Mile: 0 (22197)
Time: -1:58 (09:30 PDT)
Location: Carillon Point
So, again with my silly
starts to motorcycle trips. I’m at
work. I know, a retired person working
on the first day of vacation. So here I
sit in a 2 hour meeting anxiously awaiting getting on the road. Now, the meeting was terribly informative,
and I’m glad I went, but I’d rather be on the bike. After all, if I’m going to be awake at this
hour I might as well be doing something I enjoy.
Mile: 0 (22197)
Time: -0:04 (11:24 PDT)
Location: Carillon Point
Meeting’s over (well, not
really, I just got up and left it). I
get my witness signature for the start of the ride (thanks Donna!!). Now I just need to get a time stamped/dated
receipt and I’m on the way.
Mile: 0 (22197)
Time: 0:00 (11:28 PDT)
Location: Carillon Point
It’s official. My clock has started ticking.
Mile: 1 (22198)
Time: 0:03 (11:31 PDT)
Location:
So not only do I get an ATM
receipt, I get a fuel receipt as well.
Can’t be too careful with this whole documentation thing. This will set me back a few minutes, but what
the hell, I don’t want to have to repeat the ride.
Mile: 7 (22204)
Time:
Location: I-90 Eastbound
Single vehicle rollover
accident in the center lane. The good
news? Two-fold: 1) it’s not me, and 2) it’s in the Westbound
lanes. But here’s my problem (and it’s
been a problem for awhile now), how in the world do you have a single vehicle
rollover accident, that stays on the freeway, during somewhat busy traffic
hours? I mean, if I’m going to flip my
vehicle, physically get the sucker to roll, and stay on the freeway to boot,
I’m certainly going to hit at least one other vehicle. I just don’t understand how you roll over and
not touch another vehicle on the road.
But it happens darn near daily on some road during Seattle rush hour
traffic. Where does one learn these
driving skills?
Mile: 57 (22254)
Time: 1:00 (12:28 PDT)
Location: I-90 Eastbound
I hit the one hour mark. My average speed is not so good. I was kind of hoping it would be in the mid
to high 60’s. I’ve been speeding mildly
at this point (along with everyone else, not that it makes it right) and would
have hoped for something better. If this
keeps up it’s going to be a LOOOOONG ride.
Mile: 129 (22326)
Time: 2:00 (13:28 PDT)
Location: I-90 Eastbound
2 hours in. Averaging 64.5 MPH. Nice little jump from earlier. But doing 80+ MPH I’d expect more.
Mile: 183 (22380)
Time:
Location: A freeway
Fire!! A brush fire!! But it seems as though the local authorities
are responding quite nicely. But it
seems a little odd. A fire in the
median, not too large, maybe 40’ long and the full width, and nothing else
burning. Perhaps a cigarette butt out
the window? Perhaps a kid trying to fry
an ant with a magnifying glass? Perhaps
the work of aliens (albeit pyros)?
Mile: 203 (22400)
Time: 3:00 (14:28 PDT)
Location: A freeway
3 hours in. This is kind of boring. Not only that, but at 68 MPH how am I ever
going to get there on any sort of reasonable timeframe? Yeah, so this is the last time I toss in the
random 1 hour time update. It seems kind
of tedious to have to write all this down and then explain it. Same goes for stopping. I stopped a lot the first day. Pretty much every 50-55 minutes for the first
6 hours. I couldn’t find any place to
put my water bottle and it’s really hot.
I need to stop and rehydrate all the time. ALLLL the time. I’m really parched. And if I don’t drink as often as I can (and
drink all the water I brought) I know fatigue will set in that much sooner.
Mile: 236 (22433)
Time:
Location: Washington/Oregon border.
I think the mentioned location says it all.
And I was there. I saw it
myself. No need for anyone to point it
out. Perhaps this is a new trend for
me? See the road signs right in front of
me?
Mile: 353 (22550)
Time:
Location: 45th parallel
Again, the location says it
all. I’ve noticed that I’m not stopping
to take many pictures. In fact, at this
point, I haven’t taken any. It’s weird
how much you pass up when you’ve done it before and you’re on a very short time
schedule.
Mile: 441 (22638)
Time:
Location: Oregon/Idaho border
Again with the location. Perhaps I should have been using this all
these years….
Mile: 602 (22799)
Time:
Location: Stinky
And MAN do I mean
stinky!!! This place reeks!! So I pass a dairy farm. 500+ head of cattle. They’re all bound to poop one these day. And that makes for some large piles of poop. But lucky for us there’s “Magic Compost”
right next door. So not only do you get
the effect of smelling all the cows, you now get to smell a company selling the
cow shit. And if that weren’t enough,
Idaho must be the home for wayward skunks.
So I’m cruising along, minding my own business, when I see some road
kill. Not an uncommon sight. But it’s a skunk. And it stinks. So really I’m just saying that Idaho in
general stinks. And not just during this
mile. It’s persistent over 100s of
miles.
Mile: 622 (22819)
Time:
Location:
So I’m beginning to
understand why they call this ride “Saddle Sore 1000”. I would indeed have to say that my saddle is
sore. Nothing a good butt massage
couldn’t cure, but sore nonetheless. And
speaking of massage, have I mentioned what a huge fan I am of massage
therapy? So I went into Gene Juarez
yesterday for a full body rubdown in preparation for this trip. After all, living the life of the retired is
hard work and we need a way to relieve all that stress. And boy did Reilly do the job. Absolutely spectacular. And the Eucalyptus steam shower
afterwards? Let’s just say I now understand
why people need 17 shower heads in their shower.
Mile: 719 (22916)
Time: 10:48 (22:46) MDT
Location:
My first way point. It’s here that I need a receipt to prove I
didn’t take shortcut and bypass I-86. I
didn’t cheat, so I go the receipt. It’s
right around this time that I wonder how in the heck people really travel 1000
miles in one day. It seems really,
really tough…..
Mile: 793 (22990)
Time:
Location: Idaho/Utah border
Yea!! Utah!!
The beehive state. My
favorite. Thank goodness it’s dark out
and there shouldn’t be lots of bees out right now.
Mile: 874 (23071)
Time: 12:32 (01:00 +1 MDT)
Location:
So it’s midnight (my time)
and my first day of riding is unofficially done. I know it’s not part of the 24 hour rule to
consider the day done but it sure does feel like a good time to mentally
separate it out. So I’m going to leave
you hanging. There’s my first
installment.
No, not really. I make it the full 1000 miles before stopping
for the night. But to find out what time
I made it to bed you’ll have to read Friday’s episode.
As a side note, the bike has changed a little bit this year. I finally added a sound
system. I’ve been looking around for
one for awhile. And I’ve been talking
about one for even longer. But I finally
did it. I decided to go with XM
radio. So far my feelings are mixed. I either love it or I hate it. I love the fact that as I travel the stations
follow me. I love having 160+ stations. I love the fact they rarely play
commercials. I hate the fact they play
commercials at all (but they lump them together and only do it every 2 hours or
so). And since the sun set I hate them a
lot. I’m not sure why (probably pure
coincidence) but ever since it got dark I’m only getting reception about 1% of
the time. It’s gotten so spotty that I
turned the damn thing off. Not exactly
what I was expecting for $10/month. I’ll
keep you updated though on how it goes.
Mile: 874 (23071)
Time:
Location:
Have you ever seen SLC at night? It’s
absolutely beautiful! I capture the
moment to share with everyone. It’s
similar to Chicago at night but personally I think it’s more glorious. I can understand why Brigham Young stopped
here. I mean, with this view, who would
want to go further? The stars are stunning as well. You sometimes forget how dazzling they can be
when you live near the city. Only when
you get out into the open country where there are no lights can you fully
appreciate what the skies have to offer.
Mile: 882 (23079)
Time:
Location:
Only 388 miles to Las
Vegas!! I’m feeling pretty good at this
point. My butt went totally numb about
20 miles ago. I’m thinking it actually
fell asleep. This is not good. I know that if my butt sleeps during the day
it’s going to be up all night. But at
least I’m not really sore anymore. And
I’m wide awake. A little chilly, but
wide awake. I’m thinking I could
actually ride straight through to Vegas, stop and play some craps, and still
make it to Denver tomorrow sometime.
I’ll give it some thought over the next 100+ miles and see if a decision
comes to me.
Mile: 910 (23107)
Time: 13:00 (01:28 +1 MDT)
Location: Utah, some gas station
So I’m really close to my
goal (and I still have 11 hours left to complete the last 90 miles if I need
it). At this point I really need to
figure out what I’m going to do. It’s
pretty late here. All the Mormon girls
have gone to bed for the night. The
roads are empty. The gas stations might
be closing for all I know. For that
matter, hotels might be too. I’m
supposed to make it to Cove Fort tonight but I don’t know if that’s really
necessary. I decide that maybe if I eat
dinner it might help me think a little clearer.
I actually stop for almost 20 minutes at the gas station. This is the longest stop I’ve taken since I
started and it feels pretty good to stand up!
Mile: 952 (23149)
Time: 14:00 (02:28 +1 MDT)
Location: Again,
14 hours in and 48 miles to
go. Back around mile 300 I wasn’t sure
how anyone could do this in one day.
Putzing along through Washington at 75 MPH this trip felt like it could be
1000 miles long. And then I realized it
is. Even when I hit 500 I had my doubts
as to whether or not I’d get through this.
But around 700 miles it all just kind of blended together. I think a lot of it had to do with it getting
dark. Once I couldn’t see the wide open
road in front of me my pace changed. I
was still going as fast but it actually seemed like I was making progress. Not looking at the same flat barren landscape
will help like that. Of course, riding
in the middle of the night is a little interesting. I fully realize just how many bugs I’ve come
across. The headlight isn’t working so
well. I can’t see through the
windshield. My face shield is a little
spotty. Stop me if this gets a little
gross. My glasses have dead bugs on
them…..
Mile: 1000 (23197)
Time: 14:24 (02:52 +1 MDT)
Location: Utah still
I did it. 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. And my saddle’s sore. But I did it.
Unfortunately there’s no one around to share in my joy. No cars.
No trucks. No people. And it really doesn’t count until I stop, get
a computer printed receipt, and get a witness to confirm that I really did make
it this far.
Mile: 1021 (23218)
Time: 14:41 (03:09 +1 MDT)
Location:
Thank you Alyssa!!! I have my documentation!!!
Mile: 1022 (23219)
Time: 14:56 (03:24 +1 MDT)
Location: Fillmore, Utah (you didn’t think I’d get out
of the city in 1 mile did you?)
It’s time to stop for the
night. I debate going further but
there’s a motel here and I don’t want to get stuck riding another several
hundred miles looking for a place to sleep.
I’m not tired but I’m done. So
what do I do? That’s right my Barney
loving friends, I head to the Best Western.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, I’m not tired. And my RLS
is killing me. I get to sleep a little
before 5 am.
<<4 hours later>>
Not quite sure what happened
to my alarm clock but the maid knocking on the door is able to wake me. Up and at ‘em, I have at least another 500
miles to go today.
Mile: 1022 (23219)
Time: 20:56 (09:28 +1 MDT)
Location: Still in Fillmore
Time to head out. And boy is this place really nice. No the Best Western. And not the town. But Southern Utah. I forgot how gorgeous the scenery really
is. For those of you who haven’t seen
it, visit last year’s pictures of Bryce National Park. That’s pretty much what I’m seeing now (and
will for the next couple hundred miles).
Mile: 1026 (23223)
Time: 21:00 (09:28 +1 MDT)
Location: On the freeway
By the by, as I head South on
I-15, I pass the exit for Cove Fort (my original destination for last
night). UT 161 goes through it. There’s one gas station. Nothing else.
