New trend

Day three, I got lucky

Oh Blogger you are a bastard.  I just lost a post when I tried to hit spell check.  I was pretty satisfied with the draft and now it is gone forwever.  Here we go again.

Day 3. 

I hit the Colorado border.  I had forgotten that eastern Colorado is a lot like Kansas and that is not a good thing.  High plains, with not much to look at.  I have lots of time to think and listen to music. Where are the damn mountains.  High plains drifter is a pretty good description of what I am doing and feeling like on a six cylinder motorcycle.  

A hundred miles or so across more plains and I hit the town of  Lindon, Colorado.  This is where I hang a left to Colorado Springs.  The hard part is done.  Time to continue with my well considered and constructed plan: Go to mountains, ride some great roads.  Avoid interstates and heavy traffic. Don't crash.

Lindon is a dump.  It has the usual interstate fast food joints and a couple of newer hotels. It also has an old main street that once had a theater, store fronts and old motels.  They are now boarded up and it is a very sad looking town.  The interstate passed main street by and main street is not coming back.  They have a sad looking trailer park.  Who would live here?  Who is stuck here?  It looks like a good place to go if you did not want to be found.

Somehow I expected more from Colorado.  Northern and eastern Ohio as well as parts of West Virginia and Kentucky are full of these dying little towns.  Well past their prime.

I think about how one would revive such a town.  I have no answers.  This is too hard, I am on vacation.  I digress....

Somewhere around Lindon I see the mountains.  14,000 feet, some with snow on the top. It is a great sight seeing the silhouette of these beauties from miles away.

I head to Colorado Springs on an old two lane highway.  I pass a speed trap.  Not today.

I regroup at a McDonalds in Colorado Springs.  They are having a sale on large drinks for $1 in those large styrofoam cups.  Part of my hydration plan.  Those cups fit perfectly in my fancy cup holder mounted to the handlebars.  Annoyingly sometimes those lids blow off.  SO I am always replenishing my drink and stash some extra lids in the tank bag.

I look at my maps and update my phone.  Cripple Creek Colorado is pretty close.  I always liked that song.  My vague plan has now been updated. I head to the mountains on a two lane road through red rock canyons.  It is awesome...

To be continued....

Out of order

I am over 200 posts.  3000+ hits which is pretty puny

Well this posting is not working out quite like I expected.

While on my motorcycle adventure I wrote a few notes intending to post the details later.  However, whenI edit them it posts on the day of the edit which screws up the order. A good story or even a bad story should have proper order.

A quick note form the road.

Day
Saw some spectacular scenery.  I saw elk,deer and antelope.

I also ran into a lot of road construction.

In the saddle from 9 to 9 and still did not make it to Yellowstone.

Kansas sucked and Another long day

My recollection of Kansas is not very positive.  It was flat, boring and too fucking hot.  On the second day of my trip I rode from Kingdom City, Missouri to Colby, Kansas.

A light rain in the morning.  Then the clouds burned off and it became brutally hot.

They have a toll on the road from Kansas City to Topeka.  I feel like sending Kansas a bill.

If Kingdom City was supposed to honor God, I think he/she would be disappointed.

Nothing to see.  Fields and the further west you go, less agriculture.  The temperature reached 100 degrees.

The sun cooks you, even at 85 mph.  I would hit every rest stop and soak my shirt and pour water in my helmet.  By the next rest stop, it would be completely dry.  I managed to stay hydrated.  It was brutal.  I cannot imagine doing this trip on a horse as some of our pioneers did.

I took my gloves off and the top of my hands started getting sunburned.

I was involved in a race.  I like racing.  Someone wins and someone loses.  In this case I was the only contestant.  Would I get to Colby Kansas before getting dumped on?  I was going 85 mph west and the storm was going an unknown speed east.  It was going to be close.  I really wanted to get to Colorado.  This is what stopped me.

II made it by less than 10 minutes.  t was quite a fierce and dangerous storm.  The rain was coming down in sheets.  Lightning, wind and thunder.   The TV weatherman was having an orgasm.  If I had lost the race I do not think I could have ridden through this one.

I had a couple of granola bars and called it a night.

Tell 'em I'm fine

So I can call just to tell 'em I'm fine, and to show
I've overcome the blow
I've learned to take it well
I only wish my words
Could just convince myself
That it just wasn't real
But that's not the way it feels

Some times times I think way too much

I spend too much time thinking about past mistakes or worrying about future events, that I spend very little time in the here and now.   Rumination is unhealthy.

Not Saying....

Back to school

No back to school preparations for me this year.  That feels a little different.  Perhaps my son will start college when he completes his military service.

Daylight is getting shorter.  Pretty soon traffic will pick up.  No tuition payments!

It also reminds of the scam that is being perpetrated in Ohio. It has an impact on Cincinnati and even excellent suburban school districts like Forrest Hills. 

I do remain surprised that the ex-wife, Marie C. Hanna and Raymond Michael Lambert remain employed and being paid by the taxpayers of Ohio.  Apparently there is no prohibition or against moral turpitude in Ohio Connections Academy or Pearson.  Fraud, self dealing, and adultery come to mind.  I have seen many school administrators tainted with less have their career end suddenly.  See my prior posts for more details.  We should expect more from school administrators and superintendents. 

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7646236209855165689#editor/target=post;postID=5985890008965023554;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=181;src=postname

http://dangerousdavidworld.blogspot.com/2013/08/quid-pro-quo-unethical.html


I could save the taxpayers humdreds of thousands of dollars, and improve the ethical pool by putting the two of them on the homewreckers website.  http://shesahomewrecker.com/category/hahw/

The entire online for profit charter school in Ohio is a billion dollar scam in my opinion.

Tesla

Zen, the motorcycle, and the boy from Minnesota

“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

A very interesting book by the way.

As the old adage goes, sometimes is not the destination, but the journey.

 I wanted to see if I could do it.  Solo.  Travel to the mountains on a motorcycle.   Ride  world class roads.  Cross the high plains on a powerful machine.  Depend on no one but myself.  Arriving in the Rocky Mountains by car or plane is one thing.  Arriving after two days of hard travel in the heat across the prairie is like Moses first  viewing the promised land.

Plenty of time for me to  think.  A chance to assert my independence, confidence and resourcesfulness.

A successful journey. 

More thoughts to follow….Some posts to edit from the trip.  Perhps some photos.

Bear Tooth Pass

A picture from the road.  Another great day!