Motorcycle Bohemians, Day 10

Since leaving on this 3-week road trip, I've been riding and working. Sash has been doing so as well.

After punching the onslaught of extreme weather with our motorcycles, we arrive at our hotel room with our senses filled with the grandeur of the landscape, and then immediately sink our minds into a rectangular world of pixels and bytes. Often, our only sense of humanity is laying in bed together to feel each other's skin.

Each town is a just a stopping point to shift gears in our minds, sink into a different mental state, and feel a little bit of ourselves for a moment. Each bed feels different, each room has a different smell, but the day to day pattern is the same.

Now settled into Denver for the next five days, there's a sense of relief. No longer riding in cold, wet, windy weather, there's time to relax. We meet with people, eat with them, and still do our work too.

I'm sitting at a Starbucks in Denver Technical Center, amid dozens of other 20-40 year olds all with laptops, all seemingly entrenched in their work. It's like they don't need cubicles in this day and age; they just need Wi-Fi, a computing device, and something to drink.  I do the same, creating websites and writing blog posts.

Meanwhile, Sash has devoted herself to helping with the Steel Horse Sisterhood Summit. She's meeting with its organizer, Joan Krenning.  She's doing what she does best, markets, socializes, builds relationships, and connects at a profoundly deep level in such amazing short time.  There's something about that which fits right in with the Sisterhood Summit.

For me, Denver is just a place where my brother lives. I'm not really here for the Sisterhood Summit as Sash is. My brother works all day, and the only time we get together is at night. So during the day, I'm on this laptop doing my thing. I come to Denver to fill myself with the feeling of family. But there comes a time when it feels like roots are trying grow from my feet. And that time, I feel this urge to move on.

When people ask me where I'm from, I just say, "San Diego".  Technically, I was born in Honolulu, but I grew up in San Diego up until I was 12, and then the rest of my childhood in Santa Ana.  It's often hard for me to say that I'm a San Diegan, and I'm not so sure how to define a San Diegan with its numerous unique communities.  San Diego is just the place where the innocence ended.  I return there wanting to find it again, but it's never there.

Much of what we define ourselves is based on the people around us.  It's like a fine wine.  What makes a Sonoma Valley chardonnay different from a Columbia Valley is the unique climate and soil, affecting a grape's characteristics.  But when you don't put down roots, how then are you defined?

I can't help thinking of some motorcycle riding television characters like Bronson, a disillusioned working man who runs away on a bike to find something authentic in himself, or James from Twin Peaks, the emotional, troubled youth escaping from his demons on a Harley.  They each seem to reject the environment they're from.

I wonder if all motorcycle riders have this inside them, to some lesser or greater extent.

We start the day right with a big breakfast

Sash discusses the Steel Horse Sisterhood Summit with its organizer, Joan Krenning

My brother, my mother, and me

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Canon City to Denver, Day 9

Sash warms her hands on a cup of hot tea in Colorado Springs

When we left the hotel this morning, it actually looked like it was going to be a nice day of riding. And considering how tough it was yesterday, we needed that last 144 miles into Denver (Denver Tech Center) to be a breeze.

But it was more than just a breeze. It was gusty, cold, and I still saw some snow falling.

As we took off, the air temperature gauge on the Honda ST1300 said, 55 degrees F (12.7 C), and the sun was shining. I had on full cold weather gear and decided to strip some of it off.

And it was a good idea that I did. Because as we rode east along US-50, heading into Pueblo, CO, it warmed up to 59 degrees. And very little wind at this point, and only partly sunny skies. I kept thinking, "If it warmed up another 10 degrees, this would actually be a gorgeous day of riding."

But then we headed north along I-25, the interstate, the freeway, the superslab, where it was supposed to be warmer, less windy, more dry, and more safe to ride.

When we got into Colorado Springs, the temperature dropped 14 notches, down to 45 degrees F (7.2 C), and the winds were blowing right at us head on, taking down our fuel mileage. We pulled into a Popeye's Louisiana Chicken for some grub and hot tea to warm up. I saw snow falling, but it was still not cold enough to stick to the ground.

Nonetheless, this was still Sash's day of victory. Only 40 miles left to go before we hit our exit in South Denver. It was exit 196 we were looking for. So for the rest of the way up, she counted down the exit numbers.

And when we finally hit ext 196, she raised her fist in all of her pink-haired female-empowered glory. She had made it (or we had made it). When we pulled up to our hotel for the next couple nights, she hugged her motorcycle.

"I love you Tatonka!" she said.

We had gone 1,504 miles to get here from San Diego.


