Welcome And A New Way To Travel

Ron 0:11

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Peace Love Moto Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Francis, here in Loveland, Colorado, and my two guests today are just really cool. How's that for an introduction? Allie Quinn and Dylan Morris are no ordinary adventure riders. You will find that out for sure. Allie and Dylan have a brilliant approach to exploring North American backroads by stashing their motorcycles and storage units near airports. And when they can take off work, they fly in, and then from there, they ride a new stretch of the backcountry discovery route from that location. Wow, what a great idea! What a great idea. And these are the coolest people with just the most wonderful spirit of adventure. I'm excited for you to meet them and to hear this interview. These are good people. These are good people. So grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join me for a fun conversation with Allie and Dylan. Let's get into it. Sometimes I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I get the chance on this platform to meet a lot of good people, a lot of really good, interesting people who just happen to have the same interest that I have. And that's motorcycling. And that is my guest today, Allie Quinn and Dylan Morris. Welcome to the Peace Love Moto podcast.

Speaker 1 1:46

Thank you so much, Braun.

Ron 1:48

So found just like so many people, found you on Instagram and thought, oh my goodness, the stuff that you're posting is really, really interesting. Then I saw some of your videos as well. And then I saw you, Allie, in particular, talking and thought, oh yeah, this is

Meet Aly Quinn And Dylan Morris

Ron 2:05

someone I most definitely need to reach out to because you guys are cool. Oh, thank you. You're cool and unique and very unique too. So, hey, first, if you don't mind, just tell the listening audience what you do.

Speaker 1 2:20

Well, I'll start with me. I'm Allie Quinn. I am an oncology nurse by training. I work mostly in clinical informatics now. So designing medical records, making sure that the oncologists and the nurses have all the tools that they need to provide safe, effective care for all of their patients at a large academic medical center. I'm a mother of four. We're a blended family, so I take full credit for Dylan's son as well. And I learned to ride motorcycles five years ago. I attempted to learn 15 years ago. That one didn't go well. So this time I had a much better teacher and really fell in love with it. But the reason I learned to ride was because my oldest son rides and he rides dirt bikes out in Utah. And I really wanted to get in on that action. Little did I know, little did Dylan know that I would very quickly transition from riding on the back seat of his motorcycles to the front seat of any motorcycle I can get my hands on.

Ron 3:19

Oh, I love that. I love that. You remind me so much of my neighbor, who I'll talk about in a little bit. I might have to get her permission first, but same kind of deal. Same kind of deal. She, in her case, she's young mom and just wanted to have something of her own. And yeah, she she it reminded me when you mentioned that because she she told me she said, I'm not, I'm not a backseat person. No, I'm in the front seat, I'm riding. So I I want to circle back to the uh to you on that. But uh Dylan, do you mind describing what do you do?

Speaker 3 3:51

I'm a police officer. Mostly in management, I've been at it a couple of decades now. Same thing. We out of our four kids, I brought one, one to the one toplate. So I brought him to 25% or to the arrangement. And then I started riding. I moved to Boston from Ireland when I was about 18. Started writing because I that's all I could afford. Rode around Boston through the winters and everything else. I didn't really own a car until I was 22, until I had to get a car. And I've been pretty much riding ever since. We just love being out on bikes, met a lot of great friends, seen a lot of the country, a lot of the world from being on motorcycles. So it's yeah, it's been it's been a lot of fun and it continues to be that way.

Ron 4:34

And we were talking a little bit before we started recording it. How many bikes do you have in the garage? You're laughing.

Speaker 3 4:44

So many. I think we have 17. Um, you're killing me.

Speaker 1 4:50

No, it's a blast. We have a couple of 1960s Honda Honda 90s, the Trail 90s Cub. Yep. Yeah and then we have a few dirt bikes. I have one, I have an 07, a Honda 250. Dylan has a KTM and TRF 450. TRF 450. Then we have our like Cafe Racer Styles. I have a Bonneville, he has an Enfield. Then we have Barley's, he has a 1977 and a 2021. I have a 2016 Street Glide with a full tour pack and everything. Then we have our Tenerays. Then we have our

Building Trips With Storage Units

Speaker 1 5:35

Africa twins.

Ron 5:36

Oh my goodness, you've got African twins also. Two that's the yeah.

