Post-vacation blues

After two days back at work I am ready to take a vacation. It is not that I don't love all my co-workers, it is just that everything is so predictable.

I have a few trip posts to write, but this post is a complete diversion - stay tuned. One on US 64 across New Mexico and one summarizing the themes of Water, Relationships and Joy is coming soon. Another one on the dynamic geography of the west is forming slowly inside me.

Today I did have the good fortune to introduce a co-worker friend to the owner of 'our' coffee shop. She is making a trip to Nicaragua in November to visit a coffee plantation that supplies some or all of the coffee we roast at Deet's Place, the on campus coffee shop. Our (meaning we eat breakfast there often) coffee shop, The Easy Chair, also buys coffee from this plantation and has sent and will send people in November also.

My friend is not a coffee person, as in a Barista. In fact, I think she might be described as a soda person, but she feels that she may try to go cold-turkey on the trip. I would not bet on that as one of the truly safe drinks in any third-world country is bottled, carbonated sweet stuff. And it is still made with real sugar instead of corn stuff, so it has a very intoxicating mouth-feel and taste. Are you old enough to remember when soft drinks in the U.S. were made with sugar? You know what I mean. I never did satisfy myself that it was the high sugar content, or the carbon dioxide or the filtered water that made it safe. I think it is just as probable that it is placebo effect. In Haiti I drank a bit of orange soda, but I only drink about one carbonated drink a month here in the U.S. where the water is pretty universally safe and clear all the way to the bottom of the glass.

So why is she going to this coffee plantation? Well, she is a marketing and graphics person and will be making photos and video to use as promotional/educational materials. Truth is, she realizes that this trip will enable her to jump off the edge of the earth and make a long-put-off European trip to countries where she can't speak or understand the native language. That will be great as she will love it and find more excuses to travel. And she will learn that language is only one communications method, and often not the best. How many times do we misunderstand one-another even when using a common first tongue?

So I worked travel into the post. Good thing, eh? It looks like I will be traveling again - this time to Florida. I just found out that the director of ECHO, a development agency, is retiring. Years ago, when I lived in Haiti, I was a board member in the 1980s and they are trying to get all the old board members there for his retirement dinner on August 23rd. I can't miss it. I missed all the major events there for 20 years, but not this time. I'll combine this with a visit to my step-dad so it will be a wonderful time. I may ride, may take the train, may drive. I can stop to see family in Atlanta as well. Heck, I may never get back home!

Lessons learned:

As I arrived at work this morning, there was not one motorcycle in the lot! What was going on? Oh, the other riders listen to the weather report! Chance of RAIN. Heck, there is a chance of rain every day, especially in the summer. So not listening to the weather gave me another nice ride to work and back. Did I get wet? Heck NO! Rained while I was in the basement, sun shining as I rode home. The lesson is: ride anyway. Lots of parking waiting for me!

Want to salivate? Read this. Get all the way to the bottom. Don't read it at bed time, you will have to get up & dirty the kitchen or lay in bed thinking about food and be sleepy all day tomorrow. You have been warned!

We are home!

Just a quick note to let you all know that we made it home OK. The dogs were happy to see us (and we, them) and we look forward to sleeping in our own beds. The last few days in Ohio were so filled with activity that I had no time to think about writing, but I intend to write tomorrow with some reflections on our time in Ohio. It was great!

The truck did fine for the rest of the trip and while I love to ride the bike, it was nice to be together with Ann and I am especially glad I was driving when the clutch failed. I was on the bike for about 2500 miles in a week, riding in 10 states.

Many of you have heard (too many times) my stories of meeting people along the way. Well, now Ann has seen it happen and, in fact, met several special friends of her own. On one tiny Ohio town, I turned around to go back for a sign photo, got distracted by a store called HayCanvas, went in and the woman there was from the same county that we live in. She had never heard of our little town which is on the other end of the county. It appears that she went to school years ago in a building that Ann was instrumental in converting to affordable housing. Small world.

Lesson learned: A BMW R100 just fits in the bed of our picked, about 1/8 inch to spare. In fact, one has to compress the front springs in order to close the tailgate!

Detour on the Road to Success (revised)

We departed Dodge City with the bike in the back of the truck at 5:00PM on Tuesday just as planned (that itself is amazing!) and headed to Columbia, Missouri where we planned to spend the night on our way to Ohio. As we passed into Missouri, we approached Exit 6 in Kansas City where I spent two hours at a McDonalds waiting out a storm on the trip west. Ahead of us the traffic stopped due to an accident. As I backed off the gas pedal and applied the brake, my foot pressed on the clutch pedal and it did not go down.
The pressure plate of the clutch had a broken finger that, in turn, popped a spring out of the clutch disk center or vice-versa. If you know what a clutch disk looks like you will understand and see it in the picture. In addition, the pilot bushing was worn and had been a little sticky for a long time. It all combined to result in no shifting and no stopping without stalling the motor. Not so nice at midnight but at least as I ran down the ramp I saw a familiar neighborhood.