I turn on to I-70 East towards Colorado 1 mile later. The first exit is for Cove Fort. That means that UT 161 is about 1.5 miles
long. Not much there. The next hotel is about 75 miles down the
road. So that would have been an extra
110 miles of riding last night had I pressed on.
Mile: 1065 (23262)
Time:
Location: Freeway still
So I’m heading East on I-70
(having made the last turn of my trip from I-15 South). And I’m passing this car (a dark blue
Intrepid) and something feels a little weird.
I can’t quite place it but it just seems a little odd. The bike’s fine. I’m fine.
The road’s fine. Oh, now I know,
I’m barely creeping by this car. In the
last 1000 miles I haven’t been passed.
And for the last 35 I’ve been climbing through some foothills so I’ve
been passing everyone else by at least a 25 MPH margin. But this guy isn’t going by very fast. It’s kind of surreal to have someone almost
keep up with me. It’s kind of scary that
I don’t feel like I’m going all that fast (I’m doing 97 MPH). But I keep going and lose the Intrepid in the
turns (he got stuck behind slow traffic and big trucks).
Well sure enough, here I am 6 miles later and the Intrepid is sneaking by
me. I think this is a good
opportunity. I think I’ll follow
him. I’m not sure how many of you take
trips where you have the opportunity to follow someone but it is soooo much
easier. It takes all the concentration
out of driving. You follow a relatively
fixed object at a fixed distance. You
don’t have to pay attention how fast you’re going (between 100 and 105 now). You don’t have to decide when to switch
lanes. You kind of go into a zone. All you do is stay behind the vehicle in
front of you. It’s faster than I’m
comfortable going (legally, not personally), but again, I’m banking on the fact
that a police officer would pull over the Intrepid and not me (at least this is
how I rationalize it). So I stick to
him. I’m about 9 seconds back. Pretty safe following distance at this
speed. And he’s holding pretty steady. Most cars would differ by +/- 10 MPH, but
he’s sticking to +/- 3!! I like this.
Mile: 114 (23311)
Time: 22:00 (10:28 +1 MDT)
Location: Behind the Intrepid
Mile: 1204 (23401)
Time: 23:00 (11:28 +1 MDT)
Location: Still behind the Intrepid
Mile: 1214 (23411)
Time: 23:08 (11:36 +1 MDT)
Location: At a gas station…..along with the Intrepid
Mile: 1280 (23477)
Time: 24:00 (12:28 +1 MDT)
Location: Again, behind the Intrepid
Not only am I behind the
Intrepid, but I think I’ve got a new goal.
I know I haven’t finished this one (1500 miles in 36 hours) but now I’m
thinking that I could do the 1500 miles in 24 hours. After all, I’ve taken some fairly lengthy
stops throughout this first 24 hours and I’m only 220 miles short. Had I started earlier in the morning (like
when I got up instead of going to some darn meeting) I could actually do
this. Of course, with my bladder, I’d
need a sneak-a-leak. You’re familiar
with this device right? I discovered it
in Mardi Gras. It’s a slightly modified
condom with a rubber hose attached to the tip.
You feed the hose down the inside of your pant leg, make sure it’s not
in your shoe, and roll it on. Zip up and
you’re problem free for the rest of the day.
Need to pee? Just go!! Perfect for all kinds of situations. A day at Seahawks Stadium, don’t want to miss
any action to wait in line at the restroom, try a sneak-a-leak. Got a 1500 mile ride, try a
sneak-a-leak. Going to Mardi Gras and
don’t want to get arrested for being seen peeing in the street, try a
sneak-a-leak (no word from our sponsors if they offer a female version). But did I mention I’m still behind the
Intrepid?
Mile: 1284 (23481)
Time:
Location: Colorado/Utah state line (behind the
Intrepid)
Mile: 1296 (23493)
Time:
Location: I-70 East
Country Jam USA!!! Some festival here in
the middle of nowhere. There are RVs,
trucks, campers, everything, lining the shoulder in line for the exit. Apparently it’s this weekend. And I’m missing it. Darn.
If only I had prepared for this trip a little better I would have had
time to stop and two-step to my favorite country beats. After all, I’m wearing the boots and the
chaps. Pick up some spurs, a hat, and a
shiny new belt buckle bigger than my head and I’m ready!!
Mile: 1339 (23536)
Time:
Location: I-70 East
“Road Construction next 122
miles”….not a sign I had wanted to see this trip. Well, come to find out, they’re not
serious. What they mean here in the
state of Colorado is that sometime in the past, present, or future, and
somewhere in the next 122 miles, they might be thinking about doing, actually
doing, or have completed doing some construction. Apparently they’re not real good
planners. So they like to cover their
butts (I have since seen a sign stating there would be road construction from
August 2000 through August 2004 on a particular stretch of road).
Mile: 1365 (23562)
Time: 25:00 (13:28 +1 MDT)
Location: I-70 East
We get passed!! We being me and the Intrepid. We’re kind of a group now. I’ve bonded.
I’ve associated with him. I don’t
know if he knows I exist but he’s my entire world right now. And we get passed. Some crazy dude (everyone on the road going
faster than you is crazy, everyone going slower is an idiot, doesn’t matter
what your speed is) flies right by us (we’re doing 105 MPH). Now that’s impressive. This is the first legitimate pass that’s
happened since I left sunny Kirkland.
And 2 miles later I can still
see the guy. He slams on his brakes,
jerks over to the right lane behind some van, and stays there. We pass him (he’s doing about 75 MPH, which
is the posted speed limit, which I am currently exceeding). As we pass, I look over at the boy. He’s from California, he’s about 45, I’m
guessing he’s divorced (statistically I can’t go wrong with guessing that about
someone from California, the odds are in my favor), and he has a radar detector
sitting on his dash.
Sure enough, 2 more miles
down the road he comes flying by one more time.
Mile: 1388 (23585)
Time:
Location: Same damn freeway
He he he he he…..we’re all
braking pretty hard. It seems there’s a
cop coming from the other direction, with his lights on, and he’s swerving
through the median to change into our direction. He bangs a U-turn and takes off after
something…..ah, now I can see, it’s after someone. You guessed it. California dude being pulled over. Seems as though his radar detector was
outsmarted by the cops. Better him than
us. Had he not come by it might be me or
the Intrepid being pulled over. But let
me just interject that that’s not terribly likely. Yeah, we’re doing 30 over the limit, but
everyone else is doing 20 over. So
comparatively it would be hard to judge just how much we were speeding. Out on the flat land it doesn’t seem that
fast. And we’re not being reckless by
zipping by other cars. It would be much
like you passing someone at 70 who was doing 60. And for the sake of simplicity we’ll leave
out the whole kinetic energy thing and the square of velocity proportionals.
Mile: 1422 (23619)
Time: 25:46 (14:14 +1 MDT)
Location:
Bye bye Intrepid. It seems as though he has a bigger gas
tank. I must exit. It’s been a great 357 miles. It’s kind of like when Wilson floated away in
Cast Away. The Intrepid man was my
friend. Sure I made up a name (not
Nelson, not Willie, not Sade, perhaps Colby) for him. And I never actually talked to him (and he certainly
never talked back). But I feel like we
bonded. There was a moment there. Besides the fact that I don’t really remember
the last 4 hours. Today has been an
absolute breeze. No fatigue, no
drowsiness, no worries about time and distance.
Just me and the Intrepid. So I
decide to calculate this out. Yesterday
I averaged 68 MPH throughout the day (this includes stops and all). Since the Intrepid came into my life I’ve
averaged a hair under 85 MPH. That’s
huge. He’s saved me almost exactly 1 hour
(do the math, seriously, the speed difference over 4 hours comes out to a 68
mile difference in distance which at yesterday’s speed would be an hour). Come on, I’ve spared you the math problems
for the last 25 hours. Do you know how
many trains I’ve passed and bugs I’ve hit and how much more lethal I am
traveling at 95 MPH? I think I’ve been
very generous with not doling out the story problems that are left up to the
student to answer. Out of curiosity, if
it takes me 118’ to go from 60-0, can anyone tell me how far it would take for
me to go from 100-0? Feel free to use a
constant rate of acceleration.
So getting back to what I’m
doing at this stop, I’m going to a gas station.
As I pull in there’s also another bike pulling in. A beautiful RS1100 BMW. Great bike.
He pulls up to the pump……and tips over.
All I can do is laugh. Not at
him, not with him, just near him. And he
is laughing. I’m laughing because I’ve
almost done this twice already this trip pulling up to a gas pump. You pull up, you shut off the bike, you start
to get off, and you don’t have the side stand down because you know you’re
going to use the center stand, it starts to tip just a little bit, and over it
goes. So I pull my bike up to the pump,
get off (without tipping it) and go over to help him right it. He’s done 3500 miles on his current
trip. Worry free until the last
300. This is the second time he’s tipped
it. This time to the other side. It happens.
Often with big bikes. It happens.
Mile: 1432 (23629)
Time: 26:00 (14:28 +1 MDT)
Location: Colorado, 68 miles short of my goal
Mile: 1458 (23655)
Time: 26:23 (14:51 +1 MDT)
Location: Vail,
I stop to pick up Scott. Not literally,
just to meet up with him. Scott’s a college
buddy who I’m staying with for the week.
He’s got a fabulous 1999 Honda CBR600F4.
You’ll see it later. I’m going to
follow him back to his place (eventually) so I don’t get lost. He really just came out for the ride, and
with these roads climbing through the Rocky Mountains I can see why. So after 21 minutes (which is significant if
you understand the IBA rules) we’re off to complete the last 42 miles.
Mile: 1478 (23675)
Time: 27:00 (15:28 +1 MDT)
Location: I-70 East
Mile: 1500 (23697)
Time: 27:19 (15:47 +1 MDT)
Location: I-70 East,
This mile ends up being
fairly significant. I’m at 11,158 feet
above sea level. It’s the highest I’ve
been on the bike. And it’s a little
chilly. I wasn’t sure why Scott was
wearing his full leather jacket when we left Vail, it being really hot out and
all. But now I understand. We’re another 3000’+ higher and it’s a little
chilly. As indicated by all the snow on
the ground. So I’m the highest I’ve ever
been, at the peak of the Rockies (on this particular road), I’ve just completed
my 1500 miles (with 8.5 hours to spare), but the really cool thing is I’m in
the Eisenhower Tunnel and
crossing the Continental Divide. All
these cool things happening all at once!
To make an already long story
not as long as it could be, the rest of the day was extremely relaxing. Rather than go straight to Scott’s house we
figure why not go for a motorcycle ride.
After all, we’re here, on the bikes, in the mountains, with all these
beautiful twisty roads, I’m feeling fine, so we might as well. So to recap the remainder of the day: We stop at a gas station to get my receipt,
we go to Vic’s Gold Panning to buy a bag of dirt for Scott’s Mom’s Birthday
(yes, he’s really giving her dirt, maybe it has gold in it), we see The Moving Wall (check this out
please, it’s the only serious part of my entire trip), have a great dinner,
ride some GREAT twisty mountain roads, visit Boulder
Falls, and end the day with 1583 miles on the bike.
So I logged 1513 miles on the
official portion of the trip. But as
I’ve been traveling I’ve been checking the accuracy of my
odometer/speedometer. My best guess
(based on speedometer check points) is that I’m a hair over 2% under. Meaning I’m going 2% faster than I think I am
and I’ve gone 2% farther than I think I have.
