Stay Curious.
Origin Story.
On July 14, 2017, while on a solo motorcycle trip from Washington, DC to Patagonia, I was hit by a truck that crossed the highway in front of me, in Honduras. I had only a few months to go before finishing the trip at Fitz Roy, Argentina, where I’d then fly back to the states for a friend’s wedding. I’d ridden almost 10,000 miles, crossing the border at Laredo, Texas into Mexico, riding through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, then Honduras. I was thrown across the highway, my motorcycle sliding across the asphalt behind me— damaging the bike, my computer, all my camera equipment, and, me. I lay bleeding on the side of the road for twenty minutes before asking several bystanders to put me in the back of a pickup truck and drive to the nearest hospital.
I was in a wheelchair for almost three months. The fourth month I flew to Colombia to finish recovering, being pushed in a wheelchair from gate to gate at the airport. The fifth month I hobbled on a cane to the gym down the street every morning for physical therapy, and, when I was able, hobbled back. I started a business from the apartment I had in Medellin that I was barely able to leave. The sixth month I ran for the first time after the accident— a wobbly, painful affair where I struggled to make the long 1/2 mile, but shrieked with joy when I finished. Eleven months after the accident I sat on my motorcycle again for the first time, and rode out of Honduras and headed south.
There’s only one direction, and that’s forward.
Adventure waits for no one.
Dani’s background is in fine arts and the non-profit sphere in Washington, DC— one of her first jobs after graduating University was working for an international NGO that worked on policy in developing countries for poverty and malnutrition, with a focus on women and children. She started traveling around Africa and Asia for work, helping set up conferences at in-country offices and surrounding areas, running the photography and video side of the conference as well as shooting video and photos in the field. She traveled to Senegal where Dakar became almost a second home, interviewed the former President of Ghana (John Kufuor) in Accra, Ghana, and made presentations about incorporating video into researcher’s work in Abuja, Nigeria. She ran photo and video teams in Lebanon, India, and Indonesia.
In 2012, she decided she wanted to set off on her own— she left her job, and spent the next year+ traveling around Africa. She backpacked in Ethiopia, traveled to the farthest reaches of Senegal to shoot markets, and traveled overland from South Africa all the way to Malawi, camping with elephants in Botswana, jumping into Victoria Falls in Zambia, and shooting markets in Lilongwe, Malawi. She ended up living in Cape Town for a short period of time in the Gardens area, before returning to the US in May 2013.
Back on the East Coast in Baltimore, she started avidly rock climbing, and worked for Under Armour, then USA Today. In 2015 she embarked on a 6 month bicycle expedition across Europe from Lisbon, Portugal to Batumi, Republic of Georgia, and when she came back she started working for National Geographic. It was here she discovered the name for what she had been doing the last few years on her own— storytelling. She left National Geographic to live in Ecuador, improve her Spanish (and surfing skills) to continue her work as a photographer and work on a side project in the Peruvian jungle, as well as work on the Lone Rucksack brand, telling great stories from the road.
In May 2017 she left for a solo, unassisted motorcycle tour from Washington, DC to Patagonia, Argentina. Halfway through the trip, she was hit by a truck illegally crossing the highway in Honduras. She was thrown across the highway, legs torn open and bleeding, and asked bystanders to pick her up and put her in the back of a pickup truck to the nearest hospital. She was in a wheelchair for almost 3 months, and spent the subsequent 3 months recovering in Medellin, Colombia. Almost one year after the accident, she flew back to Honduras to repair her motorcycle, and continue her journey.
Dani moved to Cape Town, South Africa in 2023 to study aviation, and with her pilot’s license in hand, moved to France in 2026, where she is now studying French.
Explore More.
In Which I am Hit by a Truck
On the Road from La Ceiba to Tegucigalpa, Honduras // 10 AMThe rain that had filled the potholes on the red dirt road had gone, leaving only empty spaces. My motorcycle bumped up and down as I leaned right and then left, slowing down then speeding up, navigating the twisting road that followed the river […]
Fear, Machistos, and Riding through Guatemala and El Salvador
Rio Dulce I rode across the bridge into El Salvador, and when the bridge ended there was an empty bit of road with buildings to the left down a hill, a little stand to my right, military men milling and people milling around. There were no clear signs that I could see, and I sat […]
Of Loss, Role Models, and Storms
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