WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

This year’s ride is coming to a close. Thousands of miles traveled across our country has allowed me to visit, up-close and personal, with people of means that care only for themselves, those that find joy in helping others and the destitute that recycle roadside aluminum cans converting them into a meal. I have been given a unique perspective. What I’ve tasted and tested with my own eyes and through the eyes of others is this:

Like a billion sharpened blades the rain of history pricks and pierces our minds and still we heed not the warnings. The tale is deep within our DNA, it blossoms in books and drowns us with advice, and still we heed not. I fear we have become so complacent, so saturated with reality-obscuring non-essentials that a complete collapse, either through natural or forced measures is required before a corrective course, a balance, will save the only place we have to live, “Planet Earth.”

When land ownership falls in too few hands, when the divide between poor and rich becomes too great and the middle class melts to too little, the strength of a nation and the stability of a sense of fair play shrinks along with it.

Wishing you all well. If you would like to help the all-volunteer, Iron County Cancer Unit, go to
www.tcoinc.com/iccu and pitch in a couple of bucks. Your contribution will go a long way in helping folks in their personal battle with cancer.

THE LAST SUNSET

Ray, the Mayor by unofficial nods, of Rockwell city, Iowa, patrols the city park out behind the corn silos. I happened on him while looking for migrating birds to photograph.

“What-cha doing there, taking pictures for the paper?” He demands in a curt but comical way. “Looking for birds,” I reply and offer my hand to the old gentleman. The air is calm here in the low lands and unusually quiet save for the tweedling rales of mating Spring Peepers.  “Not near as many birds here-abouts as when I was a boy. These here woods used to be full-of-em come spring,” He tells me with watery eyes dreaming of his youth. “It’s all this poison they are putting on the corn to kill the weeds and bugs that’s killing the birds too.  Why, just yesterday I see’d a frog with two heads a-swimming right in this here swamp,"  He points a finger in the direction of green, algae covered water.  "Yes sir, it’s all that damn poison those folks is using to make more corn come from an acre than is natural.”

“How do you think it’ll all end, Ray?” I ask him with straight face concern. “Something happened to the dinosaurs and they was gone, that was millions of years ago and it weren’t thier fault. The peoples here on earth today are hell-bent on wringing ever last drop of goodness out of’er and that’ll be that, we’ll all die of our own hand, it'll be our own fault."
……So it goes.

Should there be a last sunset in my lifetime, I hope it's as lovely as this.

THAT'S A LOT OF BULL

John James Audubon (1785-1851) the famed illustrator of American birds was NOT born in Audubon, Iowa, but rather Haiti.  I didn't know that until this very moment when I did a "Google search." 

The weather here in Central Iowa continues to be cold, wet and windy, not conducive for bike riding, also, this long stretch of sunless days can wear-thin the veneer of cheerfulness.

Here stands "Albert" the anatomically correct pride of Audubon, Iowa, 30 foot high, 35 foot long and weighing in at 45 tons. (90,000 pounds)    That's a lot of Bull.

One of the petting zoo's residents in the Hancock, IA city park. He's looking a little shabby with his shedding winter hair but impressive non-the-less.

WHEN I THINK OF SPRING

When I think of spring images of Daffodils and Robins are brought to mind.

Old Glory, tattered, torn and faded flies above the city park in Hebron, Nebraska.  A proud little town that just doesn't have the funds, like most of the towns across our country, to keep everything in "spit shine" condition.  Most of us are feeling the pinch of a tough sled ride through the economic down turn, multiple money-eating wars, tax cuts for the extravagantly rich and NO TAXES for the largest corporations.

Straight, narrow, peaceful and endless are the blue roads of Nebraska. Unfortunately these perfect bike days  are few, crop required rain has kept the sunshine cornered above the clouds. 

Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Nebraska has been very accommodating, giving us a place to park the rig for the evening and letting us walk away from the craps table with $75 bucks.  No one raining on our parade here....even if the morning sky is wet and heavy with more moisture.

