Not a ride report. Just some things I saw and thought about
while riding from Kansas City to Boise, Idaho and back last
week. Link to some pictures of the trip. Nothing fancy.
http://home.earthlink.net/~andythebarber/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
People driving cars and pickups in Kansas and Nebraska wave at you when
you're riding on 2 lane highways. People driving cars and pickups in
Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado do not.
Southeast Wyoming has little flying black bugs that are as dense as the
depleted uranium fuel used in military ammunition. Unaffected by the
updraft created by the windshield, they will drill you right in the
forehead and bounce off. They don't splatter on the windshield, either.
They just ricochet back into the air like a large BB.
Atomic City, Idaho is worth the time to visit if you're in the area. The
store opens at noon and closes at 8:00 PM. I got there at 11:00 AM, so I
didn't get a chance to go in. I spent about 15 minutes there and didn't
see one living thing. No people, no cats, no dogs, not even a bug.
Pretty weird. I felt like I might have been in a Stephen King story.
Urbanized cows. Yes...urbanized cows. A phenomenon I discovered on this
trip. First, they're not all "cows." A cow is the mature female of the
bunch, but for this conversation a cow is any member of the domesticated
bovine species. I digress. On to the interesting part. <yawn> Cows who
live in very rural parts of the country and rarely see/hear vehicles
will take off like a AA Fueler at the sound of my oogah horn. Urbanized
cows, OTOH, are accustomed to the sounds of vehicles and merely glance
my way saying, "Oh look...someone with a horn. How cute," and then go
back to doing cow things. The really tough cows flip me off.
You don't need 6 T-shirts on a 5-6 day trip.
Green River, Utah has gnats. Lots of 'em. Mosquitoes, too. Another motel
guest and I tried to have a conversation in the parking lot, but the
swarms of bugs were too much for us. When I left Green River early the
next morning I stopped about 10 miles outside of town to take a picture.
I was immediately engulfed in a cloud of gnats. Pretty weird. I felt
like I might have been in an Alfred Hitchcock story.
It is entirely possible to get a sunburned lower lip. Also, sunscreen
tastes bad and does little to relieve the pain of a sunburned lower lip.
Speeding for long distances does not get you to your destination a whole
lot sooner than if you went the speed limit. I averaged about 42 mpg at
70 mph, but 35 mpg at 80+. After figuring in the extra fuel stops from
going 80+ it appears that I'd shave a mere 25 minutes off a 500 mile leg
of the trip. That's the way it worked for me, any-hoo. YMMV. (Pun intended.)
The desert south of Salt Lake City along Highway 6 is breathtaking. Period.
Saw a dead whooping crane hanging from power lines in central Kansas.
Just hanging there...upside down...looked as if someone hung it there by
its foot. Whooping cranes don't sit on power lines. They are water fowl.
I'd love to know how it got there.
Came upon two good (bad?) accidents. The first was a T-bone north of
Lander, WY. Traffic was blocked for about 45 minutes while 3 ambulances
packed folks up and rushed off. The second was a rollover on the
interstate about 20 miles outside of Boise. I was the third vehicle on
the scene. A trucker and a State Trooper beat me there. I was about to
stop and lend a hand, but I saw the lights of the "cavalry" (more
troopers, ambulances and FD units) crest the hill about a quarter mile
away, so I just kept going so I wouldn't get in their way.
In regards to the above-mentioned crashes, there were large numbers of
State Troopers at/going to each one. OTOH, while riding across the
various states I rarely saw a trooper. It's like they materialize out of
thin air during an emergency. That, of course, is a silly notion. In
reality they pop up from underneath the highway like a jet fighter on an
elevator in an aircraft carrier.
I haven't found a really bad Motel 6 yet. Some were borderline, but for
the money they were fine. In Salina KS I wandered into the Motel 6 and
asked for a room. They guy said all they had was a handicap accessible
room for the same price. Big bed, walk-in shower. I took it. Being late
in the evening, the place was packed and there were no parking spots in
which I felt comfortable leaving the bike. I asked the clerk if I could
part in front of the office so they could watch it. He said I could park
in the handicap parking spot directly in front of the door to my room.
