Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Adventure Motorcycle Traveler Michael Yang on 40,000 Miles and a Mid-Life Reinvention

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Adventure Motorcycle Traveler Michael Yang on 40,000 Miles and a Mid-Life Reinvention · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:10
Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano. Today my guest is a Korean American author, entrepreneur, investor,
0:17
Speaker 1: adventure motorcycle traveler, and a fourth degree black belt in Taekwondo.
0:22
Speaker 1: Please welcome to the podcast. Michael Yang. Thank you so
0:25
Speaker 1: much for joining us.
0:26
Speaker 2: Thanks today. Thank you, Ashley. I'm excited to be here.
0:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, where are you coming in from today? Where are
0:34
Speaker 1: you located?
0:34
Speaker 2: I'm in Los Angeles, California right now, which is my base.
0:40
Speaker 1: Great, awesome. So I really wanted to talk about your
0:44
Speaker 1: new book called Coming Alive on the Ride, and we're
0:47
Speaker 1: going to kind of go back in time talk about
0:50
Speaker 1: when you had your first motorcycle and coming to America
0:54
Speaker 1: and your life and all the things that have led
0:57
Speaker 1: you to being here and all things motorcycles. So I'm
1:00
Speaker 1: excited to chat.
1:03
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2:16
Speaker 2: Thanks nidto great. Yeah, I'd love to share the story
2:20
Speaker 2: of my adventure in my journey.
2:23
Speaker 1: So you buy your first motorcycle at fifteen after immigrating
2:27
Speaker 1: to America with your parents. What did riding represent back then.
2:34
Speaker 2: To you? Riding? Yeah, I was riding a ten speed
2:39
Speaker 2: bicycle to school and to my work at the time,
2:43
Speaker 2: which was at a seven level store at a part
2:45
Speaker 2: time job there. But the school was a little bit
2:47
Speaker 2: long and there were some teenagers in the neighborhood where
2:53
Speaker 2: we lived, who were riding these minibikes, dirt bikes, small motorcycles,
2:59
Speaker 2: and so one of the teenagers was selling is used
3:03
Speaker 2: Yamaha one hundred cc and duabike. So I bought it.
3:06
Speaker 2: And I just had so much fun riding that Yamaha
3:10
Speaker 2: motorcycle to school and to my work and to the
3:14
Speaker 2: mountains on the weekends in the San Francisco Bay area
3:17
Speaker 2: because we were living in San Jose, California at the time.
3:21
Speaker 2: We had just immigrated from South Korea to the United States,
3:25
Speaker 2: and riding to me was such a fun excitement. It
3:29
Speaker 2: was such a joy and also gave me a sense
3:32
Speaker 2: of freedom, the thrill of riding through the open road,
3:35
Speaker 2: filling the air, filling the surface of the road as
3:38
Speaker 2: well as slippery dirt road, and I just.
3:41
Speaker 1: Loved it amazing. Yeah, I can imagine as a teenager
3:44
Speaker 1: that's a really good time of life to be mobilized.
3:48
Speaker 2: Exactly. Yes, it was time to explore and time to
3:53
Speaker 2: take some risk, and I was trying wheelies and stuff,
3:56
Speaker 2: and I dropped my bike few times, breaking the tail
3:58
Speaker 2: lights and everything, but it was pretty harmless. I had
4:01
Speaker 2: to go get another taillight to replace the broken plastic,
4:05
Speaker 2: and I may have scraped my knees or hands a
4:08
Speaker 2: few times, but it was a great experience. Unfortunately, my
4:12
Speaker 2: motorcycle got stolen a few months after I bought it
4:15
Speaker 2: because I had to park it on the street because
4:17
Speaker 2: we're living in a small two bedroom apartment with only
4:20
Speaker 2: one parking space, and my father parked his car there,
4:23
Speaker 2: so I had to park my motorcycle on the street.
4:26
Speaker 2: And one morning I went out there with my helmet
4:29
Speaker 2: with my backpack to go to school and it was gone,
4:32
Speaker 2: and so I was so disappointed. But I didn't ride
4:36
Speaker 2: for almost thirty thirty five years, but then when I
4:39
Speaker 2: turned forty seven, I started to have each to ride again,
4:42
Speaker 2: and that's when I started riding motorcycle again.
4:46
Speaker 1: Incredible story, coming all decades later. What prompted you to
4:52
Speaker 1: get back on the bike, because I'm sure you're a
4:54
Speaker 1: very different person at that point.
4:56
Speaker 2: Right I was going through some difficult period. I had
5:00
Speaker 2: success as a Silicon Valley founder of a dot com
5:03
Speaker 2: startup that got sold to a c net in two
5:06
Speaker 2: thousand during the first Internet boom, So that was a
5:09
Speaker 2: great exit, a great experience for me. Gave me a
5:12
Speaker 2: lot of financial independence, and I had just started a family.
5:16
Speaker 2: But my new company that I started started going sideways
5:20
Speaker 2: and it was difficult period because there were a lot
5:23
Speaker 2: of investor pressure, but the business wasn't growing, and so
5:28
Speaker 2: we hired a new CEO to run the company, and
5:30
Speaker 2: I had some extra time on my hands. And I
5:33
Speaker 2: think it was my body telling me that I should
5:35
Speaker 2: have some fun for myself, not just work and raise
5:39
Speaker 2: the family and go to church. But I felt the
5:43
Speaker 2: fun and excitement was one missing thing in my life,
5:45
Speaker 2: and my body was telling me to go ride motorcycle again.
5:48
Speaker 2: And with my wife's consent or permission, I went back
5:52
Speaker 2: to riding motorcycle and a Yamaha two twenty five cc
5:56
Speaker 2: and duabike. And I loved riding in duabike because riding
5:59
Speaker 2: on the street is good, but riding on the third
6:02
Speaker 2: is even more exciting. And I could go to some
6:05
Speaker 2: of the more remote places on a enduo bike that
6:08
Speaker 2: I came out with a street bike. So yeah, that
6:11
Speaker 2: was the beginning of my adventure motorcycle travel all over
6:14
Speaker 2: the world.
6:15
Speaker 1: Was there a moment in time where there was something
6:18
Speaker 1: that reminded you of the bike or had you been
6:21
Speaker 1: thinking about it since that time when you were a
6:23
Speaker 1: teenager and wanting to give back to it.
6:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I'm I think I was really focused on
6:30
Speaker 2: my career, so during my twenties and thirties, I really
6:33
Speaker 2: didn't think about a motorcycle riding. But then I think
6:37
Speaker 2: when I was in my fees, we would take a
6:40
Speaker 2: family vacation to Hawaii and I rented a motorcycle there
6:44
Speaker 2: to ride up to the Haleakala Peak in the Big
6:49
Speaker 2: Island of Hawaii and maybe it was Maui. I'm not
6:51
Speaker 2: sure which island it was, but yeah, it was fun
6:54
Speaker 2: to rent a bike for a day and go riding.
