March 31st

In like a lion and out like a lamb.   It is 70 degrees here today.  We have our windows open.  The warm blue sky buoys my spirit and life feels light.  Scattered thoughts and ideas flutter the curtains. Knowledge like dust, blows through my open windows, depositing detritus on my keyboard.

Moonscape

The desolate moonscape of the Pawnee Grasslands was carved with great patience over many eons.  The area does not easily support agriculture, thus preserving it as one of the least populated areas of the great plains.   Relicts of fluvial and aeolian erosion reveal a wonderfully diverse and fascinating landscape.

Technically a part of the National Forest System, there are vast areas of open land.  One spectacular erosional basin has been set aside for Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) fun and games.

Got Hitched!

We found a great trailer hitch for the Subaru.  It only took a couple of hours to install.

The hitch is a product from Torklift.
http://torkliftcentral.com/ecohitch/subaru/

It works!

Camping at Pawnee Grasslands.   Still snow in the high country, so this is the only place to ride in the winter….

The End of the Cafe Racers

Well, maybe not really The End, but more of a time-out.  Time to hibernate for a season.  Cafe Racers are jealous creatures.  They permit but one rider.  Their solo-seat a not so subtle attempt to force monogamy upon their enraptured rider.  But, I cannot spend all of my attention on the preening, invidious mares in the garage.   There are others in my life with whom I long to share the joys of motorized two-wheel joy.

So, its time to do something else.   While I will miss those Cafe Bikes and their bright, candy-colored dreams, there are too many dirt roads and rocky single track.  There are Colorado rocky trails that need to be explored and remote campgrounds to discover.   Places where delicate and sophisticated road bikes dare not tread with their fancy shoes.

We have traded our beautiful prancing mares for a trailer of dirty old mules.  Mules that will carry us up dusty canyons and through crunchy forests of spruce and pine.  Loyal new companions that require a new kind of husbandry in the barn.

New adventures await.

Dark Horse

Pretty Lady

Sadly, the pretty ladies come and go.  This one has been gone for sometime now…. sold to a lecherous old man back east who hordes girls like these in a dusty barn in his backyard.  

Sisters

Cold Cereal

Time rolls past like churning
Clouds on a wintry spring morning.
The milky dawn pours
Snowy light across my breakfast cereal
As I spoon hope into the brightness
Of my steaming coffee mug.
Dreamy memories of sleep slip
Softly away as I drink the
New day awake.