corner of the ladder, which I can see now as the best possible place. If I had hit it at a different place, it could have gone very bad.

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Catalogue Information

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