Detours: Life, Death and Divorce on the Road to Sturgis

Author Richard La Plante had always wanted to ride cross-country to Sturgis, South Dakota-to the famous motorcycle rally that has become the mecca for the American biker. But at the age of 53, still bruised from a divorce, newly remarried, and a father for the first time, he thought the trip would remain an armchair fantasy.

Then came the summer of 1999. Pressured by work, another baby on the way, and being temporarily homeless, he made a decision: Escape-out of the armchair and into the sad...