DON'T ASK ME

For miles along the back roads of Kansas the view is the same, "winter wheat."  Endless miles of green shoots have sprouted and are up 5 or 6 inches.  Every direction is green fields and blue skies.  It seems as though enough wheat is grown right here to feed the masses...but....with a world population of almost 7 BILLION people,  1 BILLION are left to go hungry.  What will play-out in 2050 when the population reaches 10.5 BILLION?  If you want a cheery answer, don't ask me.

Northern friends will appreciate this.  Lilacs now flowering in northern Kansas.

The Jumping Spider is able to jump 40 times its own length and give you a nasty bite not unlike a wasp sting. 

Peter and Gundi Lattermann from Singen, Germany were are neighbors here in the Concordia, KS City Park.  We tried to solve the worlds problems in a hour but the best we could come up with was, "Last one to leave, turn out the lights."  So it goes.

BLOWING IN THE WIND

Russell, Kansas. The winds did blow, the rig did rock and we stayed put right here north of the I-70 east/west corridor.

The winds tore-loose a wire and set off alarms aimed at the paramedics, fire and police departments and an emergency repair crew.  They arrived with sirens screaming, lights flashing and pistols drawn.  Love small town life, eh?

The plains states, especially "Tornado Valley" is well noted for violent winds.  The past three days we've become part of the country side with 60 mph winds and evening temps well down into the low 30's.  It was too cold/windy to ride bikes and even too much wind to be out on the highway with a high-profile vehicle...ie, the RV.

Our riding buddy Earl Norman, 85 years young, began experiencing chest pains yesterday so he's over at the local hospital getting checked out.  Jackie says, "When in doubt, check it out."  So far he's fine and called to let us know the hospital food wasn't quite up to our exquisite traveling cuisine, but with a little smuggled-in salt he could make-do.  Given a little luck the doctor will grant him his walking/riding papers this morning and we'll be on our way up the windy alley toward his home in Bellevue, NE.

BLACK WINGED WASP

Check under the toilet seat before doing your business in outdoor johns.  It can be painful and somewhat embarrassing if you don't.

From the archives----Yesterday vs today.

   Kansas Cotton Tail still woolly with his winter coat.

The storm has passed and sun splashes between a wind break of  Red Cedar.

FRAGILE PEACE ON THE KANSAS PRAIRIE

    Sunrise on the Ninnescah River in Pratt, KS 

Leaving town we see the folks here have a sense of humor.

Breadbasket Bubba's arrested growth type of humor.

Not all RV parks are equal.  $5.00 a night

American Pipit

Migrating Boat Tailed Grackles

Turkey Vulture

Female Eastern Bluebird

Female Red Winged Blackbird

White Faced Ibis

Extremely dry conditions in this part of Kansas has prompted many controlled burns.

FIGHTING BACK

Greenboro, KS, 2007  A tornado wide enough to devastate and level 95% of the town.  The town didn't die but rather took an oath to repair and rebuild using architecture modeled with a green view.  One of the few structures that withstood the F5 winds was the grain elevator.

One of the two 12.5 (Peak) Megawatt (1 megawatt = 1 million watts) wind turbines that mark the green reconstruction.  One household, on the average, consumes approximately 800 watts a month....You do the math.

A close-up of the "nest" top of the turbine. Notice the small wind indicator on the top.  The wind turbine blades face away from the prevailing wind direction.

The old RV park razed by the twister now supports only a scrabble of weeds next to one of its long neglected sites. 

Walking out behind the park I was startled by this Prairie Kingsnake.  It was rattling its tail in the normal warning of a venomous snake.  Pure bluster and bluff, no poision in it's bite. Phew!

The morning sun rising through a sandy, mist-like ribbon, squalled-up by high winds.  Bare trees still give testament to the tornado of May 4th 2007.  Twelve deaths and thousands of lives ruined.  Greensboro's fight-back population as of 2010, 777. 