For me, I loved taking the back roads. On this trip, I got to do a lot of roads that I hadn't ridden before, and got to see some more of the landscape that makes the Western USA such a beautiful place to see.  Albeit some of it was really cold, snowy, and otherwise miserable conditions, it feels good to know that I hacked it with a machete and gave it my best.

And as a lifelong rider, I'm looking to push myself just a little bit more each time I go on a road trip. And I know Sash is pushing herself a little bit more each time also, but that she's still hundreds of thousands of miles behind me in experience, and I'm asking a lot of her to ride along with me.

But then again, she's a pretty tough chick, of the rude biker variety.  You don't see many female riders who take on Wolf Creek Pass under icy conditions.

So over the next several days, at least until Sunday, we'll be in Denver. She's going to hang with her new sisters at the Steel Horse Sisterhood Summit, while I hang with my brother. I'll actually be staying at his place for few nights while Sash devotes herself to the Summit.

Then after that, comes the ride home.

Sash taped this bunny photo to the inside of her windshield to help her through the ride.

US-50 east of Canon City, heading towards Pueblo

Sash on US-50 heading towards Pueblo

Me riding along US-50 eastbound towards Pueblo

I-25 northbound entering Colorado Springs

Sash is happy because we have only 40 miles to go

Sash raises his arms in victory for reaching our final exit

Sash hugs her motorcycle after a 1,500+ mile ride through heat, cold, wind, rain, hail, and snow

That evening, Sash met with Joan Krenning, and the rest of the staff with Steel Horse Sisterhood Summit

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Cold Weather Motorcycle Riding, Day 8

Snowing in Poncha Springs, CO

Our push north through Colorado has been all about the weather thus far. The scenery is beautiful, but with 60mph winds, rain, snow, hail, and freezing temperatures, have made it a big challenge.

And to look back on this, now that I'm writing this on a comfy hotel bed in a warm room, I realize Sash has barely a 1 1/2 years riding experience, with only a little in the cold and rain.

We didn't make it to Denver like we had hoped. We got as far as Canon City instead. All we had to do was ride north along US-285 from Monte Vista, and it would take us right into Denver. But even though we bundled up with all sorts of cold weather gear, we could only ride in this stuff for so long until it bore into our psyches.

Leaving Monte Vista in the morning, we rode up US-285 with 60 MPH winds hitting us on the side, causing us to ride leaned over. The temps were in the mid-40s.

By the time we got to Poncha Springs, temperatures dropped to 34 degrees F, and snow was falling nearly horizontal in the wind, though not yet sticking to the ground. We pulled into a market/deli to get some hot tea.

"We just came from Fairplay", one of the other customers said. Fairplay is a town about 60 miles further north on the US-285. "It's about 10 degrees colder there, and the snow is blowing even harder."

We decided taking US-285 was no longer an option.

Poncha Springs was right on the intersection of US-285 and US-50. We could take US-50 east to the I-25, and ride the interstate up to Denver, which should be a little warmer. So that's what we decided to do. But we found more snow fall, more chilly temperatures, and more wind. We got as far as Canon City, and decided we had had enough.


In my college days, I used to ride a motorcycle in 40 degree temperatures. I remember hugging my motor at stop lights to warm my hands. I remember years ago riding through the Sitgreaves National Forest in March, in 20+ degree temps, and feeling my hands on fire. I remember riding the ALCAN under a heavy downpour for some 100+ miles, soaked through my gear, just to get ahead of the storm so that I could set up my tent before it caught back up to me.

I had become used to riding in the cold and wet. I don't enjoy it any better, but I've learned that it's always temporary and that somewhere ahead is a warm dry place, even if it's a mummy bag inside a Coleman tent. And when I look back through my life, I've always saw it as trying to prove something to myself, if I couldn't prove it to others.

But this is really the first time Sash has spent some significant miles through bone-shivering weather. And she took it like a trooper, taking on fierce crosswinds, snow flurries, rain, and even some hail, while also dealing with a sour stomach from a bad meal at a restaurant in Monte Vista.

However, it's not to say that she got through it unfazed. It wore her out. It wore us both out. There's an emotional toll to it as well, and it really tested the bonds we developed over our three years together thus far.

The women at Steel Horse Sisterhood Summit really helped her through it, however. Thus far on this road trip, she's shared her experiences on their Facebook Group, and received overwhelming support and encouragement to keep going.

So tomorrow, Day 9 of this journey, we head into Denver via US-50 to the I-25.

Sash bundling up at a Conoco station in Saguache, CO

Looking at Hunts Peak, Red Mountain, and Bushnell Peak, US-285, Colorado

It's snowing in Poncha Springs, Market/Deli

US-50 eastbound along the Arkansas River

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