Open Thread - Friday, September 7, 2018
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
- John F. Kennedy -
Hey, C99 got a make over! As long as they didn't move my glasses, keys or wallet.
I have procrastinated about telling road stories and learning how to get pictures embedded. Well funk the pictures, grab a beer and I'll bend your ear.
I set out to see the sights and get high. I left the Piedmont of North Carolina Saturday morning and made Trinidad, Colorado before noon on Monday.
I followed the Sante Fe Trail through Kansas and was keenly aware of the big space the high plains present. I pulled out of Pratt around day break, topped off along the way and was cruising triple digits when I passed a sign with the mileage to Trinidad. Oh funk! According to the dashboard, I do not have enough gas to make it there. I slowed down to 65 mph, and over the next hour slowly conserved my way to being in range of the next gas station. I made it to Trinidad with 16 miles to spare!
Trinidad is the first town north of the New Mexico border along I25 and has a cornucopia of cannabis dispensaries. And I am in town! I did a little appetite enhancement and headed out for a Mexican lunch.
I spent the afternoon gathering supplies for the trail, and refueling.
It was good to sit still for a few hours, but the main event is about to start. The original plan was to head over Cucharas Pass, except it was closed by wild fire. US160 had just reopened, so I did not have to loop through New Mexico to get to Durango. I rode through the Spring Creek Fire area. There was an impressive array of heavy equipment and fire breaks snaking through the hill sides. From the looks of the burn scar, it looked like the fire was wind driven and had passed through quickly.
I cruised through Great Sand Dunes National Park, across the San Luis Valley and into the San Juan Mountains. I had my only road side discussion with a law enforcement officer on Wolf Creek Pass and made Durango by late afternoon.
Mesa Verde next!
Have a great weekend! The thread is OPEN.
Comments
Good morning, Tim ~~~
At last, the long awaited travel blog. We are all waiting to live vicariously through your adventure. Thanks for the opening. I know that route from Trinidad to Durango. I love both small towns, as well. Without the pictures, we are left with our imaginations to fill in the blanks. You are a good storyteller, so our imaginations will flourish.
Meeting friends for the weekend at our favorite hot springs in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. I love that place. Cannot partake in the water due to my foot issue, so I'm looking forward to good company, getting high with our home grown delicacies, a Saturday night at the brewery, and an overall relaxing getaway.
I find out next Thursday if I'm on the road to recovery without surgery. Send healing thoughts, folks - I'll update you once I get the verdict.
Have a beautiful day and weekend, everyone!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good Luck!
My local brewery buddy is a podiatrist, so I get to hear about afflicted feet regularly. He acknowledges that aging and feet issues go foot in foot.
Trinidad was fascinating, the Mexican restaurant and local watering hole were both done up in cow motifs. I wore Levi's and everyone else had on Wranglers. I had breakfast, with the smoke eaters, at a La Veta diner.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Cool.
Out west, the cowboys wear Wranglers. My husband, raised in the TX panhandle, cowboyed in his young life. The starched Wranglers had to stand up by themselves. Those days are over for him. He discovered what a rigid life it was. By the time we met, that era was coming to an end and now, he wears Levi’s, lol.
So, your open above is apropos - Change is the law of life!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Sounds like you came back with some fun twang
in your funk. Funky twang or twangy funk, I like! Onward to Mesa Verde...
question everything
Just trying to assimilate
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Hola. Tim. Sounds like fun, detours and all. Detours are,
after all, the essence of life. Mechanisms and perfectly programmed systems get from a to b in an orderly fashion, but living systems never do, things come up. If we don't have a strict timetable, we love the detours, within reason, and also the "adventures" resulting from "Uh, I think this is the wrong road". We get to head in about a week, and thanks for reminding me to check for possible fire closures, especially crossing the sierras.
Great tunes, as usual, greatly assisting the "wake up and get going" process. Just about time to go start breakfast. Whisk a bit of cream and an egg into some sourdough starter, throw in chopped shrooms and veggies plus a little bit of Crystal, pour into a baker, bake 10 minutes and voila' - edible frisbee. Gotta get coffeed up to start it, but a great start.
Have a great weekend and take care of yourself.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
So
If I had been able to ride the scenic byway over Cucharas Pass, I probably would have skipped Great Sand Dunes National Park. GSDNP is only OK, unless you set out on a multi-hour hike, but the ride across the San Luis Valley was cool. It is ringed by big rocks, full of ancient culture and who knew there was a primo potato growing area in the middle of Colorado.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
The San Luis valley.
That’s where the potatoes are grown. I grew up in Taos and I remember in the fall, some of the kids would go missing for a while. They were working the potato harvest, which is just a couple hours from Taos, to the north. Thanks for conjuring up that memory!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Who knew the potato had its own romance and mystique?
In Germany, there are progressives of color who wield the word “Kartoffel” (potato) as a racial pejorative against white ethnic Germans.
https://www.taz.de/Kolumne-Habibitus/!5453932/
Meanwhile, via Naked Capitalism’s daily links, this time collected by Jerri-Lynn Scofield:
The real Goldfinger: the London banker who broke the world
Hola Tim
Thanks for starting my day with tales from the open road. Mesa Verda is awesome, and high up. Hope you got lottsa water.
While there, you should check out the Canyon of the Ancients. You can kick around the dirt at some sites.
Rubber side down.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Just Wrapped Up a Journey of My Own...
Book #2 has been written. I'm taking a few days off then going to grab my editors hat.
How to sell it and who will print it, those are the questions that remains.
http://pvybe.com/news/the-writing-of-the-tao-of-k9disc/
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
"As long as they didn't move my glasses, keys or wallet."
... or mouth and ears ; )
[video:https://youtu.be/9UtSlqNyWGU]