The Final Route

Final Route

On the way home, I stop by and visit the Japanese relocation camp in Grenada, Colorado. This site is where Japanese citizens were held against their will in violation of the U.S. constitution during WW2.

Then:

Now:

The final route was 5474 miles which I did in 13 days.  I burned 118 gallons of fuel for an average of 46 mpg. I usually average about 44 mpg on gas with E10 gas which is what is sold in Virginia. In the west, gas without ethanol is widely available especially at the name brand gasoline retailers. On ethanol free gas, my mpg averaged 53 mpg. The government website on ethanol says that you should only experience about a 2-3% decrease in fuel economy on E10 ( 10% ethanol ). However, it says you should experience a 25-30% decrease in mpg when using E85. This was closer to my experience using E10.

I can can confirm after driving across the U.S. that Americans prefer to drive trucks rather than automobiles( SUVs are classified as trucks with lower mpg requirements ). Roughly 53% of passenger vehicles are trucks. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States#Total_number_of_vehicles

It takes 131,000 BTUs of energy to create 1 gallon of ethanol although one gallon of ethanol has only 77,000 BTUs of energy available. Every time a gallon of ethanol is produced, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTUs of energy ( http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/01/8.23.01/Pimentel-ethanol.html ).

It costs about half the price in fossil fuels to produce a gallon of ethanol which is why fossil fuels are used to produce ethanol. From a cost standpoint, it would be a glaringly losing proposition to use ethanol to produce ethanol.

If SUVs were reclassified as automobiles with the higher mpg requirements, that would go a long way toward reducing pollution rather than using ethanol which actually has the opposite effect. We could also save money by eliminating ethanol subsidies.

==============

Tweedledum: "I know what you're thinking about, but it isn't so, nohow."

Tweedledee: "Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

Tweedledee: "If you think we're wax-works, you ought to pay, you know!"

Tweedledum: "Contrariwise, if you think we're alive you ought to speak to us!"

Dee & Dum: "That's logic!"

Alice: "Well, it's been nice meeting you. Goodbye!"

Tweedledee: "You're beginning backwards!"

Tweedledum: "Aye, the first thing in a visit is to say: How do you do and shake hands, shake hands, shake hands. How do you do and shake hands and state your name and business."

Dee & Dum: "That's manners!"

========================

Sand Dunes National Park

Thursday, after surviving the bear, I head south to Alamosa to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

It's an impressive pile of sand sitting at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

The specks are people.

Well, tomorrow is Friday and I decide to head home. It's a long drive about 1700 miles.

San Luis Valley

Leaving Ouray, my destination is the Orient Land Trust in the San Luis Valley which is between the San Juan and the Sangre de Cristo.  Both moutain ranges boast of at least a half a dozen peaks about 14,000 feet. I will camp out up slope on the Sangre de Cristo mountains at around 8,600' at Valley View Hot Springs which sits at the trail head of a trail that leads to the Orient Mine and a bat cave. The cave is the home to around 250,000 Mexican free tailed bats.

The San Luis Valley was the northern most outpost of sixteenth century Spain. If you remember your American history, you'll recall that the Spanish established the first non-native settlements in the Americas almost a century before the Jamestown colony in 1607 and before the Pilgrims at Plymouth Bay in 1620. In fact, the first non-native settlers on mainland North America were African slaves left in South Carolina in 1526 by Spaniards who abandoned a settlement attempt.

The Navajo Indians believe that the first man and first woman came up from the underworld in this valley. They also believe that it is the place where life enters and leaves this world.

The Ute Indians also lived here and when first encountering the Spanish in 1598, referred to their horses as 'magic dogs.' The Ute's routinely used dogs to pull their belongings. They successfully kept out 'settlers' until 1851.


Looking at the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

The base of the mountains lies about 7 miles away. Behind me are the San Juan mountains.

I took this from the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains looking across the valley to the San Juan mountains.

When I arrive at Valley View, they tell me a mother Black Bear and her cub are roaming around getting into the trash. The bear was relocated from the Colorado Springs are to Bonanza, Co which is about 50 miles north of this location. Colorado Department of Wildlife people show up and set traps to relocate the bears yet again.

I hike to the bat cave in the evening. About a 2 mile taking about 1.5 hours round trip.

Later that night, as I am asleep in my tent, the cub gets trapped in the bear trap which is a large steel cage. The mother is not happy and I hear her running around my tent. I get up as daylight dawns and walk down near the cage to have a look.

