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Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy: South of the Border
Losing her job was an opportunity, not a tragedy.
Fresh off of a nine month journey, camping off her 2015 Yamaha FZ-07 sport bike through 49 US states and 3 provinces of Canada, Tiffani Burkett wasn’t ready to return to a nine-to-five. She had picked up a freelance gig as a motorcycle journalist, she had met someone, and she still had a little bit of her dwindling life savings left in the bank.
Naturally, the only logical course of action was to to set her sights toward the next set of landlocked states in North America: Mexico
Despite growing up in Los Angeles, she had never been south of the border, didn't speak any Spanish (except for the swear words she learned in high school), and even without the recent political unrest, it seemed that everyone had plenty of stories to tell about cartels and crime and violence.
But if fear was enough to stop her from living out her dreams, she wouldn't be a motorcyclist in the first place. Whether it's dealing with broken down equipment in the wild west city of Durango, a passport debacle in Costa Rica, or a last minute flight to help a friend race the North West 200 in Ireland, people are far better than the media implies, and what she finds is a wonderful journey through new cultures, new environments, and new found strength in both herself and her growing relationship with her travel partner.
Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy: South of the Border is the second book in a series of memoirs. Originally published as a Travelogue in Motorcyclist Magazine as Girl Meets World, this full length memoir has been rewritten from the ground up to include the untold stories and the details that were a little too racy for the blog. It also includes a full pack list and bike builds for the aspiring ADV rider, and lots of pictures for every chapter!
If you loved Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman's Long Way Round and Ted Simon's Jupiter's Travels, you'll love Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy!
Fresh off of a nine month journey, camping off her 2015 Yamaha FZ-07 sport bike through 49 US states and 3 provinces of Canada, Tiffani Burkett wasn’t ready to return to a nine-to-five. She had picked up a freelance gig as a motorcycle journalist, she had met someone, and she still had a little bit of her dwindling life savings left in the bank.
Naturally, the only logical course of action was to to set her sights toward the next set of landlocked states in North America: Mexico
Despite growing up in Los Angeles, she had never been south of the border, didn't speak any Spanish (except for the swear words she learned in high school), and even without the recent political unrest, it seemed that everyone had plenty of stories to tell about cartels and crime and violence.
But if fear was enough to stop her from living out her dreams, she wouldn't be a motorcyclist in the first place. Whether it's dealing with broken down equipment in the wild west city of Durango, a passport debacle in Costa Rica, or a last minute flight to help a friend race the North West 200 in Ireland, people are far better than the media implies, and what she finds is a wonderful journey through new cultures, new environments, and new found strength in both herself and her growing relationship with her travel partner.
Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy: South of the Border is the second book in a series of memoirs. Originally published as a Travelogue in Motorcyclist Magazine as Girl Meets World, this full length memoir has been rewritten from the ground up to include the untold stories and the details that were a little too racy for the blog. It also includes a full pack list and bike builds for the aspiring ADV rider, and lots of pictures for every chapter!
If you loved Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman's Long Way Round and Ted Simon's Jupiter's Travels, you'll love Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy!
481 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 12, 2019
9 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Tiffani Burkett
6 books7 followersTiffani Burkett is an Internationally Published Motorcycle Journalist, with credits in everything from Motorcyclist Magazine to Revzilla's Common Tread to the Mexican News Daily, and she's the best selling author of the Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy travel series. She was born and raised in sunny Los Angeles, but nowadays, she makes her home wherever she puts down her kickstand. When she’s not behind her keyboard, writing stories real and imagined, she can be found riding on the racetrack, scuba diving under the ocean, or standing atop a mountain.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 7, 2021
A Great Ride
Inspiring and fun...A great ride from start to finish... You learn along her journeys... Well done...worth a read and great photos
Inspiring and fun...A great ride from start to finish... You learn along her journeys... Well done...worth a read and great photos
February 6, 2022
My son got me this & the 49 states books for Christmas - I probably wouldn’t have picked them myself, but I really enjoyed both. The writing (& editing) is much better in this book, you can see Tiffani’s growth as a writer & as a rider (see what I did there? 😉).
I’m almost 9 years into mc riding, starting at 46 yo on a HD Fat Boy Lo, so I could relate to so many of her struggles with overcoming fears & becoming a better rider “by accident”, meaning you don’t realize you’ve improved until you look back & realize how far you’ve come.
