0 comment Thursday, August 14, 2014 | admin
On Wednesday evening, I pulled into Washington D.C. after an 1850 mile drive in over the course of five days. It was a sad farewell to my house, sister Erin, and her dog Barkeley, to say nothing of the genuinely kind and numerous farewells from all of my friends and fellow commuters in Denver (hey everyone, thanks for not letting me pay for any meals last week =)
The journey itself was great, and the entire time I was outrunning a cold front, so when I called the people I stayed with the prior day, they were always bracing for cold and rain, while I had great weather. This was a great luxury, as I happened to have five bikes on the exterior of my car to deal with
I had to reinforce the rear on the advice of my dad with a bike lock cable supporting it from the roof rack when I pulled into Wichita. There was so much torque, the Yakima rack was twisting some of the steel that made up my trailer hitch. I was lucky to get to DC with everything intact, some of the plastic on the rack had already broken halfway through, and the bolts holding the tandem securely were pretty loose by the time I stopped. I think I'll have to find an REI out here and trade in the old Yakima rack, I don't think it passed my ultimate test.
Aside from equipment failure, it was a pleasant haul. Here's what Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas look like from I-70
Eastern Kansas has a bit more to offer. My dad and I had the idea that we'd go to the Flint Hills tall grass prairie reserve and pedal around, but unfortunately, no bikes allowed. Dogs are OK, though, so we brought Cosita the Dachsund on a bit of a walk. Apparently this is the time of year where Coyotes fatten up on the now wingless locusts that are everywhere
Also interesting, in Kansas, these are called hills
A little different from the Front Range "foothills", but compared to the absolute flatness of everything else, I suppose this counts.
Missouri had some beautiful cow pastures, and this gem, Camo-Flame paint work
Leaving the great state of Missouri behind, I realized I was bound to end up near Louisville Kentucky by the end of the day. Scrolling through my mental rollodex, I thought I'd call up some of my friends I made from Humana during the Freewheelin' project. I was going to meet up with Chris for dinner, but blew it when I forgot I go through another time zone change. Chris instead put me up at his house, and graciously showed me around the Humana offices the next morning. Here's the original Freewheelin' station at Humana's HQ
Upon arrival, I had to put most of my bikes in storage for the time being. It's times like these where you really find out what you need, rather than what you simply like. I kept my Trek out, and took it on a 22 mile spin this morning with Karen on the Capital Crescent trail through DC and Maryland. We're having great weather right now, and it's pretty neat riding in a place with a big time leaf color shift.
I've been giving a lot of thought to continuing my blogging now that I'm not a Denver boy. For the time being, I think I'll keep it going, and we'll see how it evolves (spin-off blog?). There's a few random pictures from Denver I still need to post up here for your viewing enjoyment. Until next time, I've landed safely, and miss you guys. I'll eagerly await all your future posts.
The journey itself was great, and the entire time I was outrunning a cold front, so when I called the people I stayed with the prior day, they were always bracing for cold and rain, while I had great weather. This was a great luxury, as I happened to have five bikes on the exterior of my car to deal with
I had to reinforce the rear on the advice of my dad with a bike lock cable supporting it from the roof rack when I pulled into Wichita. There was so much torque, the Yakima rack was twisting some of the steel that made up my trailer hitch. I was lucky to get to DC with everything intact, some of the plastic on the rack had already broken halfway through, and the bolts holding the tandem securely were pretty loose by the time I stopped. I think I'll have to find an REI out here and trade in the old Yakima rack, I don't think it passed my ultimate test.
Aside from equipment failure, it was a pleasant haul. Here's what Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas look like from I-70
Eastern Kansas has a bit more to offer. My dad and I had the idea that we'd go to the Flint Hills tall grass prairie reserve and pedal around, but unfortunately, no bikes allowed. Dogs are OK, though, so we brought Cosita the Dachsund on a bit of a walk. Apparently this is the time of year where Coyotes fatten up on the now wingless locusts that are everywhere
Also interesting, in Kansas, these are called hills
A little different from the Front Range "foothills", but compared to the absolute flatness of everything else, I suppose this counts.
Missouri had some beautiful cow pastures, and this gem, Camo-Flame paint work
Leaving the great state of Missouri behind, I realized I was bound to end up near Louisville Kentucky by the end of the day. Scrolling through my mental rollodex, I thought I'd call up some of my friends I made from Humana during the Freewheelin' project. I was going to meet up with Chris for dinner, but blew it when I forgot I go through another time zone change. Chris instead put me up at his house, and graciously showed me around the Humana offices the next morning. Here's the original Freewheelin' station at Humana's HQ
Upon arrival, I had to put most of my bikes in storage for the time being. It's times like these where you really find out what you need, rather than what you simply like. I kept my Trek out, and took it on a 22 mile spin this morning with Karen on the Capital Crescent trail through DC and Maryland. We're having great weather right now, and it's pretty neat riding in a place with a big time leaf color shift.
I've been giving a lot of thought to continuing my blogging now that I'm not a Denver boy. For the time being, I think I'll keep it going, and we'll see how it evolves (spin-off blog?). There's a few random pictures from Denver I still need to post up here for your viewing enjoyment. Until next time, I've landed safely, and miss you guys. I'll eagerly await all your future posts.