To the right of the bear behind the bushes is the trapped cub. Prior to this the mother bear was shot with rubber bullets. This usually drives most bears away but it hasn't worked on this one. To make a long story short, the bear was later shot and killed the next night. The rangers attempted to dart it four times, but this just made it more agitated.

Driving through the Ages

My destination for today is Ouray Colorado one of my favorite places in the U.S. I'm a sucker for natural history, so I'm taking Rt. 191 from Rock Springs, Wyoming ( just to the east of Green River ) down through the Flaming Gorge to Vernal, Utah and then to Ouray.  The reason I mentioned natural history is because the entire route is marked by road signs pointing out the age and name of the rock formations.  The signs in Utah don't give the ages, but you can get the idea from this picture.

If you can't read the sign, it says: "Mississippian Madison Formation, Remnants of an Ancient Sea". The Wyoming sign would have added that this is occurred  ~340 MYA. Wiki has a page on the Madison Group. See this web time machine for ages.

As I drove I saw signs pointing out petrified forests, sites where archaic crocodile teeth were found and petrified sand dunes.

I'll drive 60 miles before I see a gas station. I saw one building. This is an open range area so I have to watch for cattle. So far on this trip, I've seen Bison, Elk, Deer, Antelope, a Grizzly bear, and prairie dogs.

The fence in the right side of the picture is about ten feet tall and is a snow drift fence. These line much of the road.

Looking back at the Flaming Gorge Dam.

I just leave Ridgway, Colorado on my way to Ouray. I'm ten miles out and the San Juan mountains rise up in front of me. I back-packed these mountains for six weeks in August, 1973 with Colorado Outward Bound. I fell in love with the Rockies as a kid. In the '60's I spent a few summers in Denver with my parents and they took me into the mountains quite often. I still remember playing in the snow in July. As an East Coaster, this was simply amazing. Perhaps it's a bit of nostalgia, but I feel at home here.

Ouray sits just at their base.

The streets in Ouray are all gravel except for main street. Many of the homes are small Victorians.

I pull into the Best Western where I made a reservation earlier today at a welcome center in Dinosaur, Colorado.

 I update my blog while I do my laundry. Before leaving, I bought a roll of quarters and some single laundry detergent packets at Target. So far, there is nothing I haven't used. So I packed just right for this trip. I haven't camped out yet, but I plan to do that tomorrow. About a fourth of my space is taken by the camping equipment which consists of a sleeping bag and tent.

The sign above my motorcycle says "Welcome to the Switzerland of America."

I am going to tour the Rockies the next few days before I head back home.

Wyoming Dinosaur Center

It's Sunday. I wake up to overcast skies and I see that it is already storming over the mountains. I am ultimately going to Green River, Wyoming where I've booked the next nights room and had planned on going through the Tetons via Jackson, but with it raining and low speed limits, I know it will take forever.
 

So, I decide to head straight there and stop in the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Most of the fossils are from Wyoming and were dug up by the people who run the center.

From the wiki page: " Recently the museum made headlines when it acquired the Thermopolis Specimen of Archaeopteryx, which was in private hands for decades before an anonymous donor gave it to the museum."

They allow picture taking so I did. Here is archaeopteryx.

Some more fossils in the center.

Sights along the way.

Much of Wyoming is desolate and you often drive 60 miles or more before encountering a gas station. You must keep this in mind when traveling in the part of the country.

I pull into Green River and call it a day.

Yellowstone

Arriving at the Yellowstone entrance there is no real line with just three cars ahead of me. A ranger walks out to me and asks if I have an annual pass. I do, so she lets me bypass the 'line'.  Just inside, I view a large herd of Bison.

I stop and view some geysers in the Norris Geyser Basin on my way to Old Faithful.There is a boardwalk through the basin and geysers are everywhere. Signs warn hikers not to leave the path. There have actually been people who've fallen into the pools and died.

The boardwalk.

A view from the boardwalk.


On the way to Old Faithful, I spy a grizzly bear who had just killed an Elk and was resting after eating half of it.

I wasn't the only one watching. A ranger made sure everyone stayed at a safe viewing distance.

I arrive just as Old Faithful finished. It blows about every 90 minutes so I tour the area looking at other geysers while I wait for the next show at 6:41 +/- 10 minutes the sign says.

This hot pot is boiling.

