Back in Boulder. The last days have been an alternation between beautifull rides in the Rocky Mountains and visit of the BMW dealerships of Colorado. I must say I lost a good deal of my confidence in the American efficiency. Lost my clutch in the rain in Idaho Springs on the way down to Durango. Over the phone I bought a membership of AAA, who towed me to Denver. Stayed a day with Zigy and Shari and went to see some 20 houses in the region.... this is a buyersmarket, especially for us Europeans. Took off again, direction south, only to return from Lake City the next day, because I lost my clutch again. This time I topped up the clutch fluid myself. Back again with Zigy. The smallest car I could rent was a 3.7l jeep; meanwhile people continue to ask me how many miles a gallon I can do on my bike. On my way back to Denver I got a very nice salad for TWO euro in the Pizza Hut of Fairplay, where a man tried to sell me his house. This is really a beautifull and amazing country. I am thinking more and more that I will not be able to get enough of it in these 2 months, and that I will change my plans by leaving this bike in the US for the next 2 years. I will rather ship my GSA from Europe to Chile. Will try to add some pictures
The last days have been exiting and fun. I must hurry up because the public library in Ester Park only gives 30min of internet access. I went to Boulder to buy a lens for my Pentax and while eating in front of the Wholefoods store (best and most expensive take away food) I met Zigy who saw my bike, and who did what I would do : go and talk to the guy. The sky was very dark and he invited me to his place. Beautiful house, beautiful wife. Generous man, my age, photographer, hates freedom as much as me, and for sure .. rides a GS 1150. By going to the REI shop (an improved and american sized Decatlon or AS adventure) he saw that I had no more tail and brake light. We tried to fix it in his garage but no way. I also met his friend Donald, who was in Boulder for a paramedical course, a man full of humor. It was the first time since I am in the US that I talked politics with Americans. Normaly the first conversation is FUEL. Anyway, very interesting to see how divided the 2 political camps are. Stronger then in Europe. I mean, I have friends with opposite political opinions, no extreme right though, but here in the US that seems less of a possibility. Anyway, the four of us were clearly Obama. Boulder is, up to now, the most pleasant town I have seen in the US. This is Subaru and Prius country, svelte people, bicycles, and mountains. IBM is big here, as well as other well known companies. Next day I rode to Loveland, to have the bike fixed at the BMW dealer : after 2 hours they found that the cabling under the fuse box had come loose. From the rough roads in Mexico. When I arrived in Rocky Mountains Nat Pk at night, all campgrounds were full and I had to drive 50 kms south to a National Forest campground. These campgrounds have a limited number of tent sites and no way to put anything outside the marked rectangle of your site. This also means that the campgrounds are not overcrowded and are very pleasant to stay. In the early morning I went for a 2 hours jogging-walking trip in the park, keeping in mind that jogging was not recommended because of possible attack by mountain lions. I was more or less the first one in the park, and by going higher and higher I did not see anybody. On my way back down, the crowds started to fill the trail. At midday I met, riding the old trail of the national park, 2 canadian brothers on ..... BMW GS. Blair, broker and high roller (dixit his brother) living in Canada and Jeff, oil man, living in Houston. Blair on a brand new 1200 GSA, Jeff on a girly bike (dixit me), a 650 GS. Jeff had pecked up his bike with a huge fuel tank and a complete forest of wires hanging from his tankbag. Both of them had left 2 tons of luggage in their base camp in Ester Park. Since I was there at 4000m high, no food and all campgrounds full, they invited me to share a lunch of freeze dried stew prepared on a Jetboil, and proposed to set up my tent on their large tentsite at the KOA campground in Ester Park. KOA is a chain of privately owned campgrounds, the mc donald of campgrounds, with no strict rules like the government campgrounds, but with laundry, showers, etc.. Any way, we spent 3 wonderfull days offroading and biking around the area, hopping around like noisy schoolboys having a lot of fun. The 3 bikes took a lot of attention where ever we stopped, with fat harley davidson guys drooling around the 1200 GS, and wanting to sit on. When we showed them the pictures of where we were the day before, just unbelieve and frustration. We did not show the pictures with Blair's bike and mine dropped to the ground. Blair' s bike has been baptized, while he hopes his wife will not see the marks of it. But Jeff will surely make sure she gets the full story. Yesterday we were cruising at 60mph on a 40mph road when I saw the brake lights of Jeff and Blair coming up. Then I saw the police car with full lights coming from the opposite direction. He passed me, made a U-turn and came behind me with full siren. Since I thought he was not after me, but after my friends in front of me, I did not stop. The man went crazy. More even when I stopped on the road. Sir.. you must stop on the first turn that you can... not on the road. He had logged me at 60, the others at 54 and 52 miles. Anyway I succeeded to talk me out of a heavy ticket, and when I found my friends in the next village, they had hidden their bikes in the backyard of a restaurant. They went north this morning, I will stay one day to do my laundry, and catch up with my mail. Time is up, have to go.