He assured me the cops wouldn't roll by and hang some paper on it, so I
did. In the morning as I was putting my things in the saddlebags, there
were other people milling about. I felt bad about parking in the
handicap spot, so I limped when I walked with the hopes that no one
would question my parking there. I really did that. Probably won't ever
do it again. I felt quite guilty.
North of Salt Lake City I observed a number of what appeared to be smoke
plumes from small fires in a huge field that covered many square miles.
Very unusual. They were quite distant. Got closer and noticed that the
field was barren and covered with dust. The fires seemed to be changing
locations, too. They weren't fires at all...they were whirlwinds. About
half a dozen of them, all several hundred feet tall at least. One came
across the interstate just as I passed and I rode through it. To be
honest, I wasn't sure what would happen, but it just buffeted me for a
second and that was that.
Overall - a fine and pleasant trip. Never saw a drop of rain. Rode 1500
miles to have dinner for 3 hours with 2 cousins and one aunt, and then
the next morning headed back home. Grand total was 3,051 miles. Left
Wednesday the 9th of July, returned Monday morning the 14th at 10:30 AM.
Mileage ranged from 52 mpg through Salt Lake City, to 31 mpg outside of
Boise while fighting a headwind so fierce that my fairing started
warming up like the heat tiles on a space shuttle re-entering the
atmosphere. Pretty weird. I felt like I might have been in
a...well...you know.
Andy aka Big Stinkie wrote:
> Not a ride report. Just some things I saw and thought about
> while riding from Kansas City to Boise, Idaho and back last
> week. Link to some pictures of the trip. Nothing fancy.
> http://home.earthlink.net/~andythebarber/
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> People driving cars and pickups in Kansas and Nebraska wave at you when
> you're riding on 2 lane highways. People driving cars and pickups in
> Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado do not.
> Southeast Wyoming has little flying black bugs that are as dense as the
> depleted uranium fuel used in military ammunition. Unaffected by the
> updraft created by the windshield, they will drill you right in the
> forehead and bounce off. They don't splatter on the windshield, either.
> They just ricochet back into the air like a large BB.
> Atomic City, Idaho is worth the time to visit if you're in the area. The
> store opens at noon and closes at 8:00 PM. I got there at 11:00 AM, so I
> didn't get a chance to go in. I spent about 15 minutes there and didn't
> see one living thing. No people, no cats, no dogs, not even a bug.
> Pretty weird. I felt like I might have been in a Stephen King story.
> Urbanized cows. Yes...urbanized cows. A phenomenon I discovered on this
> trip. First, they're not all "cows." A cow is the mature female of the
> bunch, but for this conversation a cow is any member of the domesticated
> bovine species. I digress. On to the interesting part. <yawn> Cows who
> live in very rural parts of the country and rarely see/hear vehicles
> will take off like a AA Fueler at the sound of my oogah horn. Urbanized
> cows, OTOH, are accustomed to the sounds of vehicles and merely glance
> my way saying, "Oh look...someone with a horn. How cute," and then go
> back to doing cow things. The really tough cows flip me off.
> You don't need 6 T-shirts on a 5-6 day trip.
> Green River, Utah has gnats. Lots of 'em. Mosquitoes, too. Another motel
> guest and I tried to have a conversation in the parking lot, but the
> swarms of bugs were too much for us. When I left Green River early the
> next morning I stopped about 10 miles outside of town to take a picture.
> I was immediately engulfed in a cloud of gnats. Pretty weird. I felt
> like I might have been in an Alfred Hitchcock story.
> It is entirely possible to get a sunburned lower lip. Also, sunscreen
> tastes bad and does little to relieve the pain of a sunburned lower lip.
> Speeding for long distances does not get you to your destination a whole
> lot sooner than if you went the speed limit. I averaged about 42 mpg at
> 70 mph, but 35 mpg at 80+. After figuring in the extra fuel stops from
> going 80+ it appears that I'd shave a mere 25 minutes off a 500 mile leg
> of the trip. That's the way it worked for me, any-hoo. YMMV. (Pun intended.)
> The desert south of Salt Lake City along Highway 6 is breathtaking. Period.
> Saw a dead whooping crane hanging from power lines in central Kansas.
> Just hanging there...upside down...looked as if someone hung it there by
> its foot. Whooping cranes don't sit on power lines. They are water fowl.
> I'd love to know how it got there.
