The Spirit of Adventure

Spirit of adventure. Have you ever longed for adventure? Longed to be a wanderer, envying the gypsy life? I have and I was! In 1999, I retired for the first time, gave away many possessions and put the rest in storage. That began my summer of solo wandering. I had always wanted to come west, but on a Harley Davidson. I didn’t have a Harley, and I had sold my Honda. I had two amazing K-9 companions, a Wolf hybrid (grey wolf, and we never knew what else, suspected Shepherd - a rescue), and a very sweet Britany Beagle combo. The bike thing wouldn’t have worked out very well. It worked out just fine in my little white Toyota Tercel. The direct distance is about 1775 miles, but we took a circuitous route and ended up traveling 3,800 miles together, camping, hiking, and finding many out of the way places over about three months. It was heavenly. But that is a story for another time. I was reminiscing and thinking about adventure. I love this story about a woman who had a Harley, followed her heart, and found adventure. 

Vivian Bales was born on January 19, 1908, in Wacissa, Florida. She grew up in Albany, Georgia, and after high school worked as a seamstress and dance instructor. When she was eighteen, she bought her first motorcycle, a new Harley Davidson, for about $240. She taught herself to ride. Vivian knew next to nothing about motorcycles or riding one. She was five foot two inches and weighed all of ninety-five pounds and didn’t even know how to kick-start a bike! Fortunately for her, she had a friend who knew bikes and taught her the ins and outs of the machine and how to ride safely. She became known around town as the girl with a motorcycle. Her first long trip was about 300 miles with a female friend from Albany to St. Petersburg, Florida. 

In 1929, Vivian traded her first bike for a different model with a flathead engine. It was Harley Davidson’s first 45 cu in motorcycle. She had plans for a much longer solo trip. She wrote to the editor of the Harley Davidson Enthusiast magazine telling him about her plans. The unusual story intrigued the company, so they made Vivian the official goodwill “Enthusiast Girl.” 

The trip began on June 1, 1929. It took Vivian 78 days to cover about 5,000 miles solo from Albany, Georgia, to the Harley Davidson factory in Milwaukee. On the return trip, she traveled through Canada, Manhattan, the Carolinas and Washington, D.C. Senator William J. Harris heard of her trip through D.C. and arranged for her to meet President Herbert Hoover. She did so wearing her trademark all-white riding breeches, shirt, helmet, socks and a sweater with “The Enthusiast Girl” across its chest. She proved the open road belonged to everyone! 

Vivian was a trailblazer in an era long before adventure riding became popular for women. She crossed the country meeting mayors, governors, other road warriors, and complete strangers, all of whom cheered her on. She became the first motorcycle magazine cover in the May and November editions of the Enthusiast and in local papers across the USA. A few years later, she became a stunt rider at motorcycle races in Tallahassee, Florida. She said that the motorcycle was a “key to the whole United States.” She settled for a while and married William Faison. They adopted and raised three children. She never stopped riding, and her last ride was at eighty-six. “The road may be rough, but every mile traveled opens the door to new possibilities.”