Long story short, we ended up doing to another exit by magic driving (only can be done after midnight) and found a hotel. In the morning we were referred to a great tranny place, Certified Transmission, who arranged for a tow truck and did an incredible job getting the truck back to us by 6:00pm good as new for a good price. It is not what you expect to do on your vacation, but I am so glad it happened while I was driving the truck and not to Ann on her way out last week.

With the help of the tow truck driver I unloaded the bike so I could run around and arrange money and whatever. The great folks at certified helped me get the bike back in the truck and ready to travel. I got to use the internet access at another public library, and again it was a good experience. BTW, this library in Independence, MO was really busy, lots of people of all ages using the facilities. So I guess the rumors of everyone forgetting how to use books is exaggerated.

Early Thursday morning we are once again leaving for Ohio, and expect to arrive Thursday night before 10PM at the Malabar Farm Hostel. This year I will not get a haircut in Newark and we will not eat the Walleye special at the bar and grill.

We ate at a great bar-b-cue place recommended by the tranny guys, Smokehouse Bar-B-Que. No photos, never got the camera out today. The clutch part photo is courtesy of Scott at Certified who sent them to me after the fact (read as: got them out of the recycle bin). Thanks Scott and others!

Nice restful day sitting in the motel room watching the Tour de France and napping. Those bicycle guys tire us out.

The truck is very nice to drive with the new clutch and pilot bearing.

Lessons learned:

• Great bar-b-Que can be found in lots of places
• Good people are everywhere just waiting to be discovered, even at transmission repair places! (yeah, I already knew that)
  
• Libraries are alive and hopefully well
• An unplanned day off during a vacation is nice

More exciting stuff tomorrow!

Time to get out of Dodge

Well, not really, but it was irresistible as a title. In fact, I just arrived yesterday at about this time. Unlike the last two stops, this one is again about relationships and not seeing new geography or soaking to increase core temperature. The relationships include my wife's parents and a long-time fellow member of the Yahoo Slash 2 group.

Yes, this really is the Dodge City of western fame and some of you may have visited Boot Hill and Front Street and tipped one with Kitty, Matt and Doc. The city is growing from a tourist perspective, new hotels and restaurants since I was here. One of the new eateries is a Thai restaurant that I noted as I entered town yesterday. Imagine that, increasing diversity in the old west.

Today we enjoyed eating at home and visiting with family members including a great-niece that I had never met before. She is about the same age as my grandson, so it was fun to compare their behavior and absolute cuteness. I also got to see Mid-Ohio raceway on TV as they were hosting a Grand Prix race or something like that and I got to see my old camping spot from a helicopter shot of the track. It was a pretty cool look at next week's location.

For dinner, Ann and I met my slash 2 friend (slash 2 is not a sequel to a killer movie, but describes an era of BMW motorcycles built from about 1955 to 1969) and his wife for dinner at Sarocha's Thai restaurant. Sorry foodies, the stuff was too good to take my sporadic photos. We enjoyed a combo appetizer that contained all the good stuff seen on Thai menus everywhere and included a few things new to me, like Thai toast. I ordered Massaman Curry, Ann had Panang Curry, my friend had Red Curry and his wife had Almond Chicken. The owner remarked that we had ordered four items from the menu in the sequence they were listed. First time that had happened he said. First time for everything! It was all good and all too much to finish.

The restored slash 2 bike that he rode to the dinner is a really nice example of a ridable classic. Paint was very sharp and an outstanding bike of the same vintage as my own R60/2. I love to see others riding these bikes. He has had the bike a long time and several years ago got serious about getting it on the road again. His work is rewarded by a thing of beauty.

So here comes the strange co-incidence, getting more common on every step of the trip.

Friend's wife (I don't tell names to protect the innocent) is into stones and Ann is too. So she came over to our truck and confirmed that the big stones Ann freeloaded along a road cut are alabaster, and will be interesting to sculpt. Not only that, but when I go to change the rear tire at their house, she has other rocks for Ann to see. She is a artist that works in jewelry, so we can hardly wait to see her things. Once again I am impressed with the quality of the community building that happens on-line. I have met so many fine folks this way, but spent face-to-face time with only a few. It is a pleasure when it happens, and food, of course, amplifies the occasion.