Speaker 3 5:41

So they're not actually technically in this Kerngara. Those are the ones so we I think we said we're we started this about a year and a half ago. We we we shipped them down, we brought them down south to Tennessee, trailed them down, and we leave them in storage units by the airport. And we fly in, we have all our gear there, and we just fly in for whenever go for a ride for a week or so and just leave them in another airport. So we're sort of bit by bit, like I said, I think we're calling it the elephant ride, kind of just one bite at a time. We're sort of our plan is to see North America. But Well, we're we're both working. But even if we want working, we were just talking about this on our recent trip. We went from Georgia out to Texas a couple weeks ago for Ali's birthday. We still have other hobbies, like we like our other motorcycles. We we have friends, we have some family we actually like, and and you know, other other hobbies like so. I don't think even if we had the means or the ability, I don't think we'd take off for six months or a year and go right around the world. Like we we would just like to do it a little bit at a time. So this is seems to be working for us. A few mechanical glitches here and there. Long-term storage in in Atlanta is not the best for batteries, we found. Oh yeah, yeah, in some heap. Yeah. We'll see how Texas does. But yeah, that's that's been a lot of fun. It's fun, it's also fun because we get to plan trips, even when we're not traveling. You know, we have our bikes locally and we ride with our friends, but we we can sort of bench race, I guess for lack of a better word. You can sort of plan trips and we plan where we're gonna go and the legit Ellie loves logistics, so we can sort of figure out what are we bringing and where are we going? And she figured she finds the storage units and makes all those arrangements and books our flights, and then we sort of get in and get our gear and I figure out the route. And we do a lot of it. I used to do a lot of trips where we'd uh mostly on road, you know, on hollies or cruisers with a bigger bunch of people, and so you have to kind of plan everything. Gas stops, and you know, if you're leaving like eight, ten people. But with this the two of us on these rides, we started last year. We don't plan anything. Like this last trip we planned two days in hot springs for her birthday. But other than that, we go on it, we use basically the Trans-America Trail or the BDRs, because they're sort of curated, you're not gonna find yourself in private property or something. We use those as a guide. And about four o'clock in the afternoon, we stop for a coffee and we start figuring out where we're gonna stay that

Shed Airbnb Hot Tub Kindness

Speaker 3 8:15

night. Man, beautiful. What in January we went down for Martin Luther King weekend. We went just out and back to Atlanta, but we were chasing the best weather we could find in January, so we ended up going to Alabama, did some of the Southeast PDR. And the first night, Alison wanted a hot tub. She didn't want a Holiday and Express hot tub.

Speaker 1 8:36

I was getting ready for back surgery in my defense.

Speaker 3 8:40

She's like, I want to I wanted an Airbnb with a hot tub. So the only one we found, we ended up in a shed in Montgomery, Alabama. A garden shed in someone's backyard. Should have been converted to an Airbnb at a hot tub.

Speaker 1 8:51

It was the funniest thing. It had a shower curtain around the toilet. That was the extent of privacy in this shed. But it was extremely comfortable. It was warm, it was exactly what we needed, and it had a beautiful hot tub outdoors and this fenced-in backyard. The owner let us pull our bikes into the backyard so that they were secure. Because what town were we in? Montgomery, not Montgomery, Alabama. And it was fantastic. And we ended up, you'll love this. So we ended up ordering pizza from the hot tub. And I was unfamiliar with the app. So somehow I ended up ordering two pizzas. So when the pizza guy came, he had two pizzas and we were like, What happened? And he goes, Well, I don't know, you put two orders in. So we took the second pizza, but clearly we're riding motorcycles. We don't have a use for it. So the gentleman from the next house over had said to us, There's been motorcycle and dirt bike thefts, which we have the same here in Massachusetts. He's like, if you can pull them in behind the fence, you're it's much safer. It's a great neighborhood, but just so you know. So Dylan walked over with the second pizza to that guy's house, and his wife answered the door because that guy was out in the shed working on projects. And it was like eight o'clock at night. And he was like, he introduced himself and explained, you know, who he was. But she goes, he goes, Would you like a free pizza? We ordered two by mistake. And she started crying and she was like, I have had the worst day, and this is exactly what I needed. Oh, and that's just such a perfect thumbnail of who we are and what we do. Because much like you, we strive to bring joy. We strive to make people smile, to just find community everywhere we go, every trip we go on, we come home with new friends. It is just it's such a cool way to travel. And I really think that traveling by motorcycle puts you far more in touch with nature, community, the people that you interact with. It's just such a cool way to travel.

Ron 10:51

I didn't know you were gonna say that, Allie, but I had a feeling you would. And that's why I wanted to talk to you. I don't know. I just picked it up from the little snippets off of Instagram, just the different things you were saying, because you get it. And we again we were talking a little bit before we started recording that as I was describing the podcast a little bit, yes, I absolutely positively love riding a motorcycle. Have since I was a little bitty kid, going on 55 years now doing that. But it saved me sometimes, and and you know, I'll kind of say that a little bit in jest, but as far as stress, work stress I used to have before I retired, and you know, I would just go out on my bike and oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm feeling better. And you know, I'm lucky here that we live right very close to Rocky Mountain National Park, and and I was out riding in the woods just today, just two hours ago. Nice, it's good for me. And and the here's the other thing, just like echo what you what I'm hearing you say too. The privilege of doing that is not something we take for granted. And going having the opportunity to go and have a conversation with a friend or better yet, a stranger, that this vehicle opens so many doors like that. And just like what you did. I mean, that was a pro that was a kind of a bold step, right? I mean, to walk up to someone's house with a pizza.

