A Motorcycle Evening

I spent the evening with my neighbor Eileen (pictured above) and a group of motorcycle enthusiasts. When I pulled up to the driveway at her friend LP's house and saw a 950 KTM (I think the Adventure), a BMW HP Enduro, a BMW 1200 GS and a Honda Transalp I knew the conversation was going to be good.

Eileen took the MSF class last year and has been riding all around the Southwest since. She bought a Transalp last summer and has already logged over 5000 miles on it. This past winter she took the Transalp and rode down to Baja with LP. She moved to Santa Fe from Moab not long ago and has a dream to start a women's dirt bike and off road motorcycle camp based in Moab. Everything about Eileen's life seems adventurous. With just one glance in her garage you'd know she suffers from wonder lust. Bikes, a sea kayak, plenty of skis, a motorcycle and trailer, everything that keeps her bag packed and on a new trip each weekend.

The evening with Eileen and some of her friends was centered around motorcycles. LP is a violin player for the Santa Fe Opera his friend Mark, a bass player for the Opera, Chuck an Engineer (who owns the same Transalp that Eileen rides) and Dan whose garage full of bikes is famous all had interesting stories of riding and experiences with motor bikes. I got lots of great advice on different types of bikes (mostly dual sport). Dan turned me on to the Adventure Rider Motorcycle Forum. Tons of great photos by real riders. Get's me really jazzed to take a trip. One trip that sounded adventurous was the Trans-Am Trail. My favorite part of the forum is reading about people's different adventures in the US and around the world. Perhaps a great place to plan a trip with the help of others.