Moab

Worried about my windshield being the death of me, I decided to ask my host if they happened to have a Dremel. No, they didn't have one, but as a machining and welding major they had access to rotary tools. So brought my bike over to the school workshop, and set about lowering my windshield 3 inches with an air powered husky rotary tool. At first I tried a grinding head and that didn't go so well. So I changed to a cutting head.

Ta-da!


My windshield is no longer a safety concern!

The next day. Wednesday, the 27th. I got out to my bike to the sight of frost on my seat, bags, and windshield:



Well, I've certainly never had to wipe frost off my bike before setting out on a 2 hour ride, but I've never had Gerbing's Heated Clothing before. I still don't have hosting in Moab, but I was talking to another couchsurfer and they said "Get to Free Meal and your possibilities are endless."

Free Meal? Apparently, every day at noon in Moab, there is a gathering of folks and there is free food to whoever feels like rolling up. All I have to do, I'm told, is get there and talk to people. That's a little more outgoing than I'm used to but I'll give it a shot. Why not? It did seem like putting all my eggs in one small basket though so just in case I couldn't find anything there, I went to Wal-Mart before leaving Grand Junction and picked up a sleeping bag rated down to 0 degrees. My current bag was only good to about 50 degrees. Maybe 40. If I slept in my clothes. I am determined to get all the way around this country without spending a cent in lodging.

Anyway, with my lower windshield and new and improved Mt. Luggage, I set off for Moab, Utah.



I also had bought a reflective sash from a Military surplus store. The more reflective material, the more likely you are to be seen, the less likely you are to be hit by a car.

On the advice of my host, I took the slower but more direct way over Hwy-128 which may just well have been the most amazingly scenic road I've ever been on. The curves are gentle but the scenery is truly breathtaking. Being that I had a place to be at a certain time, I did not have time to stop and take pictures, but this road took me through a gorgeous canyon along a river. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Moab is a very interesting place. You go into any big city and the people on the street fade into the background. They're part of the scenery. Moab strikes me more like "Toon Town" from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?": Everyone is a character. Everyone I meet stands out in some way, has some story to tell. Maybe that's just because of the circle I run in by going to Free Meal, but there's definitely something special going on here. The ratio of interesting-boring people seems way higher here than anywhere else.

Anyway, I did indeed make it to Free Meal, started talking to people, and got a place to stay for just a night. I had already lined something up for Thursday night. And I figured for after that, I would just keep talking to people at Free Meal.

I ended up staying with a local artist Pete Apicella
(AquaFireArts.com)
and as the official "2010 Community Artist in the Park" (I think that's the title) has a free pass into the parks. So he takes me into Arches National Park for some hiking around.

It's a little mind-blowing:






The next day I went to Free Meal to try and get a place to stay for Friday night (and eat), brought my stuff over to my Thursday host's place, and then picked up Pete for a ride out to Needles Overlook Point.

This place was equally mind-blowing:




While there, I saw one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen. And my camera can't even do it justice.


It was all amazing.

On our way back, we were riding over a road paved in gravel with all these little undulations in it. Like a Ruffles potato chip. I was going just a wee-bit too fast and we started to swing wide around one turn. So I push the bike down just a little bit more, just a teeny-tiny bit more, and the combination of bumps and gravel in the road just took all the traction out of my tires. The bike fell out from under us and we low-sided at 25 mph. The whole thing lasted maybe 3 seconds.

I'm lying on the ground doing a quick self assessment and catching my breath and I hear Pete.
"Are you ok?"
"I'm ok. What about you? Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm ok. Can you get up?"
"I CAN get up, I just don't want to yet. Are you sure you're ok?"
...

Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt. Thankfully the bike ended up in the road instead off it. I was bleeding from my butt. My pants and underwear were torn and so was the skin beneath it. We lifted the bike, rode it back to his place, and then I disappeared into the bathroom to tend my wounds. I got a couple of pictures but I'm not posting them. I'm just keeping them for posteriority.

HAHA! ::Snort:: "Posteriority"!

No, but all of that really did happen.

Also thankful the road-rash is very shallow. Just covers a painfully large area. My right butt-cheek. Don't be too worried though, my left butt-cheek is still sexy.

I cleaned up, applied some neosporin, and wove a half-diaper of gauze to cover the area. I wear this diaper from a motorcycle accident. It is the Diaper of Manliness I wear. Then I patched up my pants with duct-tape before riding over to my hosts' house where I warmed up on some local artisanal whiskey and went to sleep.

Today I got to Free Meal late. There was still food but I was told I missed a crowd of 50 or so. I then went to the library to use the internet to buy two new helmets online. I packed up my stuff while getting a place to crash through a couchsurfing friend.

I came over here, went to dinner, and started writing this blog. Then I had another first experience: Dumpster diving! My host lives right next to a local supermarket that has all the local fresh produce and whatnot. They often throw away food that's perfectly good and as long as it's in a wrapper of some sort, why not take it? So I went with him and we found a box of bags of pre-mixed salad. When in Hippie-town, do as the hippies do. Sorry Mom. Sorry Dad. Sorry College. What a couple of days it has been!

My "roommate" for the next couple of nights is a pilot for a local skydiving company and said she could get me in the air for under 2-hundo, no reservation. My funds may be running low but I CAN NOT pass this up. An aerial tour of Canyonlands National Park followed by a jump out of the plane? See you after the fall.