6:56
Speaker 2: And I still knew how to ride motorcycle, but the
7:00
Speaker 2: idea of getting my own motorcycle to ride again frequently
7:04
Speaker 2: didn't come until I was forty seven.
7:06
Speaker 1: Gotcha, that is that's a fun transition. I'm wondering, like,
7:11
Speaker 1: you have all this life experience at that point, you
7:14
Speaker 1: have a background in engineering entrepreneurism, and you're all of
7:19
Speaker 1: a sudden going back into the solo motorcycle riding, and yeah,
7:26
Speaker 1: how did you see parallels between those two worlds if any?
7:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I write about this experience in my book
7:35
Speaker 2: Coming alive on the ride. I had a friend from
7:38
Speaker 2: college who I found out later in life in our
7:42
Speaker 2: forties that he's also rides motorcycle and he was living
7:46
Speaker 2: up in the Seattle, Washington at the time, and so
7:49
Speaker 2: we talked about going for a ride together sometime. And
7:52
Speaker 2: then when we moved down to southern California in twenty thirteen,
7:58
Speaker 2: got a larger motorcycle. I got a bmw R twelve
8:01
Speaker 2: fifty gs Adventure. He rode his Suzuki Vstrom motorcycle down
8:07
Speaker 2: from Seattle to La and we would take a short
8:10
Speaker 2: trip down to San Diego, Baja California, to Arizona, Utah,
8:15
Speaker 2: up to a Yellowstone National Park. So yeah, it started
8:19
Speaker 2: with a very short overnight trip or four day trip,
8:22
Speaker 2: but then it started getting longer and longer. And one
8:26
Speaker 2: time we wrote from the West coast from La for
8:29
Speaker 2: me and Seattle for him, and rode all the way
8:31
Speaker 2: to the eastern end of North America. At the Saint John, Newfoundland, Labrador,
8:38
Speaker 2: there is a point called Cape Spears, which is the
8:40
Speaker 2: easternmost point of North America's Yeah, that was a cross
8:44
Speaker 2: continental ride and that was just so much fun and
8:48
Speaker 2: exciting experience that I wanted to write a book to
8:52
Speaker 2: share my experience on my motorcycle, but also I realized
8:56
Speaker 2: there's a story of my life as a series of
8:59
Speaker 2: our ventures coming from Korea as a young teenager and
9:03
Speaker 2: not without speaking any English and not knowing the culture,
9:07
Speaker 2: and not having any friends, and trying to fit in
9:10
Speaker 2: and adapt to a new country, to starting and selling
9:15
Speaker 2: a Silicon Valley dot com startup during the Internet boom,
9:18
Speaker 2: and then going on these motorcycle travels across different continents.
9:22
Speaker 2: So that was kind of a big life changing experience.
9:27
Speaker 2: And I just love riding motorcycle and going to see
9:30
Speaker 2: new places on motorcycle, especially on a dirt because you
9:34
Speaker 2: get to see more of nature through riding on the
9:36
Speaker 2: dirt road.
9:37
Speaker 1: What was your experience like when you came to the US.
9:40
Speaker 1: What do you remember as a youngster of that transition
9:44
Speaker 1: and what it was like.
9:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it was a bit of a cultural shock
9:49
Speaker 2: for me because first I grew up in Seoul, South Korea.
9:53
Speaker 2: I was born and raised there. And when I arrived
9:56
Speaker 2: in Santa was a California in nineteen seventy six, it
9:59
Speaker 2: was suburban area, kind of rural. There were a lot
10:03
Speaker 2: of fruit orchards, like apricot orchards and cherry orchards, and
10:08
Speaker 2: so it was a different surrounding. It felt like moving
10:12
Speaker 2: to the suburban or countryside. And when I went to
10:15
Speaker 2: the supermarket for the first time, we didn't have supermarkets
10:19
Speaker 2: in Korea. Back then. We would have open markets on
10:22
Speaker 2: the street where you buy produce and other grocery items,
10:25
Speaker 2: and then there's a little neighborhood pulling the wall like
10:28
Speaker 2: store selling candies and trinkets. But we didn't have supermarkets.
10:33
Speaker 2: But when I walked into a supermarket in the United States,
10:35
Speaker 2: I was like so impressed at aisles and shell full
10:39
Speaker 2: of all kinds of food and stuff that was so abundant.
10:43
Speaker 2: And that was a big that made a huge impression
10:46
Speaker 2: on me, how abundant things are in the US. And
10:49
Speaker 2: of course there were some moments of discomfort when my
10:52
Speaker 2: brother and I were walking back from supermarket back to
10:54
Speaker 2: our apartment and there was these bunch of teenagers on
10:58
Speaker 2: a car with their windows rolled down, making these funny
11:01
Speaker 2: noise like qing chang wang, and so I could tell
11:04
Speaker 2: that they were teasing us or making fun of us,
11:07
Speaker 2: speaking some Chinese sounding noise, But we're not Chinese. I'm
11:12
Speaker 2: Korean and it didn't feel good to be tease that
11:15
Speaker 2: or to be yelled at like that by these young teenagers.
11:19
Speaker 2: So I realized that I'm a minority in this country.
11:23
Speaker 2: I'm a newcomer. Yeah, that was an interesting experience when
11:26
Speaker 2: I first came to America as a fourteen year old teenager.
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Speaker 1: And I imagine over time your experiences have changed as
11:33
Speaker 1: you've grown older. What has that been like. What's the
11:37
Speaker 1: experience been like for you.
11:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, So one of the things that I did before
11:41
Speaker 2: I left Korea is I took tekwondo and obtained my
11:45
Speaker 2: first degree black belt before coming to America. During high school,
11:49
Speaker 2: I played soccer at the varsity soccer team, and one
11:53
Speaker 2: of the soccer players in my team was bulling me
11:57
Speaker 2: because he was bigger and stronger. He was another immigrant
12:00
Speaker 2: from Eastern Europe, and so I had to use my
12:03
Speaker 2: taekwondo to defend myself so that I would maintain some
12:06
Speaker 2: level of dignity in the eyes of teammates and other students.
12:10
Speaker 2: And I think that that and other soccer teammates watched
12:13
Speaker 2: what happened, and so that kind of changed the perception
12:16
Speaker 2: of me amongst the other students in the school. That Oh,
12:19
Speaker 2: Michael or Mint that was my Korean name at the
12:22
Speaker 2: time before I became a naturalized US citizen adopted Michael
12:26
Speaker 2: as my American name that I have. I know this
12:29
Speaker 2: martial art taekwondo that after that incident, kids paid me
12:35
Speaker 2: a little bit more respect and gave me more space
12:38
Speaker 2: in the locker room and anyway. So that was an
12:41
Speaker 2: interesting experience to be able to stand on my own
12:44
Speaker 2: and maintain my dignity by defending myself.