Plans from here? It now looks like we are leaving Tuesday late in the day and driving to Lawrence, Kansas where we will overnight and go to look at (girl talk for what guys call buy) some more rocks. Can't beat buying the rocks when you have a truck instead of literally paying to ship rocks around the country. Helps justify the gas money and when is the last time you heard of rocks getting stolen out of the back of a pickup? Ah, if you know of such a theft, please keep it to yourself. The super-slabbing it to Mid-Ohio via Newark (the haircut and walleye special) for checking in at the Malabar Farm hostel and 3 days of VMD fun.


I want to continue just a little more on the water theme. Lots of parts of the country are experiencing continued drought while others have floods and still others bask in hot springs. Well, the area I rode through in eastern New Mexico, the Oklahoma panhandle and southwest Kansas have been dryer that usual this year. So my encounter with the rain coming onto Clayton, New Mexico was a blessing to many while being a threat to me. Several people told me they had not seen rain in about one year. Man, that is bad in farm/ranch country. It relates to the reason they suspect the people left Mesa Verde so long ago.

Two of the blessed people are depicted in my July 2008 trip Silly Photos collection you can see at the left of the blog page. Eric and Garrett were really, well, really real. They embodied what being a kid is about. I wish I had done video to share with you, but I think you can get it from the series of stills. Go jump in a puddle near your house!

Lessoned learned:

• From people of advanced age: enjoy each day, really
• From children discovering new motor skills: enjoy the attention of the crowd
• From you: we are a community even if we don't see one-another in person.

Technical note: I have learned by looking at the blog that the photos I have put up are too large and I will be resizing them as time permits, so that if you choose to click on the small in-line photos, they will fit on a normal PC screen. Please let me know if you find other technical difficulties.

Leaving Mesa Verde, Entering New Mexico

It was with a bit of regret that I left Mesa Verde. Not only the National Park, but the connection to the people that somehow managed to not only live in those harsh conditions, but to somehow build homes that lasted over 700 years. It is amazing how much I heard and saw in the 1.5 days that gave hints as to the personality of these ancestors, as they are called now. I decided not to take a ride on the other road in the park so that when I go back, with Ann, we will have something new to share together.


I did wake up pretty early and got going on eating and packing up. I can do it all in about 1 hour, much better than my departure at Valley View. Here are two pictures, one of the moon and one of the tent site before packing up. As you can see the camping sites are well wooded and set in a nice place.

I said yesterday that my neighbors with several whining kids departed but they were replaced by a tent nearby with one giggling boy. Several voices all too low to be understood or to keep me up, but this boy giggled every minute or two for what seemed like hours. The joys of camping. Anyway it was almost full moon, and I could not resist trying to take a photo of it. I used the weird tripod I got for Christmas from Pat and the self timer. It worked out well.

On the Road back East...

I decided to not re-trace my path back to Dodge as I had encountered so much paving and other road construction, not to mention snow at higher elevations. I choose to cross northern New Mexico on US 64 starting in Shiprock. The map showed divided 4 lane which I assumed wrongly was going to be at speeds near interstate, or at least like Colorado, 65 MPH. No, this whole road was 55 mph max, but most of it is 25 and 35 mph. Really. So it took forever and that is why I am in Clayton, New Mexico right now. But wait, there is more.

I stopped here because I did not get wet today, but it was raining all around me. Remember the water theme from the last few posts? I was trying to break the curse. When I got here the ground was real wet and I choose to stop playing Russian Roulette with my dry clothes. If I had continued I would have arrived in Dodge City in the early hours of the morning and no-one would be happy with that.

But as I entered Clayton, I took the first motel on the outskirts of town, and then went to get dinner. As I entered town, and crossed the railroad tracks, I went through an unexpected dip and it was full of water, and I got splashed with nasty water. This is the same town that I passed through riding my old BMW back from Altus, OK in 1972. I got taken by that same dip in the road filled with water back then. Pretty 'deja-vu all over again.' I don't think I ever knew the name of the town, but is the same tracks and same deep drainage culvert.

On the way here I got to see Taos and thought you would all like to see how the other half live, so here is a photo. This is west of Taos. I am not sure if one is allowed to take photos in the town without permission. Pretty arty. The cops ride BMW motorcycles just like Beverly Hills.


I also crossed the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge which is almost as tall as our New River Gorge (West Virginia version, but amazing in any case. I tried to take a photo, but the bridge was shaking so much I could not walk out there. Unreal. Google it to see a picture if you want. Better yet, take a ride to see it yourself, maybe you are brave enough to walk out there.