Vents and boiling pots line the small river.

It's about time for Old Faithful, so I had back to that area and encounter some Bison which can roam freely throughout the park.

I detour around them keeping to a safe distance. I make it to the bleachers where I wait for the show to begin.

And 'thar she blows!' Only three minutes late.

I leave for Cody, Wyoming where I'll spend the night. It's not all that far, but the roads in the park are posted at 35 or 45 mph and you can't make much time. It's eighty miles away and it starts raining too slowing me down even further.  But it was worth it.

Bear Tooth Highway

It's day six of my journey and I leave Billings, Montana to visit Yellowstone Park via the Beartooth Highway. The road tops out at about 11,000 feet and the temperature drops to 59 degrees. The valley below is in the high eighties.

There is still snow at these altitudes.

At these altitudes, I'm above the tree line. No trees can grow up here.

The road ends in Cooke City where I'll enter Yellowstone.

Battle of the Greasy Grass ( aka Little Big Horn, Custer's Last Stand )

My rear is getting sore and I take any opportunity to stop which in this includes checking the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. Markers memorialize where the combatants fell. The brown headstones mark the fallen Native Americans and the while markers U.S. soldiers.

The road through the battlefield is about 5 miles and I ride from end to end surveying the battlefield. It's hard to feel sorry for the fallen U.S. soldiers. In a very real sense they represented usurpers. The Indians were defending their home land as the brown markers point out.

Devils Tower ( aka Bear Lodge )

It's Friday. I leave Rapid City early to get the day started.  Its sparkling out and I'm on my way to Billings, Montana my designated gateway to Yellowstone. It's the third cloudless day in a row and hot. Lucky me. Back in my hometown we just had a earth quack and a hurricane is soon to hit.

I stop in Sundance on my way to Devil's Tower for breakfast. I'm the only one in the restaurant and I spy a table with a newspaper. I read it through while I eat saving the op-ed page for last and find a column by Ann Coulter. Sadly, she's still at war with science. She's all mad because scientists have not responded to her latest best selling book 'disproving' evolution. If you wonder what the hubbub is about, a good negative response can be found here.

Devils Tower  is about 20 miles north of Sundance and it looms up ahead. I'm on my way to Billings Montana where I've booked a room.

While there, I check out the visitors center and take more pictures. I meet a young guy on a Honda Goldwing who's touring the country solo for four months. I couldn't but be jealous.

Chief Crazy Horse

I toured the Black Hills today entering through the town of Keystone.

It's a faux western town surrounded by kitschy tourist traps like Reptile Gardens that brought back memories of my childhood. If you grew up in the sixties before America became Disneyfied you know what I mean. Places like Frontier Town or The Enchanted Forest which were small mom and pop amusement parks that no longer exist. In Custer, there is even a Flintstones Bedrock City. I don't know if it's a good as the one Saddam Hussein built in Iraq, but if I was a kid again, I would certainly want to check it out.

To get to the 'real' town, you take a left at the light, population 311.

Mount Rushmore was impressive.

I didn't pay the $11 concession to park since I could see it fine without parking. Right down the road is the Chief Crazy Horse memorial which I did pay to see.

It's been under construction for over 50 years. It is hard to get a sense of the perspective, but it is already the world's largest sculpture and all the heads of Mt. Rushmore can fit inside the area of the Crazy Horse head.

When completed in another 50 years, it is planned to look like this.

There is a nice exhibit of Native American history and art along with a restaurant and gift shops. I'm glad I visited. Since finding arrow heads on my parents property as a kid, I've had a fascination with Native American culture and religion.

The project is funded through donations and profits from sales and they've taken no money from the government even though it's been offered. It is a monument to all Native American Indians. I bought a book there I've always wanted to read, Lies my Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen. Check it out at Wiki or Amazon.

I spent the rest of the day touring the Black Hills having fun on the windy roads. I searched for Buffalo which roam freely in the park, but only found some Antelopes, Mountain Goats and Prairie Dogs.

These little guys were all over the place. This one got mad and starting yelling at me and wagging its tail as I walked toward it warning his/her mates. Anti-evolutionists used to consider signaling a trait that could not have evolved since evolution supposedly teaches that animals are selfish and signaling is an unselfish act and poses a survival risk to the signaler. Wikipedia has a decent page on signaling theory.