12:47
Speaker 1: And you're still doing taekwondo now, and I read you
12:50
Speaker 1: were part of a running club. How did these athletic
12:54
Speaker 1: pursuits help you on the bike?
12:57
Speaker 2: Yes, my wife and I have four kids, and so
13:00
Speaker 2: I love to go on along motorcycle trips once a year,
13:04
Speaker 2: and I may be gone for thirty days or forty
13:06
Speaker 2: days during the summer or winter, depending on whether I'm
13:10
Speaker 2: going to a northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere. So I
13:14
Speaker 2: want to see as much as possible. I typically ride
13:18
Speaker 2: three to four hundred miles a day if I'm traveling
13:20
Speaker 2: within North America, shorter in other parts of the world
13:23
Speaker 2: because of the road conditions. But so I ride between
13:26
Speaker 2: eight to ten hours a day, and so it involves
13:29
Speaker 2: I need to kind of keep myself in a pretty
13:32
Speaker 2: good fitness level, and so I started running just for
13:36
Speaker 2: my health about eight years ago by joining a local
13:39
Speaker 2: running club, and I decided to go back to work
13:43
Speaker 2: out in taekwondo at the local taekwondo studio. So it's
13:47
Speaker 2: a way for me to maintain my fitness level so
13:50
Speaker 2: that I could continue to go on these long distance
13:53
Speaker 2: motorcycle trips. Yeah, so that's kind of the motivation there.
13:58
Speaker 1: Nice, that's awesome. So your first international trips, correct me
14:03
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, was to Newfoundland in Canada and then
14:08
Speaker 1: returned as well in another trip up to Techtoyaktec when
14:13
Speaker 1: you went up north, yes, yeah, and then more recently
14:18
Speaker 1: you went to Patagonia as well. After a lot of
14:23
Speaker 1: experience riding in the US, what was it like riding
14:28
Speaker 1: in Patagonia That was a completely different experience than in
14:33
Speaker 1: North America.
14:35
Speaker 2: Yes, I kind of compared riding to Prude Bay, Alaska,
14:39
Speaker 2: which is the northern edge of North America, to Patagonia,
14:43
Speaker 2: which is on the southern edge of South America. And
14:46
Speaker 2: one thing I noticed is that South America, the Patagonia
14:49
Speaker 2: region is extremely windy, and also that the region down
14:53
Speaker 2: there between Argentina on the Atlantic side and Chile on
14:58
Speaker 2: the Pacific side. There were a lot of European settlers
15:01
Speaker 2: who had come there three to four hundred years ago
15:04
Speaker 2: and did sheep grazing as one industry to support themselves.
15:09
Speaker 2: And so I saw that there's lots of area were
15:12
Speaker 2: grazed and it was more touched by the human livestock raising,
15:17
Speaker 2: whereas Alaska was a lot more natural. I think the
15:21
Speaker 2: half the state is covered by the national parks, then
15:24
Speaker 2: the Inuit people or the Native Alaskan indigenous people. There
15:30
Speaker 2: were more hunters and fishermen and other sort of things,
15:34
Speaker 2: and raising sheep was not something that they did, and
15:38
Speaker 2: the European settlers didn't really do the sheep farming up there.
15:43
Speaker 2: So it's both two most beautiful, two of the most
15:46
Speaker 2: beautiful places on Earth, but one was more inhabited because
15:51
Speaker 2: of the sheep grazing that was going on in Patagonia.
15:54
Speaker 2: And that's that was one impression. And the other is
15:57
Speaker 2: how I expected Chile and Argentina to be more native
16:01
Speaker 2: people Latino span X, but it was a lot more
16:08
Speaker 2: Northern European immigrant sort of ethnicity from like Germany, Italy,
16:13
Speaker 2: Spain then I had expected, and so there were a
16:17
Speaker 2: lot more European culture that was down in Argentina and
16:21
Speaker 2: Chile than I had expected.
16:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. Interesting, Hey, you have this idea of what you
16:27
Speaker 1: think it's like. But that's the beauty of going there
16:31
Speaker 1: is to be surprised.
16:33
Speaker 2: That's right, very different than what I had expected or
16:36
Speaker 2: thought it was.
16:38
Speaker 1: What were the challenges on that part of the trip
16:41
Speaker 1: that you did in Patagonia.
16:43
Speaker 2: I think that the wind, such a strong wind down there,
16:46
Speaker 2: caused some severe neck pain and shoulder pain because I
16:49
Speaker 2: was wearing a pretty good sized helmet for protection. And
16:54
Speaker 2: when we were writing to the town of h Tartan
16:57
Speaker 2: or the Fitzroy Peak where the Patagonia logo is based
17:01
Speaker 2: on the Patagonia jacket and the clothing. Yeah, as we
17:04
Speaker 2: were riding up to Charten, there was seventy eighty miles
17:08
Speaker 2: for our side wind and we had to keep writing
17:11
Speaker 2: to get to our destination. I had to push my
17:15
Speaker 2: head and helmet against the wind, and that night my
17:19
Speaker 2: next started hurting and I had a bad kink on
17:21
Speaker 2: my neck. So that was very painful, and so I
17:25
Speaker 2: could not ride the next morning because of the neck
17:28
Speaker 2: pain that was from such resisting that strong side wind.
17:32
Speaker 2: So I think that was one of the most difficult things.
17:34
Speaker 2: And that's so the Patagonia is famous for such a
17:39
Speaker 2: strong side wind and also just cool temperature in the
17:43
Speaker 2: thirties and low forties even during the December January time
17:47
Speaker 2: or it's summer down there, because you're so close to
17:50
Speaker 2: the Antarctica and then you're so far south of.
17:54
Speaker 1: The nice new Did you ship your vehicle there? You
17:58
Speaker 1: rented a vehicle there and shipped some gear.
