Attempting To Reach Eclipse/COTA

[oldironnow]

Random Texas.

[oldironnow]

[oldironnow]

IMG_9633.mov

[motogrady]

Dang dude.  Good n bad you’re doin’ it.

I remember as a younger guy talking to an old timer about
long distance trips on a bike.  

He told me back in his day, when you hit the Midwest,
there weren’t a lot of anything out there.

Many a night he said, the wind would be whipping at sunset, and he’d look for a dry drainage ditch on the side of the road. Apparently, if you find one with the wind going perpendicular to the ditch, you can lay down in it and the wind will go right above you.

Sounds like it got a bit dicey the other night.

Hats off to you, I’m loving the updates!

[oldironnow]

At Oxford Ranch near Llano.
Super-chill place ! Many thumbs-up !
Just boomed around the area today.
Bluebonnet frenzy on Hwy29 between Menard and Llano !

Extremely thin cell service.

[oldironnow]

Horrible

[oldironnow]

Getting better. Need to back up more.

[oldironnow]

Sat in a cactus…

[hacksaw]

This makes absolutely no sense to me.
I have been caught in some nasty weather in my time and I would do everything in my power to avoid it ever happening again . I also have family to consider.  

[hacksaw]

Anyway I am glad u made it alive!
Hopefully your return trip will be easier.

[oldironnow]

hacksaw wrote

Anyway I am glad u made it alive!
Hopefully your return trip will be easier.

Appreciated on the return weather !

[oldironnow]

Llano showed a bit of clear-sky promise in the morning, but it started to close out.
The forecasts south looked promising, so I decided to pack and take my chances with the roads to Del Rio
Hitting the highway, i trolled north to Llano for fuel.
By the time I got there the forecasts flipped and I kept going north, hunting blue sky and zig-zagging all the way to Meridian. Booming across back roads at 90 following greater and greater patches of blue sky, until, a truck stop in Meridian was the place.

[motogrady]

Congrats guy.
Another memory in the file of life!

[oldironnow]

I could not get a decent photo.
But such an amazing sight!
Totally worth the struggle.
Discovered TWO decent roads in this curveless wilderness:
932 and 2005

https://www.dot.state.tx.us/tpp/hwy/FM0500/FM0932.htm


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Farm_to_Market_Roads_in_Texas_(2000%E2%80%932099)#FM_2005

So tired after the eclipse, limped from coffee to coffee back to Oxford Ranch

[hacksaw]

Your Picture is good.
We got most of the eclipse here in southern Ct. not total
But all but a sliver . Halfway Thru it clouded up . But it cleared to see the end.
Wasn’t bad . I mean compared to movies special effects it was pretty mellow. But it really was a spiritual event. Imagining Neolithic man and how events like this were mind blowing . And possibly even predicted by things like Stonehenge.
I hope people that saw it will gain insight to the realization that that Earth , moon , sun et Al , are the deal. No one is so important . No one is bigger than the cosmos .
The earth has been changing for millions of years. In the last few 100 thousands of years warm periods , Ice ages ,
Plate teutonics, meteors. And yet we get eclipses.
Nobody can change it. No matter what your carbon footprint is supposed to be , humans are products of the environment. We don’t control the sun . Cosmos rules.
 

[motogrady]

I carried a welders shield around all day.

Watched it from a Lowe’s parking lot with about 20 customers and maybe 5 employees that seemed to feel
screw ‘em.  They can fire me.  

Yeah, it was kinda spiritual.

[oldironnow]

hacksaw wrote

Your Picture is good.
We got most of the eclipse here in southern Ct. not total
But all but a sliver . Halfway Thru it clouded up . But it cleared to see the end.
Wasn’t bad . I mean compared to movies special effects it was pretty mellow. But it really was a spiritual event. Imagining Neolithic man and how events like this were mind blowing . And possibly even predicted by things like Stonehenge.
I hope people that saw it will gain insight to the realization that that Earth , moon , sun et Al , are the deal. No one is so important . No one is bigger than the cosmos .
The earth has been changing for millions of years. In the last few 100 thousands of years warm periods , Ice ages ,
Plate teutonics, meteors. And yet we get eclipses.
Nobody can change it. No matter what your carbon footprint is supposed to be , humans are products of the environment. We don’t control the sun . Cosmos rules.

That’s so right on

[oldironnow]

motogrady wrote

I carried a welders shield around all day.

Watched it from a Lowe’s parking lot with about 20 customers and maybe 5 employees that seemed to feel
screw ‘em.  They can fire me.  

Yeah, it was kinda spiritual.

If I was still running, I’m certain there would’ve been an urgent need to pull over and check the tires and air lines.

Like hack's description of the timefullness and the powerlessness of our witnessing… couldn’t stop it, couldn’t hold it… Our only agency was to observe.
Spirtual

[oldironnow]

Sitting tight.
Going to take a full day’s break to give the rain its due.




.

[Fatfatboy]

oldironnow wrote

Sitting tight.
Going to take a full day’s break to give the rain its due.

 That's my way of handling rain days when on the bike, now.
I used to keep riding through on our trips. Eyes squinting trying to keep the rain out and movin on.

The very last time the wife and I were heading home from Flordah after hanging with Walt and Bride. We got caught up in a storm that was going the same direction. At one point it was pouring so hard visibility maybe 10-15 feet and the trucks just kept flying by adding to the issues. With no place for cover I just said screw it and pulled to the shoulder.
Standing there getting pelted with water so deep on the shoulder it was running over my shoes. At that point I vowed to never do this again with my wife on the bike.
Since then if a rain day is coming we just found a hotel close to Mexican food with margarita's and spent the day hanging in the room watching it rain under some soft warm blankets.
Yeah, I've become domesticated. It's not so bad.

Thank you, OINow for taking us along on you trip.