Dinner and a book is supported by the Rex and Alice A. Martin Foundation of Elkhart, celebrating the spirit of Alice Martin and her love of good food and good friends with some savings from the pub job and tent.

Few clothes and some tools.

Elspeth Beard took off on her own for an almost two year trip, which found her 30 pounds lighter and decades wiser when she returned to England.

Let's meet one of my favorite guests, Evie Kirkwood, who knows a thing or two about motorcycles.

As we discuss Lone Rider by Elspeth Baird.

Welcome, Evie Hello, Gail.

So you suggested this book.

Was it because you're a motorcyclist?

No, I do ride a BMW.

Not the same bike that Elspeth Beard rode, but I do ride.

So this was particularly interesting to me.

And then I kind of a travel adventure, which is fun.

Certainly isn't.

I am so impressed.

You have a woman.

So many talents.

You really are.

And this.

This book is so interesting and it's scary.

And having been in India to ride a motorcycle on roads with elephants and other motorcycles and busses and cars that come three inches from what you're riding in, it is a scary proposition.

But Elspeth, she was full of energy and she was strong.

She knew she wanted to go around the world.

Very independent, right?

Very much so.

Architecture school wasn't having a good time.

Kind of.

Things were a little rough with her family.

I kind of had an on again, off again relationship with her parents, and she had a motorcycle and she said, I'm out of here.

You know, it's like a gap year.

And I think sometime big gap year.

Yes.

To two gap years.

Yeah.

That sometimes that's a very good thing for young people to do.

She learned a lot of lessons.

She made a lot of mistakes along the way.

my gosh.

She lost her money back and she, you know, got robbed and she had accidents.

So quite the adventure.

And she was almost attacked.

She was biking around the world.

And when she was out west, there was a group of American men on motorcycles that surrounded her.

But she had a BMW and she rode them out rode them!

I mean, this is scary stuff, but she was so independent, so strong, so bright.

Kind of a mind of her own for sure.

definitely.

And she came from a very unusual family.

They were always doing very unusual things.

And their parents just said, you're going around the world.

Her dad just said, well, just keep in touch.

Her mother was a little nervous about it.

I don't think she kind of told her to Elspeth, but we're going to sort of make two dishes here today.

They're in honor of Elspeth, right?

The two countries she spent the most time because she didn't ride the whole 22 months.

She actually explored it and spent some time in India.

India, which is what you're highlighting, right?

I'm highlighting.

And some of the food with cilantro and all these wonderful spices you would find in Malaysia, you would find in Thailand a lot of these countries she visited.

And I love that kind of food.

It's my very favorite.

And you are doing to be highlighting Australia, where she spent about six months also trying to work to raise money to continue the trip.

Some of that work experience didn't work out so well, but some of it did.

So I'm doing two things Anzac Biscuits, which are a cookie that Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and it's a cookie that's served on their armed forces day.

And then a little bit later I'll be making beet walnut dip.

Beets are really popular in Australia.

Who knew?

So who knew?

And we're going to try it all out.

Here we are.

You even have a board from a case from.

Tell us about that.

So kudos to my husband who sanded the edges down so we wouldn't get splinters.

But yeah, this is from a shipping crate for a BMW motorcycle.

And I've got my old helmet and my gloves, and we're ready to ride.

You are ready to ride, and you're bringing in some unusual foods.

And I have a lot of herbs and spices, and sometimes they talk and I don't get them all in the dish.

But I am going to to these onions and I decide to cook them ahead of time because they needed about 16 minutes and we're going to put in with these onions.

Now, the first set of spices, we're going to have ginger, garlic, some chilies, and we'll add some other things as we move along in the dish, like coriander, turmeric, cayenne.

And those are the spices of India.

That's what they were so fragrant.

It smells great sailing around the world.

And I wanted to mention too.

I mean, look at this is something that maybe folks aren't familiar with.

This is called golden Sirup.

It's actually an inverted sirup.

Sugar sirup made from cane sugar, very popular in baking in England and Wales and Australia, and it also serves as an emulsifier.

So similar in kind of texture and cooking ability is corn sirup, but it's made from cane sugar and it's almost like a very, very mild molasses.

And so that's the sweetener and the emulsifier in these cookies, and I'm adding it to some melted butter too.

So authentic.

Where did you get this?

You can get anything online, right?

Well, you go online.

Yeah.

Planning ahead?

Yeah.

Well, you know, I have to say, this is one of my favorite books.

I couldn't.

I can't see myself doing what she did.

I was in a motorcycle accident in France, and I decided that wasn't for me.