I will caption up some pictures and put them up as promised RSN (real soon now) But here are a couple more for your viewing pleasure, including one of the guy who rides beside me. Take a look at July Trip Silly Stuff for starters.

Oh, and I can't think of a lesson learned besides that nasty water, but here is a sign for you. I was riding along thinking that the view was so much like the defition of infinity. It was as if you could see forever, and this sign appears. Click to see the big version to read the sign/







Ron

Quick post on Mesa Verde

I have the most rudimentary connectivity right now, but a word about this place. If you have never been here, get it on your list. I have no idea how the National Park Service does it, but this is a treasure and at the rate things get dropped off government funding, it might get sold to Iran. I'll post more of a story when I get time to write it, likely in a few days. I will push the photos to a website, as there are many and they tell a story. Tomorrow is Friday, I think, and I should be leaving for Dodge City. In the morning I will take the one road I have not visited, to Wetherill Mesa . Today I took two guided tours. The first to Balcony House was with the same ranger that I met at the evening talk the night before. He was great! Balcony house is the most difficult walk, lots of ladders and squeezing through tiny tunnels, but we all made it.

The second one was Cliff Palace, with a younger ranger, who was able to keep the attention of a lot of little kids and none fell off the cliff (or were pushed) so I guess she did a great job.

I met a cool couple, of course, and I need Anilia and Erica's help to get them some info, but I'll email them personally about that. Let's just say there is less than six degrees of separation.

I then walked a few self-guided trails and found the fire tower for the Mesa, called Park Point and got a good cell phone connection. I think I connected in Arizona! 8500 plus feet and a clear view in all directions. From this site I could see the extent of the forest fire damage. There are dead trees everywhere. What the fire didn't get the beetles did. But lots of new green stuff is growing here too, so it will come around.

Not to waste a minute I drove to the four corners this evening as the sun set and what a visual treat that is. Actually, quite different going west and returning to the east. I had 'that other rider' with me in the form of my shadow on the grass beside the road. I always like that.

My neighbors at the campground with many whining kids packed up and left this morning so I should get a better night sleep. I'll be making the Dodge City run tomorrow and expect to arrive in the early evening. Yeah, right! Gin soaked raisins are still doing their job and the butt is holding out fine.

Lesson learned: There are places with NO connectivity. I think that is the real reason the Ancients left here. Their kids could not IM.

OK, one little teaser photo hot off the sd chip:

The Mesa is Verde, The Ride is Fine

With no connectivity, you will be getting this a day of two after I am writing it. I found the nice people at the Cortez Public Library offered me connectivity and a table to work at. I was in town for a real meal and in search of WiFi.

My trip on Wednesday was a little longer than the map would indicate. Again, the water theme influenced my travel experience. After a last soak in the "Party Pool" at Valley View, I reluctantly struck the tent and packed for departure. It did enter my mind to just stay at Valley View, but the goal was Mesa Verde, and I had to get going.

The ride coincided with "Ride To Work Day" and I am guessing I might have had the best ride to work day of anyone on earth. This photo shows the road out of Valley View. Well, someone has to enjoy the day! Yes, it does say cattle guard, it is a 2000 acre ranch as well as hot springs.

Water continued in the form of two more moderate rain soakings, one in a pass at about 11,000 feet. There was still snow on the side of the road at Wolf Creek pass. I did stop once for a few minutes to wait for the rain to pass, but mostly it was an easy and chilly ride. The rear tire was beginning to show some loss of traction on tar covered road surfaces that are found in a few places. Road construction and an accident of some kind involving fire engines and ambulances delayed me for about 30 minutes in sunny weather, and people going 40 mph in 55 and 65 mph zones with no passing zones frustrated forward progress in what turned out to be the flatest, straightest roads of the day. What were they doing?

Those of you who know me realize that I ride to eat. Finding cool little places are some of the highlights of any trip. I found a winner in Saguache, a tiny town with a few touristy antique stores and an old downtown of two blocks. The highway, Rt 285, runs a block away from downtown, so I took the 30 seconds to tour the whole town.

Back on Rt 285 I saw the word: Tamales. The name of the place was "Dessert First" which sounded like my kind of place. Lucky for me it was after 1pm and the place was not busy. Not lucky for me, it was roundup time, and the workers had eaten all the tamales for that day. So I had brisket bar-b-que and a piece of peanut butter pie for dessert. I ate dessert last just to be different. Sorry, no pictures of the food this time, but let me say that it was good, and just a little too much. I got it all down. I met a woman from Maryland using the wi-fi, and mumbling under her breath at the laptop. Reminded me of home. She is the wife of an artist doing shows in the area (as in three-state area) and is staying with friends that live in this town. She told me how to pronounce the name of the town (think of a person with a NY accent say "So whatch ya want?" and drop the "ya want." It seems that there are a group of artists in this town as well as the downtown antiques area. It deserved some photos, but the camera remained in the tank bag.

