I was born in 1971, 42 years ago. The youngest of five children, I grew up in a little village on the river Meuse, in the deep south of the Netherlands. After a pretty uneventful youth I went to Art Academy in Enschede. In this town I settled down and started my career as a freelance illustrator The city would be my hometown until 2012, when my husband was offered a job in Boulder, Colorado. Living the American life for a year? Sounded like a great idea. So last September we packed our bags, got someone to feed the cats for a year, and got on a plane to move from the Dutch lowlands to the mountains of Colorado.
My first motorcycle experience was in the early nineteen eighties. I was visiting my eldest brother in de city of Eindhoven, where he was studying physics. On his bike, a 350 cc Honda, we went for a drive at dusk on a warm summer day. I had my arms wrapped firmly around Frans’ waist, and the only thing for me to do was to look around and enjoy the view. When I looked up at the sky, about three yards above us I saw a duck flying at exactly the same speed as the bike. I thought it was the most amazing thing.
It was many, many years later, about twenty I would say, that I found myself on a motorcycle for the second time. This time it was on the back of a friends bike, a Kawasaki Vulcan. And this time I didn’t look up, but down, on the freeway to Utrecht to be precise, and saw the asphalt under my shoes speed along at about 80 miles per hour. That took me some time to get used to. But the ride was excellent, the weather beautiful and warm, and from that moment I knew: this is what I want! In 2003 I got my motorcycle drivers licence. I learned a lot in the years after, especially that the weather is not always beautiful and warm when you want to take your bike for a ride.
My very first motorcycle was a 1979 Honda CB 400N. Quite an old bike, but a very good one to start off with. This was the bike on which I went on my first motorcycle club camping trips to Luxembourg. My second bike was the more sturdy BMW F650 ST, a 650 cc one-cylinder bike. A few years after that, I bought a little mud-bike: a Yamaha XT 350. Unfortunately I had to sell both bikes before we left The Netherlands last year, but the good news is, I found a nice XT 350 here in the US. This is the bike I hope to ride the Oregon Trail with.
If you have any questions, or comments, just send me an email