Tiffany Ambling through America

[Tiffany]

Remember this guy?



It's Jim Harvey from www.globetrottin.com

When Thelma and I had first passed through Utah and met him at the Adventure Summit Rally, Jim had kindly offered to craft one of his fantastic lugage racks for Thelma (having first laughed his head off at the Mongolian welding holding it together). Thelma had spent a day with Jim and now here we were, back again to pick up the finished product, complete with a very nice powder coating.

more in a minute, about to eat lunch with Chris Dawe at the Bates motel

[hondated]

Hi Tiffany started reading your interesting RR's and just caught up this evening. Sadly your going to miss the opening ceremony of the Olympics tonight but I somehow cannot see that troubling you too much as you are already having so much fun.

I look forward to reading your updates and I will use them to convince my wife that its quite safe for me to set off on an European adventure by myself given what you have undertaken to do.

Enjoy the journey.

Ted UK

[Tiffany]

After a lunch that included beetroot in green jelly (these Yanks eat some strange things).

As Jim approached, proudly holding aloft the pristine new racks, he halted in horror and pointed at Thelma's engine covers and forks...



I had to confess to having been riding on the Bonneville Salt Flats




And so he produced a hose pipe and we began washing Thelma down



Until he realised I was in supervising mode and passed the hose over to me



My trousers were quite salty looking as well




With Thelma clean(er!), he compared the old racks to the new ones...



No comparison.
and then started putting them on



the finished product





They look fantastic and they will last a very long time

Huge thanks to Jim.

[Tiffany]

Originally Posted by hondated

Hi Tiffany started reading your interesting RR's and just caught up this evening. Sadly your going to miss the opening ceremony of the Olympics tonight but I somehow cannot see that troubling you too much as you are already having so much fun.

I look forward to reading your updates and I will use them to convince my wife that its quite safe for me to set off on an European adventure by myself given what you have undertaken to do.

Enjoy the journey.

Ted UK

Hi Ted
does that mean you've read all three? I'm not too upset about missing the Olympic stuff tonight as I'll be at Hermy's here in Pennsylvania, giving a talk, eating and drinking a beer all in the name of entertainment. What makes me laugh is that my host is feeling quite torn between coming to watch me or watching the Olympics I'm not sure whether to feel flattered or disappointed.
And yes, tell your wife, you will be perfectly safe, there are no bogeymen

[Tiffany]

Another cup of tea time chaps and chapettes, you're going to like this one as I get myself into another little scrape.

It's great to be heading east once more, no more afternoon sun in my eyes as my shadow stetches away in front of me. I'm crossing the state line from Utah into Colorado.



Some threatening looking clouds ahead of me,
which I ignored at the time, more fool me as you will find out as you read on.

A beautiful sunset, if a little strange looking - but then I don't live in the mountains and maybe this is normal for around here




Time to head off the road and find somewhere to camp



A nice little spot in a deserted canyon for my tent.


There were some strange noises though, the occasional coughing noise, which made me a bit nervous as they reminded me of leopards coughing in Africa. I know there aren't any leopards here, but do mountain lions cough?? Made a mental note to self to make sure that I take my tyre levers into the tent with me tonight.

While I was mooching around taking a look at my canyon, I started to notice these bits of white stuff floating around



Could that possibly be ash? I had been hearing about fires in Colorado.
I did a Charlie Coates (my Dad/survival guru) and checked the direction of the wind with some bits of grass- hmm, it seemed to be coming from the direction of some funny looking clouds, on having a second look I decided they might be far off distant clouds of smoke.

Feeling a bit concerned but not wanting to be a bloody Cassandra (drama queen) about the situation, I checked in with my friend Shelly who handily happens to be a forest fire fighter based in Colorado!! But she was in the middle of some work stuff, and we had some connecting problems with the phone, unusually (and luckily for me) there was a variable signal of sorts in the canyon; mostly in rural areas I don't get one at all. So we had a couple of texts going backwards and forwards until she could get to a computer.
About 45 minutes later she got back to me saying it didn't look good, but I might be OK. then suddenly after another 10 mins she was urgently trying to get hold of me to say she's been on the fire brigade infra-red website and she has found my exact position through my GPS SPOT locator (I'd been a bit vague/unsure of my exact location but was within 20 miles) and she says get out NOW, the fire is less than 5 miles from me and being blown my way straight up my peaceful canyon!

