Cycling the windy city.

Cycling Chicago. Bridget retrieving her bike from the brand new bicycle storage facility in Chicago near the Miracle Mile and Lake Shore Drive.

San Francisco Colorado.

San Francisco Colorado settled long before the 'Centennial State' became a state I'm sure. Not much here besides a couple of curious hispanic kids watching me take pictures, a convenience store doubling as a living room of a house and the formerly locked and now reopened access to a couple of 14ers. In Montana one of the more arrogant and ignorant people I knew called it 'Condorado' when I said I was moving back. This guy was literally wearing his tool belt while he condemned Colorado as overbuilt. Apparently some carpenters don't know about the word irony. He then departed to the jobsite, pushing poor Bozeman west in spurts of spec' homes forty hours a week. Right on, you just keep yourselves firmly entrenched on the I-70 corridor when you are passing through Colorado where you belong like so many slot cars. Remember, Colorado is crowded enough, so go away.

I take dirt when I can.

I take dirt when I can. This is Colorado. La Sauses Colorado. It took me a few dirt u-turns and a couple of getting-lost-but-I've-got-a-lot-of-gas-so-I'll-keep-goings later until I passed through La Sauses. Not much, this being the only identifying feature. Last time this store was open, the sign might not have been torn yet. Dust, thorns, billowing willows, beautifully forlorn. Suase is not in my dictionary but suace is and it means willows. Could be a typo? The Willows Colorado. I'll go with it. Reminds my of another town, this one in New Mexico. It means Three Rocks in spanish, but it is similar enough for me, so I prefer to refer to it as Three Feet. Three Feet New Mexico. It'll be a place in a story of mine.

I'm just tremendously lucky.

That's right and I also don't live in Breck', Dillon, Steamboat, Fraser, Frisco, Silverthorne, Loveland, Eagle or Minturn. But I like skiing most of those places occasionally on week days. All arrogance aside, truth is I am just tremendously lucky. All of the above mentioned places are worlds better than my home town.

Ski fences are so cliche.

Ski fences are so cliche. Don't get me wrong, some cliche's are okay. I have two pair of skis on Batman's ski fence, maybe three. One pair date from my first season here. I went from Hexcel Honeycomb 185' cms, no, not split-tails, to Rossignal Strato 102's. The old brown planks,they were 210' cms. I learned how to ski on them. I did snow-cat powder-tours on them! Yeah, I'm an expert skier but that doesn't necessarily make me a smart one. I eventually went down to 207's and 204's. But of course that's only because the optimal ski for me would have been 200's. That was years ago and now my longest skis are 190's. I regularly ski 184's and I even have a pair of ... 162's (Atomic B-5 Metron). Oh yeah ... ski fences. I have a pair of Head and my old K2's or Rossi ST's are on the fence also. The above picture is a small part of my ... bike fence. I built a bicycle fence around our garden. It is comprised of four old red bicycles wrapping around and one green Huffy (3 speed) planted in the garden for contrast. These are the tulips, the roses are next and they look great growing through and around the frames and rims. The Mayor even wants to take pictures of it. More later of the whole fence. I live in a ski town. Look closely at the next post, it'll be a hint. Remember, rivalries are not the exclusive terrain of colleges.

Ellie

Being a Cairn Terrier, Ellie was quick to figure that the food comes from that way. This is a restaurant on the main drag in Crested Butte. I can't remember the name but it's not Main Street. I drove over one day. It's a hundred miles one way across classic Colorado landscape. It's not any designated scenic byway either. The one pass is paved and the other is dirt. I went there to buy a town bike. I bought a late fifties or early sixties Schwinn Panther. It's all original with front, rear racks, tank, all reflectors, original grips, pedals, saddle and tires. It's black. It's a two speed 'layback'. I'll post a pic soon. Oh yeah ... it's Elk Avenue, (Thanks Bridget).

Jerome Prof ssiona Buil g.

Jerome Prof ssiona Buil g: It's one thing to see this kind of signage on the ubiquitous fast food restaurant or gas station etc. You know the misspelled ones are 1) poor education by the minimum wage teen or 2) not enough of a given letter so substituted with the next most similar equivalent. This sign is, of course, neither. These letters stand permanently affixed to a brick wall. Obviously there has been a little mishap here. It's on a corner on a hill in a town that gets snow. The great irony being the subject matter of the sign itself and the fact that it has been like this for a long time. No thanks, Jerome, I'll use some other professional.

Caution: upside down pedestrians ahead.

Caution : upside down pedestrians with no hands or feet ahead.

These are the kind of pictures you can get when you are willing to notice, slow down, turn around and backtrack. That's a difficult proposition for most mid-day motorists intent on getting to the next important thing after whisking away from the last. But, luckily for me, I haven't really found a career (or job) yet this summer, so I've plenty of slow down, turn around, backtrack time. By the way, I sometimes feel like the silhouetted graphic adorning the yellow caution is me. Maybe that's why I noticed it.