Lawrence residents Roger and Sharon Haack sought a more adventurous life when Roger sold his computer software business DataTeam Systems in July of last year. Since then the two have taken to the open road on Roger's motorcycle. Roger recently finished a 7,700 mile trip to the Pacific Northwest, part of which Sharon road with.

Last year Roger Haack sold his Lawrence software company, retired and made plans to fulfill a longtime dream.

He succeeded. On June 1 Haack got on his 2004 BMW motorcycle and did what many other people would love to do if they had the time and money: He took off on a three-week, 7,700-mile trip through the western United States.

Other than a few weekend trips, Haack said he had never done much motorcycle riding before that day.

“I always had this idea, always wanted to do this, but I spent too much time working,” he said. “I had envisioned that once I sold the company I’d be able to take a monthlong trip because that was a dream of mine.”

Haack started out by himself on a cloudy day riding through Kansas on his way to Clayton, N.M.

“The goal was to have a great ride and maybe see some of the attractions,” Haack, 56, said recently. “We wanted to get off the public path, stay off the interstates and take divided roads as much as possible.”

His wife, Sharon Haack, flew to meet him in Las Vegas. She has a motorcycle driver’s license but chose to ride on the back of her husband’s bike.

“I decided I really didn’t want to ride my own,” Sharon Haack said. “You really have to be a good rider for this, and Roger’s a good rider.”

The trip took them through the southwestern states, up through California, Oregon, Washington, Montana and other northern states in a circular route back to Lawrence. Sharon’s leg of the motorcycle trip ended in Portland, Ore., and then she headed back home.

They passed through a variety of environments, including deserts and mountains. A few detours were made because some passes were snowed in, but the weather favored the Haacks as they rode through Death Valley, Calif.

“We wondered if we were going to fry, but it turned out that the temperature was great,” Roger Haack said. “It was only 95 – 20 degrees below normal.”

Other highlights, Haack said, was traveling the original stretch of historic Route 66 in Arizona and the giant redwood and sequoia trees in California. He found that Montana lives up to its “Big Sky” handle.

“You really did feel pretty insignificant out there alone on a deserted road in Big Sky country, and I loved it,” he said.

But visiting with people was as much fun as seeing the countryside, Haack said.

“People are not afraid to come up to talk to you if you are riding a motorcycle,” he said. “This is especially true if you are a solo rider. Maybe it’s the mystique of me getting to ride and they can’t.”

Haack found that the Kansas license tag and Kansas University Jayhawk on the motorcycle also attracted attention.

“The biggest question, the opening line was, ‘Did you ride that all the way from Kansas?'” he said.

Haack wrote a daily blog about his travels, which he posted on a Web site. Included on the site is a page where he rated the best beers he found at microbreweries along the route. One of his disappointments, he said, was not being able to stop at some of those establishments.

“One thing I enjoy is sampling the craft beers of the local brewers,” Haack said. “I drove by all these microbreweries at the wrong time of the day. That was frustrating.”

Haack returned to Lawrence on June 25, stopping off to meet his wife and friends to celebrate with a hamburger and beer at the Slow Ride Roadhouse, 1350 N. Third St.

Sharon Haack posted her own observations on the Web page about being a woman on a long motorcycle trip. “Forget that you look 100 pounds heavier in your gear … just don’t look in any mirrors,” she wrote. “Hair … oh dear … helmet hair will win every time,” she wrote in another posting.

The Haacks said they are ready to ride again. Roger sold one of his motorcycles on eBay to a wildlife photographer in Skagway, Alaska. They struck up a friendship when the photographer came to Lawrence to get the bike.

“Now I have an invitation to go to Skagway,” Haack said. “I’m thinking late August might be a good time to go. If you go to Skagway you might as well go to Anchorage and Fairbanks.”