The speed I can deal with. The
mileage is the issue. Iron Butt could
care less what my odometer says. They
plug all my points into a mapping program and go with the actual mileage. I’ve done the work for you. Check out the actual Iron Butt journey (as close as MapQuest can get
it). What this tells me is that my
odometer is really 2.07% under. Not bad
estimating for a couple of 5 mile stretches of road.
Mile: 0
Enough with tracking all the
other data. It’s 8:30 in the morning and
I got an interesting night of sleep. Not
because I did anything wrong but because today is rally day. Today we get the Catholic School Girls!!
Mile: 10
And
here they are!! That would be Jeslyn
on the left and Amber on the right. I
think they go the outfits figured out quite well. And what do they wear under
those skirts? So off we go to check
in at the Poker Run and donate our money to such a wonderful benefit (okay, so
no one really knows what the benefit is, but we put $25 towards something).
Mile: 56
Here we are in wonderful
Timnath, Colorado at the Colorado Feed & Grain to register. Today’s event is sponsored and organized by
the UMF of America. Never being one to waste time with all these
fabulous people, the day starts out before the first drink ever goes down. It seems as though Amber has met a new friend (nudity). I figure if it’s only 10:30 in the morning this
day is going to be plenty of fun by the time 5pm rolls around. But no time for drinks, it’s time to head to
the next rally point and hopefully find some lunch.
Mile: 72
Dick’s Tavern in Ault,
Colorado. None of us have a map and we
don’t know where we’re going. We have to
ask directions each step of the way.
This place was the most difficult to find. We had to make 2 turns. Apparently it gets easier from here. I thought this stop would be relatively tame compared to the last one. But I was humbled. Something even more spectacular than two
girls kissing. I got to shake hands with
the Pope.
Mile: 76
Up Yonder in Pierce,
Colorado. No turns required to find this
bar. It’s 4 miles up a straight country
road. And Jesus
Christ what’s that? The fun
continues….
Mile: I don’t know.
I was very busy checking out Scott’s bike. I didn’t have time to look at the odometer.
Mile: 102
The Clown’s Den in Cheyenne,
Wyoming. Interesting that we made it all
the way to Wyoming for a Poker Run. At
first we didn’t really believe it. After
all, Cheyenne isn’t supposed to be for another 11 miles down the road. And none of us saw a “Welcome to Wyoming”
sign. We did however see a “Welcome to
Colorado” sign on the way back. We made
it all of 100 feet into the state of Wyoming.
The strip joint (for that’s what the Clown’s Den is) is right on the
border. Rather than show pictures from
inside (of which I have many, they let the girls get up and stage with the
dancers), I’ll show some outside shots. Of course, the Nuns inside were cuter than
the Nuns outside.
And not only was the people watching fun, the bike
watching was fun as well. It was no
Sturgis, but it was a great time.
Mile: 160
Interesting little side trip
on the way back. The Swetsville
Zoo. I’ll let the pictures speak for
themselves: bike,
ants, VW Bug,
Snoopy.
There were over 150 sculptures on somewhere around 2 acres. This guy did an amazing job. I took about 50 pictures but figured you
wouldn’t want to sift through them all.
The Zoo is not funded by any state or local agency, it’s purely this
guy’s property and the donations people provide.
Mile: 208
How many of you know how much
of a Granola town Boulder, Colorado is?
I didn’t. But I’m beginning to
realize. It’s a no smoking city. There’s tofu anything. Everyone’s in shape. Bike paths everywhere. They’re mostly vegetarians. They smoke ungodly amounts of pot. Girls don’t shave they’re legs or armpits (I
made this one up). And they don’t
hunt. So we’re at the Med for dinner,
the waiter tells us the specials, and I perk up at the duck. It sounds really, really good. Served sliced with a little side of
vermicelli pasta. Comes with focaccia
bread. I think I’m in. So Jeslyn asks what I’m going to have for
dinner and instead of using the common English language, I just quack. For some reason I thought this would be
amusing. Apparently not so. The girls just glare. Scott just smirks. I’m informed that I might offend someone by
making fun of the fact that the food I want to eat was once alive. God forbid we shoot something and eat it. So the waiter comes by, asks what I want, and
being the jackass that I am, I quack again.
He smiles, says great choice on the duck, and asks me how I want it
prepared. Not one to be shy in a
restaurant full of people, I want it medium rare. I want it to ooze blood on my plate when I
cut into it. The waiter must be a
transplant. He just smiles. And he OFFERS to bring me extra bread so I
can sop up the bloody mess on the plate.
I LOVE THIS GUY!! The girls
cower. They lower their heads. They start speaking in whispered tones. They’re afraid of getting shot. They seriously think that someone is going to
be so offended by this that they’d come up and cause us bodily harm because I
like medium rare meat! Being the
deductive reasonist I am I’m not afraid of getting shot by a community that
doesn’t hunt in the first place. So to
make it worse, Jeslyn orders filet mignon and Amber orders chicken pasta. Apparently you’re allowed to eat meat as long
as no one knows you’re doing it! Thank
God these granola hippie freaks haven’t given up drinking!! Another quick gripe if I may, the girls are
trying to get sympathy out of me because they’re “so sore” after putting in a
200 mile day on the bikes. Ha!!
A little more Boulder
history, there’s some weird weather patterns here. Throughout the spring and summer, it rains
almost every day for about 30 minutes between 4 and 6pm. You can count on it. You can plan your day around it. It’s anything from a couple sprinkles to a
flash flood. Clear skies all day (in
fact, not a single cloud in the sky until about 1pm, not one single cloud, in
any direction, I almost took a picture for you Seattle).
So drop off the girls, back
to the homestead, shower up, and sleep flawlessly for 9.25 hours.
Today’s Miles: 219
Total Miles: 1802
Race day boys and girls. But we take the Jeep. Time to give the bikes a much needed day
off. And we can wear shorts to
boot. If you haven’t been to a
motorcycle race, go. If you have, go
again. Pictures
can’t do it justice. There was one bike there that really stood out. Just beautiful. I’d say more or show more if I thought I
could put a better image in your head.
Is everyone getting as much
out of this vacation as I am?
So it seems as though
yesterday’s story might have been a little incomplete. Since we were in the Jeep all day I don’t
seem to recollect everything as well as if we were on the bikes. We did end up visiting some pretty cool
places. Rather than drink the night away
(which would have been okay mind you) we decided to see some of the local
sites. We visited NCAR, the pink building on the
hill. Which truly was a pink building on
the hill. Then we went by the NOAA.
For those of you with atomic clocks, you should recognize this
company. They transmit the signal. Since I’m a clock whore this stop was
particularly interesting to me. Then we
drove into the mountains up to Flagstaff point.
The drive itself was really neat.
Wonderful switchback roads all the way to the peak. Thankfully we were in the Jeep. It seems as though all the animals know this
is a safe place to hang out. So there
were plenty of deer and fox to be seen throughout the drive. Of course, hitting a deer on a bike pretty
much sucks so the Jeep was very handy.
The view from Flagstaff point was
spectacular. You could see all of
Boulder and even into downtown Denver.
Quite the sight. Not only that,
there’s an amphitheater built into a portion of the mountain. It’s not huge, seats about 250, but how cool
is it to have a place on the peak where you can have plays and bands and such.
Mile: 0
So not so much of an early start
today. We don’t take off until about
11:30. But you have to love a place
where not only do you not need a jacket starting around 10am, but you don’t
need the choke on the bike either.
However, you all know this means that the bike is normally carbureted. I’ll come back to the problems of that. But it’s a glorious morning and a lovely day
for a ride.
Mile: 10
Seems a little early for a
first stop, but lunchtime it is. We eat
at this fabulous little sandwich shop in Boulder. They make a prime rib sandwich that is out of
this world. Freshly sliced off a roast
as you order it. Wonderful spices. Wonderful flavor. They have horseradish mayonnaise. This place rocks.
Mile: 44
Now, there seems to have been
some odd things about the state of Colorado.
Some little idiosyncrasies that every state has. But this one catches me a little more off
guard than usual: “For wildlife viewing,
tune radio to 530 AM”. Now I can’t
figure out if this is a service for the blind (in which case why is there a
road sign, they couldn’t read, much less should they be driving) or what. Not having a radio on the bike I can’t tune
it to figure it out. Perhaps it’s some
Walter Cronkite imitator explaining what the wildlife would look like if I were
able to see any. I don’t know. A little odd to say the least.
Mile: 66
We’re almost at the peak of Rocky Mountain National Park. This place is cool. I mean, it’s a little cold. Sure it’s neat and all but it’s very similar
to most other National Parks in the mountains.
Very reminiscent of Crater Lake National Park and Mount Rainier National
Park. Of which, Mount Rainier is a scant
925 in a northwesterly direction from where I’m standing. I try to see it but I can’t. Maybe it’s because I need new glasses, I’m
not sure. So we jump off the bikes and
hike to the top of a peak to check out what we can
see. There’s a cool marker at the top (if you choose to climb up the
rocks) that tells you all the local peaks, their distance, and their
elevation. There are 53 peaks in
Colorado that exceed 14,000 feet and you can see quite a few of them from
here. A little different hiking at
altitude. Where somewhere between 11,000
and 12,000 feet and the air is definitely a little thinner. And a whole lot drier. But we stop and enjoy the scenery for a
little while. This would be Scott in case you haven’t seen any pictures of him
yet. And since we’re up here, it’s time to
play with the camera a little. It has
this fabulous feature that allows me to pan around and take a series of
pictures and then it will merge them into one long panoramic view. So why the heck not try it? For those of you with high speed access, here’s
the high res image (2.8Mb) of the peak. For those of you with a slightly shorter
attention span, here’s a medium res image (1.0Mb) of the peak. For
those of you who can’t wait that long to download it, here’s a low res image
(400kb) of the peak.
Mile: 71
So I’m not quite sure the
exact altitude we top out at since there’s no road marker on the crest of the
next hill, I’m guessing it’s about 12, 065.
Which is the highest I’ve ever been on the bike. I feel fairly confident in this guess since
as we start to descend there is a road sign that puts us at 12,020. So back to the carburetor. My carb is tuned for sea level (being that I
live at sea level), not for 2+ miles above the ocean. The air’s a little thinner up here so the
mixture’s running a little rich. What
this all comes down to is a little less horsepower. Like a person has trouble breathing at this
altitude under exertion, so does a motorcycle.
So the benefits of electronic fuel injection would be oh so handy right
now.
Mile: 92
Grand Lake, Colorado. Cool stuff
here. A big lake. A little resort town. Pretty much a tourist trap. And apparently real estate is quite
pricey. As we walk around town we stop
at a couple of the real estate agencies and check out the ads in the
windows. Absolutely ridiculous. More expensive than living in Medina on Lake
Washington. And it’s not as pretty. But being that there’s only so much
waterfront apparently it’s the going rate.
So in town was just all right, it was leaving town that cracked us
up. I mean where else can you get warm beer?
So that pretty much brings us
to the next 100 miles. Spectacular
mountain roads. Nice 70 MPH sweeping
twisties mixed in with 40 MPH tight turns.
It’s fun to find the limits of you’re motorcycle. And these roads helped out nicely. Although I’m not sure what touches down after
my feet. Fabulous little factoid about
the ST, the first thing to touch down in the corners are the outsides of your
feet. Wonderful little feelers if you
ask me. But I’m not sure what touches
down next. I tried to find out but it
just didn’t happen.
Today’s miles: 205
Total miles: 2007
Mile: 0
Perhaps today might be a
long t-shirt day. Yesterday I was of the
opinion that I had enough of a tan to be done with sunscreen for the
summer. For the most part I was right. But perhaps I could have used just a little. I didn’t burn, and I’m not even really any
shade of red/pink/chartreuse, but I did get quite a lot of sun. So today might just be a day to cover my
arms. And it’s already warm. A plus yesterday. Perhaps a liability today. I think it might get a wee bit toasty. But at 11:24am I can’t really complain. It’s not like it’s 9am and 90 degrees out.
