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 saddle. On a borrowed Big Dog motorcycle, he set off for the Black Hills of Dakota. Moments of crazed introspection mixed with the sheer euphoria of the ride all add up to the metaphor of a life's journey.

Told in La Plante's humorous and self-deprecating style, Detours is a wild ride, all the way home.