Speaker 1 12:16

Right? Yeah. But Dylan and I both grew up without a lot, right? And our parents did an amazing job with what they had, but we both kind of live in that scarcity mindset of we're not gonna waste things. Yeah, we really appreciate what we have, and if we have extra, we're going to share it. We're not gonna just let it be squandered. And that's really important to both of us.

Speaker 3 12:44

Yeah, yeah. And the kid was really I mean, the kid was very nice. He came over and talked to us. The flip side of the story was the next night we ended up stopping for coffee in, I think, Montevallo up in North Alabama. And we ended up in a hundred-year-old's bed and breakfast. And Allie had to we had to have a a step ladder to get into four-poster beds. Step stool, not a stepladder. So I was telling her that's like you woke up in a shed in Montgomery, Alabama this morning. You're in a four-poster bed that you need stairs to get into. It's like a rag and riches story.

Speaker 1 13:14

But it was But again, it was this little tiny bed and breakfast. We were the only guests. She had to make the bed for us to stay there because we called her from the coffee shop. But we we always offer cash when we travel, especially when we're staying in a small establishment. So we'll talk to the owner of these local little bed and breakfasts or small local hotels. We really try to embrace the backcountry discovery route kind of mentality of support the local people and make sure that you travel through the places that aren't well traveled and take the back road and take the quiet road and spend your money at the little tiny gas station rather than the big, huge rest area on the highway. You know, but just to kind of if whatever we do have, we want to spread it around in

SheADV And Women’s Off-Road Community

Speaker 1 14:00

an equitable way.

Ron 14:01

That's that's beautiful. I want to segue a little bit because we talked before again, before we started recording, you told me that you're part of She ADV, and there is a BDR connection to that. So S H E A D V. So would you mind sharing about that?

Speaker 1 14:19

Sure. So Shal Wilson started She ADV way back in, I want to say 2015 or 2016. Shal is a professional trainer and Toratech supported her in opening up the kind of this organization, and it became all about women's off-road training. And then it expanded. And Eva Rupert is another one of the people who is tied into it. She has a motel in Bisbee, she's been on all kinds of things. But Ina Thorne from the Backcountry Discovery Route, she's Ina is the president or director of the BDR. She sits on the board of She ADV. So I encountered She ADV when I started riding about five years ago and decided that I really wanted to explore adventure riding. And I was just looking for women who ride, trying to find community, a village of women, of like-minded women, not the Harley scene, not the, you know, the biker scene, but people who basically loved mountain biking but added an engine because it gets us outside and we get to interact. So that's how we connected with this She ADV group. And we have made so many incredible friends. We've taken training up in New Hampshire at Dirt Days. So they're tied in with the Toratech Dirt Days and then all of the different organizations. I actually got the opportunity to travel to a rally out in Bisbee, Arizona, and lead women's rides for She ADV. I've led women's rides up in New Hampshire. Carly Davidson of America was at the Dirt Days rally a couple of years ago, and they did a women's only demo ride on the new Pan Americas. So I got to lead that. It's a really amazing, all volunteer-based organization. Every month we do what's called Trailsides, which is an hour-long Zoom call where we have different speakers and authors and podcasters and adventure writers come in and offer training tips or stories or advice. We do community sharing. We have a heat map of where we all live across the country and the world. So it's a really incredible way to form community and friendships with like-minded adventurous women on two wheels.

Ron 16:41

Yeah, I love that. You know what came to mind? I interviewed Mike Bobbitt. He is the president of the Motorcycle Relief Foundation.

Speaker 1 16:50

Oh, yeah.

Ron 16:50

And I got to ride with Mike too, and some of his colleagues there because he's he's here in Colorado. So we did a big BMW ride together. Anyway, where am I going with this? So Mike was featured in this month's BMW Owners Association magazine. And so I sent him a text. I took some pictures and sent him a text. But I guess where I'm going with this is that Mike has in that article in the BMW Owners magazine, as well as in lots of other things he's featured in, he's talked about how the joy of touching lives, of having those moments with in this case with veterans and first responders, that the stories that are shared and the lives that are touched in a positive way is huge. I can't help but think you you experience the same thing with uh with the with the women's specifically tours. And it seems quite significant too the off-road element there. Because that's that's a whole nother thing, right? We both know that I love the off-road stuff myself too. So yeah, do you do you mind sharing a maybe a story or two of maybe what you've experienced with other with other women out in

Wrong Turns And Supportive Riding

Ron 18:05

the elements like that?

Speaker 1 18:06

Yeah, so I have a great story from Bisbee. So we it was my first time really leading and using a different GPS setup because I was on rental bike that the group had provided for me. And we we were heading from Bisbee, Arizona towards the huge abomination of a wall between America and Mexico. I'm with you.