Mile: 10
I like this whole starting
the day with lunch plan. No need to set
an alarm and get up at 8am to get things rolling. You get up when you get up, you have plenty
of time to sit on the shitter and contemplate life, and you can relax and roll
into the day at your own pace. Perhaps
figure out where you want to go and then sit down and think about going there
until the mood hits. Yesterday it was
Salvaggio’s, today it’s Illegal Pete’s.
Fine, fine burritos. Kicks butt
over Taco del Mar (not that that’s all that tough). Blows away Casa D’s. Ooba’s can’t hold a candle to it. The only place that even comes close (and is
a really close second) is probably Gorditos on Greenwood and 85th. Not only that but today is Dos Equis Tuesday
and they have $2 bottles. God bless
Boulder.
Mile: 42
Here we are at Sun Harley
and Sun Honda. Right next door to each
other. And how appropriate that we’re in
the sun at Sun. So I pick up something
for Nelson while I’m there because I can.
A nice blue accessory that will keep him warm on those cold winter
nights.
As we depart Sun I figure
I’ll try and find a bank reader board to check the temperature. A nice pleasant 91 degrees. Okay, I’m a liar. It’s freakin’ hot out. Really hot.
I love Henry Ford for his philosophy on cars: You can have any color as long as it’s
black. And I subscribe to this
philosophy when it comes to motorcycles.
But there is a mild disadvantage when you’re in sunny weather. Everything gets hot. Everything.
My butt melts when I sit on the seat.
My legs melt when they tuck into the bodywork. My head melts when I put on my helmet. My face melts when I put on my sunglasses. My hands melt when I grab the grips. God I love this. I wouldn’t trade this for anything. Such a glorious sunny day and I get to spend
it tooling around the countryside while you poor saps sit there and read this
at work. Mild suggestion: retire.
It’s fabulous.
So today’s agenda is to
head for Pike’s Peak, do the hill climb, tool around Garden of the Gods, hit
Colorado Springs, then zip down to Royal Gorge, and finally hit the local
Prison Museum outside of Canon City. Quite
the fun day planned.
Mile: 92
Well, plans do have a
tendency of changing. It’s hot. We’ve gone 50 miles. Our butts are sweaty (no, I didn’t personally
check Scott’s and he didn’t offer to check mine). We need a drink. So off to freeway to the local rest stop it
is. Fill up on nice cold water. Drain the bladder. Check the map to see where we’re going. And hey, while I’m here, let’s do a little
safety check. It never hurts to check
out the status of your bike while you’re on the road. Make sure you have plenty of brake pad left. Check the oil and coolant levels. Maybe look at the brake and clutch
fluid. Check the tires. Bulbs (headlights, turn signals, stop
signals). No loose bolts.
And this does not bode
well. Sure, the third taillight doesn’t
work. It’s the accessory I installed in
the trunk. Not a big deal. It shouldn’t be tough to figure out. It’s not required by law. It doesn’t affect the performance of the
bike. It just upsets me that it isn’t
working. But then, this is really a
minor worry compared to what else I find.
Now, I performed a full safety check on the bike 2 weeks before I left,
1 week before I left, the night before I left, and the morning I left. Everything was great. But not so now. The rear tire is having some minor
issues. Okay, maybe some major
issues. I seem to have lost all my tread
on the center section. Not only that
but, just off center, the tire is actually starting to peel. This really isn’t good. Scott checks out my tire and hole heartedly
agrees; it needs to be replaced. And since
we’re here Scott figures he’ll check his own bike as well. Again, not so good. His front tire is shot. Now this may seem like negligence but it
really came out of nowhere. When I left
I had at least 4k, probably 6k miles left on the rear tire. I’ve only gone 2k and now it’s shot. Scott checked his tire Saturday, Sunday, and
again on Monday morning. I checked his
tires on Sunday (since we were going to the motorcycle races and this is where
he picks up spare tires) and they looked great.
Shouldn’t be any problem.
Apparently Monday wasn’t so good a day on tires. So instead of moving on towards our
destination we decide it’s a great time to turn around and limp home. And of course I’d love to check the
temperature again being that it feels pretty darned hot out; 96 degrees. In rush hour traffic. Sitting at a stand still on I-25 in downtown
Denver. Damn tires.
Mile: 160
We hated to have to turn
around. It sucked. But it was totally the right decision. It’s not like we can’t get new tires and do
the trip tomorrow. We’re not missing
anything. There’s no deadline and no
agenda for us. So heading home was the
right and safe thing to do. But the
bikes look so sad. Scott’s looks mildly nekkid while mine just looks pathetic. So here are the tires. Perhaps you know what you’re looking at,
perhaps you don’t. If you do, we don’t
need a lecture on checking these types of things more often. We know they’re bad. Enough said.
What this does give us a
chance to do is jump in the Jeep and head out to the local Microbrew Pubs. Of course, on the way, it does seem like picture opportunity.
Out here there’s never a shortage of great
scenery to capture. So we did head
to some pubs and, unlike our earlier adventure in the day, this time we were
successful. We made it there, we partook
in the festivities (and the festive libations), and made it home safe and
sound. So tomorrow’s another day. We’ll get the new tires mounted, reassemble
the bikes, and try this whole trip over again.
One day delay, no big deal.
Today’s Miles: 160
Total Miles: 2167
I’m still reveling in last
night’s dinner. We went to
Fazoli’s. Yum. Is it wrong that around mile 1200 on Friday I
started thinking about Fazoli’s and haven’t gotten it out of my mind
since? It’s a little weird, when I
arrived Scott asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to do while I
was in town, Fazoli’s was my only requirement.
And he fully understood. The
lucky bastard has one about 2 miles from his work. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Fazoli’s
(or even heard of it) but it’s fast food Italian. Their pizza sucks (no big surprise there) but
everything else is really tasty. You’d
think it would be Olive Garden quality but it’s sooo much better. And their breadsticks? Out of this world. They have no equal. I’ve eaten a lot of breadsticks in my
day. From coast to coast actually. And nothing can compare. And they’re all you can eat. Back in Kentucky there was a Fazoli’s on
campus that we frequented (never mind the girl’s Volleyball team hung out
there). It was perfect. Bring your books. Order a plate of spaghetti (all you can eat,
as is everything in that obese state).
And you could stay all day.
Sometimes even eat two meals there.
And the staff didn’t mind at all.
Did I mention the breadsticks? I
was a little worried as we were driving there last night. What if it wasn’t as good as I
remembered? It has been a couple of
years. But there was to be no
disappointment. It lived up to my every
dream. And the breadsticks? Yum…..
Mile: 0
Fresh rubber up front for Scott. Fresh rubber out back for me. Time to scrub them in and head out. While I was at the motorcycle store I
invested in a tinted face shield as well.
I’m a convert. I wasn’t sure I
ever wanted one but now that I’ve tried it I love it. Not sure how much good it will do in Seattle
but it’s lovely to have out here.
Mile: 6
National Wind Research
Facility. Pretty cool. There’s a couple of buildings and a field
with about a dozen different designs of wind turbines. From both philosophies of power generation
(both upwind and downwind hubs). Check
out the January 2003 edition of Mechanical
Engineering magazine for more on this.
They had a great article that really went in depth explaining the
characteristics and trade offs of wind turbine design. Not only that but one of the leading
companies in wind power generation is based in Kirkland, WA.
Mile: 72
Uh oh, back to the scene of
the crime. The same rest stop on I-25
South where we turned around yesterday.
We figured we might as well stop here and check out the bikes. Not only that but we know they have cold
water here. The bikes check out fine,
the tires are breaking in nicely, the water is truly cold, and we are truly
hot. It’s a nice pleasant 104F
today. And none of that dry heat. We’re sweating. At least, we are now that we’re
hydrated. You know you need more water
when you stop sweating (as Scott did yesterday).
Mile: 103
Uh oh, not the scene of the
crime but truly a crime scene. And we’re
here to witness it. I’m not sure how old
the crime scene is (there’s no yellow tape) but the body
outline is still visible. Why they
painted the whole body in I don’t know.
But we’re here at the Garden of the Gods in lovely
Somewhere, Colorado (we’re right outside of Colorado Springs). And since I’m here it seemed like the right
time for a kartwheel. I don’t think I
did one at all on last year’s trip but somehow it just seemed appropriate. Pretty cool place, neat history. Apparently some dude bought the land quite
some time ago. He opened it up to the
public so they could come and check it out.
Before he died he sold it to the city for $1 under the stipulation that
it always remain a free park open to the public. And so far that’s worked out. A couple of neat things to see here that were
capturable, notably the balancing rock and the kissing camels.
It wasn’t real possible to get pictures of much else since the scenery
is so vast and so close. I couldn’t
really fit anything meaningful into one frame that would give you an idea of
what this place really looks like. So
get off your butt and go visit it for yourself.
Oh that’s right. Most of you are
at work reading this while I’m out here on vacation (is it really vacation if
you’re retired?). Well, here’s what
people that aren’t working are driving to come to
Garden of the Gods. That’s a sweet ride.
Mile: 129
Pike’s Peak. Not much going on with this site. It’s big mountain. There’s road that goes up it. It’s the site of the annual Pike’s Peak Hill
Climb (which happened to be last Saturday).
The road is paved for a while.
Then it’s not. It’s estimated to
take 2 hours round trip to get to the top and back. Street motorcycles are not recommended. The mountain looks like any other in the
Northwest. It’s covered in Evergreen
trees. So we decide not to ride up
it. There is however a train that will
take you to the top. So we go check it
out. It’s 4pm. As we pull into the parking lot the announcer
informs us that there are only 2 tickets left for the 5:20 train to the
top. Lovely. So we run up to the ticket window and as
Scott’s standing in line I notice that the train doesn’t come back until
8:30pm. That’s too long. So given all the above glory and praise for
this peak we decide to skip it. There
was one redeeming point to coming here.
It’s not often you get to see Santa’s Workshop.
Mile: 182
Well, it’s almost 6pm and it
seems to be cooling down a little. Yup,
sure enough, the thermometer is reading a cool, crisp 101F. Not sure what the high was today but it did
seem to get a little toasty. And did I
mention how great my farmer’s tan is working out? I have yet to get to the point where I’ll
subject the fine people of Colorado to seeing me topless on the motorcycle.
Mile: 193
Royal
Gorge. It’s a gorge. Apparently it’s royal. And at $19 a head entry fee it better
be. We decide to skip the actual
entering of the park. There’s a bridge
you can walk on. There’s a store you can
shop at. There’s a restaurant you can
eat and drink at. I’ve been on a
bridge. I’ve seen a gorge (the Columbia
River and the Grand Canyon). I’ve
shopped. And I’ve eaten. So for $19 we’re not really sure what the
attraction is to us. So we turn around
and head off (the windy road to the Gorge was well worth the trip though). Did I mention how much shade bugs suck? It’s that time of night where they all come
out. Thousands of them. And they’re hanging out by us, on us, and
trying to get in us. They like to fly
into mouths, ears, and noses. So not
much talking between Scott and I until we get out of here.
Mile: 238
Holy crap. Some of the most amazing country roads I’ve
ever been on. Nice windy twisty roads
that lead through the middle of nowhere while we’re on our way to somewhere. Rather than take the state highways back to
where we’re going we decide to take a road on the map that appears to get us
where we want to be. It’s not marked
with a highway number so we kind of have to guess which road it really is. The map legend tells us it’s a local road
that’s usually paved. And man was it
awesome. We’re doing 80 in a 35 MPH zone
but the road was totally built for it.
