Jewel Finds Break From Fame on the Back of Her Bike

Jewel and husband Ty Murray spent almost two months this summer crossing Colorado, Montana and Wyoming on their motorcycles. The singer says the cross-country journey helped renew her love of travel after years of frenzied world tours and hectic road schedules. Riding her bike also helped enable Jewel to be an observer again, and to blend in with the crowd for the first time in a long, long time.

"My job became travel, which I always really loved," the singer tells CNN, "but it really does become quite a grind. You do a world tour that takes two years -- I've been doing that since I was 18 -- and then you get famous and it really changes everything. For somebody who is a voyeur like I am -- I'm a writer, and I really like to watch people more than I like to be watched -- I started to really miss that, and the helmet and riding my motorcycle really gives back an anonymity that is really enjoyable."

For Jewel, the bike trip also gave her a chance to really see and experience places she had only previously seen through the window of her bus, and she relished getting to choose the accommodations for each day's journey. "It gives back the joy of the small town and getting to look at towns and little restaurants and local places. Whereas on a tour, you're just on a tour bus, and honestly, you don't see the city much anymore."

She says accommodations along the way ranged from funky little cabins to the elegant Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs. Another Colorado destination, Telluride, was among her favorites. "Telluride was beautiful. It's amazing when a city is able to maintain their original concept. It's a little miner's town, and it still takes place all on a single main street with a really old-town feel with original buildings. They have world-class food. I had some of the best sushi I've ever had anywhere in the world there."

Jewel says the couple often take trips on their bikes together, traveling over 3,000 miles in their home state of Texas alone just last Christmas.