Local couple keeps life exciting with cross-country trips aboard a motorcycle

People who want some excitement in their lives but sit on their couches dreaming about it might consider the example of John and Carol Hallman. At age 70 and 66, they recently returned from a 49-day motorcycle trip across Canada, the third long-distance motorcycle trip they have taken in recent years.

This time, the two were aboard a Honda Gold Wing instead of the Harley-Davidson they used for earlier trips, with Mr. Hallman doing the driving and Carol holding on right behind him. The Honda is more comfortable as a touring bike, Mr. Hallman said.

“It was really awesome,” Ms. Hallman said. At the same time, she admitted their four children and 11 grandchildren worry and wonder about them. “They kind of think we’re nuts,” Ms. Hallman said. When she and her husband embarked on the trip, it was with prayers from their fellow parishioners at Sag Harbor United Methodist Church.

Did Ms. Hallman think her husband — someone she has known all her life; they went to school together on Shelter Island — was crazy to suggest such trips in the first place?

“No,” she said. “I just said we had to have all the right equipment.”

Read more in tomorrow’s edition of the Shelter Island Reporter.