Category: General (Page 58 of 61)

On Sunday, June 24, I took “The Griz,” my ATV, to Marble, Colorado, to ride the Lead King Basin loop. This loop served old mines near Marble and borders the Aspen Snowmass Wilderness Area. While not a long loop it was reported to be very scenic. I had to check it out.

The scenic billing was right on. The wild flowers were in full bloom. Here is a shot of one of my favorite flowers, the Colorado Blue Columbine. (This is Colorado’s state flower.)

Colorado Blue Columbine, Lead King Basin

Through the trip I saw blue, yellow, white, and red Columbine. There must have been thousands of them along with many other species of bright wildflowers.

I tried to get a few “artsy” shots, but my little point-and-shoot  camera is not really the best tool for this. However, I did get a couple shots, including this one:

Columbine and Mountains

In addition to the wild flowers, this loop has water falls, always an attraction for me.

Silver Creek Falls

Jerry takes a break at the Devil’s Punchbowl

There were plenty of mountain views along the way:

Mountain Scenic from Lead King Basin Loop

This was a mining area, and a few structures and buildings remain, some in private hands. A well-known, and often photographed structure, is the Crystal Mill:

 The Town of Crystal  has a few cabins remaining. Some of these have been preserved as summer homes:

Cabin in Crystal

Now if Pam and I could find a cabin like this in our Land Hunt we would be delighted!

Although not long in mileage (less than 30, including back-tracking to ride side roads) this loop is long on fun and scenery. It has all the features: mountain views, flowers, waterfalls, and historic buildings. This was a great trip!

I’ve included a Photo Wall of pictures taken during this outing. I hope you enjoy it. Note: There are 2 video clips in The Wall. Look for the little triangle in a circle in the lower left portion of the thumbnail photo. Click on the triangle to play the videos. They are titled Lead King 1 and Lead King 2. Neither clip is over 1 minute long. (If you run the slide show, the videos will play automatically in sequence.) Adobe Flash is required; this is a free download from Adobe.com.

 That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

A couple days ago we had both cars out of the garage, so I decided to take a couple photos of my toys as I normally have them parked.

Toys on the left

Off to the left you can see my ’06 Kawasaki Concours motorcycle. Behind that is my ’78 Gilson tractor set up with both a snow blade and cab. To the right of the Gilson is my Grizzly 550 ATV. Behind all of these items are your typical garage stuff, including ladders, storage shelves, and ‘stuff’ that guys like to accumulate.

Over on the right…more toys!

Glancing to the right corner of the garage you will find our Toro lawn mower, my John Deere LX176 lawn tractor, and in the corner is my 1982 Yamaha XJ1100J motorcycle. I have not ridden the XJ for a while, but keep it for sentimental reasons. Other items in the photos include my extra gas cans, work bench, lawn tools, and more “stuff.”

Inside my garage

We even keep our 2 cars in the garage! However, my other toys stay outside:

Trailer pulled by motorcycle stored behind garage.

8N, Scout II, and trailer stored outside

As if that was not enough, I have an 8 x 10 Arrow storage shed.

Arrow storage shed

More “stuff!” Snowblower, chipper-shreder, blade for the John Deere, spare transmission for the Scout II (Hmmm?) and other “stuff” is stored in the shed.

My goal in life is to have a  garage / workshop big enough to store all my “stuff” inside and lots of space to work on my projects. (Pam says I need fewer projects and less “stuff;”  she is probably correct.)

Anyway, that’s my garage, toys,  and “stuff.”

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

I’ve been busy since my last post. This one will cover several topics, so just keep reading!

I am a member of the XS 11 Owner’s Association, a web-based motorcycle club. Every year the club holds rallies so people can meet and ride together. In the past I had gone to western rallies, but not to eastern ones. The XS 11 East rally was set for May 26th and 27th in Cambridge, Ohio, and I had decided  to attend.

Taking Pam’s advice, I left from work on Tuesday the 22nd and spent the night in Limon, Colorado, near the Kansas border. The next day’s ride across Kansas was very windy, but I made it and a good way into Missouri before stopping for the night. The wind was so strong it caused the only real problem I had: my trailer popped open! The wind pressure had caused a clamp to fail. A strap around the end of the trailer, bumble-bee style, took care of keeping the trailer closed.

I ran into lots of road construction in all the states. Still, I made good time and arrived in Cambridge on Thursday the 24th. This was by plan, as I like to have a day to cover any eventualities  that might arise. Several other attendees were already there, so we made plans to ride together on Friday.

