Limbimtimwim takes a mighty dump on the US of A

[Quasi]

What a amusing and inspiring thread. keep those words and pix coming. Something to brighten up these damm grey days we having here.

[limbimtimwim]

First off I partook in Telluride's other free entertainment: the end of the canyon.

At the end of the Canyon is Bridal Vail falls, which fall a long way. Some dude on the internet was quite interested in the old power station at the top: http://www.old-engine.com/telluride.htm . I like power stations a lot myself, but not enough to climb up there!


Then it was South to Durango. (Dave, both my Tomtom and Google maps seem to think this is possible other ways, but one must go through Dolores to get out southwards from Telluride if you want to stay on roads with pavement). This was all a bit ho-hum (As far as Colorado's dramatic mountain scenery can be ho-hum). Indeed, when I go to Durango it all looked a lot like Hamilton to me.

I stopped at Bayfield out of Durango to have lunch. I had a grilled chicken salad accompanied by my new favorite drink, American lemonade. Which comes with bits of lemon in it. It's really really good and always is half ice and half lemonade. The sweetness varies, but it's usually quite tart. Outside the cafe (Which was incredibly busy, a local favourite it seems) there was a Redneck Enterprises shop. I thought this was quite funny.

And just when I was getting a bit bored, the scenery changed a little and I was going through some countryside that looked like this:

Which looks like this from above:

(I was standing here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...03964&t=h&z=18 )

Then it was away stopping only at the very strange little town of Seguache. The way to Seguache is straight and flat, but for some reason I was not bored. It was very pretty.

Seguache gave the signs of being alive, but really it was dead. There were people around, but this place is ghost town in the making. It looks like people had just up and walked away from some things.

The local high school had an electronic sign going through the names of all it's graduates.
When I arrived in Leadville (I do kind of pick my destination by the place on the map, not by the reputation) I was pleasantly surprised to find a town that was falling down, but not brought down by it's falling-down-ness.

(All that metal making up the stars and stripes is reinforcing stuff from the local brick buildings)


People looked happy and out and about. Music blaring from a pub (With $2 micro brewery beer that was all excellent, forgotten all the names now...)

A restaurant that only made filet mignon (On Tuesdays). A national mining hall of fame complete with a homo-erotic sculpture outside

A chamber of commerce that was simultaneously spotlessly clean and in danger of falling down. And no town would be complete without a combination cinema and bail bonds office.

And I stayed in a cheap hostel that had a fire raging and only a few people there.

I like Leadville. I am told it was once just like Telluride, but they chose to go up-market awhile ago and became the (almost) charmless playground of the rich it is today. Indeed, there was a sign in Telluride saying un-licenced vehicles were banned from parking, whereas in Leadville there where wrecks everywhere. My kinda town :-)

[limbimtimwim]

Leadville to Cheyenne

One thing about hail is that it is not as wet as rain. Another thing about hail is that if you are in it, you know it's cold. I perfer cold over wet, so I'll take a bit of hail over a downpour anyday. So hail is what I got coming out of Leadville.

So to Leadville it was up the road to Copper Mountain, which has a great view from and a stream running right by the petrol station.
And then onto the Interstate that heads towards Denver. Interstates are safe roads as long as you pay attention to what is happening, and I think most American's take driving on the interstates seriously and pay attention. Interstates also let you get somewhere quite quickly, with no waiting at traffic lights and more lanes than are really necessary most of the time (To fit those tanks..) speedy progress can be made. So for the first time on an interstate, I messed up, and missed the turn off to Keystone. Ever faithful Mr TomTom GPS told me that the next turn was in 26 miles so I could go back. I decided to give it a miss.

Bonus since I did not go to Keystone - The Eisenhower tunnel. Cool. And downhill! Right into the side of a mountain.
http://www.dot.state.co.us/eisenhower/description.asp
Homer Tunnel to Milford Sound still beats in my book though.

Next stop was the Rocky Mountain National Park. The name rang a bell, but to be honest I didn't know anything about it. I paid my $10 (I'm over debating it, I have not felt ripped off yet) and proceeded into the park. Off to the side of the road you will frequently see deer and elk just hanging about in fields, doing what they do. It's a very serene place and this park is far less busy than GC or Yellowstone. If you had some friends with you, the lowlands of this park would make an excellent place for a few days of easy camping. With the wildlife right by you, grassy fields, high snowy mountains and warm sunshine and not far from Denver I am very surprised at how un-crowded it was. Out-of-state-plates are more common than Colorado ones here. Maybe on the weekend it gets crowded.

So with all the wildlife, I guessed this park was about the animals. Since GC was about the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone was about a guyser or two, this kind of made sense. NO WRONG. Maybe I should have taken a clue from it's name, Rocky Mountain National Park is about MOUNTAINS. BIG ONES. With a road going right to the top. So in case you are not bored of mountains (I don't really tire of them..) here are some more.

These photos are from 12090 feet. After awhile up here the cold and the altitute did conspire to make me feel a little bit odd. Poor me, spent my whole life at sea-level. Walking around felt a little bit like hard work. Don't send me to Peru.


Yes that is deer. Poor thing was a bit lost, it wanted to be on the other side of the road but was scared of the cars.
So then it was back down the mountain

to some more beautiful fields, which seemed to be a bit busier than the ones on the other side.