> Came upon two good (bad?) accidents. The first was a T-bone north of
> Lander, WY. Traffic was blocked for about 45 minutes while 3 ambulances
> packed folks up and rushed off. The second was a rollover on the
> interstate about 20 miles outside of Boise. I was the third vehicle on
> the scene. A trucker and a State Trooper beat me there. I was about to
> stop and lend a hand, but I saw the lights of the "cavalry" (more
> troopers, ambulances and FD units) crest the hill about a quarter mile
> away, so I just kept going so I wouldn't get in their way.
> In regards to the above-mentioned crashes, there were large numbers of
> State Troopers at/going to each one. OTOH, while riding across the
> various states I rarely saw a trooper. It's like they materialize out of
> thin air during an emergency. That, of course, is a silly notion. In
> reality they pop up from underneath the highway like a jet fighter on an
> elevator in an aircraft carrier.
> I haven't found a really bad Motel 6 yet. Some were borderline, but for
> the money they were fine. In Salina KS I wandered into the Motel 6 and
> asked for a room. They guy said all they had was a handicap accessible
> room for the same price. Big bed, walk-in shower. I took it. Being late
> in the evening, the place was packed and there were no parking spots in
> which I felt comfortable leaving the bike. I asked the clerk if I could
> part in front of the office so they could watch it. He said I could park
> in the handicap parking spot directly in front of the door to my room.
> He assured me the cops wouldn't roll by and hang some paper on it, so I
> did. In the morning as I was putting my things in the saddlebags, there
> were other people milling about. I felt bad about parking in the
> handicap spot, so I limped when I walked with the hopes that no one
> would question my parking there. I really did that. Probably won't ever
> do it again. I felt quite guilty.
> North of Salt Lake City I observed a number of what appeared to be smoke
> plumes from small fires in a huge field that covered many square miles.
> Very unusual. They were quite distant. Got closer and noticed that the
> field was barren and covered with dust. The fires seemed to be changing
> locations, too. They weren't fires at all...they were whirlwinds. About
> half a dozen of them, all several hundred feet tall at least. One came
> across the interstate just as I passed and I rode through it. To be
> honest, I wasn't sure what would happen, but it just buffeted me for a
> second and that was that.
> Overall - a fine and pleasant trip. Never saw a drop of rain. Rode 1500
> miles to have dinner for 3 hours with 2 cousins and one aunt, and then
> the next morning headed back home. Grand total was 3,051 miles. Left
> Wednesday the 9th of July, returned Monday morning the 14th at 10:30 AM.
> Mileage ranged from 52 mpg through Salt Lake City, to 31 mpg outside of
> Boise while fighting a headwind so fierce that my fairing started
> warming up like the heat tiles on a space shuttle re-entering the
> atmosphere. Pretty weird. I felt like I might have been in
> a...well...you know.
Good trip I'd say, too funny, Thanks
nobody #1
XML Sitemap
> while riding from Kansas City to Boise, Idaho and back last
> week. Link to some pictures of the trip. Nothing fancy.
> http://home.earthlink.net/~andythebarber/
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> People driving cars and pickups in Kansas and Nebraska wave at you when
> you're riding on 2 lane highways. People driving cars and pickups in
> Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado do not.
> Southeast Wyoming has little flying black bugs that are as dense as the
> depleted uranium fuel used in military ammunition. Unaffected by the
> updraft created by the windshield, they will drill you right in the
> forehead and bounce off. They don't splatter on the windshield, either.
> They just ricochet back into the air like a large BB.
> Atomic City, Idaho is worth the time to visit if you're in the area. The
> store opens at noon and closes at 8:00 PM. I got there at 11:00 AM, so I
> didn't get a chance to go in. I spent about 15 minutes there and didn't
> see one living thing. No people, no cats, no dogs, not even a bug.
> Pretty weird. I felt like I might have been in a Stephen King story.
> Urbanized cows. Yes...urbanized cows. A phenomenon I discovered on this
> trip. First, they're not all "cows." A cow is the mature female of the
> bunch, but for this conversation a cow is any member of the domesticated
> bovine species. I digress. On to the interesting part. <yawn> Cows who
> live in very rural parts of the country and rarely see/hear vehicles
> will take off like a AA Fueler at the sound of my oogah horn. Urbanized
> cows, OTOH, are accustomed to the sounds of vehicles and merely glance
> my way saying, "Oh look...someone with a horn. How cute," and then go
> back to doing cow things. The really tough cows flip me off.
