Danny Liska was the first person to travel by motorcycle from the Arctic Circle in Alaska to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America. He rode a BMW R60/2. He began his journey in the summer of 1959, reaching his northern-most point, Arctic Circle City, Alaska, in August. When the days began to get shorter, he returned to his home in Niobara, Nebraska for the winter. In the Spring of 1960, he headed South and made it to Panama City on Thanksgiving Day. He shipped his bike from there to Medellin, Columbia, then walked across the Darien Gap on "the Smuggler's Trail." He retrieved his bike in Medellin, rode throughout much of South America, and made it to the end of the road in Ushuaia, Argentina in 1961.

This is a major feat today, but in 1961, it was unheard of. BMW was so pleased, they gave him a brand new motorcycle, which he rode from North Cape, Norway to South Cape near Capetown, South Africa.

Danny Liska's daughter, Johanna, lives with her husband in the Houston area. Recently, Ben Muller, Mike Murphy, Barb Smith and Ron Marek visited with her, and Ben took these photos. Subsequently, Mike asked Johanna to join the club for our annual South Central Rally in Fredericksburg, to bring the bikes, and to set up a booth where she might sell copies of Danny's book "Two Wheels To Adventure." (Hardback copies of this book are now selling for $250 or more, depending on condition.) Happily, she has agreed, so we will all be able to see these historic machines and get a copy of the book.