Joan,
Here's a vacation/motorcycle idea for you. This is a friend of mine who is a geologist that I've worked with in the past (back when I
had a job in the methane field.)
He's a real adventurer and rides a motorcycle (redundant?) so I thought you'd get a big kick out of reading his site. If you duplicated his trip, you'd be warm, that's for sure.
I've got a couple of geologist friends that can't sit still for a minute. I had Indian food with both of them a few weeks ago in Denver and thanked them for all of their "travel logs" as I could live my life vicariously through them, stay safe and save a lot of money!
http://www.salsabravamotorrad.com/
WyoBob (unemployed, new grandpa of twins and still smokin')