> You don't need 6 T-shirts on a 5-6 day trip.
> Green River, Utah has gnats. Lots of 'em. Mosquitoes, too. Another motel
> guest and I tried to have a conversation in the parking lot, but the
> swarms of bugs were too much for us. When I left Green River early the
> next morning I stopped about 10 miles outside of town to take a picture.
> I was immediately engulfed in a cloud of gnats. Pretty weird. I felt
> like I might have been in an Alfred Hitchcock story.
> It is entirely possible to get a sunburned lower lip. Also, sunscreen
> tastes bad and does little to relieve the pain of a sunburned lower lip.
> Speeding for long distances does not get you to your destination a whole
> lot sooner than if you went the speed limit. I averaged about 42 mpg at
> 70 mph, but 35 mpg at 80+. After figuring in the extra fuel stops from
> going 80+ it appears that I'd shave a mere 25 minutes off a 500 mile leg
> of the trip. That's the way it worked for me, any-hoo. YMMV. (Pun intended.)
> The desert south of Salt Lake City along Highway 6 is breathtaking. Period.
> Saw a dead whooping crane hanging from power lines in central Kansas.
> Just hanging there...upside down...looked as if someone hung it there by
> its foot. Whooping cranes don't sit on power lines. They are water fowl.
> I'd love to know how it got there.
> Came upon two good (bad?) accidents. The first was a T-bone north of
> Lander, WY. Traffic was blocked for about 45 minutes while 3 ambulances
> packed folks up and rushed off. The second was a rollover on the
> interstate about 20 miles outside of Boise. I was the third vehicle on
> the scene. A trucker and a State Trooper beat me there. I was about to
> stop and lend a hand, but I saw the lights of the "cavalry" (more
> troopers, ambulances and FD units) crest the hill about a quarter mile
> away, so I just kept going so I wouldn't get in their way.
> In regards to the above-mentioned crashes, there were large numbers of
> State Troopers at/going to each one. OTOH, while riding across the
> various states I rarely saw a trooper. It's like they materialize out of
> thin air during an emergency. That, of course, is a silly notion. In
> reality they pop up from underneath the highway like a jet fighter on an
> elevator in an aircraft carrier.
> I haven't found a really bad Motel 6 yet. Some were borderline, but for
> the money they were fine. In Salina KS I wandered into the Motel 6 and
> asked for a room. They guy said all they had was a handicap accessible
> room for the same price. Big bed, walk-in shower. I took it. Being late
> in the evening, the place was packed and there were no parking spots in
> which I felt comfortable leaving the bike. I asked the clerk if I could
> part in front of the office so they could watch it. He said I could park
> in the handicap parking spot directly in front of the door to my room.
> He assured me the cops wouldn't roll by and hang some paper on it, so I
> did. In the morning as I was putting my things in the saddlebags, there
> were other people milling about. I felt bad about parking in the
> handicap spot, so I limped when I walked with the hopes that no one
> would question my parking there. I really did that. Probably won't ever
> do it again. I felt quite guilty.
> North of Salt Lake City I observed a number of what appeared to be smoke
> plumes from small fires in a huge field that covered many square miles.
> Very unusual. They were quite distant. Got closer and noticed that the
> field was barren and covered with dust. The fires seemed to be changing
> locations, too. They weren't fires at all...they were whirlwinds. About
> half a dozen of them, all several hundred feet tall at least. One came
> across the interstate just as I passed and I rode through it. To be
> honest, I wasn't sure what would happen, but it just buffeted me for a
> second and that was that.
> Overall - a fine and pleasant trip. Never saw a drop of rain. Rode 1500
> miles to have dinner for 3 hours with 2 cousins and one aunt, and then
> the next morning headed back home. Grand total was 3,051 miles. Left
> Wednesday the 9th of July, returned Monday morning the 14th at 10:30 AM.
> Mileage ranged from 52 mpg through Salt Lake City, to 31 mpg outside of
> Boise while fighting a headwind so fierce that my fairing started
> warming up like the heat tiles on a space shuttle re-entering the
> atmosphere. Pretty weird. I felt like I might have been in
> a...well...you know.