Northeast by Northwest

Mike Fitterling was born in 1957 in northern Indiana and grew up across the state line in Niles, Michigan, graduating from Brandywine High School in 1975. Mike did a two year stint at Anderson College, in Indiana, before dropping out in 1978. In 1989, he returned to school at the University of South Florida, where he graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor in Fine Arts. Throughout Mike's youth, family trips hinted at the world awaiting him if he just got on the road. Starting at an early age his family made camping trips to over twenty states. After his first stab at college, Mike tagged along with his brother on a biology and archeology excursion Anderson College had organized to Central America. Those five weeks of camping in the remotest areas of Mexico and Guatemala added the twist of adventure to his love of travelling. As time went on, Mike was drawn to the sea, bought a small sailboat, and took off along the southeast US coast and through the Bahamas and Caribbean. He captained an excursion sailboat in the Cayman Islands for three summers and earned his US captain's license in 1993. Returning to the States from the Caribbean, Mike settled in central Florida, where he worked as a graphic designer. Later, he became interested in woodworking and worked semi-professionally at that craft for a period while working for Lost Classics Book Company. When he married in 1997, Mike was working as cover designer and illustrator for Lost Classics Book Company, and later became Managing Editor. He acquired the company in 2010. Finding himself owner of a publishing company, his natural inclination was to turn to publishing books on motorcycling, and so in 2011, the Road Dog Publications imprint was started. In 2013, Mike became Editor of Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Magazine, the official publication of the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club of North America, where he also currently serves on the board of directors. Motorcycles had been a distant dream for Mike since his childhood, but bike ownership escaped him until he was in his fifties, when he discovered a 1968 Honda tucked away in a dusty corner of a relative's shop. He extracted the motorcycle and applied himself to learning about fixing and riding them, starting a new episode in his life, which provided him a new means of adventuring. He later acquired a Suzuki Savage, then a modern Triumph Bonneville, and has since added a 200cc Honda Scrambler and a Suzuki GS550e to his garage. Everything but the Triumph have been project bikes, the GS being still largely in boxes at the time this book was published. Mike loves long-distance riding and tries to get at least one long ride in a year. Between 2009 and the end of 2016 he has put close to 150,000 miles behind him riding in the US and Canada.

About the Author v Prologue ix Northeast 1 Planning 3 2 The Day before Departure 15 3 Day 1, Traversing the Southeast 19 4 Day 2, Reaching the Mountains 27 5 Day 3, Crossing the Mason-Dixon Line 35 6 Day 4, The Ridges Surrounding Altoona 41 7 Day 5, Into the Pennsylvania Wilderness to the Foothills of the Catskills 47 8 Day 6, The Catskills, Adirondacks, and Lake Champlain 57 9 Day 7, Into Canada 69 10 Day 8, To Rimouski and South to Maine 79 11 Day 9, Sally and the Boys in the Mirrors and the White Mountains Ahead 93 12 Day 10, The White and the Green Mountains, Schenectady, and the Catskills Again 103 13 Day 11, The Road to Gettysburg 115 14 Day 12, Back to My Beloved Blue Ridge 125 15 Day 13, Into Familiar Territory 141 16 Day 14, The Empty Georgia Countryside 153 17 Day 15, Heading Home 161 18 At Home 169 Northwest 1 Planning, Prompting, and Preparation 175 2 Day 1, North to the Appalachians 181 3 Day 2, Ozark Bound 187 4 Day 3, A Bittersweet Reunion 193 5 Day 4, The Great Plains to the Edge of the Rockies 199 6 Day 5, Over the Continental Divide 207 7 Day 6, Flaming Gorge and a Wild Ride into Jackson 215 8 Day 7, The Grand Tetons North to Butte 223 9 Day 8, Butte to Huckleberry Pie 229 10 Day 9, O Canada! 239 11 Day 10, Prairie and Wind 247 12 Day 11, Leaving the Great Plains 253 13 Day 12, A Foggy Lake and an Aerostich Miss 261 14 Day 13, To the Land of My Youth 269 15 Day 14, A Day Off 275 16 Day 15, Flat Farmland to Rolling Hills above the Ohio 279 17 Day 16-18, A Gathering of Vintage Japanese Motorcycles 285 18 Day 19, Across the Mason-Dixon, Bound for Georgia 291 19 Day 20, A Romp through West Georgia 295 20 Day 21, Homeward Bound 299 21 Epilogue, Restoration 303 Appendix I, Gear and Statistics 309 Appendix II, Complete Route, Turn by Turn 313 Acknowledgements 323