by D. Brent Miller
[Note: Listen to the podcast interview with Carla King at the end of this article.]
Although it has been more than a decade since Carla King rode her Russian-made Ural with a sidecar around the North American continent, her recently published book is just as fresh as the day she originally posted accounts of her travels on that new-fangled thing called the Internet. Well … that’s what it was in 1995–something that very few were paying attention to or using. My how times have changed in just a short decade.
King’s original posts were on an Internet service called Global Network Navigator (GNN), which few people have probably every heard of. However, I happened to have had a GNN account … and an AOL account … and before that a CompuServe account. When AOL bought GNN, hundreds of thousands of AOL subscribers were finally introduced to a portal to the Internet and the incredible world of cyberspace. And, there was Carla King riding her Ural motorcycle around the country and writing about her adventures. I believe I even sent her an e-mail or two of encouragement and praise.
And now … here’s the book. Finally!
American Borders
A solo-circumnavigation
of the United States on a
Russian sidecar motorcycle
by Carla King
Published by Motorcycle Misadventures
2007, 228 Pp., $16.95
ISBN 13: 978-0-9646445-0-2
Available at www.MotorcycleMisadventures.com
King’s travelogue begins with “Aren’t you scared?” It’s her beginnings with solo travel and the decisions that lead up to this trip. Although there is plenty of motorcycle adventure in the book, it is also a personal journal of traveling alone as a woman, the kindness of strangers, and the difficulties of putting an ancient motorcycle design to the test on North American roads. Every chapter tells of some mechanical breakdown that not only tests the limits of the motorcycle but her own demeanor and phsychological well being. And yet, she finds ways to overcome everything, doing much of her own maintenance and relying on the brand new USA distributor of Ural motorcycles.
As you read about her adventures, you can hear yourself thinking, “I’d quit.” But, she does not. She perseveres through numerous breakdowns, and it is in those moments that she provides the best snapshots of traveling alone and the people she meets. Had it not been for the breakdowns, this would not be the travelogue it is. For those unplanned stops along the way provide the very essence of the book.
The book is hard to put down. A few of her entries are very personal encounters. You want to keep reading to learn how she overcomes obstacles, both mechanical and human, and whether or not she makes it to the next planned destination. Her descriptions of riding through gorgeous landscapes and vistas, and the zen of lonesome roads is poetic. It is a wonderful travelogue that is sure to inspire the adventurer in all who partake of its chapters.–DBrent
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Very nice, concise and on-target review! I finished the book in Feb–a week after the CycleWorld show here, where I had a chance to meet Carla but haven’t put my scribblings in readable form yet. When I get around to saying my 2 cents worth, I might just link to you as you’ve said it so well here! Thanks.
DBrent, the podcast was excellent–just fascinating exchange. Thanks heaps!!
Brent, thank you so much, that was a most enjoyable interview. I hope to see you at the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days in Ohio this July. Meantime, I look forward to tracking your blog and listing to your other guests.
All the best,
Carla
Thanks for the comments. I am lining up an editorial schedule for future stories and interviews.–Brent
I’m delighted that Carla finally published ‘borders’. I remember, with great joy, reading the account in an afternoon whilst at ‘work’ in 1999. I was captivated by her prose, honesty, and steadfastness, and have returned to the text periodically for escape and inspiration regularly.
Okay Carla, congratulate yourself! Between your web dispatches and the print version called “American Borders,” you’ve convinced me to indulge in a solo motorcycle trip around the country to satisfy a mid-life urge. So what if my career/marriage/life is put on hold for six weeks!? A warning to anyone who reads this book: you will finish it concluding, “Hey, if Carla did it, so can I!”
Hi Carla; I am currently globetrotting under the guise of “study abroad”, but when I return home to Vermont I fully intend to read your book. I have my motorcycle license and this summer I am planning on refining my skills and becoming a more competent rider, and I am also the daughter of the looney toon Joe Benning who posted above. He has enthusiastically mentioned your stories during his planning of his cross-country expedition. Hopefully your book will give me some insight as to why my dad seems to be aging in reverse (the older he gets, the more intense his undertakings and the goofier he becomes). He tried to talk my mother into reading it, but I’m pretty sure she’s been happily floating on an innertube in the pool with a large martini glass for the past three weeks he’s been gone since there aren’t any oily tracks through the kitchen or fenders and spedometer cables invading our living room and would really prefer not to think about his mental workings.
Hi D brent;
Thanks for the heads up on the Great lakes circle tours. I have more resources to pull from now. Planning is half of the fun. I am listening over and again to your interviews and am learning alot and I look forward to more podcasts because I can listen to them while I work. I think Carla will give inspiration to my wife as we stretch our riding distances further. I’ll likely order her book soon. As a vintage bike enthusiast, I’m very interested in her “misadventures”.