A Ten-Year Journey of Over 500,000 Miles

Don't you love it when you have a great book to read? A book that you look forward to every time you pick it up? I have such a book that came to me from our friends at Motorbooks. They publish a huge catalog full of books on all sorts of topics, many of them relate to moving vehicles and such. The book that I am loving now is by Emilio Scotto, and is called "The Longest Ride."

This intrepid Argentinian set off in 1985 for a ten-year around the world journey on his Honda 1100 cc Gold Wing. The story behind how he bought this massive bike involved currency. He was working in Bueno Aires for Pfizer, and was being paid in US dollars. The loan for the bike was in pesos. When the currency did back flips in 1984, his $13,000 loan was reduced to $3000, and he was soon off on his odyssey.

He travels with little or no money. The only place he gets pulled over is in the US. He didn't know there were speed limits--hey out in the desert who would think anyone cared? And so 13 times in California he faces the blue lights. The cops are hostile and treat him like an outlaw.

His travels in Africa are mostly futile attempts to pass where no roads exist. He is turned back in Guinea Bissau, the track is full of very deep ruts filled with yellowish water called covas. So deep that his bike almost gets caught in them. Then he runs into a tribe who lead him into a hut. He wants to sleep, they want him to drink a foul stinky liquid out of a gourd. He flees for his life, jumps on the bike, and guns it. I'll find out later what happened but I assume this attempt to drug my Argentinian friend does not succeed.