This work is about the things that save a man's life, beginning with a motorcycle. At the age of 57, looking over his shoulder at heart disease, Gary Paulsen acquires his first Harley-Davidson. He decides to ride from his home in New Mexico to Alaska, and its turns out to be a trip in time as well as space. Through Minnesota and the Rockies to the Alaska highway, Paulsen travels through the landmarks of his life. There were people who wouldn't let him give in, from the tough cop who kept him from being a juvenile delinquent to the whore who told him not to leave the army. There were the challenges that pushed him to the limit, such as high-stakes poker, wrangling a dogsled through the Alaskan wilderness, and packing horses into the foothills of Montana. And there were the days of pure sweat and muscle on the farms in Minnesota and the bottom of septic tank pits in Colorado. Amid the silence of running the road on his Harley, Paulson celebrates hard work, constant challenge and ultimately the process rather that the product - not the destination but the ride.