That was enough.

In France.

The mountains were beautiful, but this woman was determined.

And she really she was so smart.

The way she take that motorcycle apart and put it back together, repair it.

And she always had not always she was by herself a lot, but she'd have a man friend join her.

Right.

Because you don't want to be riding for two years by yourself.

So one of the roads reminds me that it was really interesting that she realized early on that she started out with long hair.

And when yeah, you know what?

She had it out from her helmet.

People realized she was a woman and sometimes she got harassed a little bit.

But she realized if she tucked it up under her helmet, she was less likely to get bothered.

So that was an interesting and that is a piece of advice for anybody, any woman traveling alone on any place.

It just seems sad.

Men aren't given advice to wear a hat.

Right.

So you aren't taken for a woman and this sort of thing, But you know, I camped with my children out west.

And I was it was suggested to me that I wear a hat.

Wear a hat?

Yes.

So I looked like a man.

And that hits you the first time you experience that.

But I'm kind of just moving along here very slowly on my I just wanted to mention too, I added some unsweetened coconut flakes, and now I'm adding some hot water to some baking soda that I'm going to add to the butter.

So that will kind of fluff up the cookie.

We're going to fluff them up.

Yep.

And I'm going to add some garlic and some ginger to this dish.

My ginger has been sitting there so long that it's kind of stuck to the bottom of the dish here.

But we'll get it in.

We're going to cook with that.

Some people don't like spices and it's nice that the restaurants in this country, particularly in small towns, tone it down because but I do like it spicy.

I just that was a real eye opener to me when I first had Indian food.

So we're in heat that up.

I also think it was kind of interesting.

One of the things I kept looking for in the book, but I didn't see a lot of was, you know, what did she eat every day?

And we know she had some street food.

And she does talk about because she was in Indonesia when she had a wreck.

Is she experience some different food same in Australia should stop at fruit stands.

But again, the two countries where she spent the most time, we're just going to assume that she had some of these delectable treats that she did today and she did have some of the problems too.

We we really traveled with her with all of her issues, her health issues.

She was struck down several times.

And both she and she did have a male partner that would catch up with her.

And they drive around, but they both got hepatitis and that is terrible that, yes, you are sick everywhere.

Even imagine like being sick like in a country.

And I think what I kept forgetting is she did this in the eighties, early eighties.

There was no GPS.

There were no cell phones.

That's right.

So she did it without any of those technologies.

And to get to a hospital for she ended up in the hospital, as did her friend Robert, because somebody picked her up and put put her in the truck.

Founder Yep.

Finally took over and got her out of the creek or they put her bike back together.

Anyway, she was.

She was amazing.

I'm going to add a little of these green peppers here.

It's kind of fun that she started in the United States.

That's where her journey started.

And in part wisely so, because she knew the roads would be good, she knew the health care system would be good.

If there's an issue, she knew she could find parts for her motorcycle if anything broke down.

So that was kind of a good shakedown for her to kind of explore the United States.

And she didn't just drive straight through all her countries.

She actually did kind of check out some of the sites along the way.

And I noticed that's fun to read about.

And you should do that.

I mean, you're you up there just to buzz around and collect miles, Although there were times when they were they knew they had to go 500 miles and get to this city by dusk and they'd have to find a campsite, not an official one, just out in a field somewhere to lay down.

Yeah, I mean, it was rugged and she seemed to love it, didn't she?

She did.

And because she was tight on money, she spent some time in some really unique places.

She used a lot of hostels.

Yeah.

And that was helpful.

And in some countries, this is the thing that she had wasn't ready for.

But the owner of the hostel would say, well, who?

The man can sleep here in the hostel, but you can come and stay in our house.

Yes, that's right.

And then she finally realized what that meant and so she grew up.

She had to grow up quickly on this trip.

Okay, We're going to take a little break, regroup, resort.

Great.

And we want to show you the menu and then we'll be right back to talk more about Lone Rider.

Just stay right there.

Our book is Lone Rider and Eslpeth is riding on a BMW motorcycle around the world.

And while she's riding around the world, I'm finishing up rolling these Anzac biscuits, which are actually cookies made with oatmeal and brown sugar and flour and just kind of padding these by a tablespoon.

And then I am going to pop them in the oven.

Some people like these super crispy, in which case you cook them a little bit longer.

I like them chewy, so I only bake them for 11 minutes.

Head to the oven.

Here we go.

And there she goes.

Yes, indeed.

So now you're set there.

What's your next job?

I'm making beet and walnut dip because these are popular in Australia of beets.

I love them.