Ron 18:31

Okay.

Speaker 1 18:31

Yeah. There's some great roads along it, but the wall is an abomination. Anywho, so we're heading there, and I'm, of course, completely unfamiliar with the area. I've never been in Bisbee before. I'm on a different bike, I'm out of my element, but I'm leading a group of 15 women.

unknown 18:49

Wow.

Speaker 1 18:50

Yep. And Shal was the head trainer. So she was there. She was kind of in the middle so that she was watching everybody's technique because the women had all done training all morning, and now they were doing an outride. So we train in the morning and we outride in the afternoon, so you can really kind of put your skills to work. And then one of my now closest friends, Erin Sansone, was at the way back. So her and I were talking on our headsets, but nobody else was talking. If they were, they were talking to each other. So I ended up taking a wrong turn. Oh, and it was okay because it was all just gravel roads and they all kind of go to the same place. But little did we realize that the wrong turn I took took us kind of down into a wash. You're from Colorado, you get it. It got really gravelly and loose, and it was thick, not thick, but like big, heavy gravel. So it was almost baby heads, but not quite. And some of the women were becoming very uncomfortable with the road surface. But none of us panicked. None of us lost our patience, nobody lost their minds. Multiple times we were dropping bikes and picking them back up again, trying to figure out where we were. We then were able to really kind of zone in on the GPS and realize we had pulled over to kind of pick up a couple of bikes. And we realized, okay, we actually want to be on the road that's just next to this. But you have to really zoom in on the GPS to see that there's two roads. No problem. We walk a little bit, we find a nice, fun upshoot. You need momentum to get up this upshoot to then get to the next thing, right? So we just cheered each other on and helped each other out and picked up bikes as necessary, but every woman had a successful ride. And every woman went back to the campground that night feeling accomplished and successful and proud. Nobody felt downtrodden. Nobody was told that they should do better. Nobody was told that they weren't enough or weren't good enough. It is just the coolest thing to be with a group of supportive humans, male or female, that support you and lift you up and just shine a light when you're in a dark moment because that's what it's all about. It's just about helping each other. So I have just loved it ever since then and cannot wait to get back to Bisbee. I keep getting invited back, but the timing just hasn't worked out for us. So we will get back there for that event. It's a good one.

Ron 21:21

They walk away from those experiences thinking, if I can do this, then this other life challenge, I can do that too.

Speaker 1 21:29

A hundred percent. And we've all gone through some crazy challenges in life because that's part of being human. And I really do think that learning to overcome challenges translates to all the different areas of life. So if you're good at overcoming challenges in one way, then become a motorcyclist and learn to overcome challenges that way, because it's a really fun thing to do.

Ron 21:50

I I took several leadership classes in my career in corporate America. And the most impactful one was one thing that an instructor told me when I first got. To management, he he gave me a whole new mindset on things in regard to the way to treat people. He said, I don't know, I can't paraphrase it very well at all, but I'll try. He said something to the effect that when you're working with an employee who's struggling and you want to help them along, think that you're helping their kids also. Because what's what's going to happen with an unhappy employee a lot of the time? They're going to come home either exhausted or stressed out or both. And don't, you know, moms or the kids are wondering, why doesn't mom want to play with me? Well, mom's too tired. Works, work is stressing her out. But if you can turn that around as a leader and keeping in mind, I want you to be happy when you get home. And tell that, tell that man or that woman, whoever's on your team, let them know in so many ways that you care. You know what? We're going to get through this together. And they want to show up for work the next day or whatever, as opposed to dressing, they're going to sleep better. And back to the kids. They're they're going to be the mom and dad that they need to be because they like their work. And what a joy that is for us as leaders, just like yourself, and just like for you, Dylan, you know, in your line of work, for just to be in a position where you could have a major impact on somebody's life who just needs a kind word or needs a little bit of correction or whatever that is. And wow, what a privilege that is. I'll let you know something. And I will I'll keep this in the recording up, or maybe I'll cut it. I don't know. I don't know. Because I may fail at this. But now that I'm retired, I sent emails just this morning, just this morning, to the motorcycle, or they go a motorcycle safety and foundation. I would like to be a rider coach. Yeah. I've thought about that for a while. I've been riding for a long time, and I know I could always improve or whatever. And I'm hardheaded, so it'll it'd be hard to hard to change. But I really had just like you, and you guys both, I really have a heart for people. I love motorcycles. I love to teach. I've done that before. And now I've got all the time in the world. And I'm almost, shouldn't mention this either. I'm almost getting bored.

