CAÑON CITY, Colo. (MDM) — Enough, it seems, was finally enough. After too many consecutive days of working for a living (however do you people bear it?), I decided to hit the road.
I had considered blasting down to Arizona, where the sunshine is plentiful and the cycling excellent … and then I started thinking about the two days of driving there, and the two days of driving back, and all the cycling I would not be doing as I herded the rice-grinder through the American Southwest. Plus that shit costs money, and the weather was not too shabby right here in Colorado.
So instead I loaded up the Soma Double Cross and rode down Highway 115 to Penrose for a soak at Dakota Hot Springs, then continued on to Cañon City, where I spent the night at the Hampton for freesies thanks to banked-up Hilton Honors points. Fifty miles with 25 pounds of crap — not bad for an old feller.
My iPhone 3GS spazzed out en route, so this morning it’s off to the AT&T store to find out how come (I suspect the SIM card got jarred loose) and then I’ll head west to Pueblo via Lake Pueblo State Park and the Arkansas River Trail.
Maybe I’ll take another soak at Dakota en route. Fifty miles with 25 pounds of crap — not good for an old feller.
Mad Blog Media 
OK, let’s see here: fifty (50) miles times 25 pounds of “crap” plus the weight of the bike plus the weight of said “old feller” all divided by the age and the square root of the cross-sectional density of said “old feller”..;. Uh… naught gozinda naught naught…naught times naught is naught.
Say, PO’G, how much of that “crap” is snark, anyway?
Will the wind and average gradient cancel on an out-and-back?
Richard, snark is always the heaviest part of the load. Well, right behind Your Humble Narrator, that is.
Let’s see here…you disappear (blogwise) on the same day as CPP and now you’ve reappeared on the same day as CPP.
What’s really going on here?
Y’think CPP has a bike fetish too?
nooooo….
Enjoy yourself! We’ve been contemplating escaping Iowa over the turkey-day holidays but the weather here is not so bad. we’ll likely conserve the dead-dinosaur juice and avoid any road trips in favor of some local riding around combined with gorging on roasted free-range bird and the various trimmings. Less than two months to go before we escape the US of A for Italy again anyway.
Larry, it’s been fun for sure. Pretty good timing weather-wise … next week is supposed to be nicer, but I’m in charge of holiday cookery, so I need to be around the ranch, taking care of business.
Two months and counting to Italy? Can we all come with you? We promise to be really, really quiet and only eat and drink when not asleep.
We’ll be in Sicily again mid-January through April. A friend is coming over in March to visit. We’ll go back to the mainland for a few days to visit Ducati and Tommasini before I head up to see the Tour of Flanders. Meanwhile the wife will be teaching a study-abroad program. Tough work, but someone’s gotta do it!
Just do it! I mean throw the iPhone off a cliff. Think how good it would feel to unplug. Wait…then how will we read your blog? Hmmm….you don’t have your laptop squirreled away in that 25 lbs of gear do ya?
Herb, I considered it. There was a cliff nearby and everything, too. Instead I rode five miles into town and got a lesson from a helpful AT&T person on how to open the iPhone and deal with the SIM card.
No laptop on this trip, alas. My old ones are too heavy and my new one is too nice to risk. Instead I’m using an iPad with a Zagg keyboard case. It’s something of an experiment in road-trip technology, and so far the biggest drawback is that the WordPress app won’t let me align images as I please or write captions.
Patrick, good on you. We like quick overnight bike tours, ours are only 35 miles, and they are too much fun. A great way to get away.
How do you fit the dog in the pannier?
Pat, that’s how I was able to make my getaway. Herself’s employer has approved a Dog Day at work, so she took Mister Boo to the office the day I left. The Boo was well behaved, only humping one co-worker. Herself has been working from home since.
On your way through Canyon City, you didn’t happen to notice if Kyle’s ghost bike is still there?
No, I didn’t, Derek … where was it placed? I was on Royal Gorge Boulevard the whole time; never ventured into the downtown area.
There was a newspaper article, I will try and find a link. I don’t get out of town much and have not been down there.
I think it was placed at Leslie Lane and Field Avenue, it is off the main drag. I am just a little curious how long such things are left alone, before sanitization occurs.