First, we headed out towards Bennett, Colorado where there was claimed to be a field of sunflowers suitable for picture taking. Ended up cruising as far as Strasburg and then back west towards Bennett using the several county roads looking for it.
Finally found it, just west of the town. The sunflowers were all facing east towards the mid-morning sun so no picture opportunity from the road next to the field. Below picture was taken while parked next to a different road side.
Next stop was the control tower for the Front Range Airport that is between Bennett and Watkins, along 56th Avenue. I don't think I've ever seen an aircraft take off or land while in the area, seems like an idea that didn't quite pan out to me.
Wandering into the airport itself, we rode towards a distant relative of Fiona's. A Russian PT-76 Armored Vehicle sitting outside the local National Guard armory.
No nearby placard explaining where/when this war trophy was taken and by whom. I'd seen it before, years ago when I last rode into the Front Range airport with Maria, my 2004 R1150RT Beemer.
It was getting close to noon so I started heading homewards but made a quick stop at the "Mystery Track".
It's been quite a while since I'd gone by this mysterious looking track that one can see from googlemaps:
Since the last time I was there, the gate now is pretty much gone, no signs barring access and the path is overgrown with weeds and vegetation.
So I walked in, leaving Fiona outside. I walked around the platform and upper curved portion of what was apparently a monorail test track and took these:
The channel in the middle of the concrete track had metal bolts sticking up from the center line, probably where the monorail track was mounted.
A quiet, somewhat depressing place, slowly being reclaimed by nature. Fiona and I left and headed now for home. On the way, I discovered the right hand grip had come loose so it was difficult to hold throttle without squeezing hard on the grip.
Fueled up, notes with satisfaction Fiona is getting 33 MPG, and got home for a quick lunch.
After lunch, used some safety wire on both of Fiona's grip which should prevent the loose grip issue in the future. No issues to report with Fiona, she did slip out of second while I was turning onto a pretty rough gravel road so I attributed that to road conditions.
8 comments:
Somehow Fiona fits very well into this military environment, and has the attire / colour matching the occasion.
Love that last image of Fiona and her relative! That's interesting about the track. I went back and read your other post and the Pop Mech article...pretty cool!
That track is pretty interesting. It does make one wonder what other interesting things are going on around the world. It's may be a little harder to hide projects with all of the civilian satellites. (But not impossible). I just re-read your last post. 40 mph is easier than 40 kph! Thats what I originally "saw".
SonjaM, distant cousins you might say.....same home country originally.
motoventures, the things one finds while wandering eh?
RichardM, I read somewhere that google and other sat-image providers sometimes "blur" areas that are "sensitive".
I went back and checked, I definitely wrote 40 mph....you had me doubting myself! :)
Great photos, love reading your blog.
Thanks Kim for the kind words.
Bummer the sun was in the wrong spot for the sunflower pictures, but I bet it looked nice in person.
Trobairitz, I'm thinking of going back to check it out....we'll see how the day goes.
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