Reader Reviews

I so enjoyed reading American Borders. Carla, I admire your honesty and adventurous nature. As I am about to embark on a 5,000 mile motorcycle journey, it gives me inspiration to reach out to travelers I meet along the way and to get to know some new, cool people. You are a great writer. The book kept me interested throughout, and every night I could not wait to find the time to sit down and read some more. I am looking forward to the next one.

“Just finished your book, Once I started I couldn't put it down. Having lived in North Dakota and traveled ND, MN, MT, ID WA many times it was as if I were riding along with you. Now living in South Carolina I also have experienced the Taste of the South. Look forward to your new book. My son spent 6 months in China and will also enjoy a copy. Great listening to you on SSU and look forward to hearing more. Dave Welken (Outback Dave)”

On the Beginner Bikes ebook: As a motorcycle safety instructor, the beginner bike debate is one of the biggest out there. It is refreshing to hear someone that is respected throughout the motorcycling community tell people that the lower displacement motorcycles are the correct beginner bikes. Many in my professional circle of trainers turned down opportunities to teach for the Rider's Edge program. Our major concern was the fact that the Buell Blast was a mini sportbike and therefore packed too much power (492cc) for a beginner rider course and had brakes to rival. The two most common problems in a rider course, as I am sure you know, are clutch control and attacking the brakes. This motorcycle easily tripled the opportunity for injury or death in the course as history now shows. Thank you for your efforts in trying to get people on the right motorcycle for a novice.

I felt like I had read a Harlequin romance, a self-help book, a book of survival techniques, and a story of the open road, all brilliantly wrapped in one neat little package.

In 1995, Carla King embarked on a solo circumnavigation of America. What made her decision daring was not that she was a woman on a motorcycle. Instead, hers was a doubled adventure, at once rooted in the past and charting the future. She made her trip on a Russian Ural with sidecar—a motorcycle originally designed in 1938 and revived for sale in 1994—while documenting her journey using the then emerging technology of the Internet. Now published in book form, her travelogue takes the reader across many borders—political, social, economic and temporal.