Earache

Ya also gotta remember that the distances in the USA are a bit greater than what you're used to. 350 miles won't get me outta the state of Colorado. Many times the next town that has fuel might be 200+ miles away so you pretty much have to do longer distances. It's different but it is fun.

Every time I post a ride report or trip plans here, someone says the same thing; "that's too many miles, too long of a day, etc". No training or anything involved, it's just the way that we travel. We are used to it. Our trips are for riding, not eating, stopping, etc. Not everyone's cup of tea, I understand. Check out last summer's trip: 4,000+ miles in 8 days. Loads of fun!

Usually around 11-12 hours per day. I like to try to leave each day around 6 AM and stop by 6 PM. Sometimes goes longer than that but not by design; we just bite off more miles than we can chew sometimes.

Welp, we expected that this might happen..... Canceling our trip in April due to too much snow on the ground and more expected soon. Might do a smaller trip a little later...like late May?.

This place is fantastic for riding in the three months of riding weather that we have, rest of the year, not so much. Come over anytime, we love to show people around.

"The Shining" was partially written and inspired by Stephen King's stay at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado - just up the road from my house a bit. He stayed there through one of our snow storms and got the idea for the book. See: https://www.stanleyhotel.com/ . They have ghost tours and stuff like that there. I've posted some pics of the Stanley in some of my ride reports. From Wikipedia: In 1974, during their brief residency in Boulder, Colorado, horror writer Stephen King and his wife Tabitha spent one night at the Stanley Hotel.[9] The visit is known entirely through interviews given by King in which he presents differing narratives of the experience. At the time of his visit, King was writing a book with the working title Darkshine set in an amusement park, but was not satisfied with the setting. According to George Beahm's Stephen King Companion, "on the advisement of locals who suggested a resort hotel located in Estes Park, an hour's drive away to the north, Stephen and Tabitha King found themselves checking in at the Stanley Hotel just as its other guests were checking out, because the hotel was shutting down for the winter season. After checking in and after Tabitha went to bed, King roamed the halls and went down to the hotel bar, where drinks were served by a bartender named Grady. As he returned to his room, numbered 217, his imagination was fired up by the hotel's remote location, its grand size, and its eerie desolation. And when King went into the bathroom and pulled back the pink curtain for the tub, which had claw feet, he thought, 'What if somebody died here? At that moment, I knew I had a book.'"[10] In a 1977 interview by the Literary Guild, King recounted "While we were living [in Boulder] we heard about this terrific old mountain resort hotel and decided to give it a try. But when we arrived, they were just getting ready to close for the season, and we found ourselves the only guests in the place—with all those long, empty corridors." King and his wife were served dinner in an empty dining room accompanied by canned orchestral music: "Except for our table all the chairs were up on the tables. So the music is echoing down the hall, and, I mean, it was like God had put me there to hear that and see those things. And by the time I went to bed that night, I had the whole book [The Shining] in my mind."[11] In another retelling, King said "I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a fire-hose. I woke up with a tremendous jerk, sweating all over, within an inch of falling out of bed. I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in a chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of The Shining firmly set in my mind."[12] The Shining was published in 1977 and became the third great success of King's career after Carrie and 'Salem's Lot. The primary setting is an isolated Colorado resort named the Overlook Hotel which closes for the winter. In the front matter of the book, King tactfully states "Some of the most beautiful resort hotels in the world are located in Colorado, but the hotel in these pages is based on none of them. The Overlook and the people associated with it exist wholly in the author's imagination."[13]

I'd vote for that. But someone would slip, get hurt and then sue the school. So we shovel it.

It'll just be a memory in another month or so. Then off on some good bike trips with loads of biking photos.

It's looks like a bbq grill in this pic. I expected to see some steaks in it.

Snowed another 10" last night so to the school at 4:00 AM to start shoveling. It looked really cool outside early this morning with all the fresh snow. But we're running outta places to put all of this shit...

"More ups and downs than a Catholic wedding"

"I'll slap you so hard that your grandmother will feel it"

I hate you. So, where we going for dinner and pints?

Well, for beginners, we should immediately start posting nudes of hot women (or hot guys if you're a woman), rude and off color jokes, racist stuff, etc. Get all of the sins covered before he returns.

This. Less and less motorcycle content and just a bunch of stupid jokes that few even understand.

It's so cool - even though we got over 40 inches of snow, probably 1/3 of it has already melted away and the rest will be gone by the weekend. The Sun is so bright and the humidity levels are so low that it just disappears pretty quickly. Out on the bikes in no time.

Fit is a word that has never been used to describe me - not in the last 20 years at least. Stout, tank-like and ox-like have been used, but not fit. 3 days of shoveling and I'm sore as shit. Even my elbows are sore. Just finished up at the school again today and am now gonna lay around for the rest of the day.

The only thing we shovel are steps. And since the school is on a mountainside, there are lots of steps. Wish a snowblower would work there, but only a shovel will do the job.

Had a great time early this morning at the local school as the snow crew (3 of us) tried to get through the drifts and into the school. I shoveled emergency exits all day, but the strong winds were filling it back in as fast as I could shovel it. So we cancelled school for the day. Gonna get back at it tomorrow morning and try to open by 8:00 AM. Great sunrise today!

It is a dry snow, not heavy at all to shovel. But there is a shit ton of it to shovel. I've cleared my front porch 3 times today, each time had over a foot of snow on it. Drifts are really big and I have nowhere to through the snow. Tomorrow I have to try to get over to the local school and start shoveling there so that they can open on Tuesday (already called off Monday). That is going to be quite a bit of work. I'll try to post some pics from there.

It's ready to ride!

Tym nailed it. Most of our washer fluid is good to about -20F (-29C), but you can buy stuff that is good much lower than that. I never skimp and buy the cheap stuff as it'll freeze quickly.

That's kinda what I was thinking.

It's going to be about 50F/10C on Friday, most of it will probably be gone by then. But the driveway is clear enough to get out of in the truck....once I uncover the truck?

We're up over 36 inches / 92cm of snow now and the plow guy showed up to try to dig us out, but it's coming down too fast. He's gonna try again tomorrow. Sure looks pretty though!