days 27-28 - Wagoner, OK to Montrose, CO

day 27 - tonkawa, ok to guymon, ok
Ahhh yesterday before I left, a guy came round with some saddle bags that he used to have on his Honda, and he sold those, a tank bag, a third bag that goes on top of the saddle bags, some sweet red foot pegs, some clutch and brake levers, and a few other misc. things for $100. Danny got them for me. Around 4 or 5 I left, and hit Tonkawa as the sun set... and as I decided that I wanted to find a cheap motel to stay at for air conditioning -- I didn't quite feel like riding around at night - and it was too hot to sleep in a tent... let alone the fact that I wasn't really seeing any great places to squat.

The Oklahoma sun - you would hide in a motel too...

Then after laying down $48 to sleep in a cool room... with shower and towels and wifi and all that jazz... I promised myself to get up at 5am. But after one wake up call from the motel office, and one from Danny... which I don't remember hearing at all... I woke up at 10:45 am - getting out of the room 20 min after check out time. Whoops. Then I after getting out of Tonkawa... my gas light came on - 187 mi... usually it comes on at 200 mi or 215 mi... I felt lucky when I found a gas station within range. Today though, it is over 100 degrees outside. So I've been stopping pretty frequently at gas stations. Little did I know I should be filling up about as frequently as I stop... because when I had passed Knowles, OK, my gas light came on again - 165 mi. This might have something to do with going 100 mph pretty consisitently in between gas stations. I've reduced my speed to 80 again... but I'm not taking my chances. Its hard to find gas stations that I have cards for at this point. It may be that even if I want to break my rule of not going to more than one motel this trip... I won't have money for it. Maybe my landlord will send my roommate the deposit to our place soon - and then she can send my parents a check - ah that would lighten my money situation up. However, I have paid my credit cards this month, and should have enough extra money to pay for all the gas I would need to get home... but it would be nice if I didn't have to pay for it until I came home...

People here are nice - as usual - and the moment that I parted from Danny, people started talking to me again. I cut my hair in Wagoner though - and cutting my own hair apparently is a hit and miss kind of thing - this time missed by a mile. So now I have really funny looking bangs... that I have been hiding with bandanas... I'm lucky I'm cute as a button with or without hair. Although every day I have to fight the urge to find the next barber shop and pay the 8-10 bucks to go without hair completely... I liked being bald - kinda miss it - but the boys at moto gp won't talk to me if i do that. Ah well.

day 28 - Kim, CO to Gunnison, CO
After I left Guymon, I saw impending doom clouds, including one lightening bolt! So I bit the bullet and rushed north underneath large dark clouds... but luckily no rain. Then just as I was in the clear from any more doom and gloom, I saw lights flashing behind me. What? What was I doing? Apparently I was going 45 mph in a 30 zone... Well as I dished out my license, registration, and (slightly forged) insurance... I got off with a warning - i with the power of photoshop win again : )

Then after wondering if I could make it to Trinidad, CO by nightfall, I passed by Kim, CO, and decided to just stay there. Kim is actually my dad's name... and its funny cause both he and the town have zero cell phone reception (remembers certain cell phone thru window and stomping incident), but I wanted to call him to ask him if he knew there was a town named Kim in colorado... and then a few other people to let them know where I am - like I've been doing most nights. After briefly surveying the five blocks of town, I decided to stay to the side of a church. I was tired, but not sleepy. Luckily it had cooled off once I had entered the stormy areas of Colorado, but this meant that I was promptly attacked by mosquitos - which I think is probably the least threatening frantic making thing ever. Swat swat swat! Aghhhhh! Swat swat swat!

No police stopped by - but a couple stopped by, I think to drop things off at the church. They didn't come over and ask me any questions, so I figured I was probably ok. For some reason... the fact that I slept in? drank too much caffeine? wasn't really used to the idea of camping again yet? or maybe because I'm just a little bit too tall for my one man $15 junior tent... if only it was half a foot longer... I got pretty much zero sleep last night. I tried up until about 4 am or 4:30... just closing my eyes, getting over the fact that I'm outside of my comfort zone... I've done this four times before by myself -- this shouldn't be a big deal. Oh well - but that means that I'm making my mad dash today with no sleep - maybe an hour - probably not.

morning in Colorado - cold and itchy from mosquito bites

I woke up, and apparently mosquitos woke up too... argh! And then I had to pee so bad. When I've been squatting at churches and places... it never included squatting like that because I have a pretty strong bladder - but apparently not stong enough for the 1-2 gallons of soda and water that I drank yesterday. So this morning was the first time I went pee in the wild... I had to use some sanitary napkins as toilet paper. Oh well... if the market had been open at 6, I would have waited... but they opened at 7:30 and I wanted to be gone. Just as I was finishing, I heard the sound of a door closing... which is really not a sound you want to hear at dawn when you've dropped trou - but nothing came of it. Get stuff in the trash can, get stuff on bike, and escape the mosquitos!

Colorado is so pretty... not like my haircut.

I've followed the Rio Grande for a good portion - amazing and beautiful! I just had no idea. I found it by accident... there were a lot of bikers there, and I'm sure they followed it on purpose - but silly me just saw a good looking road on the map - totally ignoring the fact that the little blue line right next to it is named the rio grande, I had only seen it from way high before... not right next to it like on these roads. There were many storm clouds, but they tend to the peaks and plateaus... not in the valleys, which is fine while the road is in the valleys. At one point I saw clouds every where, and decided to come back to a National Forest Campground... where I lay on a table - ah how comfy - except for the bugs which started bugging me right away. Then I heard thunder and decided it was time to leave.

Ahhh - I have to come back - so pretty - such good roads.

Hmm this cafe is playing a really good cd. Its my kind of chill compilation sounds like, with world and jazzy psychedelic sounds.

The C in Colorado can be for a lot of things... like the C in the morning is for Cold! I forget the other C's I came up with - but they were Clever - haha pun not intended - oh! C is also for Cows. Parts of Colorado are free range, so watch out for the heffers. C is also for Chipmunk. The roads - as predicted - are most excellent. I was first amazed by hwy 12 and then 149... but I also discovered that I don't like how my new saddle bags change the weight of my ride - I will probably ship them home along with all my camping gear as soon as I get to Salt Lake City (because I won't need to camp out anymore!)- and on that note:

I haven't yet heard from my cousins - they might be in Idaho, visiting the rest of their family that still live there. But I think if I hear that they are in town, or that I can stay at their place tonight, I will go tonight. But if I don't hear from them I will probably camp out near Grand Junction. But I checked at a Yamaha dealer (Yami for short - or as endearment - like I have a cute widdle Yami - errr maybe not) to see if my chain was loose - it wasn't! it's perfect and good to go - darn taco bell for stealing that phrase. Ah so far I'm a good little mechanic... well I didn't really do anything. Anyhows onward with full confidence in equipment!