The Windmill Posts

“Until death it is all life”

Cervantes / Don Quixote

I understand that quote to be along the lines of “Carpe Diem,” but in less of an empowering entitled white people in an expensive school sort of way. And to be honest I don’t like that movie because the vast majority of those kids are going to have life Carpe’d at them anyway. Because they’re wealthy and connected.

Anyway, I feel it’s saying life is here until you die, you might as well use it. Less Don Quixote charging ahead and more Sancho Panza plodding behind.

Colorado

Camping is going well. I have yet to encounter dirt. It’s all been large wooden framed rectangular areas with I’m assuming dirt, but topped with gravel. The Rubber mallet makes quick work of the tent spikes – really happy I bought the heavy duty stakes. Oh wait, no, I had dirt in South Dakota/Nebraska and it was uneven and hard to tell where a tent was supposed to be.

I went proper camping with my scooter friends. We obviously took our scoots and it was quite the adventure. There was quite a bit consumed, and lots of experimenting about how much alcohol can get in the fire before scaring us. At the end of the night I went to sleep and slept the sleep of the dead. (dead drunk) but it was that next morning when I discovered that “My Sleep Number is gravel.” Now, I’m not silly enough sleep directly on the ground, but it comforts me in knowing I could, except for the getting up in the morning part. I also like the gravel base because it’s flat. With just. a little shifting you can stand a water bottle up. And breaking camp seems easier somehow.

There is a Colorado Welcome Center and it made me wonder where exactly I had been. Apparently Wyoming. And long enough to type about it in previous posts. The Colorado side has a welcome center and there’s a cannabis store in the town right there, and ice cream, and even a church. The Utah side has a sign saying ‘Welcome to Utah’. Same sign at both ends.

Not much new wildlife to report, seeing plenty of antelope and birds but nothing incredible, like a Moose or a Marmot. The prairie gives way to hills which give way to larger and sharper hills which gave way to mountainettes which give way to proper mountains.

Okay, I figured out what was driving me crazy. I’m driving on this highway, and there’s huge expanses to the left and right, and in the background there’s, you know, bigger hills. But there are houses and buildings and things all over these expanses, and it’s—it’s haphazard. It doesn’t seem to be a system to it. They’ll be, pointing one way or the other, close together or far apart. It’s very confusing.” If anyone wanted to bring order to those communities, they wouldn’t be able to draw a straight road.

As far as roads, Colorado is pretty good. The roads out here aren’t horrible, they’re concrete or whatever. But when you hit a good long-ish blacktop stretch of buttery asphalt, it’s like French silk pie for a moment. You can go a long time without seeing anyone. This is how I wanted to cross America. One lane in each direction, middle of nowhere, often not seeing another vehicle for minutes, 20 minutes, whatever.

Although they have these point-of-interest signs that don’t tell you what the point of interest is or how far away it is. And I stopped at one out of curiosity, and it was a sign about a fire in ’88, the biggest fire in Colorado. But better than that was just the scenery and the views—the East, I guess.”

I love the twisties in California. The ups and downs, turns so tight a MINI Cooper thinks it might be tight. Ocean views and dropoffs to thrill. But good mountain passes have some intense turning magic. They’re often long. So if you’re leaning into the turn and using some amount of force on the wheel, you need to keep that up for whoeverknows how long, because these are mountains, baby! You also have the wind, which will make you sweat on one of those long curves, adding to the skill level swinging around them. If the California twisties had this kind of wind, it would totally change the game. And I think they do, and you can tell when by when they close the road.

I’ve been known to widen curves here and there, but I just can’t do it on the big turns. Widening the curve means coming into the turn on the outside of the lane, and slowly moving to the tight spot, then easing back out to the outside. Ignore that, it was confusing. It means make curves easier sometimes.

At the tops of those passes I was seeing snow – we were pretty far up! It was a treat after having watched so many mountains go by with snow on them, and now I was seeing it for real!

BTW, cruise control works downhull too. I would rather not smell your braking system melt its face off as we enjoy the crowded lanes together.

And here’s a funny: I’m driving, and the sun is behind me because sunrise, east and so on. And it’s giving me glare off of my displays. And I was just thinking, ‘Oh great, now I’ve got to sit all day with this glare on my displays.’”

Tonights sleep was The Yampa River Valley, or whatever we want to call it. It’s a lot of hills. I don’t see mountains, really. I think there are some here and there. No snow caps. But it has this river going through it, and there are like trees and stuff around the river. And so it’s this weird switch between the green desert and the hanging forest.

At the end of the day I am sitting at a campsite in my super comfortable chair which folds down to about the size of a groundhog. It’s the tree shade I was looking for. 85 degrees and I felt like I was burning everything visible. I did sunscreen today but will do it more often tomorrow. That’s the thing about this trip – it’s very desert based and I’m getting cooked. I will not compromise – unless it’s raining, the top stays down! Wind R Us!

Pictures!