A rookie traveler and motorcyclist dares to travel to Alaska after only 3 months of riding experience. A true adventure that challenged his resilience, his will, his determination, andeven his manliness, but in the grand scheme of things, this adventure was running a close second to heaven on earth Both literally and figuratively and Miles explains why in Episode 8

Calgary, Alberta. 1979. The Calgary Stampede is about to open and a traveling carnival has just arrived — and they are hiring.

I had no idea how to set up a carnival ride. But I needed money and they needed workers. So I hired myself out.

My assignment was the Wild Mouse — the first roller coaster.

What followed was two days of hard physical labor, several days working the ride as a ticket collector, a confrontation with two drunk men, a punch from behind, and a moment of loyalty I have never forgotten.

The carnival took care of its own. And that night in Calgary — I was one of them.

"The particular shape of loyalty that requires no justification."

13 episodes. All from memory. This is Two Wheels North.

"I want to talk about preparation.

Specifically the gap between the things I prepared for brilliantly — and the things I prepared for badly. On this journey that gap was wide enough to drive a motorcycle through.

Mount Rushmore. Yellowstone. Famous things that arrived smaller than the postcard suggested.

And then — without warning — the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

One road. Evergreen trees engulfing both sides from the base of the pavement reaching so high that the sky disappeared. All that remained was a narrow lens of light directly above.

Nobody had told me about this. There was no postcard. No reputation to manage.

It simply was what it was. Overwhelming. Majestic. Humbling.

And then — a campfire. A stranger. And a piece of advice that saved my journey.

"The beautiful moments arrive when you least expect them."

Two Wheels North — A Documentary Series by Miles J. Dean
13 episodes. All from memory.

🎙️ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033la6AGxxh92376AYypQt
🔗 All platforms: linktr.ee/twowheelsnorth

#TwoWheelsNorth #motorcycle #1979 #documentary #Montana #LewisAndClark #roadtrip #truestory #podcast #BlackCowboy

There are moments in a life that divide everything into before and after.

This is one of them.

A mountain road with no headlamp. A deserted road in rural Missouri. A blue light at the end of that road that turned out to be the most dangerous kind of relief. And four words overheard through a bar door that changed everything.

"In 1979 I was a Black man alone on a motorcycle, several states from home, on a dark road in rural Missouri. I need you to hold that alongside everything else as I tell you what happened that night."

A stranger's voice on a telephone pulled me back from the edge of that terror. And a family I had never met gave me shelter in a barn in Missouri.

Some people in this story gave me a repaired motorcycle. Some gave me directions. Some gave me a place to sleep.

That man gave me back my breath.

13 episodes. All from memory. This is Two Wheels North.

A crash on the first night. A bad shoulder. Two days at a Pennsylvania campsite.

Then Ohio. Then Terre Haute, Indiana — and a sister who almost rode with me to Chicago.

Every incident, every sign, every close call was connected. I just didn't know it yet.

The light at the end of the tunnel was always going to be a train. And I barely got off the tracks in time.

Two Wheels North — A Documentary Series by Miles J. Dean
13 episodes. All from memory.

🎙️ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033la6AGxxh92376AYypQt
🔗 All platforms: linktr.ee/twowheelsnorth

In 1979 Denver was a city where a determined man could find work if he was willing to take whatever was available and ask no questions about the hours or the conditions.

I was very willing.

I found two jobs.

But before the jobs — on my very first day in Denver — I rode through a park and encountered a group of Black motorcycle riders who would challenge everything I thought I knew about bikers. They invited me to their clubhouse. I said yes.

What followed was one of the most unexpected and humbling experiences of the entire journey.

And then there was the kitchen floor. The mop. The red bucket. And a lesson my father taught me by the age of twelve that carried me further than any road map ever could.

And Mount Rushmore. Four faces. Four Presidents. Four disappointments.

"Whatever your Alaska is — go."

13 episodes. All from memory. This is Two Wheels North.

I knew I needed a fishing license. I also knew there was a risk. I went fishing anyway.

He who knows, and knows he knows, is wise. I was wise enough to know what I was doing. I just wasn't wise enough to get away with it.

A game warden. A jail cell. A calculated decision. And a sheriff who told me to get the hell out of Missouri.

13 episodes. All from memory. This is Two Wheels North.

"I knew I needed a fishing license. I also knew there was a risk. I went fishing anyway. Episode 4 — The Game Warden — drops tomorrow on Two Wheels North."

A war changed everything before the journey even began. Miles Dean had one plan — ride south to Costa Rica to visit a friend he played chess with in silence and ate Spanish food with at his table, a man he couldn't speak a single word to and yet counted among his closest friends. When the Contra-Sandinista war closed that road, he looked at a map, pointed north, and decided on Alaska instead — instantly, without hesitation, with three months of riding experience and whatever he could fit in his bags.