Motorcycle Rides is a personal blog of my motorcycle trips. Hi, I’m Brad, and I love the freedom of the ride, with the wind blowing in my face and the wide open vistas. It is a therapeutic process that calms my soul and spirit. I feel a closeness to God as I ride across His creations. He has helped me to better understand my life, especially during the long stretches of highway which gives me a lot of time to think and ponder. There are so many amazing places that I have visited and experienced, having crossed the United States 5 times, and have traveled up into Canada. I have ridden in every one of the lower states. Alaska is on my check list. And technically I have ridden in Hawaii on a rented bike. I have ridden in rain (For days at a time), wind, hail and I even dodged a tornado in Nebraska. I hydroplaned once in rain, and was lucky to have kept my bike upright. My cross country trips started on a 2004 Honda VTX 1300. After putting 100,000 miles on this bike, I decided to retire it and step up into a Honda Goldwing. I’ve really enjoyed the Goldwing. It is a very smooth and comfortable bike. I’m looking forward to putting another 100,000+ on this bike. Almost on every trip, I feel a higher power watching over me. I always pray before I ride, asking for protection and safety. I’ve had a lot of special experiences where I was protected. One such experience was on a trip from Salt Lake City to Daytona Beach, Florida. While traveling through Texas, just outside of Dallas, I was riding in the far left lane. (I feel that is always the safest lane on the freeway, as I only have to worry about traffic on my right) I had a strong impression to move over one lane to my right. I’ve always learned to listen to those voices. So I immediately moved over. About 10 seconds later, the car that was in front of me in the fast lane swerved to miss a big piece of metal conduit that had just fallen off of a truck in front of them. Had I stayed in that lane, my situation would not have been good.