18:00
Speaker 2: It decided to rent my bike in a town of Osoro, Chile,
18:04
Speaker 2: which is a beginning point of Patagonia in South America,
18:08
Speaker 2: because I didn't have three to four months to ride
18:12
Speaker 2: my motorcycle down through Mexico, Central America and cross the
18:16
Speaker 2: Dairy and Gap and ride through the Columbia, Bolivia, Peru
18:20
Speaker 2: down to Chile because of my family obligations. And then
18:23
Speaker 2: I thought about shipping my bike either to Buenos Aires,
18:27
Speaker 2: Argentina or Santiago, Chile. But many people on Facebook group
18:32
Speaker 2: like Horizons Unlimited and other adventure groups said from there
18:37
Speaker 2: less than one or two months, it's probably better to
18:40
Speaker 2: just rent. There are places that rent BMW adventure motorcycles
18:44
Speaker 2: rather than shipping, which costs about five thousand dollars. Going
18:48
Speaker 2: through the customs could be tricky because you don't know
18:51
Speaker 2: when it's going to pass and when you're going to
18:53
Speaker 2: get your bike. So I was pressed for time because
18:56
Speaker 2: I wanted to ride as much of that thirty day
18:58
Speaker 2: time that I had. So, yeah, I found a good
19:01
Speaker 2: place to rent a motorcycle down in Chile, and then
19:06
Speaker 2: and after I finished riding down to Ushuaia, Argentina, which
19:09
Speaker 2: is the southern tip of South America, I returned the
19:12
Speaker 2: bike at Punta Anas, which is only about two days
19:16
Speaker 2: right away from Ushuaia, and then from there I was
19:19
Speaker 2: able to take airplane back home, which took another twenty hours,
19:23
Speaker 2: But it's a lot better than having to ride back,
19:25
Speaker 2: which it would have taken a month or two.
19:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's far even from I think we when I
19:33
Speaker 1: had flown down there from Houston, I was like, this
19:36
Speaker 1: flight is long.
19:38
Speaker 4: It's far down there, Yeah, and with a layover, it's
19:44
Speaker 4: like I was tired when I got there after being
19:47
Speaker 4: on the road for twenty four hours since I left home,
19:50
Speaker 4: and it's adjusting to.
19:51
Speaker 2: The local time and climate. Yeah, it was quite exhausting.
19:56
Speaker 1: What were some of the highlights for you on that trip.
19:58
Speaker 2: For me, I think it was when I arrived in
20:02
Speaker 2: hr Ten, I challenged myself to hike up to the
20:05
Speaker 2: Fitzroy Trail, which is about a fourteen mile in and
20:09
Speaker 2: out trail. So I had brought my hiking shoes, hiking poles,
20:13
Speaker 2: a hiking backpack, and just barely enough stuff with me
20:17
Speaker 2: so that I could hike to Fitzroy there's a lake
20:22
Speaker 2: at the top there, and hike back down and then
20:24
Speaker 2: continue my motorcycle journey south down to Ushuaia, Argentina, which
20:29
Speaker 2: is the southern tip. And I think arriving in Ushaia
20:32
Speaker 2: was another special moment where I felt like I reached
20:36
Speaker 2: the southern end of the road, so to speak, on
20:39
Speaker 2: the south side, since I had done the end of
20:41
Speaker 2: the road on the northern side at Prude of Bay,
20:44
Speaker 2: Alaska and tok Tooyakta, Canada.
20:46
Speaker 1: Was it really windy at the lake because when we
20:49
Speaker 1: were there, I always had to hide behind a rock
20:51
Speaker 1: because we went up for sunrise and it was just
20:54
Speaker 1: absolutely correct too. Yeah, it was just out of control.
21:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, that beautiful. Yeah, it wasn't so windy. I took
21:05
Speaker 2: some photos and I took some videos, but Fitzroy Peak
21:10
Speaker 2: was covered in cloud and there's a local name for
21:13
Speaker 2: that Fitzroy. I forgot the name, but there's a native
21:16
Speaker 2: name for it, and it kind of means it's kind
21:19
Speaker 2: of covered in cloud, so it's kind of shrouded. It
21:23
Speaker 2: was interesting to learn about local name for that peak
21:26
Speaker 2: because it was like that when I arrived at that
21:29
Speaker 2: lake at the top of the Fitzroy Trail.
21:32
Speaker 1: Very cool. Yeah, it's special there. I don't know if
21:35
Speaker 1: you had this feeling. There are a few places in
21:38
Speaker 1: the world I've felt this feeling of I don't know
21:41
Speaker 1: if I can describe it exactly, but it's a special
21:44
Speaker 1: place that you think it feels different, feels special.
21:50
Speaker 2: It does that that whole area is such a beautiful
21:53
Speaker 2: area with snow covered mountains and the greeneries and blue
21:58
Speaker 2: sky Back. Have a photo of Fitzroy as a screensaver
22:03
Speaker 2: on my office computer, so I get to kind of
22:07
Speaker 2: be reminded or relive that moment that I was hiking
22:10
Speaker 2: up to Fitzroy Peak.
22:12
Speaker 1: Perfect stuff.
22:15
Speaker 2: Yep.
22:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, mentioned you mentioned the balancing family with riding, so
22:22
Speaker 1: you choose trips that are a bit shorter so that
22:25
Speaker 1: you can balance family obligations with travel. Tell me a
22:29
Speaker 1: little bit more about that.
22:30
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm passionate about motorcycle riding and traveling all over
22:34
Speaker 2: the world on two wheels. My wife and I have
22:39
Speaker 2: four children, age twenty two, eighteen, sixteen, and thirteen, so
22:44
Speaker 2: we still have two in high school. And I also
22:47
Speaker 2: have other sort of small responsibilities of managing some income
22:52
Speaker 2: property that we own, or other sort of management responsibility
22:56
Speaker 2: asset management responsibility. So I try to find the balance
22:59
Speaker 2: by I agree with my wife that I would just
23:02
Speaker 2: take off once a year, maybe thirty to forty days long,
23:05
Speaker 2: and the rest of the time when i'm home, I
23:07
Speaker 2: do extra work around the house or doing things with kids,
23:11
Speaker 2: so that it balances out. And also, my wife doesn't
23:15
Speaker 2: like to ride motorcycle, but she loves to go skiing,
23:18
Speaker 2: and so we go skiing together as a family. And
23:21
Speaker 2: she also likes to go skiing with her friends to
23:24
Speaker 2: whether it's Mammoth Mountain or Colorado or Utah or she
23:28
Speaker 2: just came back from a ski trip to Ukaido, Japan,
23:31
Speaker 2: So yeah, I let her take off on her trip,
23:34
Speaker 2: though they're not nearly as long as my motorcycle trip,
23:37
Speaker 2: but that's kind of how I balance my passion for
23:40
Speaker 2: motorcycle riding and traveling around the world while I still
23:45
Speaker 2: do my role or responsibility as a husband and father,
23:49
Speaker 2: and also my mom. My mother is ninety one years
23:53
Speaker 2: old and she lives in a guest house behind our house.
23:57
Speaker 2: She worries a lot when I'm traveling all over the
23:59
Speaker 2: world my motorcycle, like any mother would. And yeah, I
24:03
Speaker 2: have responsibility to take care of the family. So that's
24:07
Speaker 2: how I managed doing both family as well as my
24:11
Speaker 2: passion for adventure motorcycle traveling.
24:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's important because everybody's life looks different
24:18
Speaker 1: and the amount of time they have available is different,
24:20
Speaker 1: and so I love that it's you've worked it out
24:24
Speaker 1: to work for you and your schedule and your family
24:27
Speaker 1: and your wife and your mom and everybody, because not
24:30
Speaker 1: everybody has six months or four months or only maybe.
24:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think if I was a single
24:39
Speaker 2: or didn't have family responsibility, I may want to go
24:43
Speaker 2: travel for a year and do it around the world. Right,
24:46
Speaker 2: maybe all at once or in two or three increments.
24:49
Speaker 2: I don't I am. I am a husband and father.
24:53
Speaker 2: So what I decided is I'll do divide and conquer.
24:55
Speaker 2: I'll do one continent at a time. So each year
24:58
Speaker 2: I would go to South America, or this summer I'm
25:02
Speaker 2: riding up to Norway and to North cap and cover
25:06
Speaker 2: Baltic States and northern Europe. And then maybe a year
25:10
Speaker 2: after that I could ride to Palmier Highway and Mongolia.
25:14
Speaker 2: And there's so many beautiful places to go see in
25:18
Speaker 2: the world, and I will never be out of place
25:21
Speaker 2: to go ride and enjoy just the amazing nature as
25:25
Speaker 2: well as all the people in experience that you run across.
25:28
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, they're all There's always somewhere else to go.
25:32
Speaker 1: So that's really a wonderful way to do it. So
25:36
Speaker 1: you started your these journeys in your sixties, and what
25:41
Speaker 1: do you say to people that think you're too old
25:45
Speaker 1: or too busy. We kind of just talked about that
25:47
Speaker 1: too busy or too late to pursue their own adventures.
25:52
Speaker 1: I think sixties, what is the new fifties, He's the
25:55
Speaker 1: new thirty. So what do you what are your thoughts?
25:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I encourage anybody and everybody to embrace adventure in
26:03
Speaker 2: whatever form. It could be motorcycle, it could be bicycle,
26:06
Speaker 2: it could be just walking or hiking, but just get
26:09
Speaker 2: out of your home, get out of your comfort zone
26:12
Speaker 2: and kind of push yourself to challenge yourself to take
26:16
Speaker 2: on some risk and do some adventure things. And I
26:20
Speaker 2: think age is I think if fear catches everybody, it
26:23
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be just people in their fifties and sixties.
26:25
Speaker 2: So I think you don't want fear to decide for you.
26:29
Speaker 2: I think you want to manage your fear by doing
26:32
Speaker 2: the research and the planning on whatever adventure travel that
26:35
Speaker 2: you want to go on, and even though there's a
26:38
Speaker 2: lot of unknowns and uncertainties, go do it. Because I
26:41
Speaker 2: think traveling and going on these adventure trips makes you
26:45
Speaker 2: a better person because of the experience that you gain
26:49
Speaker 2: and maybe the confidence or sense of accomplishment that you
26:52
Speaker 2: gain from that experience. So yeah, I encourage people of
26:55
Speaker 2: all ages to do something that's a bit adventurous because
27:00
Speaker 2: they'll find that it was worthwhile.
27:02
Speaker 3: For sure, not a week goes by that someone doesn't
27:05
Speaker 3: reach out to ask how they can help support the podcast.
27:10
Speaker 3: We are supported entirely by the Overland Journal the magazine.
27:15
Speaker 3: So when you become a subscriber to The Overland Journal
27:18
Speaker 3: print magazine, you get this beautiful book that comes in
27:21
Speaker 3: five times a year. It also gives you access to
27:24
Speaker 3: our digital archive, and it's well over one hundred pages
27:28
Speaker 3: of gorgeous images and detailed testing and adventures from around
27:32
Speaker 3: the globe. So if you go to Overland Journal dot
27:35
Speaker 3: com and you subscribe to the magazine, use the code
27:39
Speaker 3: overland Podcast and that'll get you twenty percent off. It's
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Speaker 3: only available to our podcast listeners. We don't advertise it
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Speaker 3: anywhere else, and then you help us to maintain that independent,
27:50
Speaker 3: employee owned journalism that we have been famous for, so
27:54
Speaker 3: it allows us to conduct those tests without any advertorial
27:58
Speaker 3: Another way you can help out who I produced a
28:01
Speaker 3: book last year with Simon and Schuster called Overlanding one
28:04
Speaker 3: oh one. You can find it on Amazon or Barnes
28:07
Speaker 3: and Noble or even your local bookstore, and that encompasses
28:11
Speaker 3: my decades of travel around the world, all my mistakes
28:13
Speaker 3: and failures and the lessons that I've learned in traveling
28:17
Speaker 3: around the globe. Many of those that you hear on
28:20
Speaker 3: the podcast have been distilled down into print form with
28:23
Speaker 3: great lists and beautiful imagery, So you can find that
28:27
Speaker 3: at your local bookstore. Overlanding one on one And thank
28:30
Speaker 3: you all for listening and for supporting us. So much
28:33
Speaker 3: throughout these years.
28:35
Speaker 1: Are there any people that have inspired you?
28:37
Speaker 2: Well, yes, many people. I used to love read about
28:40
Speaker 2: autobiographies of famous entrepreneurs, businessmen, industrialists, or even political leaders.
28:47
Speaker 2: So I remember enjoying reading Leikoca's autobiography or Bill Gates autobiography.
28:55
Speaker 2: It's just the name a few. And I also love
28:57
Speaker 2: reading about books written by people who rode their motorcycles
29:02
Speaker 2: around the world. So for example, I think Amelio from
29:06
Speaker 2: Argentina who spent ten years on the road traveling around
29:10
Speaker 2: the world on a Honda Golding motorcycle and writing a
29:13
Speaker 2: book about his journey that was very inspiring. And there's
29:18
Speaker 2: another motorcycle writer named Helgi Peterson who was a Norwegian
29:22
Speaker 2: motorcycle traveler who wrote his adventure motorcycle all around the world.
29:26
Speaker 2: And I think he's one of the first, if not
29:29
Speaker 2: the first, human to cross the Darien Gap between North
29:32
Speaker 2: America and South America on his motorcycle, which was a
29:35
Speaker 2: major challenge, but he did it. And yeah, so I
29:38
Speaker 2: love being inspired by other people who have accomplished these
29:43
Speaker 2: unbelievable feats of you know.
29:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's certainly plenty of great stories out there to inspire.
29:48
Speaker 1: That is for sure. That's part of why I do
29:52
Speaker 1: this podcast.
29:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great, it's great.
29:57
Speaker 1: So, Michael, I'd love to take you through some rapid
29:59
Speaker 1: five A questions. Now it's just going to be a
30:03
Speaker 1: series of one or a few word questions and you'll
30:08
Speaker 1: have the answer. So the first one is most ingenious repair.
