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| Map of Travels |
| Born to ride Former New Jersey photographer sells his house to spend life cruising along the open road BY MIKE TSCHAPPAT DAILY RECORD "FOLLOWING THE YELLOW LINE" By Stuart Davis Trafford, $21 www.Trafford.com/05-0159 Two years ago Stu Davis became a homeless person -- not of necessity but by design. The former Daily Record photo chief sold his home in Stuart, Fla., climbed into his bright yellow Honda motorcycle with sidecar, and launched himself on to the open road. His stories of the road and the people he met, his quest for the beauty of America, and his inordinate fondness for Cracker Barrel restaurants are related in his book "Following the Yellow Line,"published this year by Trafford Publishing in British Columbia, Canada. "I was bored silly," Davis said about his life of retirement. His wife, Beatrice, had died, and his three daughters were scattered across the country. When he saw the price his neighbor got on the sale of his house, an idea began to form. Davis closed on his own house in January 2003, getting twice what he paid for it. While using his neighbor's home as a temporary residence, he bought a yellow Honda, then took it to Hannigan Motor Sports in Kentucky where the sidecar was added. He chose yellow because he learned it was the most visible color, a useful attribute when being passed by a giant tractor trailer going 70 mph on an interstate highway. But the color has another worthwhile quality. "I laughingly say it's a people magnet," Davis said. With no house to take care of, Davis set out on his bright yellow conversation starter. He crisscrossed the country, staying with relatives or friends, or at Motel 6's. "I like motorcycling," Davis said. "It's like no other transportation. You're out in the open, part of the elements. If it's raining, you get rained on. There are pungent smells -- meadows, 30,000 cows in feed lots." In the motel parking lots where he stayed, the motorcycle and side car frequently drew a crowd. He had, Davis likes to say, parking lot intercourse, a sample of the humor that peppers his book. As he traveled he kept a journal on his laptop. That journal was e-mailed to friends he made in parking lots and outside Cracker Barrels across the country. At one point he was e-mailing 130 people. Some of his newspaper colleagues who were on the receiving end of the e-mails began to suggest the journals might make a book. "My daughter, Armen (Davis-Wood), was in publishing and she put together a team of editors," Davis said. They found a publisher in British Columbia, Trafford Publishing, which is what was once called a vanity press. And this year Davis became a published author. "I don't make any money," he said. "This is an enterprise to have fun." But it's an opportunity for the reader to have fun too. The book's pages carry us cross country on roads that are sometimes less than smooth, up mountains and across flat vistas, past waterfalls and into remote corners of the land, through scorching heat and driving rain. Davis couldn't completely sever his ties with Florida. He kept a post office box there, and had his mail forwarded to his daughter, Armen, in Lexington, Mo. Eventually, he began paying his bills online. Davis-Wood has no qualms about her 75-year-old father motorcycling around the country. "I thought it was great," she said. "It was very typical. He didn't have very many ties. It's something a lot of people say they'd like to do and never do." She said he wears dog tags that have her phone number and her sister's, as well as his blood type. "You have to live life to it's fullest," she said. "I'd rather have him do that than sitting at home twiddling his thumbs or in a nursing home." She's not surprised at the way Davis' e-mail list grew as he cycled across the country. "He's really very gregarious, although I don't know if he ever thought of himself that way,"she said. "He's interested in people." Glenn Goodelle of Jupiter, Fla., agrees. He read a couple of articles by Davis in Sidecar Magazine. Seeing that Davis lived nearby, he tried to meet up with him. But catching a man with no home, who could be in any part of the United States, isn't easy. Goodelle finally ran him down in Kentucky at the 30-year factory anniversary of Hannigan Motor Sports. "He's quite a character,"Goodelle said. "I really enjoy talking to him. He's got a lot of insight into life. He's just a real easy fellow to talk to." Goodelle also owns a bright yellow Honda with sidecar, but said he wasn't inspired by Davis. He was touring the showroom floor where there were several models, including yellow. "My wife told me that was the one I was going to bring home,"he said. Goodelle said Davis would visit him this winter. "We'll get together and make a couple of breakfast runs," he said. Probably to Cracker Barrel. Davis will drive a long way for a meal. Just ask Joan Dwyer of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. She met him in the parking lot of a restaurant and the two found they had a lot in common. She was a photographer, like Davis, and she had recently lost her husband to cancer. He asked if he could e-mail his journal to her, and she agreed. Months later, he was literally at the fork of the road for either Salt Lake City or Coeur d'Alene when he called her and asked her out to dinner. "He drove 150 miles to take me to dinner," Dwyer said. "We've just been the dearest friends." They even combined for a series of newspapers articles, Davis writing and Dwyer photographing. "He's such a people person,"she said. "He enjoys all those aspects of going into a town and meeting people." Davis continues to travel the country, trying to find bookstores interested in his book. Although Davis' profession was photography (he was photo chief at the Daily Record in the late '70s and early '80s), his book is text driven. It contains a smattering of small black-and-white photos. "I'm really more interested in the words than the photography," he said. But it's the open road that really attracts him. His adventurous spirit isn't surprising. He and his wife lived on a sailboat in the Hudson River for 10 years. "Life gives you many little paths that go off to the side," he said. "You have to take chances; you have to be adventurous. I've never been afraid of change." Those wanting to keep abreast of Davis' travels can visit his Web site: www.followtheyellowline.com. It's probably the only way to catch up with him. |
| DAWN BENKO / DAILY RECORD Stu Davis, a former New Jersey resident and one-time Daily Record photo chief who had retired to Florida, decided to sell his house and take to the open road on a motorcycle after his wife's death. |
| Davis has written a book about his adventures on the open road criss-crossing the country, called 'Following the Yellow Line.' |
| FOLLOW THE YELLOW LINE Motorcycle Touring with Stuart Davis and His Side Car www.followtheyellowline.com |