We decided to visit the American Motorcycle Association’s Hall of Fame Museum. If you are into motorcycles, this is a good place to visit. I am restraining myself from posting a lot of photos, not only because they may not appeal to all who read this blog, but this post is going to be long enough as it is!

Visting the AMA Museum

1930 Triumph

From the museum we went to the Long Horn Ranch, where 3 varieties of longhorn cattle are raised as breeding stock. Suffice to say I learned a great deal about these large and iconic animals.

Longhorns in Ohio

If you are interested in souvenirs, you can buy a skull and horns (or just horns) at the ranch shop:

Longhorn Horns...priced by the inch

From the ranch it was back to the motel for dinner and conversation, as well as some adult beverages.

The Saturday club ride was great, winding around Ohio back roads and eating at a buffet for lunch.  Dinner was at a good local restaurant. The outing covered 192 miles in almost perfect weather. (It was a little warm.) Here is a photo of our group at the motel:

XS 11 East Group Photo

I could not attend the Sunday ride, as I needed to be in Chicago on Sunday to visit family. Monday I would ride into central Wisconsin to visit and stay with my mother, and Tuesday I would attend the internment of my father-in-laws’ ashes.

Riding through big cities is not my idea of fun, and Chicago reminded me again of why I live and work in a rural area. To many people moving to fast, and toll roads do not add to the ambiance.

Sunday evening, after I arrived in Chicago, my niece and nephew cooked a great dinner of grilled steak, sautéd  mushrooms, fresh green beans, and rice.  Cooktop brownies and ice cream made for desert. Everything was great, and my thanks to my sister Carole and niece and nephew Stef and Eric for the great reception and dinner.

Monday I headed out and made it to central Wisconsin. I took my time and stopped at a Culver’s restaraunt for lunch. Culver’s is a mid-west based chain of restaraunts that is well-known for using local beef in its hamburger meals and local milk in ice cream and milkshakes. It had been a while since I ate at a Cuver’s, so I just had to stop!  

After unpacking at my mother’s house, my two sisters and I visited my father’s grave site. (Dad passed away in December of 2010.) We returned to Mom’s place for dinner and conversation, then it was time for a night’s rest.

Tuesday turned out to be very windy and cold. This only a day after record-setting warm temperatures in Chicago and elsewhere. None-the-less, I headed for Merrill, which is about 15 miles north of Wausau, Wisconsin. My father-in-law, Myron Paroubek, had died in February and had been cremated, and the ceremony was to inter his ashes.  Myron’s home town was Merrill, and many of Pam’s relatives are buried there.

Better photos have been posted on other family blogs and FaceBook, so I’ll just include this one photos of Pam’s siblings, Larry, Becky, and Craig.

Larry, Becky, and Craig at Myron's internment.

Now for the last part of my trip: Back to Colorado with Dad’s old Ford 8N tractor.

First, I left the cemetery and went to Marshfield to pick up my U-Haul truck and trailer. I loaded the motorcycle in the truck, ( I rode it up the ramp, a first for me.) and tied it down, then headed back to my mother’s place.

Now I had to load the tractor, which had not run in years, had flat and low tires, and had sunk a bit into the dirt.

Ford tractor sitting in the grass

I had brought my come-along (hand-powered portable winch) to help load the tractor onto the U-Haul trailer. This is slow work, requiring the come-along to be reset every 4 feet or so. You should have seem me ratcheting that come-along’s handle back and forth! Eventually the tractor was up on the main part of the trailer and things got a little easier.

Loading tractor

After putting my motorcycle trailer on behind the tractor, the final rig looked like this:

I headed back to Colorado on Wednesday morning. After a night’s stay in Nebraska, I arrived home late Thursday afternoon.

Mileages worked out like this: 2,791 miles by motorcycle, 1,301 miles by truck, noted when I returned the rig. Total: 4,092 miles.

It was a long and varied trip. Motorcycles, a funeral, and tractor transport. I visited friends, family, had some great food, and rode some great roads. It was good to get home, though.

Postscript on the tractor: I did get it running in order to get it off the trailer. This took a couple hours of work, some fresh fuel, some air in the tires (one still goes flat in about 20 minutes) and an overnight battery charge. The 8N is in rough shape, and will need many hours of work and several hundred dollars in repairs to get it in reliable and working shape. Biggest issues are tires and wheels; both back rims are rusted through and need to be replaced, and the tires are shot. (Ever price tractor tires? Sticker shock! A pair of rear wheels and rims will run about $1,200.00) Still, it was good to hear it run, which gives me hope that the other repairs will eventually be justified.

Next time: The Land Hunt continues with another trip…

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!