30:12
Speaker 2: So when I was riding from LA to Newfoundland, I
30:15
Speaker 2: was riding through the south shore of the Lake Superior,
30:18
Speaker 2: and it's about four hundred miles of stretch and not
30:21
Speaker 2: many towns or service stops in between. And so I
30:25
Speaker 2: saw that my motorcycle shifter gear shifter was very loose
30:29
Speaker 2: and the screw had fallen out, and so I almost
30:33
Speaker 2: lost that shifter, and if I did, I would have
30:35
Speaker 2: been stuck in one gear and would not be able
30:38
Speaker 2: to shift. So it would have been caused a major
30:40
Speaker 2: kind of delay in my trip. But I used the
30:43
Speaker 2: zip tie to put that shifter back on without having
30:47
Speaker 2: a proper size screw on hand, and that tied me
30:50
Speaker 2: over until I got to Susan Marie and there was
30:53
Speaker 2: a home home depot there, bought a screw and fix it.
30:56
Speaker 2: There's I think zip tie. Using zip tie to fix
30:59
Speaker 2: that term early it was I felt. I thought that
31:02
Speaker 2: was a great solution to the problem at hand until
31:05
Speaker 2: I got to somewhere where I could get the proper
31:07
Speaker 2: repair done. Yeah.
31:09
Speaker 1: Shout out to the zip Tie, the Overlanders best friend.
31:13
Speaker 1: I love it.
31:14
Speaker 2: The good exactly yep.
31:17
Speaker 1: Okay, best food is the next question. Now, I know
31:21
Speaker 1: you've traveled other than on your bike to a bunch
31:25
Speaker 1: of different places, so these questions can include those destinations
31:30
Speaker 1: as well. It's up to you.
31:31
Speaker 2: I loved the lobster role at the Prince Edward's Island
31:35
Speaker 2: in Canada that it was such a fresh main lobster
31:39
Speaker 2: or whatever the locally caught lobster was in a toasted
31:43
Speaker 2: bun and just the right amount of mayonnaise and butter
31:47
Speaker 2: and boiled lobster meat. It was. I loved eating like fresh,
31:51
Speaker 2: local food and that was to me one of the
31:53
Speaker 2: best sort of treats in terms of fast food that
31:56
Speaker 2: I had on my travels.
31:58
Speaker 1: Nuice, that's awesome. I'm Canadian and so I feel very
32:03
Speaker 1: proud that you chose the lobster role.
32:05
Speaker 2: That's great.
32:07
Speaker 1: Okay, Next is worst illness.
32:09
Speaker 2: So yeah again. On my trip from LA to Newfoundland, Canada,
32:14
Speaker 2: I was worrying this Alpine Star Tech ten motocross boots
32:18
Speaker 2: to protect my foot and ankle from any any potential injuries.
32:23
Speaker 2: Because I had broken my ankle the year before, so
32:26
Speaker 2: I was particularly sensitive to making sure that I was
32:29
Speaker 2: wearing the most protective gear I can and but worrying
32:32
Speaker 2: Alpine Tech Star. The Alpine Tech Star Ipine Star Tech
32:37
Speaker 2: ten boots is meant to be worn one day or
32:40
Speaker 2: two days or maybe three days max. But I was
32:43
Speaker 2: wearing it on this forty day trip. And so after
32:46
Speaker 2: worrying it for I don't know, twenty days, almost every
32:49
Speaker 2: day straight, when I got to this town of Red May, Labrador,
32:54
Speaker 2: which is the northernmost point of our journey, my left foot,
32:58
Speaker 2: left ankle was under lot of pain, and I think
33:01
Speaker 2: it was because wearing that very heavy, stiff protective boots
33:06
Speaker 2: didn't agree with my left foot and ankles. I was
33:10
Speaker 2: in a lot of pain, but I still need to
33:13
Speaker 2: write and shift gears to get to our destination. So
33:17
Speaker 2: I remember suffering from the severe pain in the motel
33:20
Speaker 2: room we were staying in and where I was five
33:23
Speaker 2: thousand miles away, I couldn't go see any doctors or
33:27
Speaker 2: acupuncture therapists or anything. So I was just suffering, and
33:31
Speaker 2: I was thinking, what am I doing here? I'm like
33:34
Speaker 2: five thousand miles away from home. Nobody told me I
33:37
Speaker 2: have to do this. I'm doing it out of my
33:39
Speaker 2: own sort of mailn desire, and here I am just
33:42
Speaker 2: suffering from this severe pain in my left ankle. Fortunately
33:47
Speaker 2: I got to Saint John, Newfoundland a couple of days
33:49
Speaker 2: later and rested for three days and it got better
33:53
Speaker 2: without having to go to see a doctor. So yeah.
33:56
Speaker 2: So one of the things I wrote to myself is
33:59
Speaker 2: never go on long distance motorcycle trip wearing a motocross
34:03
Speaker 2: boots like that.
34:05
Speaker 1: Good advice. Okay, next is lowest Low.
34:09
Speaker 2: When I rode from la to Alaska by myself in
34:12
Speaker 2: the summer of twenty twenty three, I brought with me
34:15
Speaker 2: camping equipment in case I couldn't find lodging. Normally, I
34:19
Speaker 2: like to just stay in a motel or cabin just
34:22
Speaker 2: to conserve my energy because I'm riding like three to
34:25
Speaker 2: four hundred miles a day and I was sixty one
34:28
Speaker 2: years old. Just conserving energy and staying as fresh as
34:32
Speaker 2: I can is it was high priority. But when I
34:35
Speaker 2: was up in Alaska coming back down from Plura Bay,
34:39
Speaker 2: I wanted to go explore this National park called Wrangel
34:43
Speaker 2: Saint Alias National Park on the southern part of Alaska,
34:47
Speaker 2: near Valdez Or. There's a town called McCarthy and Kennicott,
34:51
Speaker 2: and so I needed to find the lodging nearby there,
34:54
Speaker 2: but there were all the lodges were booked up or
34:58
Speaker 2: nothing was available in the air that I wanted to stay.
35:01
Speaker 2: But I called this one place called Kakona Lodge and
35:04
Speaker 2: they were booked out, no rooms available. But I explained
35:08
Speaker 2: my situation and asked if there is any place I
35:11
Speaker 2: could set up tent, and the owner said there was
35:14
Speaker 2: some grassy area right outside of our saloon that you
35:17
Speaker 2: could set up tent and you could do that for
35:19
Speaker 2: free and you could use the restroom. So I said, oh,
35:22
Speaker 2: that would be great. I do have a tent and
35:24
Speaker 2: I could camp out. So I stayed there two nights.
35:26
Speaker 2: But it so happened that it was Saturday night and
35:29
Speaker 2: that Kakona Lodge is where the local people hang out.
