Returned from New Mexico after ten fun-filled hours of uneventful driving on the I-25 Super Slab. After the morning chill had gone, it was pleasingly warm in New Mexico the couple of times I stopped to rest or gas up the VRRV. This changed soon after I crossed into Colorado, with … | Continue reading
Saturday, December 07 Another sunlit and "warm-ish" day here near San Antonio, NM. Alas, it's time to go home before a forecasted snow storm closes Raton Pass, on the border between NM and CO on Monday. A short ride by Scarlett, my Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig was in order though befo … | Continue reading
Yesterday and today were pretty mellow days, lots of relaxing in the gazebo under bright sunshine, avoiding the sometimes chilling effect of winds. Not very windy mind you, enough to get your attention and remind you of the effects of wind chill. Today was much less windy than ye … | Continue reading
Yesterday, Ileft the overcrowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area yesterday and drove a bit over 8 hours to a BLM area near San Antonio, NM. I'd hoped to reach the vicinity of Truth or Consequences but ran out of daylight an hour north of it. So I took a chance at a new are … | Continue reading
Tuesday, November 12 A pretty mellow day for Martha and I, this day marks the 29th Anniversary of her putting up with me as a husband. I say it often, the woman should be sainted! No festivities planned for or wanted by either of us, there'll be trips to foreign lands in our futu … | Continue reading
Record-breaking snow falls, this past three days. We approached two feet of snow accumulation I think here in our cul-de-sac in the SE portion of the mess which is Metro Denver! Lets just say I spent quite a bit of time running the snow-blower and doing some shoveling along with … | Continue reading
Amidst rather nice weather, I've been catching up on household chores. I also realized finally and youtube'd some lessons on the correct way to use butt and crimp connectors for low voltage wires. I'd been doing it with the wrong tools and methodology you see; now I have new wire … | Continue reading
So many notions, most unrealistic in the end, ran through my feeble brain the last week or so. Substitute the TW200 with an E-Bike? Less moving parts, yes but costs and their performance envelopes just didn't justify costs. Give up taking a motorcycle, whether the T-Dub or Scarle … | Continue reading
Note: Back in the overcrowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area. I'll be here for a bit as I've upcoming medical appointments with the VA. Recently, Starlink raised the price of the Roam Unlimited plan I had selected when I bought into the system. It went from $150 t0 $165. … | Continue reading
Friday, October 11 After breakfast, I geared up and went to fire up Yagi my Yamaha TW200 for a ride to check out the last of the Fall Colors along Marshall Pass Road. Alas, it was not to be. She fired up and ran for perhaps a second then died. I tried for a bit to crank it but th … | Continue reading
Thursday October 10th It turned out to be a very propitious displacement on my part to be here by Thursday. Martha, my loving life, alerted me to the fact they were expecting the Aurora Borealis to be visible as far south as Colorado that night! It must have been a heck of a Coro … | Continue reading
Wednesday, Oct 9 Woke to temperatures in the mid to high 30s. A bit brisk but OK after I turned on the catalytic propane heater. I ended up mostly hanging out at the camp in the morning. I did ride out in the afternoon to check out the rock climbing areas. Several campsites nearb … | Continue reading
I displaced today from the dispersed camping area southwest of Montrose Tuesday morning. I wanted to try and get across the bridge that is under repair at the Blue Mesa reservoir. I got to the construction zone just in time to only have to wait 1 minute before it was the eastboun … | Continue reading
Saturday, October 5 As mentioned before, we'd been boondocking in the area SW of the city of Montrose, CO. The weather had been nice and warm, bordering on hot at times, with cool evenings and nights in the fifties. Nice. I decided to do some exploring with Yagi, my TW200, and en … | Continue reading
Thursday, October 3 We all left the Little Molas Lake Camping Area yesterday, seeking warmer temperatures both in the early morning and late afternoon! Time was spent in Montrose, CO by all, doing chores, dumping tanks, laundry, etc. I arrived at the proposed BLM dispersed campin … | Continue reading
Tuesday, October 1 Chris, Lori, Martha and I spent the day driving to/exploring/driving back from Telluride, CO. The small mountain village is enclosed by mountains on CO Hwy 145 and it took us about two hours driving each way. We first drove all the way to the trailhead for Brid … | Continue reading
