Day 14 And the Weekly Wrap- Up

Day 14, Central City, CO

"The mere fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor..."
~Robert Collier

Central City isn't central, but at 8,979 feet, it rests high above Denver. 
When Quilter Girl and I walked on the main street she said,
"It looks like a movie set."

It did, for two reasons. The decor and ambiance reminds one of an old west mining town, which it was as a young city. But secondly, no one is in the streets! Yet every fifteen minutes a tour bus arrives and unloads passengers, who run into...
Casinos.
There must be five of them in town. What they have done is run everything else out of town. Sure, the streets are beautiful brick, the storefronts neat as a pin. 
But most of them are empty.
There is almost nothing to do downtown but gamble! As an expert from Las Vegas, they have missed it. People think Vegas is about gambling, but it isn't.
It is about entertainment. Shows, shopping, swimming pools and parties.
This town, people just stare at machines. The restaurants are inside, and others couldn't compete, because they are a loss leader. I ordered two eggs, potatoes, sausage and English muffin, $3.99.
One complete block held empty buildings or fake historic shop fronts.
Very shortsighted.
We rode back to the trailer,just in time as the skies opened and it rained- a cold drizzle with low grey clouds. QG and I hustled off to the rec center to sew, do laundry, blog and read. 
Okay, this week's numbers.
40. Miles per gallon. Yep. Did it. How?
61. Miles per hour. I'll probably keep trying to improve it with lower speeds and be the most hated vehicle in Arkansas.
800. Dollars we could save over the year by riding at 61 instead of 67.
2.  Hours of traffic backup thanks to us plugging up I-70 on a Friday night.
31.  Degrees, the weekly low temp.
100. Bucks for the tow truck. That hurt more than the crash.
2.  Times the brake lights have failed. This time it's the bike. 
4,000.  Miles since the last service. We'll get it in next week.

Stupid Driver of The Week (I don't qualify. Okay, maybe me.)
The clown who passed me, snowing, double yellow line, slick road. The guy coming uphill must have been excited to see you.

The Rants.
Colorado snow in May. 'Nuff said.
This week, the Droid. The iPad gets a reprieve,as the Droid croaked.

The Raves
The cops, emergency people and firemen who helped out at both accident sites. Great job!
Mesa Verde and Black Canyon National Parks. It's awesome how we protect and respect areas of natural beauty.
The Gerbing suits. We plugged them in at Leadville and rode in the coldest, wettest, most miserable weather, and remained nice and warm. My gloves worked pretty well, which is almost an impossibility.
Quiler Girl. She got back on the bike.


1 comment:

Shad said...

Glad you all are okay. Keep the photos coming.