David And Suzanne's Big Frickin' Canadian Motorcycle Adventure
The trip began innocently enough.
All they wanted was a simple, week-long vacation to celebrate their new freedom. How hard could that be?
With their last child pushed out the door, it was now 'their' time. Time to travel, to explore, to visit uncharted territories. Time for them to sample strange new cultures with strange new customs and strange new languages.
But where to go? And once the destination was decided, how to get there?
Not content with doing things the 'easy way', they first bought a motorcycle. A futuristic behemoth of a touring bike with a design ripped straight from the pages of Buck Rogers that proved to be a topic of conversation at each and every stop - whether they wanted to talk or not.
Armed with poor planning, poor judgment, laughter, love, and an optimism usually reserved for the perilously insane, our daring duo cast caution to the wind and headed straight into the heart of the deepest, darkest continent known to man: Canada.
In the days to come they would have ample time to reconsider the wisdom of their choices as they encounter torrential rains, stomach-churning mountain roads, Canadians, Grizzlies, creepy motel owners, moose, hidden tombs, cloned Vikings, more Grizzlies, starvation, dehydration, beavers, gourmet food, Karelian Bear Dogs, more Grizzlies, ferries, frog swarms and witchcraft all before reaching their final destination at a Lodge in the mountains of Banff National Park.
Would they survive? More importantly, would their 30-year marriage survive? And why is it exactly that in Canada milk comes in bags, the metric system rules, and every word has an extra 'u'?
These answers and more await inside. So pick a comfy chair and climb on board. It's a heck of a ride.
Praise and Reviews
I was introduced to "David and Suzanne's Big Frikin' Canadian Motorcycle Adventure" through David's blog post and found the first couple of installments hilarious. Unfortunately my attention span is short and since blogs are writing on the installment plan, I soon moved on to reading material that I could carry with me. The kindle, like a good dog, never leaves my side.
So when I discovered purely by accident that it was available as a book, I thought, "heck, lets give it a try", after all most of us have spent more money on a lousy movie and popcorn. So I took the plunge and ordered the book - the kindle version not yet being available.
I have to admit that, when I opened the box from Amazon, and looked at the book, I was a little taken aback. I was expecting a short travelogue, something peppered with more than a few photos, and text reminiscent of that in the Roy Clark Big Note Songbook. What I got instead was 302 pages of type so small that I was forced to briefly consider a page magnifier or a trip to Costco to get my bifocal prescription changed.
Rather than reach into my wallet again, there are after all, chrome bits and go fast goodies that are competing for my disposable income, I opted for closing one eye and holding the book at arms length. With that out of the way I settled in for a read, that once again, exceeded my expectations.
Lions, Spiders, and Bears! Oh My!
David and Suzanne's Big Frikin' Canadian Motorcycle Adventure sports a cast of characters that includes predators that run the gamut from large carnivores and imaginary spiders, to BMW riding lawyers and Nietche spouting Doctors. There are vaguely "Deliverance" inspired innkeepers, and euro-tourists who continually court disaster because they cannot conceive of wildlife acting naturally, and who insist on attempting to feed, pet and photograph at close quarters the grizzlies and cougars who have made the area surrounding the lodge their home.
Every touring rider has packed the wrong gear for the weather, spent a couple of days soaked to the bone or traveled miles out of their way, risked running out of fuel and dealt with road conditions that were less than ideal. David and Suzanne handle it all with humor and love. If you are married you will recognize the unspoken conversations and the subtext that occurs between spouses.
Sure, this is a story about a motorcycle trip, and the fact that the motorcycle is a Victory Vision (one of the coolest machines ever built) doesn't hurt, but in reality the main character is the 30 year relationship between David and Suzanne. They are at once as familiar as an old leather jacket and as comfortable as your favorite boots.
Despite bad planning, poor roads, lousy directions, and inclement weather, David Moore's absurdist humor and self deprecating point of view turn the story of a week long motorcycle trip to a cushy mountain retreat into a humorous, and at the same time touching reminder that in motorcycling, and more importantly in life, it's not the destination but rather the journey that matters.
The journey, and with whom you choose to travel.
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