Out of Chaos

why? because they clear the head. A meditative state of time slipping on the tarmac flying by the side of consciousness as the blur of the dotted line and passing sage brush blends like a dream.

here is my story... part of it anyway

Road trips are always good for the soul. So I took a quicki up to Jackson Wyoming to see how the BMW K100RS does on a long day with it’s Corbin saddle and loaded with clean undies, socks and tent and bag and SCHTUFF….

The trip was ok. The run up hurt. Going across I-80 in Wyoming is masochistic for the motorcycle with out a mongo touring faring. My head was getting buffeted like an ice cube in a blender…. I could only go 100 miles and had to stop and rest my skull neck shoulders and arms. Took 9 hours to go Loveland to Fort Collins, to Larime, to Rock Springs and up North from there on 191 to Jackson. The run was getting surreal from running about 10-20 mph faster then traffic and the head wind drama. I did get hit by one gust down draft that was a combo of round the bluff coming around into Rock Springs and passing an 18 wheeler at the same time, this burst of air hit me that sent me left, hard, the pitch of the bike was a good lean then to correct and keep on the road and fighting the wind burst resulted in a wobble wobble body English thing. Damn. It was not a scare the crap out of me type event since I have experienced that sort of thing before and I was expecting it, just not expecting it to be THAT big! By the time I got to Jackson I found a place to park, called Phaelan, and wandered into the first place that looked like it would have a burger… Cowboy’s … a funny bar that is all rhinestone cowboy crap and fake touristy garbage…. Oh well, burger and a coors and a nice chat with a waitress who was heading back to MN for grad school in exercise physiology.

Found Susan’s house after that, climbed her fence and used the back door per directions and met the cat, dropped all my gear, took a shower and fell asleep. There are all sorts of details like the parasail folks land in a meadow in sight of Susan’s, like the cat, Zoie drank water out of my hand from the faucet for more then a minute and so I cleaned her water dish, she seemed thankful and the dead field mouse next to my helmet the next morning confirmed that! Details ya know…. Like the pair of blue herons I saw on the way up hogback canyon (hog something anyway) and bug cleaning from the face shield that made a harley rider chuckle… Steve from Maryland and chatting with him at a gas station… so many little details.

But anyway, I slept late Wednesday and asked a local for the best breakfast place, found Bubba’s, found Teton Mountaineering to get a topo map and talked to Parker for a while about bikes and ended up instead of heading into the park ($20 dollars to go thru the blankity blankity gates!) I went up Teton Pass on 22 looking for a trail head to a 2 mile hike up to Ski lake. Missed the trail head and only saw one for Phillips Canyon… So I asked a cute girl on a Colagno road bike with Dura Ace group and real nice Mavik wheels… and she indicated yup, Phillips canyon is the trail head to get to Ski lake. So up I went. Here is a shot of this cool throne like set of rocks and that seemed like a good place to enjoy a cigar, write in my journal and eat some snacks.

ski lake cigar

Susan who had not been there Tue night cause she was taking a client up the Grand Teton for Exum guides, was held up by that client being slower then an 8 yr old tying shoes while watching tv….. she got home at 9:30 pm…. So we had a hug and a brief chat… bummer cause I had to be on the road about 7 am Thursday to be able to get Phaelan at the end of the day from daycamp….

So, I busted hump on the way home, left at 7:30 and got home at 3pm… I hauled some BMW arse! Took a different route home by way of going north out of town to get to 287 and take that all the way south to Rawlins…. That is a neat stretch of road. Along the north side of the medicine mountains and across some high desert areas where the road had one car if that on it and went straight to the horizon. I keep the bike in triple digits just about the whole way. Only one time did I have to brake hard for a momma and baby antelope. ( I want to go back to split rock wy and see what that is all about… )

As I pulled into Loveland, there was a bunch of kids on bikes stopping traffic… PHAELAN! So I zipped across a couple of streets to get to the next bike path street crossing and got there just as the first kids were and the counselor was watching cars ignore the stop for pedestrians on cross walk signs….. so I pulled up, put on my flashers and blocked traffic with my bike…. =^) and beeped the loud horn on the beast when PDM showed up! Cool timing.

So that was the quicki trip. 1,000 miles. Bike works!

Sitting on the doc of the bay kind of moment. The pup is knawing on bone on the front porch, cats are lurking, cat sytle, NPR has the 9pm show on ... something 'the world cafe' a bunch of coffee house folky jazz scztuff... .. .. .. good beat mama on that ... ya ya .... bum da bim da boom... :-p Here are some pics... for yoUr review... friends

... this is Phaelan and her neighbor here at the town house... izzy bo bizzy. The play A LOT ... this is one of Loveland's concert/things in the park...the pirate was not very exciting . . . oh well, free! Everyweek they have a play date and bounce between the houses... pretty darn cute and lucky...

Last weekend I took Berah Keenan and PDM to our mutual friends wedding reception slash contra dance... this dress PDM picked, fit right in! She did real well with the dance especially since it was the experts night and they did not spend much time explaining what they were going to do so we had to go free for all till I caught on and PDM being PDM, she caught on fast and did really well... she had one big ol smile! Seen here in front of the cake... cake and grins

...

this last week I snagged me one of dem der sinitus... was goofy yesterday as i was not fully cognizent of what blimey time it was... went to ft collins twice and then finally ended up over at Bobby's and she and I went went Ruby dog to get some Wasabi... green heat, at a sushi place... it kinda dented the sinus area but not really... I have also been experiencing the joys of Neti Pot you know it is always a touch odd even tho I know it is a whole yogic thing.. to put water UP my nose hole......

but, sat i will run out to Hall ranch for a mt bike ride with at least one other fellow, then home and likely put about then sleep

sunday i will be scrubbing rubber of some new tires on the new to me brick... see what the beast does in the twisties. Hope that a pal of mine joins and we can do brunch. she threatened to go to sturgis on the back of red brick and with that i picked up water /dry bags that would work as a set up for the red bike... so i can either put two sleeping bags, one on top of each pannier and tent on back behind seat and a dry bag above that and that all should be good for two up trips to any distance... that is what laundry mats are for.... stop in, load up some loads, go get breakfast, load to dryer, go get coffee, then pack and continue trip.... zoom zoom.

i am kinda excited to see how the red bike does on trips. the blue bike was a bit rough, has more soul, but for big distance, ouch.... a lot of buffetting at highway speeds. the red, is an autobahn machine... she likes to fly.. so i will have to moderate for speed trap calulations and slow when where risk is higher and open a bit where i might. zoom za zoom.

ack... guinness and burger indegestion... that echanatia is a bear on my belly.... i am going to crash... if puppy will calm down... she is terrorizing my old shirt / her blanky.... silly puppy.

gnight friends!