I was born into a fantastic family and raised in Upstate New York. I attended Penn State University and was graduated in 1998 with a degree in Letters, Arts, and Science, a multidisciplinary degree I intended to use as a stepping stone to a medical career. I was in fact accepted into several medicals schools, and it was during my one year lay over before school that I decided to ride a motorcycle to the tip of South America. Thanks to the guidance of my writing mentor and teacher, the late Rob Gannon, author and Contributing Editor to Popular Mechanics, I was lucky enough to acquire a contract to write a book about the trip. As I was living the journey of a lifetime over the course of eleven months I realized that I needed to focus my life on writing, and left my medical career aspirations by the wayside.

My greatest motorcycle inspirations are my father, who had several bikes and was an excellent hobbyist mechanic, Emilio Scotto, an Argentine man who holds the world's record for circling the globe on a motorcycle (7 times!), and my mother, who has ridden a motorcycle a perhaps a handful of times in her life. I told the following story to a friend, and he said that she is definitely the one who has given me my courage.

One day when fiending for nicotine, and lacking any other vehicle to run to the store for cigarettes, my mother fearlessly took my father's BMW R69s out of the garage, without ever having operated it before. She made it to the store and back without a hitch, but nearly caused the premature death of her spouse when he found out. He wasn't mad that she took it, he was upset she left it running unattended while she was inside the store! But she didn't want to have to come outside and have trouble starting it, and to suffer the embarrassment of having to throw her 120lb frame up and down on the kickstand while everyone watched her.

When not traveling I usually live in or outside New York City. My hobbies include martial arts (particularly Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), reading, poker, and video games.

I'd like to also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to God and to my family and friends, and especially to my sponsors: Kawasaki, Aerostich, Givi USA, Corbin Saddles, Clearview Windscreens, Fransisco Illarramendi of Highview Point, and Pablo Illarramendi of PNP Media, who designed this site. I hope to soon have a sponsors page to properly thank them all.

Coming soon: What is a goathill?