35:34
Speaker 2: It's their only form of social entertainment. And I was
35:37
Speaker 2: dead tired. I needed to get some sleep, but there
35:39
Speaker 2: were people so loud in that saloon and people were
35:43
Speaker 2: just drinking and listen. You know, they were loud music playing,
35:45
Speaker 2: so it was going on till two three in the morning.
35:48
Speaker 2: So I was just frustrated annoyed that they're so loud,
35:52
Speaker 2: But what can I say. It was a free lodging,
35:53
Speaker 2: so I couldn't really do anything. And next morning I
35:57
Speaker 2: woke up feeling really achy and cold, and I asked
36:00
Speaker 2: the question, so what am I doing here again, which
36:03
Speaker 2: is the same question that I asked when I got
36:05
Speaker 2: to Newfoundland when I was under a lot of pain
36:08
Speaker 2: because of that thick protective you know, motocross boots that
36:11
Speaker 2: I work for so long. So anyway, that was one
36:13
Speaker 2: of the lowest points of my travels. But nothing horrible
36:17
Speaker 2: in any way. It's just when you're so tired and
36:20
Speaker 2: exhausted and you can't get much sleep and you're so
36:23
Speaker 2: achy from writing non stuff for so long.
36:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go the opposite now and highest high.
36:30
Speaker 2: I think when I made it up to Tokiak to Canada,
36:34
Speaker 2: and I tried eating the muktuk, which is a rob
36:38
Speaker 2: bluga whale meat, which is what they hunt and eat
36:41
Speaker 2: up there by the Inuit people because that's how they survive.
36:45
Speaker 2: They cannot raise cattles or picks because the ground is
36:48
Speaker 2: frozen most of the year, so trying that and then
36:52
Speaker 2: continue on my journey to get up to Prue to Bay, Alaska,
36:55
Speaker 2: which is the end of the road on the Arctic Ocean.
36:58
Speaker 2: So it was pretty hard to up there. I had
37:00
Speaker 2: to ride two thousand miles of gravel road through the
37:03
Speaker 2: Dempster Highway and then Dalton Highway, but there were not
37:06
Speaker 2: many stops in between, and so it was quite challenging
37:09
Speaker 2: physically as well as mentally. But when I made it
37:12
Speaker 2: back down to Fairbanks and then down to Talk, I
37:16
Speaker 2: felt like I accomplished something that was very challenging, and
37:20
Speaker 2: I felt like that was one of the highlights of
37:22
Speaker 2: my motorcycle travels.
37:24
Speaker 1: Beautiful stuff. Next is current favorite piece of gear?
37:29
Speaker 2: Does my motorcycle count as a gear?
37:31
Speaker 1: Yeah?
37:31
Speaker 2: Or is it something? Oh? Oh yeah? Then my my
37:36
Speaker 2: my bike, my twenty twenty one R twelve fifty gs Adventure.
37:41
Speaker 2: I have about almost forty thousand miles on it now
37:44
Speaker 2: and I've taken that motorcycle pretty much everywhere in North
37:48
Speaker 2: America and it hasn't let me down. I've had some
37:52
Speaker 2: flat tires and that shifter gear shifter that kind of
37:56
Speaker 2: became loose and I almost lost it. But yeah, it's
37:59
Speaker 2: my favorite gear, my go to bike. Yeah, I love
38:05
Speaker 2: that bike and so I gotta just continue to ride
38:08
Speaker 2: it to all over North America. And yeah, so that's
38:13
Speaker 2: my favorite gear.
38:15
Speaker 1: I love it. So I want to switch gears a
38:18
Speaker 1: little bit here and ask you about the Korean concept
38:21
Speaker 1: of shinaga. Hopefully I've pronounced that properly. Yeah, you mentioned
38:25
Speaker 1: it pretty early on in the book, and I think
38:27
Speaker 1: it is a wonderful theme that runs throughout, So tell
38:31
Speaker 1: us a little more about it.
38:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, and my book title, coming on Live on the
38:35
Speaker 2: Ride is kind of tied to this Korean word called shinnaget.
38:39
Speaker 2: Shinnaget is essentially this emotional state where you're feeling such
38:45
Speaker 2: a natural high. It's you're in a state of bliss.
38:48
Speaker 2: You're enjoying your moments so much that you feel so positive, enthusiastic,
38:55
Speaker 2: and you lose sense of time because you're in the zone.
38:58
Speaker 2: And when I was writing through the rocky mountains across
39:01
Speaker 2: Colorado four years ago, I felt this shin naga. And
39:05
Speaker 2: whenever I described my travel to other friends, they said, wow,
39:09
Speaker 2: you come alive when you talk about your motorcycle trips
39:12
Speaker 2: and you're like she na or she Naga and yeah,
39:14
Speaker 2: it's a state of being in a bliss or so
39:17
Speaker 2: excited and enthusiastic and feeling positive. I love that.
39:21
Speaker 1: I love that. The other question I had this is
39:25
Speaker 1: also related the book. So you mentioned that your aunt
39:28
Speaker 1: who you visited, asked you, who are you like that
39:31
Speaker 1: you love adventure so much? And I'd like to know
39:34
Speaker 1: more about just sharing more about your family history and
39:38
Speaker 1: how it has led you to your adventures some life.
39:44
Speaker 2: I recently found out about this recently after I finished
39:47
Speaker 2: the book. But in my book, I talk about how
39:50
Speaker 2: my aunt when I was coming back from Alaska, asking
39:53
Speaker 2: why you like that you love adventures so much because
39:56
Speaker 2: she didn't think of anybody in the family who did
39:59
Speaker 2: such an advent. But in my book I talked about
40:02
Speaker 2: my friend Carl Park, who is my best friend and
40:05
Speaker 2: motorcycle riding buddy, who was one of the sources of
40:09
Speaker 2: inspiration for these Avenger motorcycle travels. And my father who
40:14
Speaker 2: actually came from South Korea to United States when it
40:17
Speaker 2: was forty two, and he didn't speak any English and
40:20
Speaker 2: so it was completely start over for him, and so
40:22
Speaker 2: it took a lot of courage for him to decide
40:24
Speaker 2: to come to America and bring the family along. So
40:28
Speaker 2: I think he was very resilient. He was a survivor
40:31
Speaker 2: of the Korean War and the Japanese occupation during the
40:34
Speaker 2: thirties and forties when he was a child and teenager
40:37
Speaker 2: in Korea. But I found out recently that my grandfather
40:43
Speaker 2: on my mother's side and my great grandfather on my
40:46
Speaker 2: father's side had traveled all over South Korea as well
40:52
Speaker 2: as what is now used to be called Manchuria. Venturia
40:55
Speaker 2: as a country that is the northern part of China.