We didn't do much of anything on Friday except for hanging out at the campsite. The occasional truck/camper/car drove by going into and out of Little Molas Lake raising clouds of dust. There's some really optimistic people out there, thinking they can show up on a Friday to a pop … | Continue reading
Martha and I spent the morning driving the CR-V about the Silverton area, as far north along US550 as Ironton Park: We returned to camp for lunch and preparing to meet up with Lori and Chris Z. Of BlazeOurWay. By mid-afternoon or so, we could hear them approaching the campsite, a … | Continue reading
I spent the day just hanging about the campsite and exploring my surroundings. The next campsite, which is suboptimal even to small campers (very sloping), is out of LOS (Line Of Sight). There's even a small trail leading to Little Molas Lake through marshes. Quite warmer than ye … | Continue reading
Sunday, September 22 After a rainy day yesterday, woke to a brisk 37° outside and only 39° inside VRRV. This situation was in remedied by lighting off the catalytic propane heater.These calcifying bones of mine are steadily losing their remaining resistance to cold weather. I put … | Continue reading
I've known Ken personally since 2009 back when I was an active member of the Yearrounder Riders or 'Rounders. Ken and his lovely wife Julana moved to Colorado Springs nearly 4 years ago in the aftermath of a hurricane which devastated their home town of Beaumont, TX. Ken is an Ir … | Continue reading
I've woken up to frost on everything outside the last couple of days with temperatures down in the high thirties. Yesterday, Wednesday, was a gloriously sunny day though the temperatures never crested above 62° I think. Still, in the sunlight it felt warm. I went to check on the … | Continue reading
Sunday developed into a mostly cloudy day here near Silverton, CO after a morning of cold rain. So I rode out with Yagi, my TW200, to check out conditions on County Road 23 which I'd seen on the maps. It seemed to provide access to the forested mountainsides to the east of Silver … | Continue reading
A beautifully warm day yesterday. I rode Yagi, my TW200, through Silverton, CO and onto CR 2 which takes one out of town and into the BLM areas to the east of it. The idea was to scout out possible camping spots for future use when in the area. There's a road called the River Roa … | Continue reading
Thursday, September 12 Cool and windy day today, not much writing got done but for a picture of these mountains that one can see from the summit of Molas Pass: Silverton Turk Head and Grand Turk from the Molas Pass Summit The windy conditions coupled with the puny 198 cc engine o … | Continue reading
I left the campsite on Fawn Gulch Road soon after 9 and by 1130 had lucked into a nice campsite after a couple of unsuccessful recons.Little Molas Campground, free site run by USFS was full and the sites were small. About two miles after Molas Pass, I glimpsed a camping area sign … | Continue reading
After about 4 hours on the road, including time exploring Fawn Gulch Rd for campsites, I found a spot close to Forest Road 722. I did not realize that the offshoot trail from 722 was a closed road and I also parked the VRRV over 300 ft from Forest road 722. I found all this out w … | Continue reading
Not much to report since our visit to nearby Buena Vista, CO. Lot of time chatting with Scott and Jennifer Y. mostly. Scott did point out the issue that was causing occasional hot conditions on the solar panel wiring and we fixed it. A brief ride on Yagi, my TW200, resulted in th … | Continue reading
After a lazy morning of just chatting at the campsite, we went into Buena Vista in the afternoon so Scott Y. could try some fly fishing while I did some walking along the Arkansas River with Martha and Jennifer Y. The White Water Trail is nice and shaded, it's along the Arkansas … | Continue reading
Once again in my preferred habitat....near Buena Vista, CO. I departed the overcrowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area at 10:30 AM and by 1 PM I was setting up camp. Found one of the prime sites I'd seen the last time I was here unoccupied! In fact, I've only seen two othe … | Continue reading
Martha and I drove the 2014 Honda CR-V to check out Mount Blue Sky, formerly known as Mount Evans. Martha had read somewhere that the road would be shut down all of 2025 for road repairs so a visit was in order. Mount Evans, the old name was chosen to recognize Colorado's second … | Continue reading
Returned home yesterday under very hot sunny conditions, even with temperatures reported below 80s, it felt quite warm. Some of the last pics of the buttes: Found another nice campsite, this one overlooking parts of the trail that lead one to the Pawnee Buttes: Not much riding go … | Continue reading
