William Murphy covers the ground, high and low, top to bottom, in this ambitious guide for the adventurous motorcyclist. Ohio, located in the heart of the nation, is also the heart of the nation's history and Bill points out hundreds of historic sites, museums, and monuments all on the backroads. Bill purposely devised tours that take the rider down these history-filled roads that started out as trails, such as the Sandusky Trail, the Bullskin Trace, Hull's Trace, and more. Each Chapter has a theme such as Following the Water, which includes routes titled: The Great River Road, Lake Erie Tour, The Lake Erie Scenic Byway, and Cuyahoga Valley Canals Murphy explains his enthusiasm and philosophy for wandering: ?I suppose there is a bit of a Kerouac-like romanticism and searching for the meaning of life in most motorcyclists. As was the case with Jack Kerouac in his essay, ?On The Road, ? motorcyclists today also seek and enjoy the adventure that being on the road brings. Whether a teenager on a crotch rocket or septuagenarians on full dressers, every biker finds adventure by being on the road while at the same time satisfying a hard-to-explain need to explore beyond familiar horizons, be they physical or mental.? Maps, mileage charts, and an appendix filled with emergency phone numbers, major hotel and motel phone numbers, motorcycle repair shops and dealers, and a few pages of fun local rides, makes this compendium indispensable for the back road tourist, either on two wheels or four.

Guided motorcycle travel through Indiana.

Bill Murphy's recommended routes take the motorcycle rider through Michigan's rural countryside and small towns on roads William Least-Heat Moon famously called "blue highways," with only occasional expressway stretches (if the road meets his aesthetic standards or if it is the most convenient to take in an important site) and jaunts into urban areas (for important tourist attractions, usually historical or motor-related). Murphy's enthusiasm for his mode of travel is irresistible. More than just a book about motorcycle riding in Michigan--and it is that, as nothing before it has been--this is a book about enjoying life's simple pleasures.

Few paint a more vivid or varied picture of the joys of riding than this collection of stories from a motorcycling life by Lance Oliver, who has spent more time than most of us thinking about and writing about the art and practicalities of motorcycling.

Across America By Motor-Cycle by C.K. Shepherd (Illustrated) [1922]