… is not to arrive. Anything can happen. – N. Peart

And I assure you, it did. What an incredibly fun ride.

4 bridge closures in my way… all after #5… well, #1… the one in Minneapolis. I had just flown over it a few hours before. After that, 3 in Utah and one in… PA? WV? Not sure exactly, but it was blocking I-70. I crossed that stateline back and forth a couple times.

Oddly, told Garmin fastest route, and the fastest route happened to be Interesting. I 67? 79? I’ll have to dig it up, but from Eastern Ohio on was high speed, full lean, fast running all the way down through the western appalachia. Fun :=) Then from Frsotburg, MD, it routed me down WV 28 to pick up 50… Nice Yep, I just said it: Garmin got that one -right-. I’m not saying I would or wouldn’t have gotten there any faster any other way… it was just a beautiful ride hands down.

Yesterday… Well, I left North Platt, NB in Mountain Time at 7:22 am (9:22 Eastern), drove for 17 hours and 6 minutes, and arrived in London, Ohio at in Eastern time at 2:28 am, 1022 miles on the gps. 59.76 mph average speed :=) No signed reciepts and all that stuff, so I’m s.o.l. on the plate, but so what

Only one more oops… another right side drop. Yep, trying to get another picture of the bike. Yep, got some help. Yep, I was embarassed, but no damage done. 5 whole mph. The ground on the sides of the welcome signs at zion? The unpaved part? May look like dirt, but I plowed an 8 inch deep furrow with the front tire. Be warned.

And I noticed one of the warnings signs of a culture that cannot save itself from extinction… in Rocky Mountain National Park, I was driving out the NE towards Estes Park… there’s a long straight stretch. There was a rock laying in the middle of the road, traffic was reasonably light, and just ducking around it. It was a good sized rock, maybe 8-9″ across two dimensions, and 6″ or so in the third… and there was plenty of room on the right. Watched a couple bikes ride by it. Huge area to pull over though… I pulled over and picked it up, and moved it to the side of the road and off the path of traffic. So I get back on the bike, and I see a ranger/scientist type over in the meadows just down the road… other cars driving by… I hae to ask myself… how long had that been there? It was a pretty gentle slope. Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? How many drove by without stopping for 2 seconds to remove that hazard? They just drove around it and kept going. Intelligent mammals remove hazards to the community/pack. We don’t.

Well, I could go on, but for the moment, the bike is unpacked, I think… no, I -know- I need a shower… and some pictures will have to come fairly soon I suppose :=)

Best,

Mark