I roasted these in the oven with a little olive oil, and they're going to go in the food processor in a second.

And I'm cooking my chicken thighs here.

I've added my tomatoes.

Now we're going to add some yogurt and some cilantro and let this cook a little bit longer.

I have my rice cooking, so this is going to be a very typical Asian dish, and it's my favorite.

I do love all these herbs and spices and I'm so glad I was introduced to them when I was in my twenties.

A little bit like Elspeth, but like Elspeth.

Yes.

And I'll just put this back on.

No, I'm going to put in a few cilantro.

You know, they love cilantro in Asia, and I like it, too.

And it only really appeared in the United States, I say, in the last ten years.

And there's different kinds now.

Yeah.

I don't think Americans like it as strong as it really can be.

And they have developed a kind of cilantro that is not as pungent.

I like that.

You might like it.

Yes.

I just think it's great.

It's great In salads and green salad.

It is good.

And so we're left that cook a little longer.

I'm adding olive oil, and then I'm going to be adding some red wine vinegar into the food processor and some walnuts.

So isn't this little garlic in there, too?

You know, before I turn this food processor on, I love to the fact that Elspeth, before she even went on her trip, she took apart her whole motorcycle and, yeah, put it back together so she knew how it would work.

And then halfway into part of our trip, she built her own aluminum.

yes.

Luggage cases to bolt on the back of the motorcycle.

That was great.

And yes, and she even cut them down at one point because they were kind of blocking everything, but they called them Penny.

I'm not sure that's yours.

That's a French word.

Paneer means basket.

Right.

And so here we go.

We have a little French thrown in.

So anyway, we're doing the Asian chicken and it's curried chicken.

And I also wanted to mention there's so many sites in this book and pictures of Elspeth, her travels with her friends.

And I'm sure you'll see some pictures up there that we've chosen.

And we hope that you enjoy this.

I, I enjoy.

But it's kind of painful, too.

You know, the part where she's riding a motorcycle through the deep, deep mud that was really painful to me.

Up to her knees.

Yeah.

Okay.

You're going to make I'm going to run the food processor, so it'll be fun.

Noisy here for a setting for chopping up the beets and the nuts in there together.

I got to run it one more time after I it.

Some people like this chunky and some people like it really like smooth.

Yeah, I don't like chunky.

I'd like to taste everything separately.

In a way, I'll make it chunky just for you.

yeah, Yeah, I. I'm enjoying that.

Right.

So we have new foods here today, and I like fresh.

I just love it when people try new things.

Yeah, I just too wanted to say that she.

She does get sick with this hepatitis.

They end up in the hospital and, you know, she doesn't worry about how she looks, you know, in fact, she got her hair once and she just got some like friend of a friend of some some kind, some Japanese chop it off.

And she said it was like long in the front and short in the back.

She said it looked awful, but she didn't care.

She didn't care.

And, you know, you have to be like that to go on a trip like this.

You can't be stopping every 10 minutes.

Let me look in the mirror and make sure everything's ignoring.

She's pretty straight, a pretty straightforward gal, which is why I think it works so well for her to take this trip.

It's very straightforward.

But she was served the lucky two.

She had good hair, she had good skin, she was tall.

And she she certainly did kind of have an interesting relationship with men in that.

Yes, she was kind of on with Mark and then she wasn't on with Mark.

And then Robert, who was riding around the world as well, had heard about Elspeth when she was in Australia.

They followed her.

She was young.

The paper?

Yeah.

He thought he could catch up with her and he did.

Maybe.

I can't remember what country.

I don't know.

I don't remember.

Anyway, they, they did end up riding together.

And then she sort of fell in love with.

She did, you know, she had a good relationship with men in the sense if they were her type, you know, traveling and didn't care if things were perfect, you know, just make sure your machine is working.

And and she she enjoyed them and they come back in and out of her life because sometimes they don't go to the same place.

They say, I'll meet you in this place and do that without cell phones.

And their maps ended up in the same country.

They said, Well, we'll meet you at the mosque or something in right outside of Dar es Salaam or something that's in another country, but and take a while to meet up.

But she enjoyed traveling with them and they were it was helpful and it was boring sometimes to be on the bike.

Yeah, sometimes she just got tired and she was happy, happy, happy to take a little break.

Like Singapore.

Singapore, she said, was very clean but kind of boring, shot a lot of shopping, which was obviously a very different atmosphere.

Them in some of the other parts of.

It's a very it's very fashionable in Singapore and it's very clean.

You dare not drop anything on the ground.

I was there and it was kind of fun after India where as we found out in this book and as I have experience, India is tumultuous.

