More Adventures

Some observations from the road so far, again in bullet form, in no particular order…

– When confronted by the previously mentioned duo of Havelinas in the Davis Mountains State Park, I did the very manly thing by shouting, “whoa, bigpig bigpig bigpig bigdamnpig,” thereby waking up the entire campground with my manliness. Yeah, I’m cool like that.

– When I was leaving town I pulled into Wendy’s to get some much needed sustenance. At the pay window the cashier as me if I’d like to make a donation to a children’s diabetes fund ( keep in mind I’m paying for a fried-chicken sandwich here) and receive a coupon for four free frosty’s. It’s so ironic you almost have to admire the marketing genius behind it.

– Trelingua is what happens when the hippies take over. It’s not a bad thing, but you can’t help but chuckle at the existence of Trelingua and then Trelingua Ghost town 2 miles down the road, with various organic grocers, and funky diners in between. Urban planners everywhere are inexplicably twitching.

– I rode the rim trail in Cloudcroft today, one of the countries top ten singletracks ( I read that somewhere, don’t ask me where). Awesome trail, beautiful views, wicked fast down hills, gut busting climbs – I would like thank the US forest service for this trail. What I will not be extending them gratitude for is the maps of said trail which suck suck suck suck suck. Wow. I had no idea where the hell I was for about the last 1/3 of the ride. Thanks Ranger Bob.

– Thank you Texas DPS Patrolman DelaCruz for just slapping me with a warning. I drove 80, in the right lane the rest of the way (until I got to New Mexico at least).

– Riding a bike at 9000 feet is interesting because apparently there’s no damn air up here. Makes simple things like shifting, braking and not dying a tad bit more challenging.

– The Hotel Subaru has many fine accommodations, but electricity is not one of them. I seem to be doing fine without, but I’m at this idyllic campground outside Cloudcroft, and yet it sounds like I’m in the pit at NASCAR, with all these people running their generators. What are they doing in those trailers that this could possibly be necessary? I’ll be dishing out some payback tomorrow morning when I fire up my campstove, which has the same decibel lever (and heat output) of a solid-fuel rocket off the space shuttle.

– When I hiked the south rim in Big Bend nine years, we had a great view for about 10 minutes, and then a massive cold front blew in, effectively making it like hiking in cloud. This time the front was already there when I showed up, yet again making it kind of like hiking in a cloud. At least god’s sense of humor is consistent.

– It may be a sign that it’s been just you and the bike for too long on this trip, when you strap the hydration pack to the back of the drivers seat, and forgo meals in favor of a shot of gu. That’s some hard core driving.

More photos are up at the flickr 2007 roadtrip set.