Back on the road I filled up with $4.45 regular. I am getting great gas mileage here, about 50 mpg which leads me to beleive that someone in the past tuned this bike for high altitude. It is running strong and feeling good. However, that 1500 miles of mid-west interstate have taken their toll on the rear tire. So in the town of Del Norte I took a break to call in an order for a new rear tire to be sent to Dodge City where I will be next. I took some time to visit the local museum and tourist info center where I finally got a map of Colorado and some great advice from the staff there. He told me about some not well known sites that would not be as busy as Mesa Verde, but I will have to save them for another trip.

Last night at 9pm I went to the ranger talk at Mesa Verde. The subject was agriculture but it was packed with little gems that will serve as a good intro to my time here. Interesting facts I learned include that the Ancestral Pueblos only domesticated 'food' animal was the turkey and they also had dogs as pets. The turkey was a fiber producer: They wove cordage from the feathers and used that for clothes and mats. They used the bones to make tools. According to the ranger, a study of the turkey bones in the ruins indicates that they had arthritis, meaning they were old turkeys, so likely not raised only for meat. Turkeys eat bugs, so they may have used them for insect control in their fields as well.

Dogs were used as aids in hunting rabbits and other game, but as the ranger noted, dogs have been man's best friend ever since man cooked a piece of meat on a fire and the dog looked up as if to say "some for me?"

After I finish this post I'll be gearing up and riding the bike to Far View visitor center and getting tickets to take a couple of ranger guided 1 hour tours. I then plan to take a couple of hiking trails which appear on paper to be good chances to take some pictures not filled with tourists as it will be the hot part of the day by that time. I plan to go to town for my t shirt at the Colorado Welcome station and to eat dinner, so likely more food talk in tomorrow's post

At the moment I am sitting at the Knifes Edge restaurant at the campground where they offer all you can eat pancake breakfast. I elected to get the child's plate, and could not finish that!

Lessoned learned was covered in the ranger talk paragraph, but in addition I learned that someone is actually reading this stuff, so I better keep writing. Thanks to the readers and the commenters. I should have a bunch of photos from today that I will put up in google space and give you the url to find them tomorrow.

Ride on ....

Oxymoronic Sign Dept (for my daughters)

From Denver to Valley View Hot Springs

Today was what this trip is all about.

I left Denver at the early hour of 6AM and headed right down Rt 285 into the mountains in the crisp, cool air of morning. It is amazing how much more sun gets to the earth in these mountains than reaches the east coast mountains. As is my practice, I like to ride an hour or so before eating a real breakfast, and today I found a little Mexican bar that said OPEN FOR BREAKFAST so I turned around and enjoyed good food and good people. I got caught up on the news by reading a newspaper, but it looked just like all the news I read two weeks ago. Why do they print the paper every day, they could just send out old ones and save paper.


Anyway, the highways of Colorado are indescribable. I got a laugh out of a warning sign that said: "Attention Motorcyclists: Tight curves ahead next 70 miles." I should have stopped and taken a photo of it. I have never seen such a warning. In fact, there were no tight turns , they were all high speed sweepers that any truck could take at 55mph (or more), so it turned out to be a very relaxed ride. I stopped to take a shot of South Park for your enjoyment as I cleared the pass.



When I arrived at Valley View, the hot springs we visited some 35 years ago, I found a delightful balance of organization without overt commercialism. Nice touches like common rooms with refreshments and not being nickled and dimed for everything one wanted to do. One reasonable fee ($26) covered overnight tent camping and use of all the facilities. While the primary task at hand is soaking up that warm water, there were lots of other things to do here. I availed myself of a very interesting tour of the Orient Land Trust hydro-power plant led by Jay, a geology professor from a university in Arkansas who has spent several summers here as a volunteer. Not only did I learn a lot about the reality of running a hyrdo plant, he told the three of us about the formation of the surrounding mountains and valley which was very interesting to me.
After the tour I hiked up to the highest pool, which was to be the hottest and found it not that hot. They tell me that as the hot water from deep below mixes with snow melt the temps change, and today it was only 96 degrees. I remember that pool being very hot when visiting it in the 70s. Must be global warming, eh?

