Spirit Traffic: A Mother's Journey of Self-Discovery and Letting Go

Written by C. Jane Taylor

Narrated by C. Jane Taylor

Spirit Traffic recounts how, at the age of 50, the author learned to ride a motorcycle, overcame the terror of navigating her steep dirt driveway in Vermont, and, three days after her son’s college graduation, set off with him and her yoga-teacher husband (his stepdad) on a 10,000-mile two-wheel adventure that took them all into uncharted territory—both as novice riders, and as a family. As if in the saddle of her dual-sport BMW, the reader will experience the good, the bad, and the heartbreak of her journey as a soon-to-be-empty-nester grappling with impermanence, sexuality, hot flashes, high winds, and tailgating tour buses. 

Spirit Traffic is at once a colorful travelogue of a bucket-list bikers’ route across America and an unflinching memoir of a middle-aged mom conquering her fears (on and off the bike), unpacking a complicated childhood with an addict father and stoic mother, and ultimately, learning to let go of her only child. (Think Blue Highways meets Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance meets Operating Instructions meets Wild.)

With its first-person accounts of legendary rides such as the Burr Trail, Hell’s Backbone Road, and the Pacific Coast Highway, Spirit Traffic will find a ready audience among bikers. But as a midlife memoir, Spirit Traffic will also resonate for anyone who is navigating the departure of a child, negotiating the dynamic tensions of family, or simply yearning for life’s next adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Magic Hill Press LLC
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781735505060

C. Jane Taylor

When C. Jane Taylor was a little girl, her mother owned the motorcycle shop, Honda of Ann Arbor. Motorcycles colored her childhood until she and her family moved to Northern Michigan and later to Vermont. At the age of 16, she went to Bard College at Simon’s Rock where she earned a BA in Literature and Music History.She’s been a cook for a baroque orchestra, a sculptor’s assistant, a resume writer, and a yoga teacher. She started (and stopped) her own welding shop. She has repaired farm equipment under the blazing sun on the Fourth of July and decorated cakes resembling the Palace of Versailles on Bastille Day. Writing has always been her foundation.After a forty-year hiatus, she started motorcycling again when her son graduated from college. To celebrate his achievement and fill her impending empty nest, Jane, her husband, and son took a 10,000-mile motorcycle trek across the United States; this adventure is the subject of “Spirit Traffic: A Mother’s Journey of Self-Discovery and Letting Go.” She lives, writes, and rides in Hinesburg, Vermont with her husband John, a yoga teacher.