A Travel Blog

[untanlotion]

Mackenzie Pass, Oregon

[untanlotion]

Got caught in some scary rain and lighting in the middle of nowhere in Idaho. Sheltered in a seed potato storage cellar for a while and then moved a little further on until I found Tom, a biker from North Carolina, and his Harley Road King sheltering under a huge storage pavilion at the juncture of highways 20 and 26. I joined him for the night, and the next morning he brought me gas when, as expected, I ran out of gas a few miles short of the next town. I was low from having to turn and run from a thunderhead the day before.

[untanlotion]

The Grand Tetons and Teton Pass.

[untanlotion]

Granite Creek Hot Springs. There are developed ones too for $6, but if you're willing to cross the frigid stream, you get to relax for free downstream from Granite Falls.

[untanlotion]

Granite Creek Campground, Sublette County, WY. Stayed here for five, soon to be six, nights while the great guys at Most Wanted Performance problem solved my non-existent clutch. Two campsites, the second much nicer.

[untanlotion]

Message board in a bar in the tiny town of Boulder, WY. In a town of about 100 year round residents, I encountered a bartender from Brattleboro, VT.

[untanlotion]

Eastern WY, a roadkill owl on I-25 north of Casper, and red canyon near the South Pass over the continental divide.

[untanlotion]

Nothing to do? How about melting the shards of a coke bottle together in the fire?

[untanlotion]

Repercussions of a dead clutch

Cons: -Hitchhiking Pros: -Learned clutch-less shifting -Had time to change oil -Insurance covered the towing (when low oil pressure caused bike to shut itself off in a canyon) -Met a bartender from Brattleboro, VT in Boulder, WY (pop. about 100) -Will be spending more time camping by hot springs -…in the Rockies -…for free

[untanlotion]

Smoke from the fires to the west began arriving in the black hills right around the same time I did. This morning a cold north wind blew in, and the smoke was thick enough that I could smell it when I crawled out of my tent. Photo taken from Terry Peak (a ride I do not recommend to anyone on a street bike).

[untanlotion]

South Dakota, the Great Plains, and the Black Hills: 1. Highway 212 2. Wild sage from the roadside 3. Bear Butte on SD79 north of Sturgis 4. Spearfish Canyon 5. The Lead open pit gold mine (now the site of the Sanford dark matter lab a mile underground) 6,7. Mt. Rushmore 8. Crazy Horse mountain project 9. Highway 85, south of Lead 10. My campsite of three nights a hundred yards up forest service road 5591, 12 miles south of Deadwood off highway 385. Heard coyotes howling every night, and the first night I watched a pair of flying squirrels quarrel in the beam of my flashlight.

[untanlotion]

2nd Amendment=fine, but don't be a dick about it

A normal looking, hipster-ish man just walked into this coffee shop with the butt of a handgun poking out of his shorts pocket. Having never experienced that before, it feels really threatening. Fine, carry a weapon—I am American; I am habituated to public carrying of guns being normal, and I don’t have a particularly strong opinion about it—but what’s the need to display it so casually and in such a cavalier way? It’s looking to make an impact or provoke a response. If he had a holster I would not have been as bothered, but to just shove it casually in a pocket signifies a provocative attitude and a lack of respect for what a gun represents. He is within his rights, but I consider rude the attitude displayed in his actions, and a lack of respect can create dangerous situations. I think many gun owners, members of my family included, would agree with me that it is dangerous to treat guns without the respect they duly deserve. I don’t think I have a righteous position on this; it’s not an enforceable opinion—respect can’t be forced—but I think it is all the more important for that, and the consequences of disrespect are real and dangerous to disregard. When I saw that I felt upset, and I wish he wouldn’t do it.

EDIT: I have learned via the responses that there is such thing as a pocket holster. He may have been using one. If so, I would feel a lot better about it, as a holster signifies a greater degree of respect for the weapon, but because I couldn’t tell it doesn’t change how I felt upon seeing it, so I wish he had worn shorts with deeper pockets. Perhaps he lets it show intentionally to let those around him know he is armed and to head of danger before it starts. If so, he could just as well wear an open hip holster. Again, he was entirely within his rights. I wrote this whole thing because I felt uncomfortable in the situation, and that's okay.

[untanlotion]

“What about fully grown, adult males?”

[untanlotion]

Britton, South Dakota: A pleasant city park and really nice people. Pepperjack quesadillas and Indian food for dinner. First time breaking out the stove on the road. Also, there’s an open wifi network nearby, so all told I was a pig in shit.

Now it's raining. I'm sitting in a Subway, somewhat regretting not staying there and watching Jon Stewart videos all day under a tarp.

[untanlotion]

“Holy shit…did I just cross the Mississippi River?”

I had to go back to check the sign again.

[untanlotion]

Rt. 2 West from the U.P. to central Minnesota.

[untanlotion]

Skyline Parkway above the iron towns of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. The dark arms extending into the bay are ore-loading piers. The industry of the place is undeniably “awesome” in the more traditional sense of the word.