The Big Loop: Trips Across the Continent

by Glenn Adams

Two people, a little money, a few clothes, and one motorcycle. The year is 1978. A couple of married journalists pack what belongings they can squeeze into a tank bag, put on their boots, jackets and helmets, and set out for a cost-to-coast ride across the United States. There will be no shortcuts, as they encircle the country from Philadelphia to Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, above the Great Lakes and across the prairies to the Rockies. From the State of Washington, it's down the West Coast to San Diego, across the desert to Nevada and on to Texas, Florida and back up the East Coast to where they started. Readers will get a complimentary seat on the Adams's 1973 BMW for this 11,000-plus mile ride. Along the way, you will meet fellow wayfarers, gracious hosts who took us in for a day or two, unfriendly sorts who have no time for bikers, and strangers who want to hear our stories. That's not to mention the cinematic scenes that surrounded us for hundreds of miles at a time: The lobster boat-ferry off between Maine and Canada, the road that dead-ends in a Washington pasture, the breathtaking ride down the California coast and brief stopovers in Mexico. The feel of pelting rain, burning sun in the desert, chill of mountaintops and all along, wind whistling by. The flat tires, free beers and lonely diners in middle-of-nowhere towns found along two-lane highways. You'll also glimpse into a simpler time of 55-mph speed limits, 57 cent gallons of gas and $11 motel rooms. The story intersects with the travels a half-century earlier of a pair of young men who made a similar trip in a Model T Ford. And while you're riding, tales that take you on side trips to some of the places we visit. "The Big Loop" is a memoir of an adventure that would be hard, if possible at all to recreate in today's complex and fast-moving world.

93 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 9, 2019