Indeed, at the exit from that park I took there was the town of Estes Park, which I guessed to be small. Nope! Surprise! Tourist trap! This one more like Wanaka, so it didn't feel over the top, but it sure was very busy. That explains the people on horse treks and the traffic jams near the wildlife, which on the otherside create less of a stir.

Un-expected bonus of the day, the road out of Estes Park. About 25 miles of curve after curve and no traffic in my way. Wonderful.

Check it: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=estes+...26858&t=h&z=13
Sadly, it all ended badly as I headed north to Wyoming again. Stupid Southern Wyoming, rained hard the moment I enterered the state. Then a shitty hotel with the trains going by all night sounding their horns. Arrgh. Not much sleep.

[limbimtimwim]

Cheyenne WY to Rapid City SD

Not much happened today. I woke up. Actually, I didn't really sleep because of stupid trains. I checked the weather. Crap everywhere. I booted up Mr TomTom and told him to take me to Rapid City the fastest way possible.
Here is boring ass interstate

Here is a cool place you can live in.

Here is the view from your front porch.

I turned around to take this photo. Thank me.

Here is Rapid City. It's pretty jumping.


Tomorrow though, forecast is good and I'm going to loop around Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse and then East!

[ajturbo]

!

where are the cheese cutters????

those lanes look too close to be safe.....

[JayRacer37]

I turned around to take this photo. Thank me.

Thanks Simon! This is awesome....and now I want to do the trip too!

[limbimtimwim]

where are the cheese cutters????
those lanes look too close to be safe.....

I did see my first CC yesterday. In South Dakota!

For shame!

[limbimtimwim]

Thanks Simon! This is awesome....and now I want to do the trip too!

Do ittt.... On a proper bike.

Or a 2 stroke...

[rosie631]

What an awesome trip. I'm so jealous

[scracha]

very well. Everything comes in it's own packaging. Even when served soup I got come crackers, in individual packets. Salad dressing? Individual packet. Cup in hotel room?

Surprised you'd need salad dressing with come crackers

[Number One]

Awesome pics and reads like good times too! Continue to enjoy and be safe out there S.

Weird the shots of traffic in the right lane...how's that grabbing ya?

[limbimtimwim]

Today I went to the legendary (Amongst bikers) location of Sturgis.

What a shitheap.

How this place is so famous, I will never know. Every shop sold 'official' souvenirs/utter junk/gawdy t-shirts and the town lacked any personality at all. This is possibly the worst most useless place in America I have visited.

Even that time I stopped at a freeway on/off ramp in the middle of no-where Nevada (They have a lot of these, they have no roads coming off them. Future-proofing or something) and there was someone already there taking their dog for shit, that empty nameless place was still more useful than Sturgis.

I even had to wait in line at the bank for 10 minutes while some stupid large-in-the-arse weirdo talked about his Goldwing ( http://powersports.honda.com/2009/gold-wing.aspx ) with the poor kid who didn't give crap 'uh huh'd along.

I thought I'd give the Motorcycle Musuem and Hall of Fame a try, but impoverished Leadville's Mining Hall of Fame in comparison looked like Te Papa.

I didn't even waste my (Re-usuable, Ie. free) camera memory on it.

West I went to Spearfish, so I could head South down Spearfish Canyon road. I wanted coffee so I proceeded into Spearfish itself instead of heading down the canyon right away. I was rewarded with a small town full of smiling cyclists, and almost devoid of fatties missing teeth on Harleys or friendly but boring moustached men on Goldwings. The girl in the coffee shop didn't look at me like I was crazy when I asked for a long-black either. There was still a bit too much water (The American obsession with massive portions again..) but it was still pretty damn good.

And what a road it was, easily a 60mph/100kmh zone back home, but here a stupid 45. Which I broke most of the way through because it was fun.

Check it: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=4...53716&t=h&z=12
Then South down Highway 385 out into some Western South Dakota countryside.

Maybe a hydro lake or two.

Then it was onto the Crazy Horse Sculpture, which I have being looking forward too for ages.

Well, that is is a close as I got.

Still, it seems like and awesome project. I hope it is finished in my lifetime and I can go back and take a closer look. I walked around the visitors centre for about an hour. Not the most polished place ever, but then they do it with no government funding, so you have to respect it for what it is.

Then through Custer State Park, where there is an RV/Camper removing tunnel (YUSS!!) so one can enjoy the road in peace.

Then Mt Rushmore. Which has a very pretty road to it.

Bastards wanted $10 for parking! And there was nowhere else to park. So I didn't. I got a pretty good look from the side of the road.
Back to Rapid City. Which on second impression is a good small city. I liked all the bronze cast people from American history on and near Main Street.

[Madness]

I'm quite suprised at how much snow there is around up there at this time of year.

Like many others Simon, I'm enjoying being your virtual pillion, keep it up.

[Harvd]

I'm quite suprised at how much snow there is around up there at this time of year.

Like many others Simon, I'm enjoying being your virtual pillion, keep it up.

I went around Cali. and Nevada etc and in one day we went from 45C in the desert to having a snowball fight at 10000ft. Very cool day!



Amazing sights as soon as theres no towns in sight huh. But weirdly soulless the second theres a town or city

Enjoy it, looks like you are!

[Korea]

Great stuff mate~ two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Looking forward to the next installment.