More fun with Photoshop

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 11 Comments
The latest and (perhaps) greatest NWO mashup.
The latest and (perhaps) greatest NWO mashup.

Here’s another take on the whole New Wheeled Order thing. Amazing what a casually employed guy with a digital camera and Photoshop Elements can do when he’s supposed to be working for a living.

I don’t have a faux Cyrillic font on the MacBox, so I went with Cracked, which has a nice punkish look to it. Kinda reminds me of “12 Monkeys” for some reason. Oook ook ook.

Meanwhile, fuhgeddaboud the mean streets — seems a guy isn’t even safe on the damn’ bike path any more here in Bibleburg. How’d you like to be cycling along and look up from the trail to see an SUV and a station wagon falling out of the sky? That’d get your heart rate up, a’ight.

• Late update: OK, I’ve done a few more mockups and a little light research and I’m thinking I can do T-shirts with the design at right for about $20 apiece (local artisan, old pal). The big design would go on the back, with a smaller badge-size logo over the left hooter up front.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that a small run of jerseys (15-24) will cost us in the $80-per-item range if I go with Voler, which did both versions of the Fat Guy jersey and my own Mad Dog Media kit. Stepping up to 25-49 takes it down to $75 apiece, and 50-99 gets us into the $61-per-jersey range.

I’ll post mockups of both jersey and shirt tomorrow after I’ve fiddled with them a bit more.

Hope (hot) springs eternal

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

So the other day I decide I’m sick of hanging around Bibleburg and need a road trip. I’ve been wanting to scope out a route for a lightly loaded, weeklong bicycle tour of some Central Colorado hot springs, so off I went — on four wheels, not two — to examine conditions on the ground, as it were. Call it a recon mission. I don’t like surprises as much as I once did.

The view from the top ponds at Valley View Hot Springs.
The view from the top ponds at Valley View Hot Springs.

The first leg, down Highway 115 to Dakota Hot Springs, is dicey in spots but not terribly so, and only 40 miles, which would make for a nice shakedown cruise. The second leg, 67 miles from Highway 50 to Salida, is something else altogether — practically no shoulder and lots of heavy truck/commercial rafting traffic from Texas Creek to just outside of Salida.

There was a “Share the Road” sign just past Cotopaxi, but that’s not much of a shield for a knight-errant battling diesel-powered dragons. One fuck-up in the wrong spot — by you or somebody else — and under the wheels or into the guardrail you go.

In Salida I calmed my jangled nerves at Amícas with a Ute Trail Pale Ale and a Pan E Salsiccia. Amícas used to be a Il Vicino back in the day, and the menu, beer list and ambiance remain pretty much the same — good food and beer at reasonable prices. Plus they support cycling.

Then it was back on the road to inspect the third leg, 41 miles to Orient Land Trust and Valley View Hot Springs. It’s another short route, but not without its difficulties — day three starts with the gradual seven-mile ascent of Poncha Pass, which tops out at just over 9,000 feet, and ends with another gentle seven-mile climb, on a gravel road, to OLT.

This is where I spent Wednesday night, camping at Valley View and watching the Perseid meteor shower, a light show dampened somewhat by high clouds and a gentle rain. Thirty bucks gets you something like 36 hours of soaking in your choice of eight pools plus a night’s lodging on the ground, in your tent. Pricier options include a bunkhouse, cabins and the Sunset House, a motel-type deal.

Continue reading “Hope (hot) springs eternal” →

The 411 on the D.O.G.

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 4 Comments
It's quite a hike to this trio of hot-springs pools — about 10 minutes to go a quarter mile. But they were worth the walk.
It's quite a hike to this trio of hot-springs pools — about 10 minutes to go a quarter mile. But they were worth the walk.

Here’s where I’ve been after a few days in the VeloBarrel, a Bicycle Retailer deadline and a primary that seems proof positive that the Republican Party no longer exists as such. If Barry Goldwater saw his party today, he’d ask Curtis LeMay bomb it back to the Stone Age. Or maybe forward to the Stone Age.

Whatever. After finishing my chores and viewing with alarm, albeit in private, I fled Bibleburg for a place with hot water a-plenty but without wi-fi, cell service and black helicopters. More later.

Oh, by the way … I already own a blue helmet, a nifty Rudy Project with a visor and everything. I’m gonna have to get creative with some press-on white lettering, which I just happen to have on hand.