Keep The Shiny Side Up on Amazon
With a brand new license and craving adventure, they hit the road.
Sherrie and Patrick were no strangers to overland motorcycle travel. They met on Patrick’s first around the world motorcycle trip. After joining him in Argentina to ride pillion Sherrie was hooked – both on Patrick and motorcycle travel. And so a dream was born. Their next trip would have them each riding their own motorbike. However, as the months turned to years that dream seemed ever distant. Soon it became apparent that saving for an around the world trip would take longer than either was willing to wait. Realizing that there was more to life than working and saving, they switched plans and decided to ride from Germany to Turkey and back via the Balkans.
Sherrie’s first trip riding solo, Keep The Shiny Side Up is an intimate account of why someone with a week old motorcycle license would jump on their bike and ride away. (Hint: It helps if staying means your homeless.) And as Sherrie was to find out, self-awareness is where the real zen of motorcycle travel occurs.
This is the story of their 3-month trip which included Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey. Greece, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia. From the majesty of Mt. Nemrut to the wonderful and open people they met along the way, Sherrie writes candidly about the ups, downs and pure bliss that is motorcycle travel. Food, mountain top crashes, and horny deer are all just part of this trip.
The Happiness Project meets The Motorcycle Diaries, the book is for anyone who dreams of packing it in and riding off into the sunset – or for anyone who just likes to read about it. Join in on the adventure today.
Iceland A Stormy Motorcycle Journey on Amazon
Active volcanoes, glaciers, rivers without bridges and killer sheep – Iceland offers the kind of riding that motorcycle adventure dreams are made of. Ignoring the lack of off road skills in one half of the partnership, Patrick and Sherrie set off on a 6 week journey from Germany to Iceland and back in the summer of 2010. Riding their two BMW F 650 GS (Betty and Wilma) they fell in love with the island and its stunning scenery. Surviving hospitalization, sand, sunk bikes and perhaps most frightening of all, lack of good affordable food, Iceland stole a piece of both their hearts. The only drawback: they wish they had had more time.
Includes 8 maps
Taking The Long Way Home on Amazon
Friendly kidnappings by Russian bikers, flying motorcycles off of cliffs in Mongolia and adopting a beach dog in Thailand are all part of Sherrie & Patrick’s year of chasing summer.
In the summer of 2011, Sherrie and Patrick say goodbye to their home in Germany and take a truly long way to Sherrie’s home in Newfoundland. Pointing the bikes eastward they set off towards Russia with the plan to eventually make it all the way around back to Canada.
Their adventures take them through Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and Mongolia before an argument with gravity left Sherrie’s bike in a condition where shipping it onwards costs more than the bike is worth. As changing the plan is part of the plan, they sell the bikes and move onto South East Asia, where they buy moscoots and experience tropical paradise, survive monkey attacks and end up with a co-dependent dog in a makeshift basket they attach to the front of Sherrie’s new bike.
Finally, chasing summer they end up catching up with winter, and in North America, they buy a van to tour the states before rolling into Newfoundland on four rather than two wheels.
This is the collected essays of her Chasing Summer column she wrote during 2011 and 2012 for the Newfoundland and Labrador’s Independent magazine.
A just over year-long adventure that is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of packing everything up and hitting the road.