Now that she mentioned it, maybe that sky did look a bit more threatening than I had thought




I threw everything back onto Thelma, folded the tent a bit and strapped it onto my pillion seat (no time for niceties like rolling and packing) and roared off- by this point there was quite a bit of ash.

I only needed to go 12 miles down the road to be safe, but it meant I was off-roading in the dark trying to find somewhere flat for my tent.

It's getting dark and I'm running out of options, not many tracks leading off the road, I finally found one and followed it, I was about to stop when an awful stench came wafting past my nose, I pointed Thelma's headlight to find this



A cow that was definitely deceased and stinking. I quite like the way the tail is still jauntily waving in the air.

I tried to go upwind from it but the trail got very narrow and was right next to the road. I had to admit defeat, as I didn't feel like heading back onto more tarmac and so put my tent up 200 yards downwind from Ermintrude. Lying in my sleeping bag and catching the occasional waft of decomposing cattle. But thanking my lucky stars for Shelly and for my SPOT locator.

[hondated]

Originally Posted by Tiffany

Hi Ted
does that mean you've read all three?

Thanks for reply Tiffany. Watched Mens Cycle race today but sadly UK did not get a podium place even though in Cavendish we have the worlds best sprinter.So that is enough Olympic action for me today and instead I will read through your other travelogues this evening.

Oh yes told the wife what you said about me being safe so now its a case of building the piggy bank up with money.

Best wishes Ted

[Tiffany]

I rode into the city this afternoon and without maps,directions or GPS somehow managed to find my way directly to my friend's apartment and only had to ride on the pavement once (re-phrasing that for Yanks as sidewalk)
first time here and it's a bit of an urban jungle, went through a few dodgy areas getting to her house.

So, now Thelma is parked on the street downtown, there is one of those parking muni meter things nearby- but I'm gambling on not putting the money in because how would I get stung for it?
Do they take your bike away or just ticket you? I've got a foreign number plate which they wouldn't be able to trace to any address (long story). And Thelma gets shipped home soon.
So unless they impound her I should be OK...right?

[Patrick C Buckl]

Don't mess with NYC parking police. This may sound overkill but especially in a post 911 world in NYC and a foreign bike. Please pay for parking or move it somewhere safer and legal or in someones terrace that will allow you. I would hate to see anything happen to her after so much.

[Tiffany]

Originally Posted by Patrick C Buckl

Don't mess with NYC parking police. This may sound overkill but especially in a post 911 world in NYC and a foreign bike. Please pay for parking or move it somewhere safer and legal or in someones terrace that will allow you. I would hate to see anything happen to her after so much.

Hmm, the thought of Thelma being "quietly detonated" by a bomb disposal team is not a good one

[SteelB12]

AS long as its not a license plate from Pakistan she should be ok.




I would bet they would not hesitate to tow your bike if parked illegally. and charge a hefty fee to get it out of impound.

[BELSTAFF]

It is however, New York-- land of the 16oz slurpy-- anything is possible

[Tiffany]

I've just nipped out in my pyjamas- she looks OK, no security tape around her.

I had a worrying couple of minutes in the lift though-I hadn't been in it on my own before and couldn't work out which button was the Ground Floor. The buttons were not in a logical order- I opted for L- as that was the only one without a number. does it mean Lounge?

[vtwin]

Originally Posted by Tiffany

does it mean Lounge?

Means "lobby". Enjoying your ride report.

[Tiffany]

Originally Posted by vtwin

Means "lobby". Enjoying your ride report.

How American that is- I don't think we use that word in England to mean a room, we lobby Parliament.
thanks for that vtwin, fearlessly helping me to expand my knowledge of this alien culture.

[malloy]

Tiffany - Make sure she's locked up and secured real good: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/...ng-3739440.php