RUBY SLIPPERS--

Liberal, Kansas is noted for, what else, The Wizard of Oz. I had always thought it was just a movie but now I know it really happened. Here are Dorothy’s shoes to prove it.  So, it wasn't a political, economic parable of the late, Great Depression after all. 

Francisco Coronado stopped by Liberal, before he knew it would be Liberal, and gave birth to break dancing.

A young Meadowlark drys its feathers in the morning fog.

We're staying at Nancy's Western Star RV Park just east of Liberal, KS.  Her and her hubby farm 15,000 acres, (corn, sorghum, hay)run a few beef and pay more interest to the bank than they make in profit for the year.  The RV park was Nancy's idea.  She says, "I needed to be able to talk with people, the cows just moo'ed."

A squall moved though blackening the sky and their farmhouse windows reflected the setting sun.

BOYS OF SPRING

We rode with warm winds and light traffic along the back roads between Dumas, TX and Guymon, OK.  Our scenery was farmers (aka agri-biz) and cattle feedlots in full swing.  Peanuts, cotton, corn and beef on the hoof, soon to be in a market near you. 

Multiple hundreds of wind turbines, the large 100 ft blade-span type, slicing the air with hoarse growling wooshing sounds, producing somewhere around 50,000 KW a year, tower above the grazing cattle and give testament of the slowly changing attitude for energy production.  

We found a nice spot outside of Guymon, OK. to settle the rig for the evening.  It's a complimentary spot, supplied by the city on the fringe of their activities park. 

With the temperature in the low 80's, "The Boys of Spring" were out doing their thing.

PONY EXPRESS

I maintain a very low $ amount limit with my credit cards....thankfully! 

At a Walmart store here in Dumas, I tried to use plastic as the medium of exchange for a couple of items...Card NOT Accepted and the register spit out a piece of paper stating, "Call 1-800-yada" immediately.  Stepping back 5 paces from the register, I called the imprinted number.

Within 24 hours, the issuing credit card company had closed my account, began a fraud investigation, cut a new card and had it in my hands via UPS Overnight Express; And it only took 15 telephone calls and an hour of "on-line-chat" to make it happen.

The romantic, poky days of Pony Express are long passed.

Without a LOW $ charge approval, set by me, I wouldn't have known a thing about the fraudulent charges until I was blasted with my monthly statement....or.....the credit limit of the card was reached.

FICKLE MOTHER NATURE

They say, "If the wind isn't blowing then you're not in West Texas."  The wind was *howling* yesterday, enough so that it lifted Jackie, and her bike, off the road's shoulder and sent her, not so gently, into the ditch.  No 911 calls needed, but needless to say, "We drove the rest of the way into Dalhart, TX. in the rig." 

90 degrees yesterday and snow on the ground this morning.  Someone was trying to fool Mother Nature.

This will be a good opportunity to  some much needed rig-servicing.  A little detour, back south to a larger town, Dumas, TX for a Wally-World oil change, wheel balancing and alignment.  A a chance to give the snow a chance to melt and wait for some warm m-i-l-d-e-r winds to return.

This is also a good chance for you to visit www.tcoinc.com/iccu and send a couple of bucks to support the IRON COUNTY CANCER UNIT.  If  *you* don't help, the effort to help cancer victims dies.  Thank you.

THE FENCE THAT WASN'T.

Hot and quiet with a gentle tail wind pushes us along the back roads between Tucumcari and Cuervo, NM.  Antelope and cattle slip between the rickety fence barbed wire and roam the roads as freely as the fields. By the looks of the dry brittle-grass, the blacktop offered as much nutrition as the brown fields. A local farmer grimaces and says, “Ain’t had a lick a rain in months.

The remains of a million year old mountain now almost as flat as the surrounding landscape.

One Cottonwood tree the whole day gives up its spring buds as breakfast for this bird. Canyon Sparrow? Thrush?

Thistles sway and seem equally stout as the feeble fences.