The place is clothing optional, and I made the mistake of choosing the clothed option, forgetting to remove the wallet from my pocket, so I have very soggy stuff in there. Good that credit cards and the drivers license are made of plastic and that cash survives wet/dry cycles.

Later in the evening I went on a bat tour to see about 250,000 bats emerge from the cave that was the iron mine until 1932. It was a strenuous walk at 9000 feet, but we all made it. The bats emerged at about 8:40pm and it was quite a site against the sky that was illuminated by the setting sun. The walk down was in the dark, but the trail was illuminated by an almost full moon. Now I ask you, could this get any better?

I slept great in my tent beside a stream of warm water, and due to low humidity, woke up in a perfectly dry tent, something I never experience in the east.

I walked down to the office, which is open 24 hours for self-service coffee and snacks for the morning cup of joe and into the showers which was deserted at the hour I got there.

So, now I'm headed up to the hot spring for a morning soak and then pack up and head to Mesa Verde.

Lessons learned:

• Colorado sells 85 octane fuel as the lowest grade. I am told that due to lower oxygen in the air at high altitudes it works just fine. My bike seems to tolerate it OK.

• The geology of the area, including this great valley, holds many mysteries.

• The Mexican free-tailed bats that live here part of the year are all male (almost) and that each night they consume 2-3 tons of bugs. That is a lot of work for 250,000 animals that only weight in at less than half an ounce!
  

Stay tuned for more...

valley view

Another teaser photo. Click on photo to see the big picture ...

Ron is up the creek with a paddle!

Today Linda, Peter and I spent in low-key hanging out, just what the doctor called for. Peter and I worked on the bike, getting the headlight adjuster to work so that the light pattern actually shines on the road in front of the bike instead of looking for stars. This continues our long ago adventures with torturing mechanical components. In high school we worked on cars we had - long gone brands that I doubt any of you are familiar with. Peter had a Goliath Hansa 1100 stationwagon that required an engine rebuild and later a Sunbeam Alpine into which we installed a Hillman engine. I, in turn, got a Hillman sedan (Minx was the model I think) and our friend Pat had a Hillman Minx convertible. Ah, the good old days. Anyway we avoided hurting ourselves compressing a spring that is key to adjusting that headlight, assembled it and had to wait until tonight to go for a test ride. It worked well.

Then we went to eat at a great little place I know my family would enjoy. I had a Brie omelet and marbled Rye, pictured here, and Peter had Eggs Benedict. Linda had grilled cheese with tomatoes and avocado. It is one of those places that require another visit to try more stuff.

We headed from breakfast to Chatfield Dam reservoir for some paddling and swimming. Don't worry motherly types, it took over 30 minutes after eating before we went swimming. We all agitated the water for a short time just enough to get all parts wet and cool (it was 95 degrees here today) and then Peter and I headed out to explore the charted territory by kayak. Peter knows a lot about birds and such. We saw seagulls, pelicans and ducks and lots of smaller birds doing their thing. We paddled up Plum Creek into an area that is usually too shallow to navigate. It was cool, still water with tree seed pods and the like just floating on the surface.

Kind of reminded me of nature's own fly-fishing technique, lacy and lofty pieces spread out on the surface of the water.

The day concluded with a fun dinner of soft tacos unlike anything I have experienced and back home for some computer play and looking over items that Linda brought back from her mother's home - old photos of family members and the like.

Tomorrow I am headed for Mesa Verde but decided to spend some time at the hot springs that Ann and Peter and I visited some 30 years ago. It is now a resort kind of place, and I might camp there depending on how the day goes and continue on to Mesa Verde on Wednesday.

Keep the comments coming, I am enjoying reading them. Didn't take the time to try the podcast, too much fun sharing time with Peter and Linda. These two days reinforce how important relationships are and remind me to never forget that this is the fun stuff of life. Thanks to Peter and Linda for sharing their place and lives with me.


Lessons learned today include that it takes two people to compress that spring not only because it takes four hands, but more important, that it take two heads. Second lesson is that radishes cool the mouth after eating a good portion of green chili sauce on spicy meat and jalapeño pepper salad.

Entering Denver July 12 at 8PM

More to come, but wanted to share this photo which, of course, doesn't do justice to the beauty of the first site of the mountains that are the same as the view that the first human eyes saw many years ago.

Where the rubber hits the road

As is the case on almost all trips that I take, the planned departure time is in some other time zone. My best intentions were to start out at 6-7am on July 11th after spending a short day at work on July 10th. The short day turned into a long day and the final packing went from Thursday night to Friday morning because Thursday night involved some last minute bike tweaking. Well, truth be known, I left changing the oil until the very last minute, as well as checking the valve adjustment.