The cars are all doing 70+. And
it’s beautiful country (if you choose to take your eyes off the road). The only concern I have is all the signs
stating “Livestock on Road”. I know that
if there’s a fight between me and a cow the cow’s going to win. Of course, come to find out, that shouldn’t
have been my main concern. It’s when we
reached the sign “End County Maintenance” that it got interesting. All of a sudden there’s a stretch of road that’s
missing. For no apparent reason (no
water runoff damage, no mudslides, etc.).
In the middle of a (short) straight stretch on level ground. The road’s just gone. Someone was nice enough to fill it with
gravel though. The gravel they use down
here is really fine. It’s a mixture of
extremely small rocks and red clay dirt.
The size of rocks that stick to a tire just long enough to be flipped up
into the direct path of the vehicle behind you.
So as we hit it all the debris off Scott’s bike hits me. Not the worst debris from Scott I run into as
you’ll find out in tomorrow’s episode.
So these wonderful roads spit
us out into a little town I like to think of as Mini Reno. It’s Cripple Creek. And its sole reason for existing is to
gamble. There are 37 casinos in Cripple
Creek. Nothing too terribly large and
extravagant but they do serve free liquor if you’re gambling.
This time of day thing Scott
and I have going is working out very well.
It seems that about 10 hours a day of traveling/riding is just about
right. With my parent that seems to
happen from about 8am-6pm or sometimes 9am-7pm.
Which is just a little early for me.
Scott and I really seem to have the noon-10pm down pretty well. Which really, really works for me. Come to find out the one downside to this is
that lodging does become mildly more difficult at 10pm than at 6pm. But we find a place to stay in lovely
Woodland Park, Colorado. And you just
have to love the taxes here. Between all
the fees (hotel tax, entertainment tax, sales tax, etc.) it comes out to
3.9%. God Bless Colorado!!
Today’s Miles: 269
Total Miles: 2436
Man was that one crappy night
of sleep. I don’t think it had much to
do with the hotel, although I’m not sure, it just sucked. We made many mistakes which we will hopefully
not repeat. I thought it was just me who
was having problems but Scott really didn’t sleep well either. For me it might have been going to bed too
early. I dozed off around midnight which
didn’t seem to work well. It only lasted
until about 2am and then I was up for almost two hours. And I had finished my book so I didn’t even
have anything to read.
Mile: 0
Oh well, at least the ride
should be good today. Estimated high is
only 94F. It’s 82F now (9:40 am) as we
head out for the day. After yesterday’s
skipping of the Royal Gorge and Pike’s Peak, today’s Renaissance Fair should be
pretty exciting. It’s about 80 miles
away and should prove to be a good ride.
Again, we stick with these tiny unnamed roads we find on the map in the
hopes they lead us somewhere we want to be.
On a side note, nothing
really related to anything else, everyone is aware of just how anal retentive I
am right? It’s so bad that I changed the
direction of the roll of toilet paper at the hotel because it was hung
wrong. I mean, everyone knows it has to
unroll from the top…
Mile: 0.7
My armpits are already
dripping sweat. Not that this is the
mental picture you wanted this morning, but it’s pretty darned hot out
already. And they’re physically
dripping. I’m wearing a fairly loose
t-shirt so it’s not catching it all and I can feel it drip off the armpit hair
and land on my side. Sometimes it
trickles down my side or my arm. So much
for the effectiveness of Old Spice anti-perspirant. At least I’m not smelly.
Mile: 34
We’re lucky enough to have
picked a road that follows the Platte Canyon River. It’s a really nice road and the scenery is
spectacular. There happen to be lots of
fly fisherman out in the river but I didn’t really care to take a picture of
that. Unfortunately here’s where it gets
a little weird. We were following
Douglas County road 67 in the hope’s that it would lead us to Sedalia. The map tells us if we follow 67, then 40,
then back to 67 it stays a local, paved road the entire way. If we follow 67 and don’t take the side trip
on 40 it’s a local usually paved road.
Well, the map was a little backwards on this one. So much for 40
being paved. It’s 4 miles of
gravel. Oh well.
Mile: 57
What can Brown do for you
today? Drive out to the middle of
nowhere, drop off a package, and drive back to somewhere. Again, not so sure that being a UPS driver is
anywhere in my future. I’m not sure I
could handle driving an hour one way to drop off a package.
Mile: 82
Ah yes, the Renaissance Fair. To be enjoyed for 8 fabulous weekends
throughout the summer. If only today was
a weekend.
Mile: 96
So I’ve talked about this
quite a bit over the last couple of weeks; I’m looking for a new vehicle. I want to get an old mail jeep. Something right hand drive. I think I could have a lot of fun customizing
one of those. Sancho already has lots of
ideas on what we can do to chop it and drop it.
It comes up now because one just passed us going in the opposite
direction. They look really cool.
Mile: 135
Wind Kung Fu is strong. Honda Kung Fu is stronger. Scott decides it’s time to do a little stunt
riding. We’re following some huge semi
truck hauling some type of funky load.
And we think he’s dropping stuff on the road. But it’s really not him; it’s the truck in
front of him. As we pull out to pass, the
truck in front of us kicks up something from under the rear tires and tosses it
into the wind. The wind right in front
of Scott. The debris is a chunk of
something, looks like an acoustic ceiling tile.
It’s about 2’x2’ and about twice as thick as a standard tile. Or at least, I should it was 2’x2’. Scott seemed to remedy that problem
nicely. As the tile caught in the wind,
it tossed around a couple of times and ended up being square on in front of
Scott as he approached it at 70 MPH. He
had just enough time to tuck his chin down a little and protect his neck when
he hit the thing dead on. And it
exploded in the most impressive display of debris. It broke into many hundreds, perhaps a
thousand, pieces. It was almost like an
explosion you’d see from fireworks. All
these little pieces moving radially outward from the central point of
contact. The cool part was that all the
pieces then followed the airflow around Scott.
Kind of like a demonstration you’d see in a wind tunnel. The uncool part was that I was following
right behind. So I didn’t hit one piece,
I hit a lot of pieces. Luckily I had
just enough time to duck as well. They all
bounced off the fairing and windshield instead of hitting me. So we can count ourselves lucky on this
one. No damage to the bikes and more
importantly no damage to ourselves.
We’ll save that for later.
Mile: 158
Done riding for the day. It’s early afternoon so we have plenty of
time to do something else. All in all
not the most successful ride we’ve had.
Royal Gorge, Pike’s Peak, the Ren Fair, all kind of a bust. But at least the roads were great.
So we hop in the Jeep and
head of to El Dorado Springs to do a little hiking. Physical exercise at this altitude is indeed
a little more difficult. It takes 5 or
10 minutes to get a good breathing rhythm down.
And it’s not really good because you just can’t get a breath quite deep
enough. I hiked just to the point where
I could get some decent pictures and then called it quits. Probably went about 1.63 miles. So this is El Dorado
Springs. I have this weird desire to
run down mountains when I hike. I know
it’s not the safest thing to do but it’s fun.
Scott’s already headed down and the trail is empty so there’s really no
reason not to. Scott asked what I was
running from (because I don’t run unless it’s for my life) so I told him I was
running from gravity. As I thought about
it I’m not sure if I was running from it or with but it’s really
inconsequential. The problem is I didn’t
run fast enough. Gravity caught up with
me. At the bottom. I made it all the way to the parking lot, had
2 feet left to go, and gravity caught me. Hmm, mildly painful. But that’s okay, it’s just pain. And it will stop hurting as soon as the pain
goes away. Over 2500 miles on the bike
without incident but I can’t walk a mile without hurting myself.
What to do after a hiking
adventure such as this? Head to the beer garden.
Today’s Miles: 158
Total Miles: 2594
Happy, Happy 4th
of July!! Today will be a motorcycle
free day. It’s more of a drinking and
eating kind of day so we leave the bikes in the garage. We had a fabulous breakfast cooked by friends
and then we pretty much just sat around.
Now I’m not sure what people do in other parts of the country for
entertainment after eating a large meal, but in Boulder people sit around and
pretty much do this.
Oddly enough it was good for some entertainment value. But it can’t quite fill up a whole day. Eventually it gets too hot to sit around and
enjoy this type of activity so we head to a van down by the river. Okay, there really wasn’t a van. It’s just Scott Carpenter Park. But quite the talented group of individuals
these people are. We had a full 3 piece
band plus a vocalist to keep us entertained.
We had the pleasure of having Tarot readings performed for us. And it was a whole lot cooler by the river. We even had some local frat boys come by and
try to impress everyone and stay for a reading as well.
After that, off to a barbecue
for another big meal, more drinking, and preparing for the fireworks. They fireworks were great. We were in Longmont? Sitting on the golf course watching an
impressively long and well thought out display.
The only disappointing part is that we couldn’t hear any of the
accompanying music. But we were able to
get pictures. Kind of interesting how
the quality of a camera can give you such drastically different pictures. Here’s my shot. Here’s Mike. Here’s Mike’s shots: 1, 2, 3.
And that pretty much sums up
the day. Not much to write about when
you’re on a motorcycle trip and you don’t get on the motorcycle.
Today’s Miles: 0
Total Miles: 2594
Yeah, laundry. At least I have the opportunity to do
laundry. It’s always difficult to take a
long trip on a bike and either have enough clean clothes to last or find some
place to do laundry. The bike’s just not
big enough to carry everything you need.
Especially when I knew I wouldn’t be riding everyday and would want
shorts and a sweatshirt and tennis shoes and all kinds of other apparel.
But today is reunion
day. I get to hook up with the rest of
the family and enjoy 5 days of hanging out.
Scott has been such a gracious host to me for the past week and for that
I’m thankful. I’m pretty damned happy
with the State of Colorado as well. This
has been my first time here on a bike and I’ll definitely be back.
Mile: 0
Time to trade bikes for a
little while. It’s been a really long
time since I’ve been on a crotch rocket and Scott’s never ridden something
quite so cushy. So trade up time it is. A little different this little 600 is. It almost feels like a play toy. It tips in at 376 pounds (about 300 pounds
lighter than my bike). It’s so
cute. But boy does it have some
power. I’m not used to riding a bike
that has a specific power band but once you learn where it is it’s
awesome. The F4 pulls from about 7k
through to redline (13.5k). And man does
it pull. Dyno’d out at 88 BHP a couple
of weeks ago. I didn’t pull the front
end off the ground but I’m not sure I really needed to. And oh so stable. Pulling through a corner at 95 MPH and nary a
shake to be found. The riding position
is a little more extreme than I’m used to.
And with all the sore muscles I have from my inability to fully
understand the concept of gravity it’s an interesting ride. Amazing they can pack this much power into
such a small bike. But now I know why
Scott’s been shifting so often. The
gearing is stacked for total acceleration.
And with the fabulous shifting I can understand where the term crotch
rocket arises. The ST is a much more
tame beast. Tops out at 98 BHP but with
all that weight it’s not a huge advantage.
The interesting part is the power band.
It pulls from 2k all the way through to the 8k redline. There’s no need to do lots of shifting. Even to pass another vehicle you typically
just need to roll on the throttle and hang on.
The really weird part about this experience is trading back to our own
bikes. Man do they feel weird. It takes a few miles before we’re comfortable
on our own machines again.
But we head off for the day’s adventure (along with Joe and Jessica on Joe’s
‘99 Shadow 600) a little after noon in quite unpleasant 102F weather. I’m at the point now where I have enough of a
tan I can forego sunscreen.
So did I mention how much my
body hurts from my gravity experiment?