Speaker 1 24:18

But you have the right energy for it because you're so you're calm and you're grounded, and that is huge. So Shao Wilson, who started GADV, she started as an MSF coach. Really? And she grew from there and created, she's one of the most like certified motorcycle women trainers around. Like, I can't even tell you how many certifications this woman has. She's amazing. But it's such a cool way to share your love of not only riding, but technique and safety. And we should all take training every year. Like we've both taken the ride like a pro class, off-road training in multiple different settings. It really

Skills Safety And The ADV Culture

Speaker 1 25:00

helps to learn and challenge the way that you think about things and learn different techniques for doing things. We had a funny story from our trip just a couple of weeks ago. When we're riding, we're talking, we have carto headsets. So we're always talking. And if we're riding at night, we will often ride side by side. So that we have nice bright headlights where we look like a car. We're both watching for wildlife on the side of the road. We were in northern Alabama.

Speaker 3 25:31

Oh, Alabama. Yeah, and then up in Arkansas.

Speaker 1 25:33

And we were on this, the roads are incredibly straight. You can see a car coming at you for 10 minutes. It's wild.

Speaker 2 25:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1 25:39

So we're on this long road in a wilderness reserve. And Dylan goes, We really have to watch for deer. I'm like, okay. So if we see a deer, our our our catchphrase is, oh deer. That's a good one. So Dylan goes, Oh dear, dear, deer, because there was a flock, a herd of, I don't know what you call them, a grouping, a gaggle of deer on the side of the road. Dylan knew he had the space, moved into the lane where the oncoming traffic would have gone. We both just emergency braked, but I just I never left my course. And he sent to me afterwards, he goes, Your training paid off because you did exactly what you're supposed to do. He goes, and I'm the one who's been riding for 35 years and I did the road. It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad because there was no cars coming and he could see that. But it is just okay to call it horse that night as well, too. We we had to call out cowder of the road and horse. A loose horse and a loose cow. And we learned that armadillo are aggressive. We we did not know that before this trip.

Ron 26:46

You know, I grew up in Texas and Armadillo's all over the place. I didn't know that either.

Speaker 3 26:51

All that I ran maybe it was just this one. It ran across the road in front of her motorcycle. I was behind her and around this little ranch road, and it crossed over and she was kind of like picture is okay. It turned around when it got to the edge of the road and launched itself out of her motorcycle, like bounced off the the side bike. Yeah, and then went went back under the bike between the two wheels and out the other way. And I was like, never mind worrying about him. He just attacked you. He's like, Don't stop. Whatever you do, don't stop.

Speaker 1 27:25

Try to push you off. That's one pissed off little rolly poly. Yeah, confusing. Yeah, totally. So no, training pays off. And I think you would be great at instructing. Yeah, well, that's my current goal.

Ron 27:37

I love it. I just sent the email this morning. Yeah, and I've looked into it before when I was working full full time, but the honest truth is I was just I was too busy. And uh yeah, I was I'm just too busy and too.

Speaker 3 27:50

Well, it's always it's your weekends too. Like it's because of the those classes are always on the weekends. I had been at we did uh right like a pro class, and they were they wanted to know if I wanted to be an instructor. And I'm like, one, it's too far away. It was like up in northern part of the state, and then the other was like, no, I I don't really can't give up every Saturday. I think I'm already working six days. Everyday Saturday. But as far as back to the thing, like I will say the adventure riding component. I I only got into riding off-road in about 2018. I don't, you know, it always written on the road where you know you don't drop a motorcycle because it it'll damage it. And it's so I will hurt myself before I will drop my adventure bike on my adventure.

Speaker 1 28:35

I won't, I'll just drop it.

Speaker 3 28:37

But that that community, if for lack of a better word, has been it's much more open. You know, even dual sport riders, you know, the bikes are in the truck and then they go off into the woods and they sort of you have to know who you're riding with. And and you know, the cruiser, sport bike people, same thing. You're sort of riding with people, and if you see somebody, you know, looks like they ride a motorcycle, they're just going in and out of a store. But the adventure bike crowd, everyone looks like a Power Ranger. Um we'll stop somewhere and we've got all our gear on, and of course, somebody like, well, what are you guys doing? Obviously, those are motorcycles, and then we start talking to people. And people always I've met so many people in town. You've and we moved to this town a few years ago, and people, you know, will be he'll stop to get gas, and you know, with the guy we ride with up the road, he's way in the bike, same thing. You know, he'd go by the house, he'd see the bikes in the driveway, and he came in, introduced himself, and you know, introduced us to his friends, and then met another guy at the gas station that coincidentally knows that guy anyhow. And but he's like, Oh, I got a tenar ray as well. And then, you know, everyone wants to invite you to go ride with them, which is a lot more open and inviting than a lot of other sort of motorcycle subcultures, which are very cool. And everyone wants to go off in the woods, and and our that event that our friends put together, we go on rides there, and we were out in the woods back this in May, and and you know, somebody had put their big giant BMW into a mud hole and was not getting it out, and you know, but all of a sudden there's 15 people come out of nowhere and they're lifting the bike out and using z-traps and things like that. And yeah, so it's it's very it's a very open, inviting kind of set. So it's good, it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 30:20

Yeah, it really is a community of humans, even if you're on the same trail with people you don't know. They're gonna stop and help you, you're gonna stop and help them. It's really awesome, isn't it?

