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Neighborhood gossip:
Kim met our
neighbor to the left of us last night...chatty fellow from Kansas who’s
recently retired and out here with his wife. They have a huge toy hauler which is how they
haul the 2 Polaris RZRs sitting outside their trailer. She doesn’t like how he drives and he claims
that her driving makes him crazy so each having their own alleviates some
marital strife. Each one is about the size
of a small car. This type of ATV buggy
is very popular in Quartzsite...not only do they go off-road with them but they’re
also street legal. Have seen many
buzzing through town...but haven’t seen too many out running through the desert
around here, though. This morning the
man showed Kim a book of off- road trails.
The trails range far-afield which is why I’ve seen more ATVs in town
than along the roads. Shortly after that
they took off for the day, each snuggled down in his/her own buggy.
**Side note:
Kim said he could relate to their having two because we have two bikes. I explained
that his driving has nothing to do with why I ride my own bike. I have no
complaints about how he drives; I simply like driving my own. There’s a difference...in my mind at least. 😏
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We met the woman to the right of us this
morning and had a good chat with her. Cindy
has been widowed for 4 years, sold her home last September and her trailer is
her home now. She and her husband had
done a lot of camping so she decided to keep at it after he died. Her camper isn’t huge but it’s got enough
room for her, her dog and her sewing machines (she has 6 machines but only has
3 with her). The camper has a slide out and is decked out with enough panels
and batteries to run her machines on solar power for 8 hours. She sews for a day then lets the batteries
charge for a day so it’s an every other day thing with her. Today she was moving to an LTVA (Long Term Visitor
Area operated by the BLM) to do some dry camping which she really enjoys
because of being able to have her dog outside more. She recommended the cheapRVliving
channel on youtube as the best in advice for camping off the grid. We
talked about her going it alone in the camping world...pulling a trailer and
dealing with emergencies. Only felt
unsafe once and that was in a McDonald’s parking lot. She’s never felt unsafe out in the
desert.
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Noticed
yesterday that there’s a couple camping in a bike trailer with a tented area
coming off the back. Today we stopped by
to talk. It’s a enclosed trailer like we
had but longer...they don’t haul bikes so it’s permanently set up...the tent is
their patio...they've added windows, a fridge, bed and cabinet among
other necessary items. They really had
to downsize when they went from a house to this trailer set-up but they have no
regrets. It’s something she’s always
wanted to do and apparently found a husband who’s willing to indulge her idea.
They will eventually buy a house somewhere, maybe Texas, but until that time
they’re having a good time doing what they’re doing.
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No car wash
in town but managed to get the bikes spiffed up with some spray and a
cloth. They were dust-ty!!
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Took a bike
ride this afternoon...120+ mile loop. It
was just the perfect starter ride. Not
too hot, not too cool. Roads were in good shape with plenty of curves mixed in
with the straight aways. Surrounding
area interesting to look at. Stopped to
take a couple of pictures...bees on flowers and Kim next to a stack of huge
square hay bales.
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The bathrooms
at this campground are coded which restricts use of a fragile
septic system. Anyway, despite having an onboard bathroom, I usually walk to the campground bathroom to get steps on my Fitbit. Last night in fading light, a woman and I
approached the bathroom at the same time...she made it to the door before me,
pushed the code in and turned with a dazzling smile when she heard the lock
release. “That’s always a welcome sound.
It’s hard to see these numbers so it’s always a good thing when I get it
right”, she said. I agreed and we continued talking as we went in.
Out of
nowhere she dropped the tidbit that she had sold RVs for 12 years and then with a smile said that Evel
Knievel was her customer. I felt obligated to tell her my
Evel Knievel story...I saw a billboard somewhere in Kansas promoting an Evel
Knievel museum.😏 She cocked her head saying that she’d never heard of him having a museum in
Kansas. I replied that as we passed the billboard I had the thought that Kansas
seemed a fairly random place for an Evel Knievel museum but what did I know about it. My focus was on getting to an OZ museum whose
connection to Kansas made sense.
Our
conversation last night made me curious about that museum. Googled ‘Evel Knievel museum in Kansas’ and
found an article entitled “How the heck did an Evel Knievel museum end up in northeast
Kansas?”
My thoughts exactly! Here’s an excerpt of the article:
Peering out toward a muddy race track in Hutchinson, Kan., the small boy
sat amongst a sea of onlookers at a neatly filed line of 10 Kenworth trucks.
Two sets of wooden ramps leaned against the sides of the two outermost
red-and-black trucks, creating takeoff and landing areas.
A man attired in white, red and blue leathers rode a Harley-Davidson
XR-750 motorbike up and down the length of the crowd, performing wheelies and
placing his feet on the leather seat of his bike.
After a couple of laps up and down the row of trucks, the rider lined
himself up at the far end of the track before speeding toward the nearest ramp
and flying over the row of trucks as the watching crowd cheered. Landing with a
thud and a quick stabilization with his left leg, the rider made it to the
opposite ramp unharmed.
That was the moment
a 4-year-old boy fell in love with Evel Knievel, the famous stunt performer who
inspired a generation of kids with his daredevil jumps and horrific crashes
throughout the late 1960’s and well into the 1970’s.
Some 46 years after that
jump, that inspired 4-year-old child, Mike Patterson, co-founded and opened the
Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka. With
co-owners Lathan McKay and Jim Caplinger, Patterson has invested upwards of $3
million into the museum, which sits underneath Historic Harley Davidson, just
south of the Kansas Expocenter.
Topeka seems like a strange place for an Evel Knievel museum, no? Perhaps
it should be built in Butte, Mont., Knievel’s hometown. Or in Las Vegas, where
he famously attempted to jump the fountains at Caesar’s Palace on a Triumph
Bonneville T120, a stunt in which he didn’t stick the landing and wound up in a
hospital for a month.
“Biggest reason, really, is
Lathan collected ultimately Big Red, which is the Mack truck that Evel hauled
his show around with, and it was a very iconic, bright red truck,” said Bruce
Zimmerman, director of the museum.
Parked in the middle of the museum, the huge red-white-and-blue semi is the centerpiece of this shrine. One of the most famous trucks to ever tour the roads of America, ‘Big Red’ is the crown jewel of McKay’s collection.
Parked in the middle of the museum, the huge red-white-and-blue semi is the centerpiece of this shrine. One of the most famous trucks to ever tour the roads of America, ‘Big Red’ is the crown jewel of McKay’s collection.
Were it not for Big Red,
the museum might've been situated in New Jersey instead. And this is where legendary pianist and songwriter Jerry Lee Lewis
enters the picture.
The article is much longer but
this seemed a good place to stop.😎
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I took my Fitbit off when I got on Zeus because I get fake steps when I ride. When we got back we walked to the grocery store, maybe a 1/2 mile each way. I was disappointed to see that I didn’t break 10,000
steps for my efforts. I wonder if the Fitbit was being as honest with me as I had been with it. 😐
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Bike miles: 123
 |
| Bike route |
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