Slipping on my riding boots is no fun experience. Apparently my ankle has swollen quite a bit
from my little tumble in the parking lot and it doesn’t fit too well in the
boot. Pretty much means I won’t be using
a lot of rear brake today (which with the LBS isn’t that much of an issue).
Mile: 21
Bye bye birdie. Some of you will be happy to know that
there’s one less bird to crap on your car.
Some of you will be upset to know that there’s one less bird to sing you
a song. The silly boy didn’t get out of
the way in quite enough time. I figure
that since it’s my tax dollars that are paving the road that I should have
first dibs on the use of it. I
understand that birds were here first but I don’t really care. So apparently the bird needed a little
physics lesson on mass/velocity/two particles occupying the same space at the
same time. It’s a lesson he’ll only need
to learn once. With a little thump he
hits the lower cowling and is no more.
Not quite as impressive as Scott hitting the board and a little more
messy.
Mile: 48
No sign of the bird. We’re stopped in Estes Park for lunch and he
doesn’t seem to be around. I was kind of
hoping he was lodged in the bike since that would have made for a good
picture. But alas it is not to be my day
to have carcass photography.
Mile: 61
Long’s Peak Inn. Site of the 2003 Wolsfeld family reunion
(that would be my mother’s maiden name).
With that tidbit of info most of you can now steal my identity and do
what you may. And ends up being a thoroughly
entertaining afternoon of fishing and cards. Everyone
who planned on attending did make it here.
There are 23 of us here spanning 4 generations. Ranging in age from darned near 90 down to
not quite 8 months. Representation comes
from Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and Washington. It should be an exciting time.
Not quite sure what tomorrow
has in store. I keep hearing these silly
rumors about people getting up at some silly hour of the morning to be to
breakfast by 9am. I have a designated photographer
to take pictures for me. With any luck
I’ll be watching the inside of my eyelids.
Oh oh oh, that brings me to a really cool new piece of technology I’ve
discovered. Scientists have found a way
to take a picture of what the eye is actually seeing. This is what the inside
of my eyelids look like.
Today’s Miles: 61
Total Miles: 2655
Hour:
Yeah, I’m trying to
sleep. My lovely mother decides that she
needs to come into my room and wake me for breakfast. Mission accomplished. I’m awake.
Hour:
Back to sleep. I’ll see everyone throughout the next few
days. And I’m not a breakfast fan. Besides, we’re going hiking today and I really
need my rest. Okay, I need my rest
regardless of hiking. I didn’t get to
sleep until 3:30 (which is pretty usual for me) and I slept like crap. So did my cousin Brian who happens to be my
roommate for the next few days. At least
he had an excuse. The building we’re
staying in is brand new. The dedication
ceremony was 2 weeks ago. And the
building isn’t quite finished. There are
no curtains. And there happens to be a
fine sodium vapor lamp outside that really lights up our room. More specifically it lights up Brian’s
head. The shaft of light coming through
the window makes a beeline right at the head of his bed and he slept like crap
last night. Of course, each time either
of us moves we both wake up. It was a
long night of staring at each other with the look on our faces of “are we
really still awake….”
Hour:
Now this is a reasonable time
of day to start the day. I can handle
this. There are a few different
activities to choose from today. Most of
the group is either going to Rocky Mountain National Park or sticking around
the lodge. Since I’ve already been
through RMNP I opt to snag a few cronies and go hiking. I lend the bike to Mike and Karin for the day
in the hopes that they’ll decide to go out and buy one. That would make their trip logs a lot more
exciting. A synopsis of their day: Lovely day, great weather, take to the Park,
get led up a road to the top that they shouldn’t have taken (it’s pretty much
unpaved), they don’t know where to meet up with everyone for lunch, they ride
around, it gets cold, it starts to rain, then sleet, then hail, Mike puts on
the leathers, Karin (5’5” and 116 lbs) puts on the raingear (for someone 6’2”
and 220 lbs), they ride out of it, Mike drops the bike (which cracks me up
because I do it all the time, most people do with this bike, almost always at a
standstill, it’s a heavy bike), it’s a lovely afternoon again, they come back,
68 miles of entertainment.
Mile: 0.0
Elevation: 8,880’
Time:
It’s time to go hiking. The Tom family
(Uncle Tom, Aunt Gale, Cousin Chris, and Cousin Brian), Uncle Dick, and myself
decide to head to Twin Sister’s trailhead and see what it’s all about. The ranger recommends we drive down the road
a couple of miles and take a nice 2.3 mile hike around a sort of nature trail
that has trees and flowers and wildlife and all kinds of scenic stuff. The group seems up for it. Except Brian and I. Since he and I are in a separate car we
decide to hike where we’re at. Uncle
Tom, not one to be outdone by his son, decides he needs to hike this mountain
as well. From there it all goes
downhill. Everyone seems to be in at
this point “and we’ll just turn around when we get tired even if we don’t make
it to the top”.
Mile: 0.5
Elevation: 9,040’ (+160’)
Time: 10:58 am (+0:13)
Brian and I decide to walk to the trailhead versus driving the car up the
hill. It’s only a half mile. And it works as a great warm up. It doesn’t actually save any time to drive up
come to find out.
Mile: 0.9
Elevation: unknown
Time: 11:22am (+0:37)
We’re not terribly far into
the hike and Brian and I have lost the group.
We’re thinking they might not make it all the way to the top so we
decide to stop and wait for them and grab our water and cameras and take off on
our own. As the group catches up with us
we depart with “we’ll wait for you at the top”…..bad idea…..Uncle Tom: “you bet, wait for us”.
Mile: 4.2
Elevation: 11,428’ (+2,548)
Time: 12:19pm (+1:34)
Ah, the glorious peak of the
mountain. What a view.
Brian and I are very pleased we made it to the top. Pretty good hike too. The difficulty level is rated as “strenuous”
by the guide book (there’s only 1 mountain claimed as “very strenuous”). I’d agree.
It’s quite a hike at this altitude.
Nothing but switchbacks through a forest of dead trees. Absolutely nothing to see until we get to the
top (as noticed above). So we sit and
chat and take in the view. Of course,
we’re also catching our collective breath a little as well. Four miles distance and half a mile up in an
hour and a half at more than 2 miles above sea level was a little bit of a
workout.
So we decide that we’ll give
Dick and Tom until 12:45pm to show up and if they’re not here we’re heading
back down. Sure enough, 12:48 and a group
rounds the bend that we think are only a little bit ahead of the brothers. And 7 minutes later they round the bend
(about a 1/3 mile from the peak). And
then they all stop and chat awhile. For
9 minutes (we were counting). Come to
find out, the foursome ahead of the brothers was trying to talk the brothers
into climbing to the top (they were ready to turn around). The brothers were trying to talk the foursome
into turning around and going back down.
And the brothers almost one.
Dick, being the diplomat he is, is very persuasive. He was giving the foursome a detailed and
enumerated list of the pros and cons of going to the top. The cons were clearly in the lead in his mind.
Time: 1:21pm (+2:36)
But make it to the top they did. And boy
were they not happy about it. They were
even less happy to have to make it back down the mountain. Somehow, even thought Brian and I had no
intention of anyone else in our group climbing this mountain, it’s all my
fault. They had their own car, their own
agenda, and plenty of opportunity to take a nature walk. Yet it’s all my fault.
Mile: 7.9
Elevation: 9,040 (+160)
Time: 2:45pm (+4:00)
Brian and I are back
down. And Chris and Gale are relieved
that they don’t have to come search for the bodies (Gale was actually kind
enough to start back up the trail towards us with snacks and
refreshments). Now we just have to wait
for the brothers. And wait. And wait.
For 33 minutes. But they made it
down. They hate me but they made it to
the top.
So back to the lodge, shower
up, dream of a nap (but realize there’s no time) and it’s off to dinner. My grandparents are sponsoring a chuckwagon
dinner for the entire group. It’s off to
the Lazy-B-Ranch for some chow and entertainment. To make a wonderful, entertaining night into
something interesting for you: we ate,
we drank (non-alcoholic), we laughed, we had a good time. Here’s everyone. I won’t name names. Either you know them or you don’t. The best part (and most memorable for
everyone) were the songs the staff sang for us in a kind of cowboy vaudeville
show. One in particular, “I’m my own
Grandpaw,” by Stevens Ray, had us in tears.
My dear brother Mike is currently finding the song on Kazaa and I’ll
post it when it’s available. In the
meantime, here are the lyrics.
Today’s Miles: 68 (on the bike)
Total Miles: 2723
Hour:
Oh yeah, sleeping soundly
through breakfast again. This is how
life should be. Based on that, today’s
synopsis will be a little shorter (and if you’re not family most of it wouldn’t
be interesting).
Lot’s of fishing going on. No actual catching of the fish (thanks Dick
and Ray) but lot’s of fishing.
And some hiking. Start out at Wild Basin (elev. 8,500’), head
to Ouzel Falls (elev. 9,450’) and back (dist.
5.4 miles). However, the best part of
the hike was the restroom at the trailhead. I couldn’t actually find the camera, but
maybe that’s the point of the research.
Had a great game of cards
with me, my brother Mike, my cheating Grandpa, and my really, really cheating
Uncle Ray. We were playing Pitch and
they kept making up rules (“oh, we forgot to tell you”) as the game
progressed. Needless to say Mike and I
lost.
My grandfather’s not doing so
well today. He’s damn near 90. He recently got over a hospitalized bought of
pneumonia. He had been on oxygen for
quite a few weeks. And here he is in
Colorado at 9,000’ in the heat and he caught a cold. It was quite a challenge to get him showered,
dressed, and into bed. But the man is so
damned funny. As he and I were in the
bathroom getting him ready for bed (he’s without his hearing aids at this
point):
Grandpa: JASON!
Me: Yes,
Grandpa
Grandpa (again): JASON!
Me (a little louder): Yes,
Grandpa
Grandpa: DON’T
EVER GET OLD
And at this point we both
break up laughing. Here’s a man who
barely has the strength to stand, can barely hear at the moment, is coughing
incessantly because he can’t get a deep breath, and he’s cracking jokes with
me. There was a whole series of them and
it was \one hell of a moment that I’ll never forget.
After we get him to bed we
call in the lodge nurse (which is the best decision we could ever have
made). Not for Grandpa’s sake but for
ours. Nurse Lily. Oh my.
After a day like this and a
night like this, I need a drink.
Thankfully, Uncle Dick to the rescue!!
He mentions something about a beer (I don’t know, he could have said
dear, or deer, or steer, or smear, or whatever) but it perked me up. So 3 of us head off to find a bar. Back to Wild Basin (the scene of the earlier
hiking). Lights are on. There’s two people inside we can see. The bottles at the bar look lonely and a little
too full. And the door is locked. A sign:
Open 4pm to 10pm. It’s 10:03. Oh unhappy me. Cousin Doug and I start walking back to the
car in defeat. Once again, Uncle Dick to
the rescue!! The damn side door is
open. How sad. Here I am supposedly the professional and I
fail to get in whereas…..whatever, the drinks ROCKED.
After that it’s back to the
lodge. The only person left up is Cousin
Brian. He and I head down to the
employee lodge to entertain ourselves.
Brian tries the front door; locked.
Brian tries the basement door; locked.
Brian tries the 2nd floor door; locked. I try the front door; open. Hmmm.
Does anyone else see the inconsistency in this story? The knob is locked but the door is wide
open. Just pull. Don’t turn.
I’d like to think this redeems myself of my earlier bar mishap but I
know it doesn’t. We get in, we watch
Sphere. We go to bed.