Wednesday, August 14 This morning I spent about three hours or so hiking from the Pawnee Buttes Trailhead over to the buttes themselves. Almost 4.5 miles round trip, possibly a bit more as I made a detour on the way back to check out another rock formation. It was cool when I sta … | Continue reading
Monday, August 12 After an appointment with the VA I decided to not wait till tomorrow to drive the VRRV with Yagi onboard to the Pawnee National Grasslands for some boondocking. I should have waited. I got to the area just in time for rain to start. I found a spot, not the optim … | Continue reading
As of today, lane filtering is legal in Colorado: LINK Well, this ought to be interesting....I like the concept of being able to filter and avoid being the "meat sandwich" between two cars but..... Will cagers know it's now legal for motorcycle riders to lane filter? I foresee a … | Continue reading
Hope you had a Happy Colorado Day! Just hung out at the campsite the last two days, some minor chores related to the VRRV but basically just reading and reeling. I did do a ride with Yagi yesterday to see how many rigs had shown up, only three. Reeling: wasting one's time looking … | Continue reading
Sunday, July 28Lazy day, but did do a quick ride to The Castles to get them all in a pic: closeup of the far castle No more moose sightings to report. Monday, July 29 Lazy morning mostly. A short recce walk around the camping area vicinity to see if the moose was still around and … | Continue reading
After Martha left for home this morning, I rode out on Yagi, my TW200 to check out nearby roads for scenery and to map possible future campsites. I ended up motoring up CR 307 till it met with US Hwy 285, along the way, you pass three rock formations known locally as "The Castles … | Continue reading
Martha and I drove over to Fairplay to check out its museum with particular emphasis on the Burro Days event happening this weekend. Most of the events, such as the International Burro Race (who knew there was such a thing?) happen Saturday/Sunday but we won't be attending those. … | Continue reading
Tired of the crowding we'd seen and experienced, and with mounting evidence of even more inbound fifth-wheeled/SxS-laden campers, we displaced away from Taylor Park this morning. In turns out, this area is a widely known and reported on as an area for OHV explorations. Too popula … | Continue reading
Martha and I took the Honda CR-V the 45 miles or so to Crested Butte, CO this morning. Our first stop was the Brush Creek Trailhead, which is a few miles from the city of Crested Butte itself. The skies were overcast while we were on the trail and the distant mountains and hills … | Continue reading
I left the Westcreek area on Sunday, the day was going to be rainy and cold. Besides, Martha had called the night before and reported the battery once again dead in the 2014 Honda CRV that we use as a towed vehicle when camping. I was home by noon or so and determined the alterna … | Continue reading
I finished the replacement of the stator and pulser assemblies on Yagi, my TW200 on Wednesday of this week. The work went pretty smoothly though slowly as it was something I wanted to get right the first time. I almost misrouted the wire harness connected to the stator but caught … | Continue reading
Lately, self-recovery has become a topic of much interest to me, due mostly to the problems I had with my TW200: Yagi, a couple of weeks ago. LINK. This morning, I decided to actually try and use the "Come Along Tool" or Cable Winch Puller Tool that I've been carrying in the VRRV … | Continue reading
Last time I camped in this section of the Pike National Forest, I'd found a dump site while motoring about on Yagi, my TW200. While at the site looking for clues as to who'd done the dumping, a Forest Ranger came by and we chatted for a bit. He mentioned there was an outfit calle … | Continue reading
First there was the ignition system wiring issue with Yagi, my Yamaha TW200. (See previous post) Then on Wednesday of this week, as I was tying down Scarlett, my Ural Patrol sidecar rig onto the trailer, I found the front tire flat! I re-inflated it before I departed the house bu … | Continue reading
July 6 updated: Took Yagi on a 30 mile ride and no issues with the ignition seen! I discovered a drained battery though when I returned home, apparently the stator isn't charging the battery while riding. Some more twisting of wires, two of them, and apparently one was the one re … | Continue reading
Thursday, June 27 I did a little bit of target shooting in the morning along with more policing up of spent brass left by inconsiderate shooters. Then, in the afternoon, I had been pootling around with Yagi, my TW200, down forest trails when she suddenly stopped running. Hmmm. I … | Continue reading