There are people around you all the time.

There is no place.

And once you go back to your hotel room or your your hostel and kind of go in a corner, you are surrounded, surrounded by people all the time and they want to sell you something.

And if you say, no, I already have six of those.

That's just the beginning of the discussion.

And another, my gosh.

So she she does get to Kathmandu and she's going to meet her parents there.

Yeah, that was a little rough in the beginning.

Yes, it was up with her parents because I think they especially they started out in the city and they were they went out to dinner.

Elspeth only had her kind of beat up motorcycle clothing.

And her parents didn't like that going out to dinner, that wasn't going to work.

So her father brought her some brand new overalls.

Yes, yes, yes.

Which she wore.

And she didn't like that this was her her life.

I mean, this is the way I've been living.

And I understand that because when I lived in France in the winter, I lived with the farm family up in their attic.

And I had a Firestove oven that.

The wood would burn out probably by two in the morning.

And I slept in all kinds of clothes to keep warm.

And I wanted my parents to see where, you know, I had slept and my mother had sort of the same reaction.

What are you doing up here in this place?

You know, and I was very proud of the fact and I could feel this reaction to her mother kind of being a little snippy with her and but they had a good time generally, when she took them out to meet people in villages, get away from the hotels, go and make people just sit down and talk with them.

tell me how you now you I just stole sour cream.

And then when I plate this in a little serving dish, I'm actually going to swirl a little bit more sour cream.

So I think it needs a little more sour cream.

Just kind of gives it that creaminess and nothing like a pink dish, right?

Yeah, that's it's gorgeous.

It's the colors we have for returning her here.

And I am just cooking my food now to let it just cook all the way through.

I've added cilantro and I have added my yogurt, plain yogurt, a lot of yogurt in Indian food and in food of that area.

And you can actually make this with yogurt, too, if you have that.

You're good.

I love plain yogurt.

Yes.

And I like Greek yogurt.

Yes.

Yes.

I want to mention that even though Elspeth had kind of a rocky start with her architecture, she ended up being a great architect, won several awards.

She converted an old water tower.

We have pictures of that to her, show the tower so that she could live in it.

Although it's got multiple like, yes, you have to go through that through three bedrooms to get as you go up to get to the kitchen living room and her bedroom.

But, you know, she's young, She can go and she just loves it.

And we're going to show you some pictures of this.

She is well known now as an renowned architect.

I can't believe this young girl is in her 60s, early 60s.

Now, not real crazy about long motorcycle.

No she doesn't want to do it.

I don't blame her.

I don't blame her.

Well, we're going to tidy up.

We're going to get our meal pretty ready for you.

So join us.

Don't go far.

Stay right there and we'll see you in a few minutes.

And remember, our book is Lone Rider by Elspeth Beard and a great book.

I loved it.

It's one of my favorites.

What do you think?

I loved it, too.

It's certainly a fun adventure.

Hey, I'm making a little chai.

You're doing a little to salute our meal.

I've had a drink of my chai here.

All these great foods we made today.

Evie did her cookies, Anzac biscuits.

And I love the spread.

The beet walnut dip with pita chips, chips and we have some naan and right here, just a little serving of rice with the curry and a lot of countries we were in, they serve curry.

And so your favorite part?

Well, you know, I thought it was really interesting when she got back to the UK, to her home in London, it was really hard for her to adjust to daily routine.

Yes, she was living with her parents for a while.

She ended up living with Mark.

They had a baby, but she had some real serious depression after having the baby and then he split.

So that didn't help matters.

So they're gone.

He's no longer there.

And she follows that.

Her friend Rob, he also had an illness and he died.

And he died, although he kind of followed her around.

He followed her.

Yes.

Sort of an interesting part.

25 years.

He did not contact her.

Also, speaking of 25 years, wasn't it interesting that nobody was interested in her story?

A book, a movie, Nothing.

She saved everything when she got back, but she just stuffed it in storage.

She had she had her diary photos.

That's how she was able to recreate this travel journey.

So keep that in mind when you've got all those pictures, you need the energy to go ahead and write a book just like Elspeth did.

And she bought a water tower, decorate it.

She became a famous architect.

And we want to hear more about her.

And we do enjoy your company today.

Thanks for joining us.

And Evie, as usual, you're a hit, always fun Gail, thanks so much fun and thank you for watching us.

And remember, good food, good friends, good trips make for a very good life.

See you next time.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Dinner and a Book is supported by the Rex and Alice A. Martin Foundation of Elkhart, celebrating the spirit of Alice Martin and her love of good food and good friends.