My GPS is alive! I plugged it in again to see if it would respond before I called Garmin and it did. I discovered that it sometimes comes on after I turn my motorcycle off draining the battery. My original unit didn't malfunction this way, so I was unprepared...but I can live with it. It's amazing how reliant I am on technology. It becomes an extension of one's mind...which is a popular philosophical  notion now called the Extended Mind. But of course, mind is what the brain produces, but it is an interesting metaphor...I won't bore you with the details.

South Dakota is a state that allows motorcyclists to ride without a helmet. My normal riding gear is steel reinforced boots, Kevlar reinforced pants and jacket, helmet and gloves. I did ride today with only my helmet, but I draw the line at the helmet.  I ran the cost-benefit numbers and they came up with wearing the helmet. As Clint Eastwood's character Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations.'

Tomorrow I'm heading to the Devil's Tower and Billings, Montana to check out Yellowstone.

Rapid City

Abraham Kuyper, Dutch Prime Minister from 1901-1905, and theologian, once said when he visited the United States, that Europe was defined more by time and America by space, by which he meant that Europe was older with a deeper and richer history, but America was literally a huge wide open space. 

Yesterday, I make it to Rapid City, 766 miles in one day. That's roughly the distance from Amsterdam to Rome ( 810 miles to be exact ). By comparison, Amsterdam to Paris is 253 miles, Paris to Berlin is 527 miles, Madrid to Paris, 654 miles. Basically, in one day, you can drive from anywhere to anywhere in Europe.

The BMW K1200GT was designed for the German autobahn, so when I get to US Route 90 west of Albert Lea, Minnesota, and I encounter large traffic free stretches of road, I open it up. I have brand new Michelin Pilot Road 3s 'W' rated for 168+ mph.

The bike is stable as a train on rails as I work to keep it under 110. It wants to go. At 110mph, the engine is just getting into the base of the power curve at just over 6000 RPM and it feels like an after burner is kicking in. Peak horse power is around 9800 RPM and red lines at 10,500. The manual says not to exceed this speed with saddle bags, so I back off not wanting to discover the reason for the limit. At this speed, large bugs hit my visor with a loud crack and bugs hurt when they hit my bare hands prompting me to put my gloves back on.

The terrain was flattened by the Wisconsin glacier that receded 18,000 years ago, so there is not much to look at. I humor myself by reading wacky bill boards telling me that "Hell is Real!" or that Obama is bringing on 'Obamageddon!" This is what makes America great I think to myself...free to be stupid and display your ignorance to everyone. We even have talk-shows and reality shows for that.  I wondered if the authors of the bill boards ever read Richard Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize winning book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Probably not.

The early settlers found the Midwest from Illinois to the Rockies covered in six feet high grass. The prairie they called it which is French for meadow. I find instead corn...miles and miles of corn. The gentlemen manning the Minnesota Welcome Center asked if I had time to sight see in Minnesota. "Not much", I replied. He said I should stop and see the 55-foot tall Green Giant in Blue Earth. "A must for every photo album."

It's about half the size of the Statue of Liberty which is 111 feet from heel to the top of her head. The Statue of Liberty is also roughly the same height as Nero's Colossus.

Blue Earth was where the last segment of Rt. 90 was completed connecting Boston to Seattle in 1978. This apparently was completed as part of the celebration and was erected in its current location here at the Green Giant Headquarters in 1979. Minnesota was the agricultural capital of the world for a while and many of the big names have their headquarters in Minnesota.

But I'm not much of a flat lander and I feel a sense of relief when I see the Bad Lands and Black Hills of South Dakota come into view as I approach Rapid City. I resisted stopping at Wall Drug as I pass Wall, SD, at tourist stop much like South of the Border along Rt. 95. The signage approaching it is also much the same.


Well, here I am and I plan on seeing Mt. Rushmore today and tour some scenic by-ways in the Black Hills.

The trip thus far

Route in Progress

While waiting for the fog to clear, I hear on the news that a young Utah boy got stuck crawling down a chimney because he was thirsty and looking for something to drink. What? I couldn't help thinking I was looking at a future Darwin award winner.

I also wondered if he was a Mormon...Yes, there could be a connection...Irrational thought processes can lead to irrational beliefs and behaviors. This boy was only eight, so maybe cartoons were an influence.

This however, is related to a bigger issue, wherein lies the connection. The front running Republicans who are vying for the Republican Presidential nomination are all touting their religious credentials: Mitt Romney a Mormon, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are evangelical Christians.