40:59
Speaker 2: There was a the whole region out there. I found
41:02
Speaker 2: out that both my grandfathers on my both sides traveled
41:07
Speaker 2: to those regions as well as the mountain Gungang area
41:11
Speaker 2: along the east coast of Korean Peninsula when they were
41:14
Speaker 2: like in their thirties. I think that sense of adventure
41:19
Speaker 2: and travel does kind of run in the family. It's
41:22
Speaker 2: just that my parents didn't get to do much of it,
41:25
Speaker 2: just because they were busy trying to provide for their
41:27
Speaker 2: family and they didn't have the financial or time extra
41:31
Speaker 2: resource to pursue that. I realized it's expressing itself. It
41:38
Speaker 2: skipped the generation in a way that there was that
41:42
Speaker 2: adventure travel sort of genes that comes through. So I
41:46
Speaker 2: think that I think there's adventurous people everywhere, and some
41:50
Speaker 2: do it more than others, and some have more courage
41:54
Speaker 2: or curiosity that drives them. So I'm very lucky that
41:57
Speaker 2: I found this sense of curiosity, wonder and strong desire
42:02
Speaker 2: to go on adventure travels and it's been a great
42:05
Speaker 2: thing for me, and that's why I want to encourage
42:07
Speaker 2: others to do the same.
42:09
Speaker 1: Absolutely. What would be your advice to somebody who would
42:13
Speaker 1: like to make a change or head out on a
42:15
Speaker 1: trip or start an adventure of their own in some
42:18
Speaker 1: sort of way. It doesn't have to be traveled, just
42:20
Speaker 1: to take those first few steps.
42:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think ask yourself, what are things that
42:25
Speaker 2: you enjoyed doing when you were young, when you were
42:27
Speaker 2: a child, Something that you're curious about or have some interest.
42:32
Speaker 2: It could be outdoor activities of any kind. It could
42:35
Speaker 2: be hiking, bicycle riding, just traveling solo to a new town,
42:42
Speaker 2: or there's something that involves a level of excitement but
42:45
Speaker 2: also a little bit of fear and anxiety, because if
42:48
Speaker 2: it's not scary, then it's not an adventure as long
42:51
Speaker 2: as if you fail and it's not a kill you,
42:54
Speaker 2: then I would say go try it. Go push yourself
42:57
Speaker 2: to do something that scares you a little bit, but
42:59
Speaker 2: also it's exciting because I think if you finish that
43:03
Speaker 2: then you will feel much better about yourself and find
43:06
Speaker 2: a better version of yourself. Yeah.
43:08
Speaker 1: Great advice and building that confidence a little bit at
43:11
Speaker 1: a time. They say, leap and the net will appeme.
43:14
Speaker 1: And also I think having a strong support system that
43:17
Speaker 1: if you go do something that feels scary to you,
43:21
Speaker 1: you have friends or family that can reassure you know
43:24
Speaker 1: exactly okay.
43:28
Speaker 3: And a special thanks to Hancook Tire for supporting this
43:31
Speaker 3: week's podcast. With Summer Underway, head over to Expeditionportal dot
43:37
Speaker 3: com for Jeepbeach Vibe inspiration. Our team spent the weekend
43:42
Speaker 3: with Handcook Dinapro Tire at this year's twenty twenty six
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Speaker 3: Jeep beachweak in Daytona, Florida and took a look at
43:50
Speaker 3: their Wrangler three ninety two. Look for Jeep Beach twenty
43:54
Speaker 3: twenty six when you go to Expedition Portal dot com.
43:59
Speaker 2: Probably Yeah, that's a great way to start. I also
44:03
Speaker 2: wanted to mention that you know find you know someone
44:07
Speaker 2: in your family or or friends who you could do
44:09
Speaker 2: this with, and after you do it a few times,
44:12
Speaker 2: you may gain enough confidence to be able to do
44:14
Speaker 2: it on your own if your friend cannot go together
44:17
Speaker 2: next time. And you love that solo experience.
44:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, yes, yep, great, Thank you Michael. Before we
44:28
Speaker 1: wrap up, what is next for you? You have this
44:33
Speaker 1: trip coming up in this summer in Norway and Europe
44:37
Speaker 1: and the Baltics, and I think you have some speaking
44:40
Speaker 1: engagements going on. But anything else, any other news and
44:44
Speaker 1: where can we follow you?
44:47
Speaker 2: Yes? So yeah, I love writing, going on motorcycle riding
44:52
Speaker 2: and traveling, but I also love sharing the story, and
44:56
Speaker 2: so my book is one of the ways that I
44:59
Speaker 2: wanted to to share my story and with a with
45:02
Speaker 2: a goal to encourage and inspire other to seek adventures.
45:08
Speaker 2: And now I am trying to create some videos to
45:12
Speaker 2: upload to YouTube and share it on my YouTube channel
45:17
Speaker 2: called Alive on the Ride. It has less than one
45:19
Speaker 2: hundred subscribers now, but I'm I wanna be intentional about
45:24
Speaker 2: filming and uploading the video after I do some editing
45:29
Speaker 2: through help of a marketing helper and sort of you know,
45:34
Speaker 2: do that on a more regular basis so that video
45:38
Speaker 2: could become another way of sharing my story. So yeah,
45:42
Speaker 2: that's kind of what I'm planning in addition to my
45:45
Speaker 2: upcoming motorcycle trip to Norway and to other places around
45:50
Speaker 2: the world after that.
45:51
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Well, we'll be sure to follow you and your
45:54
Speaker 1: journey along the way. Do you have you have Instagram
45:57
Speaker 1: and website? Where can we find you online?
46:00
Speaker 2: Yes? So I have a Facebook page Facebook dot com
46:05
Speaker 2: slash Michael Yang one, and then I have a website
46:09
Speaker 2: at Michael Yang dot com. And I have a YouTube
46:13
Speaker 2: channel called Alive on the Ride and also you could
46:16
Speaker 2: find me on Instagram at Instagram dot com slash Michael
46:20
Speaker 2: Yang eight three one. And my book Coming Alive on
46:22
Speaker 2: the Ride is available on Amazon dot com or anywhere
46:26
Speaker 2: where books are sold in a hardcover ebook as well
46:30
Speaker 2: as audiobook.
46:32
Speaker 1: Perfect. That's great. I'm sure the listeners will have a
46:36
Speaker 1: great time tracking that down following your next adventures. Michael,
46:40
Speaker 1: thank you so so much for taking the time to
46:42
Speaker 1: speak with me today on the podcast. It's been a
46:44
Speaker 1: pleasure and I can't wait to see what your next
46:47
Speaker 1: adventures hold.
46:49
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Ashley enjoyed talking to.
46:51
Speaker 1: You, and a shout out to the Overland Journal podcast
46:54
Speaker 1: listeners for tuning in to today's episode. Thank you so
46:57
Speaker 1: much and we'll see you on the next episode.