At the age of fifty-seven, looking over this shoulder at heart disease, Gary Paulsen acquired his first Harley-Davidson, and began a journey of a lifetime. From New Mexico to Alaska, through Minnesota and the Rockies, Paulsen also travels through the landmarks of his life. There was the tough cop who kept him from becoming a juvenile delinquent and the whore who told him not to leave the army; high-stakes poker games and wrangling dogsleds through the Alaskan wilderness. Funny, moving and full of adventure, "Pilgrimage on a Steel Ride", reads like the best kind of travel writing, celebrating not the destination, but the ride.