The small village of Copper Harbor is nestled near the tip on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, at the end of Route 41 on the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. You heard me right, a peninsula on a peninsula. Hey, I didn't name the place. But I really enjoyed riding it.

After a long week at Sturgis, I needed to unwind in a mellower atmosphere. So off I went to U.S. 41, also known as the Copper Country Trail National Byway. It starts from Houghton and ends in Copper Harbor, the site of the first copper boom in the United States. The Copper Country Trail runs through the center of the peninsula, and it has a canopy of trees growing over the roadway that creates a winding tunnel of solitude.inline_mediumwraptextright26205380/rideanddest/1002_crup_copper_harbor_circle_tour_michigan1002_crup_01_z+copper_harbor_circle_tour_michigan+.jpgTrue

New York's mythic status is taken to new heights when you work in book publishing. The industry orbits around the Big Apple. When I worked at a Midwestern book publisher, we envied, idolized and mythologized NYC book editors, with tales whispered about exorbitant salaries, penthouse suites, and halls teeming with overworked editorial assistants paid three cents an hour who lived packed like rats into roach-infested 10-square-foot apartments underneath creosote factories.

The myth grew exponentially for me, as I didn't visit the city until a four-day business-pleasure brawl in 2006 injected the town into my bloodstream. The food, the energy, the cabbies, the freaks, and the fact that you can walk into a bookstore at midnight and it's packed all convinced me that Leary had it right: New York is a drug.inline_mediumwraptextrightLow seat height and a relatively light 504-pound weight make the Speedmaster a good choice for shorter riders or people who appreciate tight-handling cruisers.26136683/rideanddest/1002_crup_2009_triumph_speedmaster_in_new_york_city1002_crup_01_z+2009_triumph_speedmaster_new_york_city+.jpgTrue

Look at a map of Europe and find Spain (or España). You'll see that the east of the country comes to a point, sandwiched between the Pyrenees Mountains to the North and the Mediterranean Sea to the South. This point is called Catalonia in English or Catalunya in Catalan. This beautiful place, full of rolling hills, wide beaches and jagged peaks, was the battleground where many wars between the Muslim Moors of Cordoba and the Christians of the Holy Roman Empire took place. Eventually it settled in as the last bastion of Christianity, but with its relative isolation from the rest of Europe it developed its own language, customs, and sense of identity. Five hundred years later, they've still got it.inline_mediumwraptextright31284462/rideanddest/0912_crup_catalonia_is_not_spain0912_crup_02_z+catalonia_is_not_spain+bikes_parked.jpgTrue

Taking State Road 60 into the town of Suches then proceeding a hundred yards north of the well-known TWO (Two Wheels Only) motorcycle resort leads to State Route 180, also known as Wolf Pen Gap Road. This asphalt ribbon is said to have more sharp curves and steeper grades than any other paved road in Georgia. The first five miles begin as a sedate two-lane blacktop leading to Lake Winfied Scott, a small very peaceful lake that acts as a reflecting pool to the Appalachian foothills that surround it. Rimmed by overhanging trees, its emerald green color in spring and summer lends a feeling of calm and serenity to the visitor, and the yellows and reds of autumn make this an amazing place to see during the yearly miracle of nature.

Can you believe Hurricane Katrina was more than four years ago? I can't. It seems like no more than last year that the 6th biggest hurricane ever recorded hit the gulf coast and devastated one of the coolest towns in the world, New Orleans. From a rider's perspective the tragedy was more than a legendary city sunk deep in the Mississippi Delta with lives lost and otherwise destroyed. As we all know it was far from just New Orleans, but also the entire gulf coast delta area in Louisiana and Mississippi, which left hundreds of miles of beachfront coast road (and the cool little restaurants and shops that went with them) trashed as well. The whole area continues to struggle to get back on its feet, as the vicious Catch 22 of not having tourist infrastructure is keeping the area from rebuilding quickly and attracting more tourists (and their money).inline_mediumwraptextrightThe Bonny's plush suspension and sharp handling came in handy on the bumpy, blind and crowded streets of the French Quarter.31283487/rideanddest/0912_crup_motorcycle_touring_down_on_the_bayou0912_crup_04_z+down_on_the_bayou+action.jpgTrue