Today’s Miles: 0
Total Miles: 2723
Hour:
Oh yeah, beautiful
sleep. Life is good. Or so I think. Come to find out Nurse Lily was kind enough
to come down and have breakfast with Grandpa to see how he’s doing. So there’s the dilemma, which should I have
done knowing the options: sleep or
breakfast?
Grandpa is doing significantly better today. Anyone know to whom we can attribute this?
Mile: 0
It’s whitewater rafting
day. What a beautiful day. Might as well take the bike. Due to the carpooling situation I need to
take a passenger. So there’s Mike. Kind of odd to have my brother on the back of
my bike. The last time we rode together
I was 15 on the back of his CB900F getting a ride to work at Wendy’s.
Mile: 9
Time to trade riders. Not that Mike and I weren’t enjoying the
ride; it’s just time for someone else.
So Cousin Chris is up next. She
actually gets a mildly longer ride (43 miles) on much better roads. I’m not sure if she’s really relaxed or if
she’s utterly terrified. She’s not
moving or talking. At the end she claims
to enjoy the ride but I’m not entirely certain.
Her mother seems relieved. We
made it in one piece.
Mile: 52
Wave On !!! No pics yet.
We took all the pics on water resistant disposable cameras so I have yet
to get them developed. But the rafting
rocked. A perfect afternoon. Some really good stories of Doug and my Dad
falling in. One of them has an
excuse. Some really good stories of my
and Sue almost falling in. We were both
saved. Whitewater rafting rocks.
Until you get back to the cars and find that a set of keys has been locked in
the trunk. Never fear, after 45 minutes
and lots of phone calls the local gendarme show up and within 5 minutes the
slim jim does the trick. For free.
Had a good dinner, although
some of us were a little tuckered out from fishing all day. Just a “for instance”: don’t fall asleep
around me. Let it be known that I did
this in front of the child’s parents and I’m not saying that it was condoned
but it certainly wasn’t discouraged.
On the way back from dinner
Brian and I think it would be a grand idea to stop off and see Nurse Lily.
What is it about a stethoscope?
Thank goodness she wasn’t toying with her sphygmomanometer or we might
never have left. But alas she did have
company. She was in the middle of
conversing with the lovely water balloon girl from earlier in the day. Who, as I recall, asked Brian and I “Do you
boys want to get wet?”
The night continues with more
cards. And specifically more
cheating. Mike and I aren’t playing this
time. Grandpa and Ray have found 2 new
suckers. As Mike and I listen we do overhear
some of the rules. And they’re different
than yesterday. No surprise that Grandpa
and Ray win again.
Randomly, here’s my Cousin Joanna.
She sure knows how to attract the guys.
Later that night it’s time
for another movie. Brian assures me he
invited Nurse Lily and the lovely water balloon girl. Apparently all we have to do is bring the
popcorn and the chicken and life’s good.
But the girls don’t show. So it’s
“Catch Me if You Can” amongst the guys. Of which Brian sleeps through about 40 minutes
of.
Today’s Miles: 105
Total Miles: 2828
Time:
I’m sleeping.
Time:
I’m up. Not awake, Up. Time to start saying goodbye. In rounds. This one lasts until 8:13am.
Time:
I’m sleeping.
Time:
I’m up. Gotta finish packing. And get first dibs on the leftover food in
the fridge. Of which I do both.
Time:
Mile: 0
Goodbyes are done. Grandpa’s not well. We do have a good chat before they head
off. Hopefully the lower altitude will
do him worlds of good. As for me, I’m
off into the wild blue yonder.
Destination Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Mile: 9
But first, a stop at the
famed and historic Stanley Hotel. For those of you who don’t know the
significance of this hotel (which was me 1 week ago) it’s where Stephen King
was staying when he conceived The Shining.
Mile: 46
Get me the hell out of Rocky
Mountain National Park. I thought the
ride would be really cool. Having done
it a week ago and having loved it. But
today it sucks. It’s cold. It’s windy.
And people are moving at between 15 and 22 MPH. This is soooo not good. I’m so frustrated. There aren’t a lot of places to pass going
through the park. And I’ve just about
had it. I need out of this park and I
need out now. Just as I’m ready to go
postal on some of these people, I come across a string of kind, conscientious
drivers. The next 7 people all pull off
the road slightly to let me pass. They
know they’re going slow and they compensate for it. This somewhat restores my faith in
humanity. But I still need out of this
park.
For the first 2 hours of the
day I average 20 MPH. This is not going
to get me to my destination.
Mile: 123
Construction. One lane road ahead. Some dude
holding a road sign. And then I look a
little closer. This is not good. If the sign holder is reading a book I know
I’m going to be here awhile. As it turns
out it was only 22 minutes. At least it
gave me time to stretch my butt and get a drink. After all, I’ve been at this for 3.5 hours
already today. Yeah, do the math on my
average speed.
Mile: 172
Hayden, Colorado. I’m quickly getting the impression that the
Patrol Officers here have a different view on traffic violations as the rest of
Colorado. On the way into town there are
3 cruisers. Each has someone pulled
over. On the way out of town there are 2
cruisers (which could have been the same ones, I stopped for 10 minutes or so
in town). Each has someone pulled over.
So this is my first stop in
4.5 hours. No need for gas yet, haven’t
gone very far. Unfortunately it’s my
first pee stop. It’s unfortunate because
this means I’m already dehydrated. 4.5
hours is waaaay too long for my peanut sized bladder. 0.45 hours is more like it. Perhaps I should drink a little more.
Mile: 237
I do believe I’m finally out
of the Rockies. I believe this because I
can see the road for the next 20 miles or so.
In the mountains you can’t see it for 2.
Here it’s 20. A little straight
for me but at least it’s warm again.
There are still foothills, so there’s still scenery, but bye bye
Rockies.
Mile: 271
Dinosaur
National Monument. I’d share more
but there isn’t any. The information
center/visitor booth is closed (no idea why) and the trip through the park is a
62 mile loop. Estimated to take 2-4
hours. No way. Maybe another trip.
Mile: 278
Utah!! Now here’s some beautiful country. I’m not sure what the difference is (beside
the state line), but all of the sudden everything is more beautiful. It’s far more picturesque. It’s wonderful scenery. And the roads are so much better (twistier,
not quality of blacktop). But I’ll only
be here for a short while. Just cutting
through the corner. Heading to Wyoming. And I really don’t want to spend too much
time here with the whole alcohol policy and all.
Mile: 305
Heh heh heh….Maybe I spoke
too soon. I pass a place called “Club
XS”. You gotta love a strip joint in
Utah!
Mile: 347
Flaming
Gorge and the Flaming Gorge Dam. Stunning scenery. Couldn’t quite capture it on film. Definitely a great road to be taking.
Mile: 358
Wyoming. And I’m a little concerned. It turned ugly all the sudden. Seriously, at the state line it turned ugly. The scenery is boring, the plant life changed
to something sicklier, the road became straighter, and it’s just boring. Hopefully the whole state isn’t like this.
And it isn’t. It takes 12 miles but it gets prettier. Nowhere near as good as Utah but it got
better. I’m not sure who picked the
state lines for Utah but they did a great job in this corner of the state. The left the ugly portion in Colorado and
Wyoming.
Mile: 430
Silly state. I’ve been driving around for 45 minutes
finding gas, alcohol, and a room. Rock
Springs, Wyoming doesn’t have much to offer.
It’s a pretty big spot on the map, but it’s not a destination. It’s a through point. Apparently it doesn’t matter where you’re
going to or coming from, you pretty much go through Rock Springs. Tom Bodette left the light on for me, but he
didn’t leave any empty rooms. Neither
did the Super 8. So it’s some random
place called “The Inn, A Cowboy Country Place”.
Not the world’s best slogan but there it is. The upside?
A refrigerator and a microwave in the room. I love that.
I ended up averaging 45 MPH
for the day, but I’m still 176 miles shy of my night’s intended
destination. On a side note, I feel
pretty white trash right now. I’m in the
hotel room drinking a 40 ounce Coors Light Widemouth bottle. Sorry, couldn’t find PBR.
On a totally random note,
have you ever heard of the “48 Conterminous States”? I’ve heard of contiguous. Even concatenous. But never conterminous. This was a new one for me.
Today’s Miles: 425
Total Miles: 3253
Mile: 0
It seems as though I was
actually able to get a decent night’s sleep and get up in time to have a
reasonable start on the day. A little
over 5 hours of sleep and I feel great.
Must be the Coors Light. So I eat
a banana and load up the bike, but I figure I’ll drop by the free breakfast to
snag some bread for my lunch (I have some leftover chicken already). And there it is. A big old bowl of hardboiled eggs. And not the cheap ones that come preshelled
in a 5 gallon bucket. These are fresh,
in the shell, yet slightly cracked. So I
have a couple. Really tasty. It’s a hair before 9am and it’s about 82F
out. Lovely day for a ride.
Mile: 37
City of Eden. Where the elevation exceeds the
population. Elevation: 6590.
Population: 220. I pass through a dozen or so towns where this
is the case. It kind of amuses me.
Mile: 102
God Bless the Wyoming
Department of Transportation. It seems
as though they’ve followed the Canadian model of highway repair. If you’ll recall from the 2000 Sturgis trip,
Canada hired some darned fabulous looking young ladies as flaggers. And Wyoming has followed suit. These girls are outrageous. All of 18 and looking incredibly hot. Oh my.
Not that this is a consolation to sitting on a highway waiting for
construction, but it doesn’t suck.
Mile: 176
Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Yesterday’s destination. It took about 2.5 hours to get here. It’s a pretty cool town. Definitely a touristy type of place. But pretty cool. Unfortunately, with a population of 8k-ish,
not a place I could live. However I
would visit for their fabulous winter sports.
Mile: 190
Grand Teton national
park. Kind of sprouts out of nowhere. Not much else here in the way of really high,
snow capped mountains. Cool place. But ravaged from the fire. I didn’t realize just how much land was
damaged.
Mile: 203
Jenny Lake.
Jen, this one’s for you.
Mile: 206
Couldn’t pass up this picture.
Not quite sure what inspired it.
Don’t ask how I actually got it (I took 9 of them and thankfully one
turned out). No, this is not staged.
Mile: 214
Jackson Lake. Phenomenal views in the Grand Tetons. I can see why people would come to visit.
Mile: 239
Sorry Grandma. I tried to find the campsite but wasn’t quite
able. Apparently we camped at some place
behind Flagg Ranch Resort. Flagg Ranch
is still there but the campground behind it no longer exists. I tried.
Mile: 240
Mile: 246
So the fire damage is not only extensive, it’s breathtaking. I haven’t been to Yellowstone since 1982 and
the raging forest fire seems to have changed the scenery a little. Sure nature needs to do it every now and
then, but this is absolutely breathtaking.
Every direction you turn you think you should be seeing lush, green
forest and instead it’s a dank gray landscape.
Given the rich soil the new trees are growing nicely. It provides for an interesting undertone to
the grayness that is the bleached out burned trees.
Mile: 259
Thank goodness. It’s about time I see
the Continental Divide. I’ve tried to find the signs numerous times
but to no avail. I know this is the 8th
time I’ve crossed it this trip. Finally,
on my last crossing, I catch the sign.
Mile: 288
Sulphur Cauldron. And it smells like it sounds. Pretty cool place actually. The earth is so hot somewhere this close to
the surface that not only does it outgas but it makes the water boil too.
Dragon’s Mouth. And the description. This place is cool. It rumbles like La Bufadora in Mexico. Very much a blowhole type of environment.
Mile: 316
Oh lordy. More road construction. And of course, more flaggers. Oh lordy.
Mile: 330
Dang. Them’s some big antlers.