And another characteristic of leaving is the inevitable need to return for 'one last thing' that, for one reason or another, is fundamental, but not on the proverbial list. I avoided this step, I am happy to report, but now that I am in Denver, I realize the maps of Colorado and the list of places worth visiting are in my living room in Virginia. No problem, I have my target, Mesa Verde National Park, and all the stops will just happen around that. Thanks to technology I have a schedule in Google Calendar so I know what day Ann expects me to arrive in Dodge City, so with that in mind, it is time to play ball. The new gloves I bought for the trip were no where to be found as I was leaving so I am wearing my old ugly gloves. They are well broken in.

Now for a ride report on the trip so far. No phone posted podcasts yet, but I will try that out later today. The first day was to start at an early hour and it shifted to about 10:30am. I was not nuts about it, it just happened. I was going to try to do the Iron Butt Association Saddle Sore 1500 which involves riding 1500 miles in 36 hours and documenting it. You can read all about it at www.ironbutt.com, but one starts by getting a witness to your place and time of departure along with a gas receipt with that same time and date. This is how you learn that gas pump receipts do not always contain valid information. The time is often wrong and I got one that had the wrong YEAR on it. Receipt printers are often empty and it requires a trip inside the store to get a one, wasting even more time. Anyway, many people are reluctant to sign anything and give their name and address when approached by some guy dressed like a Martian and riding a bike loaded for a trip. So, some ten minutes after filling the tank, I got a woman to sign my "Start of Ride" form. The ten minutes did not bother me, as according to my plan I'd be arriving in Denver, exactly 1500 miles from Blacksburg, with many hours to spare. Hold onto that fact a minute or two.

So I hit the road from Blacksburg traveling on US RT 460 to West Virginia and enter I-77, a toll road, in Princeton and travel to I-64 in the Charleston, VW area. I hate paying tolls on a motorcycle, and I end up on two of them so far on this trip. At least the other one (Kansas Turnpike) is humane and gives you a ticket upon entering and you pay at the exit, just once. West Virginia has you stop three times and give the person $1.25. This requires so much work on a bike, but after several tries I have a system that involves wrapping up a quarter in a dollar bill and tucking that little unit of commerce into the zipper of my tankbag so that even with gloves on I can get it out.

At 140 miles into the trip my directions state "Keep LEFT to stay on I-64 for 426.4 miles ..." and then at 189 miles "Entering Kentucky," at 380 miles "Entering Indiana," at 504 miles "Entering Illinois," (where the photo above was taken) and at 633 miles "Entering Missouri." That one sentence about describes everything memorable about the first day, except the weather. I don't really like Interstate highways, but my objective was to get to Denver as soon as I can so my real ride can begin, and God bless Mr. Eishenhour, his road system is ideal for that task.

The weather on our ten day train trip was ideal. Sunny and not too hot. I was fearing for all rain for the bike part of the vacation, but Thursday was ideal, sunny and moderate temperatures, until at about milepost 130 on Illinois I-64, the western sky turned VERY black. However, it was just the slightest bit south of my projected path of travel (travel in the mid-west being in some cardinal compass direction, in this case straight west) so I imagined that I might be able to skirt the weather event by riding just to the north of it. Silly Person, the weather is moving from the southwest to the northeast, so it will get me. Add to this that we are now traveling in farming country.

You have heard of the plight of the family farm in the US, haven't you? This is the area where they were. There is nothing out here. Very few overpasses to hide under. The Interstate is the overpass, and most of them are over little rivers and train tracks. Exits have no services, and there are not that many exits. Big lightning now in that big, black wall of cloud dead ahead. What to do? What is Plan B? I do not even have Plan A. Emergency planner, eh? How about prayer? That works.

Here comes a sign for Exit 100. There is a sign that has a Marathon Gas logo on it, and I say to myself, "I am eating dinner INSIDE that gas station." As I exit the ramp at about 25 mph, figuring out that the only building visible must be the gas station, a big old gust of wind about runs me off the road. Heading toward the building I see another motorcycle headlight and I pull around with him to what turned out to be the leeward side of the bulding, park, grab my magnetic tankbag and run inside. I got maybe ten raindrops. As the other biker and I enter and I start taking off gear, I hear the lady working there say that they are predicting 70 mph winds and dime size hail. She lets us know that if it becomes a twister, we are all to go into the men's room, a one-holer as they say, so it will be cozy.

Oh, and on the gear part, the other guy is riding with a t shirt on and a half helmet with sun glasses. I ask about rain gear and he says he is thinking of getting that next. He was traveling from Kentucky to Saint Louis! I guess my prayer was really for him, not for me.