Ron 30:30

You know, I think I mentioned in an episode of the podcast not too long ago the beauty of the biker wave. Yes, we'll say total stranger you will never meet, probably coming the opposite way and giving you the biker wave. And you know, and and we we know too what that symbol means. It's it's be safe, you know, be safe. I care, you know. In some ways, it it tells to me, I read a lot into it. Yeah, I read be safe I care about you. Because we also know as motorcycle riders, too, just exactly what you were describing just now. If someone, whether you're on a road bike and you're on the side of the road or on your dirt bike, you're on a dirt bike and you're on the side of the trail, somebody will stop. A motorcycle will most definitely stop unless you give them the thumbs up, you know, thumbs up, and that means, oh yeah, I'm fine, I'm just getting out of map or whatever. But but isn't that isn't that just a privilege to be a part of that kind of community that's that way around the world, you know? Yeah, it's just not a US thing, or it's just around the world. I'm just feel so privileged to be part of it, just like this conversation. I knew I was gonna not worried about what we were gonna talk about. This I hadn't met you at all, but a little bit of exposure just through again through Instagram, the pictures and the videos and everything. I thought, oh yeah, no problem at all. You know, we're we're gonna have a great conversation, and we and we have so

Mindfulness Grief And Freedom On Bikes

Ron 32:00

you know, I guess kind of to bring your things full circle. What is it, what is it that motorcycling does for both of you? I mean we've talked, I mean, we've already talked about so many of those things though, but you know, part of this part of this podcast, a large part of it is about mindfulness. And I didn't couldn't spell mindfulness until a few years ago when we started to to have these mindfulness practices at work, and it was extremely helpful to me. But I I just know that again, I was out this afternoon. I was out for three hours. And the it I I have to think back, where in the world did I go? I was out riding for three hours and I don't know where I went exactly.

Speaker 3 32:48

We do the same. I could I just was at work today, and it was 80 degrees here in the in the beginning of November, and I called her. I said I was in meetings down at our headquarters, and I called her about one o'clock and said, you know, what's your afternoon look like? And I was like, I'm gonna play hooky for a couple hours and then take some time off. And and we were out just burning gasoline. We did 110 miles today. Oh just just riding around up north of here. Just for hips. And we can ride well. We do like the communication, some the communication, you know, the car dos. Some people don't like riding with them. We like them, and our friends that we ride with like as well. You're out doing your own thing, but it's like you're sitting in the car together. So we'll be talking, we have the best conversations, like we'd be chatting away about everything, you know, life, the whole lot, but but you're all still we just like, I mean, for myself, we like being outside. We bought a Jeep, an old Jeep a couple years ago. I took the doors and the roof off. They've never been there. As soon as I got it, and they've never I put them, I put the roof on recently as the weather got colder, and I hated it. I I hated it. I I I'm like, I want to be outside. It's the Jeep is my motorcycle phone, I have to carry stuff somewhere. You know, and if I'm in the truck and just going somewhere and I drive, you know, I used to drive for a for a living, so that that's different. But yeah, if we can be outside and just riding along, and you have to be, I mean, it's kind of cliche, even though it, you know, it's second nature at some point, but you have to be a little bit more present and a little bit more involved in what you're doing. You can chat and talk and daydream and and be looking around, and but you have to be a little bit more than just sitting in the car pushing the pedal or letting it drive itself or whatever they do these days. But like I I like that. I like that you're sort of those podcasts I listen to. It's it's they call it like the flow state. You you're you're involved, you don't have to do very much. You can make this, you know. I I'm always marveling when look at Ali in the in the rearview mirror, especially on her Harley. She's got you know, full dress Harley Davidson, and it's like 900 pounds, and she's just dragging the floorboards through corners. I'm like, she's this little girl, and she's got like this huge bike, and she's just cute. She she's you get mad if I say short. So when I say middle, I mean short. But yeah, she's got this huge bike, and she's just carving that through corners, and you know, and it it just looks effortless. And and you know, and you see people are kind of like, I can never do that. I'm like, Oh no, you can't because you think you can't do it.