I’d tell you what it is but I’m sure I’d be wrong. And I don’t even need a gun. I could reach out and slap it if it weren’t
illegal.
Mile: 335
Montana. No picture.
Not much of a sign. But I love
the speed limits.
Mile: 362
Earthquake
Lake. Want to know how?
Mile: 408
Ennis, Montana. Kind of an eerie town. I feel like I’m in a Bud Light
commercial. The one with the whole “how
you doin’” theme. And with the guy who
actually answers. That’s Ennis. Everyone here says hi. My response inevitably seems to be along the
line of “how’s it goin’” or “how you doin’” or something and they all
answer. All of them. Kind of Stepford like. It’s a really friendly little town. Perhaps it’s just a neighborhood watch thing
and they all want to look out for the scary dude on the bike.
Mile: 478-486
Montana
State Highway 2. Perfection. The best 8 miles of road on the entire trip
so far. Perfect motorcycle road. Just needs to be 10 times longer.
Mile: 490
Quite the odd
experience. I’m in a convenience store
at a gas station buying a Montana State map.
And I decide to go to the bathroom.
Of which the entrance is in the Laundromat. And lo and behold, all the Laundromat
equipment is Speed Queen. This is the
company I worked for in Kentucky during college. The funny thing is that Speed Queen only
sells about 6% of its product under its own brand name. They typically rebrand. But here it is, original equipment. I can still identify all the models and name
most of the parts. Scary flashbacks
ensue….
Mile: 564
Montana State Highway 1. Close to perfection. Remember Hayden, Colorado from
yesterday? Well, there was some more
significance than what I led you to believe.
It marked 3k miles for the trip.
It’s also the time I finally got fed up with the XM radio. I’ve had 2 weeks to correct the antenna
problem and I’ve let it slide. But it
was time to move it. For the last 817
miles the radio has been so spectacular.
It does occasionally cut out (in canyons and under bridges) but we’re
talking about roughly 1800’ of poor reception.
Which comes down to 0.04% (or 99.96% uptime, not too shabby).
So the day is done, and I’m
writing all this up. Ever wonder why
motorcyclists don’t like riding through dusk?
Here’s why.
But now I’m drinking a PBR. The
first gas station I stopped at had the 24 ounce cans. Lovely.
So today’s trek for gas, alcohol, and lodging went a little
quicker. Although it did take 5 hotels
to find one with a room (I got the last one).
Thankfully uploading this file and the pictures will be a little easier
here tonight. I didn’t update the page
as often while in Colorado for one primary reason: the whole modem thing. Typically you unplug the phone, plug in the
modem, and it all works. Not so at High
Peak Lodge in Estes Park, Colorado. It
took my father and me about 20 minutes to figure out how to get the phone line
to work. To make a long story short we
had to go through a few steps. We had to
configure the connection for manual dial.
Open the modem port. Pick up the
phone. Dial the number. Wait for the modem on the receiving end to
pick up. Tell the computer to
negotiate. And then unplug the phone
line from the base to the handset of the phone.
Not hang up the phone (which would be normal) but unplug the line. If the handset was put back on hook it would
terminate the connection. In fact, the
modem itself couldn’t open the phone line.
The handset had to be off hook.
Weird, weird, weird.
Today’s Miles: 626
Total Miles: 3879
Mile: 0
Well, today will in all
probability be my last day of the trip.
I’ve made enough mileage the past 2 days (despite all the slowness of National
Parks) that I’m close enough to home to make a run for it. It’s not my goal to do that but I won’t be
upset if it happens. It’s a little cool
out this morning, quite a blessing really.
I know that Eastern Washington is going to be really damn hot. High’s predicted in the low 100’s.
Mile: 42
Leaving the mediocre state of Montana, entering the smelly state of Idaho. And back on PDT. I actually see both signs, but they’re not
worth capturing on film.
Mile: 56
Sweet Jesus, Mary, and
Joseph. If ever there was a time to
believe in a greater power it is now.
Here is proof that God loves us and wants us to
be happy. I’m not sure it gets better
than this (it certainly hasn’t this trip).
This is US Highway 12 which meanders through the middle of Idaho. Maybe the state’s not so stinky after all.
As luck would have it, I hook
up with a group on Moto Guzzis (Le Mans 1000’s no less). What a sweet sound these bikes produce. What a setup.
And these guys have either traveled this road many times before or they
have some track experience. My bet is a
little of both. They’re carving up this
road like there’s no tomorrow. Whoever
created the first road and the first motorcycle must have known that the two
would one day combine on this stretch of road.
It’s fast and it’s mildly technical.
At least at the speeds we’re going.
For the first 20 miles I’m struggling to keep up with these guys. They don’t have more power but they certainly
have more confidence. That and a better
suspension setup. I’ve known for 3500
miles now that my suspension is nice and plush for around town and general
freeway miles but it’s far too soft for roads like this. Mainly preload and rebound damping on the
rear. I could use a little more compression
damping on the front as well.
But these guys have no fear and no worries.
We’re at darn near full lean through 70 and 80 MPH sweepers. Definitely teaching me a lot about corners
and the limits of my own bike. I can do
full lean through 40 MPH corners but this is a whole different story. I’m covering ground at twice the speed. Little mistakes are amplified
exponentially. It takes me 4 times as
long to stop. Everything is happening
just a little bit faster. After the
first 20 miles I’m finally into the groove.
Something happens that just melds me with the bike. Gone is the hesitation into a corner. Gone is the panic braking. My grip on the bike is loosened and I’m
letting it find its own line. No need to
adjust my line in the middle of the turn, just look where I want to be, lean,
and roll on the throttle a little more.
It’s amazing what a little gas will do in a turn. Totally evens out the bike. If something’s going wrong in a turn, the
first reaction is to drop the gas and grab a little brake. The worst thing you can do. Forget the brake. Loosen the grip, roll on the throttle. Everything just evens out and life is good.
But alas, the road sign was
wrong. There were not 63 miles of curvy
road.
Mile: 134
By my account we had 78 miles
of great curvy road. I think the sign
had a different reading since there was a little town at mile 114 (58 miles
past the sign) that may have affected things.
But the road continues on. And I
love it.
Mile: 189
I’m fortunate enough to hit a
spot of construction. Fortunate for many
reasons: 1) I need to stop and take off
this damn jacket (it’s a little toasty to be wearing it), 2) I need a drink of
water really bad and my water bottle is empty, I need to exchange it with a
cold one from the cooler, and 3) I get a chance to dismount and talk to the
lovely people I’ve been tailing for the last 144 miles. Cool people. Cool bikes.
Come to find out one of the guys loves my bike as much as I admire and
am jealous of his. And also come to find
out they’ve taken this road before.
They’re plan is to stay in Idaho as long as they can before they jump
over into Washington. No fault in that
plan. They also tell me they’re going to
be coming through the North Cascades over Highway 20 tomorrow. What a grand plan. Hell of a road. Of this I’m a little jealous but I don’t want
to go that far out of the way on my trip back.
I have the time but not the desire at the moment. Being that I live where I do I can do the
Cascade Loop on any given day (and given my retirement status I can do it
during the week when there are no Winnebagos).
Mile: 208
Alas it’s time to depart the
company of the Guzzis. As they stop for
gas I give a wave and head off to parts unknown. Unknown since I’m not sure where I am and
even less sure of where I’m going.
Mile: 210
And it still smells like
Idaho. Even for their lovely road this
state really does stink. What a putrid
odor.
Mile: 216
Here I am back in
Washington. And back to the crappiest
roads I’ve experienced. It’s pretty sad
really. I’ve covered lots of states on
the bike (I think I’m up to 28) and I’ve covered even more in cars. And Washington has the worst roads (quality
wise) of any place I’ve ever ridden/driven.
They really are crappy. Here’s a
salute to the WSDOT and their inability to create nice roads. Not that it’s entirely their fault. The whole government of the state is to
blame, and along with that the people who elected them. So I’m in part responsible for the crappy
roads. Whether by voter apathy or voter
choice I’m still a part of the system.
And to top it off, not just the state of Washington but King County in
particular has the worst roads. The
largest revenue producing county in the state and their roads are by far the
worst. The most heavily traveled but the
worst. I’m done with my soapbox now if
anyone needs it.
Mile: 488
Thank goodness I’m climbing
through the mountains. The weather was
absolutely miserable. Hot as hell in
Eastern Washington. And this unbearably
dry heat. And the wind. Hot wind.
Not cooling at all. It sucked. And it sucked the life out of me. I stopped every 45 minutes to an hour to try
and keep hydrated. To no avail. I became light headed and drowsy. Fatigued definitely. I put at least 3 gallons of fluids in me and I
still haven’t stopped to pee. Not a good
sign. But I’m in the mountains now, a
little chilly and that suits me just fine.
In the Cascades on Highway 410 rounding Mt. Rainier. Yet another National Park to go through on
the drive home. With its whopping pass
elevation of 5,432’. Not exactly a
record setter here. But an impressive
view. It’s kind of funny. Going through the passes in Colorado
everything seemed really short. Sure the
mountains were 14k+ feet high, but the passes were 11 and 12k high. Now here’s Mt. Rainier at an elevation of
14k+ feet, but with a pass at 5k it seems really daunting. And really impressive. Blanketed in snow year round. Heck of a sight. I wasn’t able to get a great picture but I
have one from the kartwheel trip if anyone is terribly curious. I think you can access it here.
Mile: 612
I’m home. Home sweet home. It’s about 9pm and life is grand. No, I’m not at the place where I’m going to
sleep tonight; I’m just at my home. The
bar. The Central Club. How lovely.
Time for a nice cold beer.
Mile: 615
I’m home. Home sweet home. Not the place where I like to live, just the
place where I sleep at night.
Today’s Miles: 616
Total Miles: 4495
And, as always, time for a
little stats:
IronButt……
Total miles: 1513
Total Time: 27.5 hours
Avg Speed: 55.0 MPH
Top Speed: 112 MPH
Actual Riding Time: 19.75 hours
Avg Speed while moving: 76.6 MPH
Gallons of gas consumed: 43.662
Avg Fuel Consumption: 34.65 MPG (which isn’t all that bad
considering the average speed)
7 states
16 days
4500 miles
Tens of thousands of bugs
I never ate fast food on the
entire vacation
Not nearly enough Catholic
School Girls
1 strip joint
1 stalker
13 maps purchased
11 maps used
1 tire
2500 miles of music
frustration
2000 miles of music
appreciation
2 dropped bikes, 1 of them
mine, 0 times it was me dropping it
1 dropped Jason, 1 of them
me, 1 time it was my fault (perhaps someday I’ll learn to walk through a
parking lot without throwing myself at the ground)
17 beers consumed
3 pounds gained
1 brushfire
1 rollover accident
842 miles of crappy road (838
in Washington, 4 in Colorado)
7 National Parks
A new high altitude on the
bike (12k+)
14 tunnels (one REALLY COOL
one)
118 people notified of the
URL of this trip
42 unique hits on the site
(most of these people returned as well)
22 comments on the content
13 constructive comments on the
content
8 jackasses who need to keep
their opinions to themselves
The word conterminous appears
3 times (including this one)
No references to Elvis
499 pictures taken
109 pictures used
14 nekkid ladies photographed
2 nekkid ladies posted on
website
18 construction flaggers
7 cute ones
4 beautiful ones (thank you
Wyoming)
17 park rangers
1 cute one
0 beautiful ones (thanks tax
dollars at work)
17 business cards handed out
1 business card handed back
1 intrepid
2 Moto Guzzis
More lovely race Ducatis and Buells
than I could have ever hoped for
Never needing to personally
use my rain gear!
AND NO BEE STINGS !!!!!
