Category Archives: Travel

Getting Started with Team Strange’s Wheels on Walls Grand Tour

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Ralph Hanson

For the last ten years or so, I’ve competed in a large-scale motorcycle scavenger hunt sponsored annually by Team Strange Airheads. This is a Twin Cities-based organization that got its start as a bowling team that evolved into a  BMW … Continue reading →

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Riding the MABDR: Part 4 – All good things…

Posted on August 23, 2022 by Ralph Hanson

This is the last of a series of posts about riding the Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route with a couple of my old motorcycle friends. Stage 7 – Of Bees and Trees.  As our ride up the Mid Atlantic Backcountry … Continue reading →

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Riding the MABDR: Part 3 – Getting schooled on the road

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Ralph Hanson

This is one of a series of posts about riding the Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route with a couple of my old motorcycle friends. After finishing the challenges of Stage 3, the next several days of riding were a lot … Continue reading →

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Riding the MABDR: Part 2 – There are always obstacles

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Ralph Hanson

This is one of a series of posts about riding the Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route with a couple of my old motorcycle friends. Stage 3 on the Mid Atlantic Back Country Discovery Route is one of the longest day’s … Continue reading →

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Travels with Putt Putt: Mountain High, Valley Low

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I don’t generally name my cars, and I don’t really set out to name my motorcycles, but it seems like over the past decade most of the motorcycles I’ve owned have somehow let me know what they wanted to be called. This … Continue reading →

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Travels with Putt Putt: ‘Oh thou that tellest good tidings to Zion’

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I don’t generally name my cars, and I don’t really set out to name my motorcycles, but it seems like over the past decade most of the motorcycles I’ve owned have somehow let me know what they wanted to be called. This … Continue reading →

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Travels with Putt Putt: A Visit to Abbey Country

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I don’t generally name my cars, and I don’t really set out to name my motorcycles, but it seems like over the past decade most of the motorcycles I’ve owned have somehow let me know what they wanted to be called. This … Continue reading →

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A Motorcycle Ride to the United 93 Memorial on a Rainy Summer Day

Posted on September 11, 2018 by Ralph Hanson

This has nothing to do with the media. It’s a brief story about a ride I took on my motorcycle to the United 93 Memorial on a rainy June day back in 2004. It was written shortly after I had … Continue reading →

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Gone Riding, Epilogue – On Not Going Over The Edge

Posted on July 15, 2018 by Ralph Hanson

“The Edge…There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others-the living-are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they … Continue reading →

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Gone Riding, Part 7 – I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Ralph Hanson

This is one of a series of blog posts about my summer motorcycle travels. Blanche DuBois absolutely had it right when she says in A Streetcar Named Desire,“I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.” As I write this, I’m … Continue reading →

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