Sunday, June 28, 2009

For years we’ve been receiving the Daily and the Sunday Seattle Times, but paying only for the Sunday paper. Each time our subscription comes to an end, I tell them I only want the Sunday paper and they give me the Daily for free ... to boost circulation and therefore ad revenue, according to the Times.

A few weeks ago, we went through our now-standard subscription renewal script but the Times refused to give me the Daily for free. So I subscribed to the Sunday-only Times and the Daily issues stopped arriving.

A few days later, I got a call from Times Circulation, “How would we like to receive the Daily for free?” Sold! So while my string is no longer unbroken, my seven year record of scoring the Daily for free is largely intact.

The Seattle Times, “blinked.”

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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Sunday, June 14, 2009

When a conjecture inspires new hopes or creates new fears, action is indicated. There is an important asymmetry between hope, which leads to actions which will test its basis, and fear, which leads to restriction of options frequently preventing any attempt at testing. As we know only too well, many of our hopes do not survive their tests. However, fears accumulate untested. Our inventory of untested fears has always made humanity disastrously vulnerable to thought control. Independent science’s greatest triumph [has been] the reduction of that vulnerability.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Quotable
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Friday, June 05, 2009

Why do I like these trips?

Partly I simply enjoy riding a powerful motorcycle. I like the sensation of speed. I like that my skills seem to improve on these trips. I like the physics of cornering, accelerating, and braking. Maybe it’s similar to riding a powerful horse.  Maybe it’s similar to skiing a powerful hill. I don’t know, but I like the riding.

I like riding a bike that turns heads. It’s not just another cruiser. It attracts attention, curiosity, and conversation. Sometimes it’s with other bikers, sometimes not. People smile when they see it. I like being in riding gear and relating to other riders without class, rank or badge. I like that other riders wave when we see each other on the road.

I like the road less traveled. In cities we’re used to cutting freeways through hills. We’re used to straightening the crooked path. The road less traveled goes around hills, climbs valleys defined by crooked rivers, and conforms to the texture of the lumpy planet. I like that you can smell the difference between farmland and forest.

I’ve always liked weather. In our normal lives most of us are separated from the weather around us. We’re in our cars, in our buildings, unaware even of the weather that’s happening. I like the feeling of a cool dawn before a hot day. I like the look of clouds that change before my eyes. I don’t always like being too hot, or too cold, or too wet. But I like simply being aware of the weather I’m in.

I’m a sucker for Americana. I like our small towns with their diners, their town halls, and their main streets. I like the funny conversations that happen when you strike up a conversation. I like a restaurant that serves biscuits and gravy (I don’t actually like biscuits and gravy – but restaurants that serve it tend to be good ones.) I like that people are helpful when I get lost. It makes me want to be helpful in return.

I like the company. Spending time with my daughter and son-in-law is fun.

Enough! Maybe it’s enough to like it without becoming over analytical about why.

And in any event, here are the links to the play by play ...

Tour Intro
Tour - Day One
Tour - Day Two
Tour - Day Three
Tour - Day Four
Tour - Day Five

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Motorcycles
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Thursday, June 04, 2009

We put off our return so we wouldn’t be riding home in the middle of Memorial Day traffic. This gave us time to spend a lazy afternoon in Winthrop.

We’ve been on the bikes everyday the last four days. We’ve turned in almost 1,000 miles and it feels like time to head home. Until today, mornings have been cool and crisp with bright sun. This morning its cool and not so crisp. We have moderate overcast. We have rain gear but have been hoping not to use it. Today may be the day we break it out. As we head west from Winthrop, we start up one of the most scenic highways in the State of Washington, the North Cascades Highway.

Closed for winter, it just reopened. We look forward to big sweeping corners, pristine pavement and the road does not disappoint. As we ride, though, we get higher and higher and colder and colder. We stop several times to add layers. By the time we get to this lay-by I’m wearing four shirts under my riding jacket and am just barely warm enough. Ice crystals have started forming on my visor ... but at least the sky seems to be clearing. The road has been plowed and in places the snow is considerably over our heads by the side of the road.

As we crest Washington Pass (5,400 feet) it starts to sprinkle. Four miles later we crest Rainy Pass (4,900 feet) and it’s living up to its reputation. We stop to put rain liners under our jackets and press on. We run out of the rain at Darington and from there it’s a pretty straight shot home.

This was fun. Perhaps in a final post I’ll think out loud about why.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Motorcycles
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

The Columbia River Inn parking lot when we retired last night had 2 motorcycles for every car. There was a big biker group sitting around, and in, the hot tub with a bucket of ice and half of a half gallon of Jim Beam ... which led us to skip the hot tub, but I digress. This morning as we prepared to leave, half the bikes were gone. The other half were probably sleeping it off. Around 9:00, we lit up the bikes with little concern about the noise 3 Ducatis make and how it might enhance a hangover headache. We had breakfast at The Melody and headed out.

The direct route to Winthrop is a meager 96 miles, and while interesting and pretty, it wasn’t going to be enough. Instead we chose a 178 mile route through Nespelem, West Fork, and on in to Republic. This was my number two candidate for best road of the trip. It was a mass of twisty curves, great pavement and engineering, terrific follow-the-river scenery, zero traffic and no speed-tax-collectors. It’s fun to let the bikes out, give them their head, and enjoy where they take you. We stopped for a walk about in Republic. Here’s one of the stores there ...

Now I don’t know about you, but this sure explains a lot about the tech support I’ve been getting lately!

And now as Paul Harvey would say ... “It’s time for the rest of the story.”

Click here for the rest of the story ...

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Motorcycles
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