What do you consider to be your place of work?

Starting off with an easy question, sort of.  My work life isn’t shared socially because it’s such an issue for so many people and there are many that quickly start to bash me solely based on my career choice.  The State of Alaska is my place of work.  I’m an Alaska State Trooper (yes, I’ve been on the show) and I’m starting my 14th year with them in two days.  Being born and raised in Alaska, I’d seen and experienced a lot all across this state.  However since starting this career, I’ve experienced so much more than I ever would’ve dreamed.  Places in Alaska that visitors will never experience because it’s so far off the beaten path.  I’ve bounced around the state doing all sorts of different duties ranging from SWAT and K9 handler to vessel operator (yeah we have big boats too) to major crimes investigator.  My current gig though, it’s the best.  I work in rural Alaska where I have to fly in and out every two weeks.  This is what has allowed me to start wandering as much as I have in the last year.  Working two weeks on/off just may be the greatest work schedule in existence… aside from retirement.

Tell me about your bike. What do you call it?

I call my bikes a lot of names.  Some are sweet nothings that I’m whispering to her and others are bad words that I used to get a lot of soap in my mouth as a kid for saying.  No matter what though, everything I say always ends up being followed up with a very heartfelt “thank you”.  Whether I’m having the time of my life and everything is going great or whether I’m absolutely miserable, I’m still thankful.  I’m thankful for the experience and the memories.  No matter how “bad” it gets, there’s always something to be thankful for.  There’s always something to be learned from the experience.

(After that rambling, I just had to go back up and read the question again because I’d forgotten what I was supposed to talk about. haha!)  So, more specifically, I’m currently down to two bikes.  A 2015 BMW R1200GSA and a 2017 Honda Africa Twin.  One I love and one that I’d like to get rid of for a dirt bike.  I don’t suppose you want to buy a well broken in GSA do you? 😉

When and how did you get them?

The GSA I bought after a few years of significant events in my life that kept knocking me to the pits.  I’d decided to buy a bike and just go.  Luckily, at that time I had a good amount of personal time off built up and was allowed to take nine weeks off.  I’d decided that I was just going to wander for the next nine weeks while living off the bike.  No plans, no itineraries other than I needed to be in Phoenix at the end of that nine weeks to leave the bike and fly home to AK.  I’d never moto-traveled before where I was camping and living from the bike.  I learned a lot.  That trip cemented in me a full on love for bikes as my travel choice. (I’m stopping myself here from going on another ramble.)
My other bike is a still new to me ’17 Honda Africa Twin.  What a bike. I bought this bike last summer and within three months it had been from Alaska to Florida, checked off the Trans-America Trail, parts of the Nevada and Arizona Backcountry Discovery Routes, as well as Baja Mexico, and a ton more.  That bike had over 19,000 miles on it in less than three months.  Every time I turned around a ride seemed to be developing.

What other vehicles did you consider and what made you ultimately pull the trigger on the one you bought?

If it’s got two wheels, I considered it.  In the end, the decision to buy both bikes came down to the same thing that I tell people that ask that ridiculously over-asked question: “What bike should I get?”  What bikes excites you the most and makes you want to get out and ride?  Get that one.  There are so many travelers that have gone to so many countries on everything from Harley’s to moped’s to full on sport bikes.  It doesn’t matter.  Just get the one that excites YOU and pay no attention to what the keyboard warriors of the interweb and endless forums are telling you to do with your money.

Have you made any upgrades or changes to them?

My GSA is basically bone stock.  I have a proper bash plate on there from Black Dog Cycle Works and their Helo Pad rear rack where the pillion seat should be but that’s it.  The rest is stock aside obviously from the paint job.
My Africa Twin has several things on it though.  The best of the best is on that bike.  Outback Motortek skid plate and crash bars, wheels from Woody’s Wheel Works, lights from Clearwater Lights, rear auxiliary fuel tank from Camel-Adv, and soft luggage from Mosko Moto.