Researchers have established by randomly sampling the genetics of thousands of Native Americans, who according to the Book of Mormon supposedly descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel , that none were genetically related to Jews.

The Books of Mormon, the Bible, and the Koran are supposedly inspired by a truthful god and everything in it is ipso facto true, so if anything in it is false, it falsifies the whole thing by modus tollens. If A then B, but if not B, then not A.

 So, it is important to me not only to know what a political leader believes, but to know how they arrived at those beliefs. Why? Because this reveals something about their critical thinking skills and how they evaluate evidence. We hold our leader's behavior to ethical standards, but we should also hold their thinking to normative epistemic standards. In short, they should be held to an ethics of belief.Yes, it is true that humans are often irrational, but we expect more from our leaders. After all, democracy thrives on debate and criticism. It is time we stop giving religion a free ride. At a minimum an ethics of belief requires that beliefs be consistent and not conflict with evidence. Evidence here is not private evidence, but publically available evidence that is open to inspection by everyone. That is, there should be evidence for beliefs that does not conflict with the findings of science and rational thought. It seems reasonable that religious commitment, while it may go beyond reason at times, should not be contrary to reason and science. It's reasonableness should be demonstrated and this means it is open to refutation. The democracy of faith-based beliefs creates an irrationally level playing field where any belief is supposed to be respected no matter how ridiculous. You cannot respond that your belief is self-authenticing and based on some private experience. That can be used to justify any belief. How is it possible to criticize a belief based on faith? You have to hold them up to the external standards of evidence and reason. We do this all the time in extreme cases that conflict with law as witnessed by the recent Warren Jeff's polygamy trial. We need to draw a tighter line around all faith based beliefs and demand a higher standard.

By these standards, conservative Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Mormonism don't fare very well. Irrationalism in personal beliefs will inevitably lead to irrationalism when it comes to other decisions. It's time we demand more from our leaders.

The fog burnt off by nine, so I head out. Leaving Athens, Ohio, I pass through the Hocking Hills but once west of Columbus, the terrain turns flat. Its corn and soybean fields as far as the eye can see. I call it quits when I reach Walcott, Iowa which is home to the 'Iowa 80, the Worlds Largest Truck Stop'.

An aerial view I pulled from the web.

From Indianapolis to Champaigne, Illinois, it was non-stop rain, but I had my rain gear and it cleared after Champaigne. The ride today was tiresome but I did 570 miles. Between the rain, high winds, trucks and a bumble bee that insisted on continually stinging my neck, I was glad to stop for the day. At first I thought it was a rough thread from my jacket poking my neck, but when I stopped for gas, I felt it crawling on my neck. Bumble bees, BTW, can sting multiple times according to Wiki, a fact I can verify.

We are supposed to be slowly coming out of a recession, but you can't tell that from the number of trucks on the road. About two-thirds of the vehicles are trucks.  I don't like driving behind semi's because the turbulence is annoying. I wonder what it will be like once the economy is booming again.

I stop for gas opportunistically because I try to use  only top tier gas and avoid el cheapo gas stations. Tomorrow I hope to make it to Rapid City, SD, a mere 766 miles from Walcott.

Dead Gps

My bike is loaded for the trip and I depart.

I stop at our local CVS drug store for some ear plugs. When I started my motorcycle, my GPS didn't turn on which it always does. Last night in Athen, Ohio, I tried charging it, but its as dead as a brick. This was just sent back to me by Garmin and was an out-of-warranty  replacement for my original unit. Oh well, I guess I'll navigate the old fashioned way.

Leaving Madison, Virginia, I take route 231 a scenic-byway to Sperryville passing Old Rag mountain a popular hiking destination.

I take Rt. 211 crossing the Blue Ridge at Thornton Gap. This road is fun and popular with motorcyclists who unfortunately race on the road prompting the state to post warning signs.

211 eventually takes me past Luray Caverns and then to Rt 81 which I take north to get onto Route 50. This route is just as fun and loaded with winding mountain roads. My speed varies from 20 to 60. Today I won't make much distance. But this part of the country is scenic so I don't mind.

Just out of Winchester I noticed a little retro motel with character called the Hayfield Motel.

Next to each room is a little carport for your car. No ugly franchise here. Past Clarksburg, Rt. 50 turns into super slab and I time to Athens, Ohio where I stop for the night.

It's foggy out, so I'm waiting till it burns off before I depart.