I appreciate her growth as a person & some of her reflections on life, in general, were really spot on. I found it funny (the ha! Ha! kind) that for all the research that she did before the ride there were still quite a few surprises, but her ability to evaluate, adapt & overcome was excellent to see.
I also appreciated Hollywood’s willingness to have his “stuff” put out there. The evolution of that relationship was interesting to read. Tiffani’s evolution as a person, starting out (in book 1) as a “girl” with not a lot of world experience & growing into a more confident woman over 18+ months was enlightening (although she says time & again that she’s not confident, just the choices she makes makes her confident in my mind).
I’m not into racing, although I like to go fast, but you can tell her love of racing & the racing community, & her love for her bike - that one I can relate too!! I look forward to reading the rest of her travelogues!
I’m almost 9 years into mc riding, starting at 46 yo on a HD Fat Boy Lo, so I could relate to so many of her struggles with overcoming fears & becoming a better rider “by accident”, meaning you don’t realize you’ve improved until you look back & realize how far you’ve come.
I appreciate her growth as a person & some of her reflections on life, in general, were really spot on. I found it funny (the ha! Ha! kind) that for all the research that she did before the ride there were still quite a few surprises, but her ability to evaluate, adapt & overcome was excellent to see.
I also appreciated Hollywood’s willingness to have his “stuff” put out there. The evolution of that relationship was interesting to read. Tiffani’s evolution as a person, starting out (in book 1) as a “girl” with not a lot of world experience & growing into a more confident woman over 18+ months was enlightening (although she says time & again that she’s not confident, just the choices she makes makes her confident in my mind).
I’m not into racing, although I like to go fast, but you can tell her love of racing & the racing community, & her love for her bike - that one I can relate too!! I look forward to reading the rest of her travelogues!
December 30, 2023
Book Review – “Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy, South of the Border” by Tiffani Burkett.
Ok I do this because, it’s fun, it is my opinion and I’m not paid to do it. As I said my opinion.
But if any author out there wants an honest review on their book, just send me the book.
This is book two, so before you read this one, I would suggest reading her first book first, but you can read this and the other book independently.
So, this starts off where the first book ended, having visited, done nearly all the states in USA, Tiff and Hollywood decided to go south, Mexico and other South American countries.
Here they meet and experience various sides of human nature, misconceptions of countries, during this journey they detour to Ireland for the North West 200 Road Races. This is a different although the same journey as experienced in her first book and you experience the difficulties to keep that journey going with an ever-decreasing supply of money.
There is an interesting FAQ, helpful hint section modifying sports bikes to fit the requirements.
The grainy photos (again Amazon) can be seen in lovely colour on her social media accounts and the book can be bought from all the usual outlets.
Ok I do this because, it’s fun, it is my opinion and I’m not paid to do it. As I said my opinion.
But if any author out there wants an honest review on their book, just send me the book.
This is book two, so before you read this one, I would suggest reading her first book first, but you can read this and the other book independently.
So, this starts off where the first book ended, having visited, done nearly all the states in USA, Tiff and Hollywood decided to go south, Mexico and other South American countries.
Here they meet and experience various sides of human nature, misconceptions of countries, during this journey they detour to Ireland for the North West 200 Road Races. This is a different although the same journey as experienced in her first book and you experience the difficulties to keep that journey going with an ever-decreasing supply of money.
There is an interesting FAQ, helpful hint section modifying sports bikes to fit the requirements.
The grainy photos (again Amazon) can be seen in lovely colour on her social media accounts and the book can be bought from all the usual outlets.
January 22, 2024
Loved. Every bit of the book!
Liked all the honesty and actual personal feelings! Confined in me that I will finally mark touring the US when I retire in two years off my bucket list!
Than you, Tiffani!
Liked all the honesty and actual personal feelings! Confined in me that I will finally mark touring the US when I retire in two years off my bucket list!
Than you, Tiffani!
July 29, 2020
Lovely reflection on prejudices and overcoming insecurities.
I'll do my best to not take the slights against Montana personally, my home state isn't for everyone that's for sure.
I'll do my best to not take the slights against Montana personally, my home state isn't for everyone that's for sure.
September 14, 2025
I like hearing about places I've never been to and probably will never see. Visited on a motorcycle adds another interesting aspect to these stories.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews