Hello there, my name is Matthew Taylor.  I started this blog to mostly document my motorcycle travels and exploration as I chip away at my goal to have ridden a motorcycle in all 50 states of the United States of America, and some of Canada too.  I would love to follow the tread marks of Ted Simon, Charlie Boorman or Ewan McGregor as they traveled around the world on motorcycle (motorbike for those across the pond).  But, being that I am just an average guy, with a family and life obligations, I will be happy with a small slice of that adventure.  Who knows, maybe luck will be with me and I will be able to ride in Europe, or some of South America.

A little about myself.  I grew up in Anoka, Minnesota (suburb of Minneapolis) and have moved often (military and just life stuff).  I have lived in Minnesota, California, Tennessee, Washington, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas with most years in Minnesota.  I moved back to California in January 2017 from Minnesota to be able to ride year around and frankly, I hate winter.  However, now I am gearing up for another move to the Atlanta Georgia area in October 2020.  I was blessed with a son in November 2017 (over 20 year age gap to his next youngest sibling), so priorities changed as they should and my wife and I determined we would have a more rounded family life in Georgia than California, mainly due to the cost of living and cost of purchasing a home in California.  So, stay tuned for motorcycle adventures launching from the Southeast United States soon.

I have had a lifelong interest in motorcycles and dirt bikes but did not actually purchase my first motorcycle until February 2015 while living in Minnesota.  It had been about 25 years since I had ridden so essentially I was starting over.  I purchased a used 2007 Honda VTX 1300C.  It only took me about 4 months until I crashed it….newbie error.  The crash was not too severe as I was able to ride away from the crash with only some road rash and fractured ribs.  Oh and I was riding again the next day (after the bike had been looked over).  I sold the bike in October of 2015 at the end of the Minnesota riding season (or close to it) and picked up a 2004 Honda VTX 1300C in March 2016 (it was still too cold to ride in Minnesota).  2016 I rode over 12,000 miles that summer mostly in Minnesota, Wisconsin and a little bit in Iowa.  As stated above, I moved to California in January 2017 and brought the bike with and packed in some more serious miles mostly in Southern California.  August 2017 I crashed again, this time not newbie mistake but bad pavement and I suspect my ultra-long miles tires (too hard) contributed to a nasty high side.  In November 2017 (after my leg had healed enough) I purchased a 2005 Harley Davidson Ultra Classic that my wife named Dexter.  So far, no crashes (one drop though) and several thousand miles (about 40,000 miles and counting).

This blog will document the short and long motorcycle trips along with some other random stuff from time to time.