7-31-10

Paonia

I pulled out of Goldfield just as the sun was coming up.

I just love these Nevada roads.

The High life in Utah

Bad dogs now and then don’t read the signs.

Utah sure was looking good, from up high.

This looks a lot like my old Harley back in my younger days.

Into Colorado now and a farming valley

I went to the Paonia Library and found this gal outside,

Inside they had a nice collection of Indian knives, scrapers and arrow heads.

This dude pulled in with all the gear you could ever need and then some other stuff too. He had been at the Nationals in Redmond, OR and had stopped in someplace to Kayak on the way down. Nice fold  up bike too. oh, it was a power boat.

This bike came in over one  of the gravel high passes from Tennessee I think.

he has a dual disk brake on this rig. I know it must be a BIG help in stopping, my old R50 has trouble stopping with the old drum brake when pulling  the hack.

There sure is a lot of news about electric cars in the news but here is a nice trike that zipped around very quiet like.

with out doubt the most beautiful bike that show up.

I took a ride over to see Cactus Jack and Linda in Salida and went over a nice gravel road pass and  down into Cresta Butte. A really nice little patch of Quakies.

Jack is working up an India motif town cruiser.

They are dealing some  of my silver work in the shop.

They dredged the river going thru town and Jack slavaged some of the tin and has beaten it out and painted it.

isn’t this a nice piece?

Jack has been doing drawings for the local magazine. The famous guy Christo something or other has the idea to drape banners across the river and there is a huge fight going on if he is going to be allowed to do it or not.

on of his drawings in the magazine. Yeah, it is a dog town for sure.

Linda was working on setting up a framing project for a local business.

Tools of the trade

She said some of these framing pieces sell for thirty dollars a foot.

They have a boat race that goes through town and Jack has collected buttons from it. seems like he said they have done it for sixty years.

I rode back to Paonia over another pass.

Dog sticker on top of the pass along with other cool ones.

I liked this one with the squirrel that got shot. 

This is Louis bike. More on him later.

A white toaster…. Eat your heart out Dr. Toast….

A couple of 950 KTM’s showed up. Lots of plastic but very fast on the back roads.

This guy was building this Pirate boat across from the park. He said his granddaughters wanted a Pirate boat so he decided to make them one. No plans or even how to do it he said. He just started from memory on what a boat looked like. he was having a rough time doing it, but it kept him busy…..

wow, nice rig eh?

The band on Friday Night….oooh, the base player was back….. I dreamed of her for six month after I saw her last year. might have to come back next year too….

I bet this is a fast little Sportster. A XR1200

There always seem to be a few that are different.

A cushman speeding thru camp.

Lots of different kinds of tents.

This is something you don’t  see very often…. Bob borrowed my tools to work on his bike. Well  it is an old bike and needed a little attention out on this trip.

Here is Louis. He and Bob have been riding together almost all their lives. He takes a good photo doesn’t he? That is his attitude showing through.

He makes silver jewelry and I had to take this picture of his belt buckle… it is titled  “Get your ASS in Gear”

Ah, back road beautie

Bob gets a new helmet.

Looks OK and he was happy with the way it ‘rode’ the wind.

Bob and I headed back up north together.

This is a little stretch of the beast Freeway I think I have ever seen. it goes through a beautiful canyon with river and hiking/ biking path along side the freeway. I think it was designed by architects and I know highway professionals come from all over the world to see it.

This is not a good site. All those sheep wagons must mean that the ranch doesn’t run sheep anymore. The corrals were unused too. yeah, really bad news. Probably wolves, coyotes, mountain loins taking their toll.

Big Wide Wonderful Wyoming….

Devils Gate fort.

The Mormans were finally able to buy part of the ranch that they set up a visitor center to tell the tale of the hand cart folk that pushed and pulled their carts out west.

A recreation of what the hand carts looked like.

I didn’t realize I was in a sheep chute until I turned the corner and BANG, the Mormons nailed me… not to the cross

It had to be a tough way to travel for sure and they had lots of problems along the way.

I talked with one  of these guys here on the right that are guys that tell you stories and head you to the chutes….  One guy told me that they have thousands of people (Mormons from the cities) that come out and pull these carts along part of the trail. Here is a family getting ready to start out. I guess they have bus loads of kids that  come out and do this too.

Devils Gate and Rattle Snake pass

just as I got home I stopped in at the grocery store and this guy pulled in with a Triumph Highway Trophy in the back. this is the first motorcycle I ever rode. Single carb 650cc. He was on his way back from the bike event down in Darby, MT. It sounded like it was a really nice event. Maybe next year I will go.