Perhaps they are born to be wild, or perhaps they just can’t wait to get on the road again.
Motorcyclists from the United States and other countries, who share a love for long-distance travel, recently convened at the Holiday Lake 4-H Educational center for a weekend event.
Horizons Unlimited (HU), an international travelers group that was founded in 1987 by Canadian couple Grant and Susan Johnson, has come to the 4-H Center for four consecutive years under the direction of local HU organizer Steve Anderson.
The annual event in Appomattox, the HU Virginia Travellers Meeting, attracts people from numerous locations including the United States, Costa Rica, Canada, England and Australia.
The meeting provides informational sessions and fellowship to traveling enthusiasts, most of whom are bikers. Others, however, prefer to travel by other means such as RVs, bicycles, jeep, truck, and even hiking. Whatever means of transportation is utilized, seeing the world is the goal.
Attendees have the opportunity to attend sessions throughout the weekend which feature presentations on personal trip stories and photographs, tips on motorcycle maintenance for long-distance road trips, how to deal with vehicle and medical emergencies, training for off-road navigation, and legal issues such as paperwork and border crossing issues. There is also a self-guided tour of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.
Anderson, who resides in Orange County, Virginia, has been riding for 44 years. His first motorcycle was a 1975 Honda CV 350. His sense of adventure has taken him to Newfoundland, Mexico, Europe, and every state except Hawaii. In the 1980’s, he worked as a photographer for the Red Cross in western Africa during the famine relief efforts.
The desire to experience different cultures and landscapes on a more intimate level than a typical vacationer is what makes traveling by motorcycle unique for Anderson.
“There is a cliched saying that driving a car is like watching a movie and riding a motorcycle is like being in it. There’s something to that. I’ve always loved all sorts of travel, but it’s different on a motorcycle,” Anderson explained. “In a car, you’re driving along, you’re pretty much oblivious to the weather. If it’s raining, you’ll have your wipers on, so it doesn’t really affect you. If it’s cold, you have the heat on. On a motorcycle, you’re riding along [and] you obviously have weather extremes.
“You also notice the subtle things, like you’re riding along through a forested area, or something, and the road takes a dip. When you go down that dip, you’ll feel the temperature change a couple of degrees. It’s those kind of things that, when I’m riding, and that happens, it makes me smile because it’s one of those things where you’re totally in the environment and you’re a part of the world out there.”
Brent Carroll, a Navy veteran who decided to move from North Carolina to Seattle after admiring the area’s beauty during a motorcycle trip, was inspired to take on a substantial journey after attending a Horizons Unlimited meeting in 2015.
Carroll’s mission was to travel the entire length of the Pan American Highway, which extends from the world’s northernmost road point in the world at Deadhorse, Alaska to the world’s southernmost point at Ushuaia, Argentina.
The memorable journey began in April of 2016 after a long period of planning, which included selling his home, quitting his job, saving money, and learning to speak the Spanish language.
Giving credit to the HU group, Carroll said, “I was inspired here to do that, knowing that others had done it. I [knew I] could do it. It was just a matter of deciding to go. So, this is like family to me now. I know these people.”
One thing that stood out in Carroll’s journey was the authentic kindness of the people he met in different countries. “In countries where the standard of living might be pretty low and people might just barely have a couple of nickels to rub together, they’d be willing to do anything for you. So, I never felt unsafe, ever, even through some of the smaller Central American countries,” he said.
The trip, which passed through 15 countries, did not come without pitfalls. While visiting the Mayan ruins at Tikal in Guatemala, Carroll was bitten by a mosquito and contracted the Zika virus. After resting in a hotel in the city of Antigua for several days, he got back on the road, believing he was well again. Before long, he realized he was still feeling ill. Shortly afterward, he was t-boned by another vehicle in an accident which ruined his motorcycle. He went to Guatemala City to purchase another bike to finish the trip.
Having returned to the Appomattox HU meeting from his trip after one year, in April of 2017, Carroll reflected on the freedom he experienced in traveling and admitted that he learned a lesson in patience from the slower-paced lifestyle in Central and South America as compared to the rat-race pace of America life.
“A lot of it is about freedom, owning your own time and your schedule, and that sensation that you’re in control,” Carroll said. “It’s also about being vulnerable, because when you’re vulnerable the intensity of the experience is greater because you’re opening yourself up to adventure, to strangers, to whatever. It was very richly rewarding to me. Central and South American life is much slower. It really changed my life. I see things differently now.”
Dale Distacio, of North Carolina, once lived in New Jersey where she described it as place with a “lot of pub jumpers,” meaning motorcycle riders whose riding is generally confined to hopping from bar to bar during a night in town.
Distacio and her husband wanted to expand their travels and were searching for like-minded people. Her husband discovered Horizons Unlimited on the internet and found the website to be very helpful and informative. “When we found Horizons Unlimited, it’s like ‘This is our people. This is our tribe.’ We finally found people like ourselves,” Distacio said.
Since joining HU, the Distacios have been to South Africa twice, Botswana, Zambia, New Zealand, South America, the Australian Outback, and traveled on U.S. Route 40, otherwise known as “Main Street of America,” extending from New Jersey to Utah.
Dale was especially impressed with Africa, even with the desert land of Namibia, as she explained, “Africa just touches a part inside of me that I can’t describe. I found it beautiful and thrilling. I found the native people [to be] beautiful people. Victoria Falls will take your breath away. So much of [Africa] is untouched still.”
On a comical note, Dale described a night when she and her husband pitched a tent overlooking the Zambezi River in Zambia. It just happened to be mating season for a herd of hippopotamus and they could hear the loud noises all night long from below their location.
Aside from the may motorcycles parked at the 4-H Educational Center, an old-fashioned bus which had appeared in several Hollywood motion pictures was parked adjacent to a camping ground.
The bus is owned by David Hamburger of Easton, Maryland, who shared his 1965 European motorcycle trip during a session at which he showed a pre-recorded presentation of his travels through places such as Scandinavia, Holland, Denmark, and France.
Hamburger, who has not taken a major motorcycle trip since that time, formerly worked as an assistant director, production manager and producer at Paramount Studio in Los Angeles for 30 years, beginning in the early 1970’s. He purchased the 1947 Flxible Company bus from Paramount in 1973 and converted it into a motor home in 1976.
The particular bus style was the typical design from 1947 until 1961 and was often used by movie studios to transport crews to filming locations. According to Hamburger, several national parks still make use of the same type of buses.
The bus purchased by Hamburger has appeared in films including Key Largo (1948) starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, The Harder They Fall (1956) which was Bogart’s last film before his death, and North By Northwest (1959) starring Cary Grant. Hamburger said that using the transit buses in movie scenes was a common practice whenever a bus was needed.
The son of a lawyer, born in New York City and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Hamburger enjoys traveling and attending the retreat to Appomattox each year.
“The presentations are interesting. It’s the real deal,” he said. “People are world travelers. The people who are presenting, as well as a lot of the people that are here, have traveled everywhere and they know a lot of what they’re talking about. They’re interesting people. Travel, to me, is one of the best things you can possibly do to stay young and keep your brain active.”
For further information on Horizons Unlimited, a non-for-profit organization, visit the website at www.horizonsunlimited.com.