Well, we've been pedaling our butts across the high plains for about 5 days now and that's about enough time to formulate some thoughts. Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas have a lot in common while being distinctly different at the same time. What the share in common is, I suppose, what they were endowed with by their creator, and that is wide open spaces with seemingly limitless vistas. We are definitely in the Great Plains and as we ride along, I try to imagine what this area would have been like 200 years ago, say at the time that Lewis & Clark made their epic Corps of Discovery Expedition. The closest analogy that I can come up with is that there is scant difference between the plains and the ocean. Granted, Lewis & Clark started with a river and followed it up and across the plains, so they had some means of finding their way back home. Today, however, all of the roads in Kansas run either directly north-south, or as is the case of the road we've been on these past 5 days, east-west. The roads, therefore, do not follow the natural contours and guideposts of the land, and consequently we have been at times very far from any sort of waterway. If all of man's impact could be erased and someone was dropped into this landscape, they may just as well be in the middle of the ocean. No real way to get high enough to look around to get an idea of which way to proceed. You might as well just pick a direction and go...
What distinguishes the two states is the agriculture and oil. It seems that most of eastern Colorado is relatively untouched ranch land, but as you get farther from the Rockies, and lower in elevation, there is more farming (mostly grain, hay & corn), feedlots for beef, and oil. There is nothing on the Colorado skylines. In Kansas, grain elevators dominate the landscape. There aren't dozens of them to be seen at any one time, in fact usually just one or maybe two, but spotting them while you are on a bicycle, and knowing that where there is a grain elevator, there is some sort of human settlement, you know that that elevator is your next destination, but it may take close to an hour to get there.
Nevada had its long, straight roads, but it has nothing on Kansas. Whereas the straightaways in Nevada may have been 25 or 30 miles long, some of the straightaways in Kansas apparently run the length of the state. The difference is that in Nevada you can see that entire length because the road essentially becomes a giant vee, with one side coming down one mountain range and the other side running up the next. In Kansas, because it is so flat or with gentle rolling hills, you can rarely see even 4 or 5 miles of the road. What you can see is that grain elevator ahead, growing little by little as you slowly inch your way closer.
Grain elevators themselves are rather impressive structures. They are essentially clusters of 6 or 8 concrete tubes perhaps 100 or 120 feet tall. I don't profess to know anything about them, but I suppose that they are sort of like super silos. The grain goes in at the top (hence the name) and is removed from the bottom. This would automatically cause you to "rotate stock" to use restaurant parlance. The oldest grain is always being drawn out first so that none of it gets too old. At any rate, they appear to be poured in one casting - one very large casting of concrete. Mind you, it's not the Boulder Dam, but impressive to me just the same. The next time that I see Brock Roby, please remind me to ask him about elevators.
Product Review:
The Camelback insulated water bottle is the only bottle that I will ever purchase from here on out! There is one small proviso, and that is that my only experience with them is a 24 oz bottle. There is not enough clearance between the front fender and the bottom of the downtube for this size bottle. If I cannot find a Camelback insulated bottle that will fit, then I would use a standard sized Camelback bottle for below the downtube (on bikes with 3 water bottle mounts). They do indeed keep the water much colder for much longer, and that has mattered a lot this week. There are few things less appealing while pedaling in 110 degree heat, than to have to drink warm water! And by warm, I do mean warm.
Product Review:
The Goal Zero Nomad 7 solar panel works great! It can be used to directly charge my HTC smartphone, iPad, iPod and Serfas USB rechargeable headlamps and tail lamps. The Guide 10 Plus battery pack inspires less confidence, but that doesn't mean it isn't working properly. The unit has a LED on it that is supposed to blink red slowly when the battery pack is being charged, but is below 50% capacity, change to a slow green blinking when the unit is 50%-80% capacity, blink green quickly between 80%-100%, and remain lit solid green when the unit is fully charged (and still connected to a power source - either the solar panel or a USB source). Well, you can charge this baby, unplug it, and immediately plug it back in, and it will return to slow green blink, or one of the other options. It seems at times that the flashing LED is actually indicating the strength of the power coming out of the solar panel, because when I first connect the unit, it might blink red, but if I then position the panel for optimum angle of incidence, the LED changes to green right away.
In spite of those peculiarities, the Guide 10 Plus battery pack has consistently been able to recharge the phone and iPod over night. We simply have them strapped to the top of the load on our rear racks, meaning over the top of the sleeping bag or tent. Neither of us has gotten too obsessively anal about it, but we do have to be in the "harvesting" mindset to really get the maximum out of the solar unit. Make sure that the battery pack gets fully charged every day, then switch to the phone, or iPad, charge the iPod from the pack, recharge the pack, etc... But as I said, we haven't had to do much of that sort of thing, and it would be hard to be any more pleased, with the exception of the blinking LED.
That's plenty for now. Even this took about an hour or more of "work". Hey we met quite a few west-bound riders today. The Korean man will be in San Francisco in early August. He said that he hoped to be able to visit me there and then, if I'm back. If I'm not back, would anyone like to entertain him?
Dale
No comments:
Post a Comment