A Ride on Easter after some light snow showers.

Temps ranging from 33 to 37, with overcast skies and snow showers occurring throughout the day.

I woke to light snow falling but failing to stick anywhere but on the lawn and cars parked outside. If you imagine "fat" rain then you have an image of the stuff that fell steadily throughout most of the day.

My loving wife cooked an awesome Easter lunch after which I resumed my weather watching. By 4pm I had gone through the latest issue of the BMW Owners News magazine and the light snow/rain mix had stopped finally and the neighborhood streets looked llike they were pretty dry. I geared up and went out for a short ride.

I took the Nokia Internet tablet along in case I saw some wifi location. I went and explored some nearby roads to see where they led. All ended up in deadends so I decided to head South towards Parker via the Inspiration Rd back way.

I skirted the West outskirts of Parker and finally wound up on it's main drag: Parker Road via Canterbury Way. I headed North till it crossed Mainstreet and I was able to compare my onboard thermometer reading of 48 degrees to the corner banks reading of 37 degrees. About ten degrees difference as usual.

Stll heading North on Parker, I turned East when I got to Arapahoe road and turned into the mall located there. I wanted to try the wifi which I thought all Borders bookstores provided. I didn't bother getting off the motorcycle, took out the tablet and though I found a couple of 'open' wifi networks, neither got me on the Net.

I got back onto Arapahoe road and turned North on Picadilly Rd. Once I got to Smoky Hill Road I headed west towards the public library near my house. The library was closed but while sitting outside the library's front entrance, I was able to get a weak signal from their wifi network. Logged onto gmail and sent a quick email to my wife. I was also able to stream some internet radio music on the tablet.

So, after this second brief period of geekiness, I rode on home. Almost 50 miles of riding so it was a short but satisfying ride after not having been able to ride in the past two days. I typed this entry using the tablet's virtual keyboard and though slow, it's typeahead feature helped a lot.

Future Motorcycle Farkle?

Temps in high 20s with light freezing drizzle, so NOT riding...

Thought I'd post about this new gadget I bought at the beginning of this week and which has been taking up my free time at home. Sure, I rode to/from work as usual all week except for today but the rides were unexceptional except that the weather was nice and warm on the rides home with the exception of yesterday when it was gusting winds.

So, on to the gadget which I hope will help out when doing the longer rides to far off destinations. It's a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. Here's a link to Nokia's site for all the info/specs. Suffice to say that it's a wifi-enabled tablet from which you can access the Internet (via wifi or suitable data-enabled cellphone), get/send email, rss feeds for news, play videos/music, run GPS software(which I might get) while using a bluetooth-enabled GPS Receiver, make VOIP phonecalls via your internet connection, instant messaging some other stuff.


No, it would not be accessed while on the motorcycle except for possibly in the future the voice prompts from the GPS software. However, I can see it being a handy replacement for a laptop while on the road to stay current on things when near a wifi spot.

Main reason I got it is that I can remote into my computer at home using this tablet and have all its functionality and not bother trying to get same on the tablet itself. It is, after all, not as functional as a full-up laptop. This way, I have access to my laptop without having to carry its bulk or dealing with its low battery uptime.

So far, am very impressed with its quality and display, I have to take off my glasses though to use it since the images are of course compressed by the smaller screen. Still the screen is much bigger than a internet-capable phone! It sucks sometimes to be an old geek. :)

Battery life is pretty good, about 4 hrs of active use when wifi-connected. I'll have to figure out a way to keep it charged up on the motorcycle if I elect to do the gps thing with it. This gadget just came out in January so am sure accessories are on the way for it from third parties.

A short ride in the plains after work

Temps in the mid to upper 60s and sunny, slight wind gusts.

A beautiful day for riding today, I left about an hour earlier than usual from work and after dropping off my Joe Rocket Alter Ego Overpants for zipper repair, headed out East on Quincy Road and out of town.

The map below shows the route I took on a whim, taking CR 30 which is also Quincy Road till it ends at CR137. I'd been here before and thought there was paved roads all the way south to Kiowa. So I headed South on CR137 but shortly afterwards ran out of pavement where 137 becomes 53. Oh well, I did not have the time or inclination to creep along the 16 miles of dirt road all the way to Kiowa so I turned back and this time headed North on CR137.


This as you can see took me across I-70 and into the town of Bennett, I believe this is where the "Eastern Peaks of Colorado" Ride would have dumped us onto I-70 on Saturday. So from Bennett I was now headed West on US36 which lead me after about ten miles or so to the town of Watkins which is an exit on I-70. I crossed over the superslab once again, this time headed South on Watkins Road.

All these roads were pretty much straight and smooth, no curves, no real excitement. These are the kinds of roads once cruises on just to look at the distant horizons, the grassy plains with the occasional cattle and ranches, and just think about things. Did I have any deep thoughts, not today, just wandering.

Watkins Road dumped me back onto CR30, aka Quincy Road, which I took heading West back to where I started: the intersection of Quincy and Tower Roads. I got home shortly afterwards and washed the bugs off my helmet and the front of Maria. Spring is definitely here, the bugs were out and reminded me to raise the windshield or live with bug guts on my visor! : )

A short ride, less than 2 hours and about 67 miles total. Weather was perfect.

Meandering Ride and Riding Farkle on April's Fool's Day

Temps ranging from 59 to 64 degrees. Mostly sunny with developing overcast skies.

I had to work till 0200hrs this morning, slept till 0900 or so and woke to a nice sunny day with balmy temperatures which demanded I ride. Of course, I obeyed.

First though I rode the motorcycle to the grocery store to stock up on TV dinners and such to enable me to survive until my wife and sons come home midweek. : )

The motorcycles panniers replete with said items, I returned home for lunch and left soon after Noon headed towards the local REI store for a camelback hydration pack for my rides. Here's the one I got:


I strapped it on after putting a bit of water into it from a drinking fountain inside REI and headed out for some riding. The thing works pretty good, rigged it so the drinking hose/mouthpiece hangs over my left shoulder and by my left side. I kept taking small sips at stoplights and on long empty stretches of road and found it very convenient and easy to use. I do have to flip the helmet faceshield up to use it but its no hassle.

I bought the least expensive one not only because I did not know how it would all work out in terms of my riding but also because I fit right in there with the old joke: Do you know what's the cheapest part of a BMW motorcycle? The owner! The pack only cost me $32 with tax.

Here's my route, the highlight being that I tried out North Turkey Creek Road after tanking up at the gas station by Tiny Town and found it to be a very nice and twisty road. However, the remnants of the gravel spread by the county to provide traction in snow remains and I could not go very fast on said twistys. Oh well, the time will come and now I know of the road.


I rode down some of the usual roads, Deer Creek Canyon, north turkey creek road, the stretch of US285 leading back to Morrison, which I then took to Kipling and down back into the Chatfield reservoir area. Then the usual backroads back towards Castle Rock and Parker. I took a different route back home, this time detouring through Singing Hills Road to Delbert Rd and back to the Smoky Hill Road area and home.

About 134 miles or so of riding, all within about 4 hrs including the time spent buying the camelback. Got home at 4pm, it was still nice out and the sun was definitely more in evidence near my home than it had been in the foothills.