Speaker 1 35:25

But yeah, it's a mindful meditation, it's a mindful moment. It's it's similar to hiking, we do a lot of hiking. You're physically outside, you're mentally focused on what's happening next. It quiets your brain, it allows your brain to process things. We've had a couple of really tough losses over the last few years. And when we're not able to communicate how hard that grief is, we get on a motorcycle and we ride. And sometimes we can have those sad and hard conversations easier on a motorcycle because much like when you're talking to your teenagers, you put them in the car because there's no eye contact, it's less confrontational. You can have really hard conversations while you're riding. But it's just this really beautiful exercise in freedom. And I became a mom at 17, and I was in a very abusive and toxic relationship, and luckily was able to escape that with my child, and then we both survived it, but it left a lot of physical, mental, and emotional scars. I then entered another difficult relationship, and that left my other kids with additional scarring. But we all learned that we can overcome that, and learning to overcome things is a really beautiful, powerful skill. And then discovering that there was this freedom of getting on a motorcycle that I was in control of, and being able to go as fast or as slow, as technically aggressive, or just a smooth, easy, flowy country road. It just gives you this sense of I'm in control of my destination right now. And that's a feeling that I didn't always have in life. So my goal is to help my kids have that same experience. One, like we talked about, our oldest son lives in Utah. We call them ours because they're ours. He lives in Utah and he gets it with riding. He's been riding since he was 18. He's now 32. And then his twin younger brothers, one learned to ride in the backyard. There's some funny videos on my Instagram page of that. He's this giant six foot four tall guy. And he's on my Honda 250. And when I'm on it, I'm like barely touching one set of tiptoes. He has his knees bent. And I was so mad when he got on that bike and he made it look so short. But it's just motorcycling is truly about freedom, and it's an expression of joy. And it truly just it brings us, it grounds us, it opens our eyes, it helps us take a deep breath. It's just such a beautiful thing.

Speaker 3 38:26

Yeah, there's very few things where we we, you know, I I play music, I play guitar, and I'm in a band. I I'll practice, not as much as I should, but you know, I play for a while and then I can't get done. Like, we're out on the bikes and like we just don't want to go home sometimes. Like we'll just go out. We rode in Scotland last year. We went up to the Highlands with a group from a tour that a podcast I listened to out of England was was had put on. So we I was like, hey, you want to go to Scotland? She's like, Yeah, I'm gonna ride tomorrow's night in Scotland. It was amazing. But we finished, we did the long ride the day before, and on the last day, everyone was staying at the same hotel. Which again, back to that point, we just walk in, hadn't met these people in the world, and just sort of sat down and had something to talk about with people from all over instinct, you know, England and the United States. But we got back, it was like four o'clock, and I think dinner was 6 30. And we so we finished the shorter ride the second day, and we're just looking at each other like we're not done. We're not going in. Like we just just picked a town across the other side of the highlands. It's just like we're just going there back again just just because, you know, I I just don't want to go home. We just don't want to go back. And and so it's it's it is very, you know, I don't know around the world like or even hear a lot of people ride for transport and and you know, it's it's a thing, but for us, at least in the US, we're sort of more of a it's pastime, it's it's a it's a hobby, we're it's a luxury to be able to do it. It's it's it, like I said, I started riding because it was transportation. I knew I wanted a bike, but I could never afford one in Ireland. But I could afford I I bought a KZ550 for like 800 bucks, and I could insure it on a learner's permit for $130, you know, as soon as I got here. And then I had transportation. It was, it was, it was amazing. I like I I have transportation. I can go. I'm not waiting for the bus. I can I can go anywhere I want. I used to just do the loop around around Boston, like the 128 loop, as fast, see how fast I could do it at night. And uh, you know, just the same thing. It's a nice summer night. I'm not going home. Uh I got nothing else to do. I'm gonna be out here, I'm not watching television. So yeah, I think it's a it's a great opportunity to sort of be able to get out and and for anybody, it doesn't matter how long you've been writing, you know, just yeah, he's like, I'm doing that. I'm kind of cool. I'm doing that.

Ron 40:48

There's a cool element there. That I love that a lot. Makes me not feel as old as I really am. But aren't you right though? What I what I hear you saying is something I feel really strongly about. You know, if if you've got the the finances to ride a bike, to ride a motorcycle, you get the mental and the physical capabilities of doing that. Wow, aren't we lucky?

Speaker 3 41:12

Very we think that all the time, like we're not, you know, I joke. There's no way we could maintain the fleet of bikes we have or vehicles if I didn't work on them myself. I'd be broke at, you know, even independent shop prices. But you know, it's it's not like a fragment. We just like them. And we don't have I don't have them be we don't have bikes that are showpieces or or or none of them were ever bought new.

Speaker 1 41:38

They were all bought used.

