Thought for the day

My other blog

http://logicalconsequence.blogspot.com/

The deal with charter schools was if you give us the money we will produce the results.  They now have the money and autonomy, but they no longer want the accountability.

The profit motive has destroyed whatever moral authority the charter school movement had.  They, or at least the majority of E-schools in my opinion,  are beholden to the financial interests who hide behind for profit management companies.    Private does not mean better.

Throw in some corruption, weak boards,  and lack of oversight and you have a disaster for the education system, students, and taxpayers.


Results matter.  Ethics matter.


http://logicalconsequence.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-375-gpa.html

Day Five concluded, or wrestling with a beast

So I left the honor guard in Dillon and in an effort to stay off the interstates, I decided that highway 9 would get me to where I wanted to go.  This plan was generally north towards Rocky Mountain National Park.  Perhaps I would take a detour up to Steamboat Springs.  Lots of possibilities when you have no definite destination.  It was another pretty two lane road heading out of Dillon.  There was a sign that said road construction ahead and that there could be a possible 45 minute delay.  No big deal, I have run into lots of road construction on the trip.  Not a lot of information from a flashing road sign.

A Honda Goldwing weighs 844 pounds without any gear.  Throw on my gear and an overweight rider and you are probably approaching 1200 pounds riding on the footprint the size of the soles of two shoes. 

What the flashing sign neglected to say was instead of road construction, this was road destruction.  The geniuses at the DOT had decided to completely remove the road for about 10-15 miles.

I am already more than a  little worn out after riding across half the state.  It is warm and I am hot.  Now the road turns to gravel.  They have water trucks spraying it down to eliminate the dust.  They stop all of the traffic a couple of miles in.  The DOT  then has the entire road bed removed and it becomes a one lane unpaved road.  So we stop and wait.  I am tired of sitting so I stand and watch huge earth moving mining type trucks roll past me.  I wait for another 20 minutes before traffic from the other directions starts moving down the one lane road.  I wait for another 20 minutes for more trucks to roll by followed by another water truck.

We get started.  The road surface is bad.  Parts of it are muddy.  There are ruts.  This is not the natural habitat for  my motorcycle.  I  stay incredibly focused, as I suspect that if I crash it will hurt.  I consider crashing a fairly high probability.  Hopefully just some bruising, some minor rash and some sore muscles to this body if I do crash.  I am a long way from home.  I hope the driver behind my does not run me over if I do crash.  I wish I had knobby tires and a light motorcycle instead of this beast.  It takes a long time to travel 10 mils at 20 mph.  We stop the caravan one more time to let other traffic and trucks pass by again.

I do not crash.  I navigate the road successfully.  All part of the adventure.

 

 

I stop at a gas station in Kremmling, Colorado.  Not much of a town.  I am tired and dirty.  My pretty motorcycle  looks like I have ridden through multiple mud puddles.  I consider it a badge of honor but this is not the kind of motorcycle that should be splatted with mud in dry Colorado.  They probably could have made some extra money by selling clean underwear to motorcyclist who had just ridden through a construction zone.

It is 6:00 at night.  A Chinese man in a rental car approaches me.  He wants directions to RMNP.  I whip out my phone and show him the directions.  I am pretty sure he does not appreciate that it is a two hour drive to the park and another 3 hours to get through it.

I use my  phone and look for reasonably priced accommodations.  Seeing none in Steamboat, which is also out of my way, I decide on Winter Park and found a nice Best Western to rest my bones.

I also had a very good meal at Pepe Osaka’s Fish Taco and Tequila Bar.  I wonder where the Chinese guy ended up?

 

Too close for comfort

Thought for the evening

Day Five part two

So I roll out of the mountains and back to the valleys and plains into Salida, Co.  A little north of there I have a choice to go to Leadville or head towards Fairplay and over to Breckenridge.  I have been to Leadville so I decide to go to Breckenridge. 

The ride to Fairplay is flat and kind of boring.  A long straight road in the valley with mountain ranges on each side.  It is also the home  of Southpark, or so they claim.

I pass through Alma where they claim to have the highest bar in the land.  Then up and over another spectacular mountain pass.  Another fine ride.

Breckenridge is busy.  A very pretty town but very commercialized and Disneyfied.  At one time it was a mining town.  Now it is home to expensive shops, parking meters  and restaurants.  I see European tourists dressed in  designer clothes.  Everyone else appears that they are about to set forth on a mountain trek and are wearing their hiking boots and hiking gear.   A little too perfect.  I feel underdressed in my jeans, boots and t-shirt.  But it is a beautiful day.  I have some lunch after searching for something reasonably priced and pretty normal. 


Beautiful scenery, beautiful homes, and beautiful people.  I conclude it is good to be at least semi-wealthy.

At this time I still have thoughts about getting up to Rocky Mountain National Park so I head out.  From Breckenridge to the freeway is filled with commercial developments, condos and anything else you might need for a civilized escape from Denver.  A little too civilized for me.  Give me some old stuff, something that feels real not artificial.

Maybe I should have gone to Leadville.

I gas up in Dillon.  I pull into a gas station filled with bikes.  They are part of an honor guard veterans group that travels the country and delivers flags to families who had service men/women die while serving our country.   A flag is something I never want to receive.   A pretty poor trade, my Marine son for a flag from a grateful nation.  I chat with a few of the members.  They are from Oregon and heading for Sturgis.  They are not that friendly.  Gives my brain more stuff to think about.

Regrets

Day Five

Sometimes my planning is efficient.  Sometimes  it is not.  Sometimes the Colorado Department of Transportation screws with my plan.

I am on vacation so time and efficiency is not really a priority.  However, it still kind of bugs me that I did not plan a better route.  Today I must backtrack.  My goal is to ride through Rocky Mountain National Park.  I am on the western end of the state.  RMNP is in the northeastern corner.    I have been to Grand Junction, it was boring and then I would have to go on the freeway which is also boring.  Although mountain freeways are much more interesting than those in the plain states.  So I elect to backtrack.  I am sure I am missing some good roads somewhere but the mountains and limited roads interfere with efficiency.  As a bonus, the ride through Monarch Pass was beautiful and I would get to do it again.

After sufficient contemplation, I decide that I would like to go check out Breckenridge.  I have never been there.  I will see how close I get to RMNP. 

I ride out of Montrose in the morning, through the Black Canyon and into Gunnison.  A little different perspective traveling west to east.  It is still strange seeing this reservoir in what appears to be a desert.  It occurs to me that I like trees and greenery. 

I get to the Monarch Pass and there are three slow moving vehicles slowing me down.  It is painful to go slow on a great road.  I am patient.  I see a straightaway before a curve in the road and no traffic coming towards me.  I kick it down two gears and pass the three offending vehicles.  While perhaps not an entirely legal passing area, I feel like Mario Andretti, who just made an incredible pass.

Because the offending vehicles had been going so slow, there was no one in front of me.  I blasted up the mountain using both lanes with a huge smile on my face.  Nice, fast, sweeping turns unlike those I rode on last night.

At the top of the mountain, they had road construction and stopped all traffic going down the mountain.  I made small talk with some other motorcyclists.  One was from Los Angeles, another from Arizona. 

We all were on great adventures.