Chasing the sunset
As usual, the trip to Texas was one of the great weekends of my life. Twelve hours each direction, seeing America in new and different ways and planning the bicycle trip. As always, one of the highlights is leaving Amarillo around 7:00 pm, chasing the sunset as I drive west.
Most people have an aversion to Southeastern Colorado - everyone wants to see the 'pretty' part of this square-from-the-top, tall-from-the-side state. I've got news for ya - the entire state is beautiful. If all of Colorado looked like Vail, Telluride and Aspen, you may as well just go see Finland. Trouble with Finland is no one wants to go there because it's too effing cold! Can't have it both ways, peoples.
Anyhoo, this journey was about which roads possess the broadest shoulders on which to safely ride a bicycle. I discovered a very lightly travelled road which bypasses a lot of busier highways, but more than half of it is shoulderless. One oddity thought - stupid birds. These poor winged creatures evidently had no idea what an automobile was. They would stand in the middle of the road, almost daring me to hit them I first thought. It turns out they did not know what was happening until they struck the front of my car, poor souls. That then got me to thinking, "I wonder if all roadkill goes to heaven?" If every animal which has ever died ended up in heaven, well, that place is pretty darn big.
Strangely enough, this led me to wonder if armadillos possess an inborn sense of surveying and cartography. While driving back, I noticed a number of dead armadillos, but not one after passing into the Oklahoma panhandle. These varmints must know where the borders lie and refuse to cross them. Not the prettiest creature, but certainly also not the smartest.
Possibly the coolest creature I encountered on the road was the lowly turtle. This little dude is just trying to finish his day by carefully crawling across the interstate. You see them on the approach, and of course try to miss them. They're so funny in that they seem to stop, look around, realize the imminent peril, tuck everything inside and pray.
After driving new routes both ways, the standard route appears to be the safest: Busier interstates with really wide shoulders. I'm thinkin' a jersey with DALLAS OR BUST emblazoned on the back should be enough to inform people to please be careful. It's a long way there.
Most people have an aversion to Southeastern Colorado - everyone wants to see the 'pretty' part of this square-from-the-top, tall-from-the-side state. I've got news for ya - the entire state is beautiful. If all of Colorado looked like Vail, Telluride and Aspen, you may as well just go see Finland. Trouble with Finland is no one wants to go there because it's too effing cold! Can't have it both ways, peoples.
Anyhoo, this journey was about which roads possess the broadest shoulders on which to safely ride a bicycle. I discovered a very lightly travelled road which bypasses a lot of busier highways, but more than half of it is shoulderless. One oddity thought - stupid birds. These poor winged creatures evidently had no idea what an automobile was. They would stand in the middle of the road, almost daring me to hit them I first thought. It turns out they did not know what was happening until they struck the front of my car, poor souls. That then got me to thinking, "I wonder if all roadkill goes to heaven?" If every animal which has ever died ended up in heaven, well, that place is pretty darn big.
Strangely enough, this led me to wonder if armadillos possess an inborn sense of surveying and cartography. While driving back, I noticed a number of dead armadillos, but not one after passing into the Oklahoma panhandle. These varmints must know where the borders lie and refuse to cross them. Not the prettiest creature, but certainly also not the smartest.
Possibly the coolest creature I encountered on the road was the lowly turtle. This little dude is just trying to finish his day by carefully crawling across the interstate. You see them on the approach, and of course try to miss them. They're so funny in that they seem to stop, look around, realize the imminent peril, tuck everything inside and pray.
After driving new routes both ways, the standard route appears to be the safest: Busier interstates with really wide shoulders. I'm thinkin' a jersey with DALLAS OR BUST emblazoned on the back should be enough to inform people to please be careful. It's a long way there.
posted by Road Warrior @ 9:23:00 AM
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