The Happy Canuck

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Racing through the back roads of North Dakota singing along to the summer hits of the 70’s on spotify is pretty much the best feeling this old girl can have on a bike. Again, my phone told me to turn left, turn right, turn straight and on and on I went. I don’t know how many hours or how many miles I put behind me, but I started feeling a wee bit… Read More

picture of the happy canuck in her motorcycle helmet standing in front of a field of sunflowers

After getting back on the road, I carried old guy’s words in my heart. Paired with my Spotify playlist (yup – got my phone working just as I watched that old white truck round a corner and disappear), I felt like I had the world by the tail again! I was singing away with John Denver and as I rounded a sweet curve, the horizon opened up into a sea of yellow!… Read More

Odin, in his guise as a wanderer, as imagined by Georg von Rosen (1886)

After I crossed the border, I figured I’d better stop for gas. I didn’t have to go more than a few minutes, thankfully. So there I am looking at the pump. At home, we have yellow handles to indicate a diesel pump. Here, I’m looking at one labeled “unleaded” and the other boasting a green handle. Now I was 99.941% sure the green handle was diesel, but what if it wasn’t? Unleaded?… Read More

Walhala Trading Post

Day five of my cross-continent tour has me shivering under the thin sheets in my Fargo, North Dakota hotel room. I got absolutely drenched in the last hour or so of my ride today. It was a sad, sogy end to a pretty awe-inspired day! More on that later. When Brian and I parted company in Portage la Prairie, I was a pretty sad lady. I wanted to ride the first few… Read More

Sitting at the Dublin gate for my flight to Toronto,  I felt a struggle building deep inside. Well maybe struggle isn’t quite the right word…it was more like melancholy I suppose. Maybe it was that I missed my kids dearly and was excited to share all my stories with them, but I felt like I still had one foot on my bike peg. The other foot was itching too, but of course… Read More

I am not the woman I was three weeks ago.

Tom suggested that day that I was born under a lucky star.

Stories about ties to Ireland were like gossamer threads connecting me to something better… something… more.

Solo Motorcycle Tour of Ireland: Doolin to Westport I left Doolin and headed back to the Cliffs of Moher. I’d missed them on the way in to Doolin the night before, so I turned back the next morning to see what all the fuss was about. Not sure if it was because I faced yet another meal alone, or the fact that I’d been looking at pictures of home, but I was feeling… Read More

To say I was not in the best mood when I got to my room at Doolin’s Aran View Hotel is a bit of an understatement. If you’ve been following my solo motorcycle adventure around Ireland, you know I left my cosmetics in Dingle and had to go out for a bite to eat and explore the Doolin village all pony-tailed and fresh-faced. I am not a super fancy kind of gal,… Read More