Speaker 3 41:39

Yeah, you know, we fix them up and and keep them working, but like we're still we're very privileged, I think, to be able to to you know, people spend money on golf clubs or or boats or whatever it might be, and and but this is ours. You know, I don't play golf, I don't watch sports, like this is my thing. But like we you know, we're privileged to be able to do that and and sort of enjoy it. And it's awesome. And and I think it's not lost on you when you sort of go out for a ride. It's you're like, I you know, right now gas is expensive. And and I only work from home and I give a company car, so I don't have to pay to get to work, but like we literally burn gasoline for fun. You know what I mean? Like we just burn gas today. It's like what you do, we just burn gasoline. Yeah. But you know, so and that's a huge privilege, and but it's not lost on us, I think, the fact that it's not like uh you know, we're you know we definitely appreciate the opportunity. And and even when you see people out, you know, you're talking about the bicrowave and this thing. Some people won't bike wave to each other, or it'll voyager warranty, or they'll kick you out of the club if you wave to a non-Harley or whatever it might be. Yeah, I'll wave back to anybody. Uh I love waving scooters. I love we always leave with the scooters, they're so even like the um the like those the three-wheeled, the three-wheel reverse trip, the the oh, yeah, the strike, you know, bikers.

Speaker 1 43:04

Something like that. Yeah, something, yeah.

Speaker 3 43:06

You know what? If somebody's out on that, if that's what gets them out, you know, it's a CVT transmission, it's it's basically a snowmobile with wheels, but they're outside. You're sitting on top of it, you're not in it, you're out riding around. And and we were up in Lake George last year, not sure in America, just another weekend. There must have been a convention. There was we've never seen so many of them in one day. It was incredible. Yeah. But I'm like, I'm waving all of them. Like, this is awesome. Like, good for you. You're all on the road, you're all doing your thing.

Speaker 1 43:36

Yeah, you know. I think the moment that I knew I was truly a motorcyclist is when I had a crash and I an off-road crash and I broke my collarbone. And it's fine. I rode myself out of the woods, and I rode myself an hour to the nearest hospital and ended up needing surgery a couple weeks later, and I have a plate in seven. The first question I asked my surgeon, how soon can I ride it? Not oh my god, am I gonna be okay? No, absolutely not. It was never a question for me, and I fully respect anybody who does have a crash. They're all different situations, right? For me, I just came around a corner too fast off-road, no big deal. But I knew that I wanted to get back to it, and I instantly missed it. So that spoke volumes to me, and it really is a powerful expression of, like I said, freedom, joy, community, and just knowing that you're doing something that you're training for and you're improving your skills over time is so cool. It's so fun.

Ron 44:48

Isn't it? That that's a great piece of it too. Yeah, I'm in my 55th year of writing. And yeah, just today I was out on the dirt on my BMW 1250 adventure and uh did a few tight circles, really tight circles. Yep, out there by myself. There were a few cows around, but I don't think that'd be helpful. And I'm in the case.

Speaker 1 45:10

Every time you see cows, you have to say, hello, cows. I will do that. That's my trademark. Today we rode and we were literally just riding by a farm and we were in the middle of a conversation, but I could see Dylan's hand start to go up as I was already saying, Hello, cows.

Speaker 3 45:31

She also points out every tractor.

Speaker 1 45:32

So that's another I love tractors.

Ron 45:36

Well, you will enjoy this week's episode, the one that's gonna be tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Yours is gonna come up the week after that. But I'm talking about a little bit about my dad when dad used to be out on the tractor.

Speaker 1 45:49

Oh, I love that. I will look forward to it.

Ron 45:54

Hey, I I want to thank you both. Such a I knew I'd like you. I really do. I knew I'd like you. You're real good people, and um uh Dylan, I appreciate what you do for a living and uh the work that you do, and Allie, you too. Um and uh I appreciate your spirit very much and for your willingness to share the joy that you clearly experience out there on a motorcycle. So thank you so much for being with us today.

Speaker 1 46:25

Well, thank you for spreading in peace and love and for having such a cool opportunity for us to participate in your podcast. We really enjoy listening to it and we're thrilled to be your guests.

unknown 46:35

Thank you. Thank you.

Ron 46:36

Talk sex.

Speaker 1 46:38

So fun to meet you. Take care.

Closing Thoughts And Where To Follow

Ron 46:41

And again, a huge thank you to Aly and Dylan for joining me today and for sharing their stories, their humor, and their perspective on what life on two wheels is really all about. You know, whether you're tackling the backcountry discovery routes or leading women's off-road rides through She ADV, or simply giving a stranger a biker wave out on a quiet stretch of road, Allie and Dylan are great reminders of why we ride, aren't they? It's about presence, it's about freedom, it's about looking out for one another, both on and off the trail. So, hey, if you'd like to follow along with Allie and Dylan with their adventures and learn more about She ADV and the backcountry discovery routes, also, uh, we'd love to share some more information with you about that. I'll have links to their Instagram and those other organizations in the show notes. And uh an additional shout out today, too, for a new product sponsor, Jagware. Uh, they're they're good folks and they gave me some products to uh evaluate, and uh they have good stuff, they really do. And um, so I'll have a link to Jaguar as well. As always, thank you so much for listening. Until we visit again, peace and love to you all. Hope to see you out there.