Journal: 001
Brooklyn, July 2020. I began riding motorcycles when I was 15. At the time, it was source of freedom from the constraints of buses, schedules, and school. But in the time since, it has represented freedom from other, less physical things. Work. Routine. The constant, gnawing grind of life off of the road.
For the last few months, this freedom has been more important than ever. Every night, rolling open the shop door, turning the key, and pulling into the streets of Brooklyn. Sometimes I circle one block and return. Sometimes I go further. Each day, I find myself pulling farther and farther away. Wanting to go one more mile from home. To see the silhouettes of the big city fall smaller in my mirror, and then fade away. Beyond the street lights and beyond the stop signs. To the end of the road.
Journal: 571
Quito, February 2022. A year has passed and gone. This trip has turned out nothing how I imagined. COVID border restrictions have left me stranded in almost every country I have stopped through. But I still try to make the most of it.
Along the way, I have worked as a carpenter in Central Mexico, at a mezcal palenque in Oaxaca, and on a coffee finca in northern Nicaragua. I fell asleep on lost beaches in Mexico, fled border patrol in the mountains of southern Honduras, rode through three hurricanes, and somehow became the subject of a local legend in a small town in Guatemala. I backtracked thousands of miles, sailed across an ocean, fought sickness, and spent weeks living in remote communities.
But perhaps most importantly, I have looked into the eyes of many along the way and seen a vision of the world that is different from my own. Sometimes I look in the mirror now and see a different reflection myself. I do not know when, but someday I will reach Ushuaia. And I know that the person who arrives will not be the same as he who began.
My greatest hope is that this story serves to show some people that life doesn't always turn out the way we imagine. That there are no wrong turns in this thing. And that maybe - that's the beauty in it all.