So we spend some quality time there, eating a pre-packaged turkey and man-made cheese sandwich on whole wheat and some fruit juice (new age, "I never heard of that fruit" packaged product that has even permeated the rural C-Store market), and as time rolls on and buckets of rain fall, a cup of coffee to go with the thanks that I am not out there. No hail, but strong winds for a long time.

Now add two hours at exit 100 to the 10 minutes at the start point and we are now trying to ride 1500 miles in 33 hours and 50 minutes. No problem, we have hours to spare.

Rain gear on, ready to ride into Saint Louis traffic on Friday after rush hour in light intermittent rain. Into the sun, like I told you not to do. At this point in the ride I was planning to be riding north to St. Joseph, MO to avoid that sun in the eyes.

And the bright headlight on the new fairing? Bright, but aimed at treetops, and the adjuster just turns, doing nothing. One more to fix in the morning, lots of light on the city portions and using cars lights as I head west across Missouri towards Kansas ...

A good dinner at Waffle House (the standard cheese and eggs, raisin toast and grits - covers all the food groups) and a good nights sleep end the first day in Warrenton, Missouri Days Inn with only 696 miles, a moving average of 66 mph and an overall average of 55 mph with 10.5 hours moving and 3.5 hours stopped. Not quite enough miles and too many hours, but I did knock off five states. The weather report for the next day for looked great, intermittent, light thundershowers for the Kansas City area. Sun all the way for the next few days is the story from weather.com.

Lessons learned? Check the head light by riding at NIGHT before going on a trip and pack all your stuff (at least put into a pile near the bike) well before departure day. Not leaving a day after returning from another trip might help too! It was good. I am a happy camper!

Transition from train to bike / health tips

I am sitting in the Washington DC Union station waiting for our train to load that will complete our round trip from Lynchburg, Virginia to New Orleans (and on to Baton Rouge) and returning via Washington, DC to attend a conference. By early morning on the 10th we will be in our own beds after nine nights on the road. It will be good!

We enjoyed the trip, especially visiting family on both ends of the route. I will go to work on July 10th and then return home to finalize the bike and pack all the gear in order to get on the road for points West. I will likely leave early in the morning on July 11th and head for Denver.

I have two unrelated but valuable points to communicate to someone: and that may be you, who knows. One is mental health related and the other is physical health related.

First mental health. Ann and I went to Target to get a greeting card and spent about an hour (really more maybe) reading all the funny cards. We felt so much better after doing this that it is hard to describe. So next time you are feeling down or just bored, visit the local card rack and get a boost. No appointment needed, no co-pay and you don't even have to tell anyone anything. Totally internal, self-help. Free, legal and available in your home town. Don't do it too often as it may be habit forming, and the people will get to know you as the guy (or gal) that keeps reading the cards. Buy one from time-to-time as a cover for your therapy.

Now for physical help. Arthritis. It hurts. Anti-inflamatories help, but who wants to take a lot of that? So I have been hearing the 'gin soaked raisin' cure for years on the People's Pharmacy radio show on NPR. I finally decided my long term hand pain is arthritis, and decided to try the cure. They said it would take a month of eating nine raisins a day to take effect. So I was surprised that after about ten days I realized I no longer had pain in my hand. I've been doing it about three weeks and so far it is working well. Google 'gin soaked raisins' for more info. Heck, for some, just drink the gin. That might work as well! And keep in mind that I am no doctor, so if it makes you turn blue, too bad.

That's all for today. I'm planning to post podcasts from the road, so keep an eye on the podcast link on the left side of the blog page. If you subscribe (don't ask me how you do that) you will somehow get new ones like majic as I record them.

See you down the road....

Podcast

In order to gain control of more of your precious time, I have created the first of what I hope to be periodic podcasts describing my motorcycle experiences. You can listen by clicking on the podcast link on the left in the Links section.

Creating a podcast was spurred on by my participation in a conference in Washington the week of July 7th intended to introduce the technology we call Web 2.0 to College and University Food Service management. I figured that if I were playing an expert I better have at least published a blog and podcast! I beat the presentation by days!

Anyone who is interested in publishing a podcast should take a look at gcast.com and it's sister music site, garageband.com. Do not do this if you have important things to do, as it will take a long time to listen to a lot of music. I recorded my voice with an Olympus voice recorder in my garage, used Audacity to mix and edit content and gcast.com tools to publish this podcast.

Want to hear the music in its entirety? There are some vocals about 4 minutes into it. I used only the first 1 or 2 minutes and looped and edited it.

Let me know what you think.