http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/index/ en don@digitalquixote.com Copyright 2009 2009-06-28T21:42:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/the_seattle_times_blinked/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/the_seattle_times_blinked/#When:21:42:00Z 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.” Out and About 2009-06-28T21:42:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/quotable_the_accumulation_of_fear/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/quotable_the_accumulation_of_fear/#When:09:35:00Z 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. Arthur Kantrowitz Quotable 2009-06-14T09:35:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_why/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_why/#When:14:00:00Z 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 Motorcycles 2009-06-05T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/the_road_less_traveled_tour_tuesday_day_five/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/the_road_less_traveled_tour_tuesday_day_five/#When:14:19:00Z 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. Motorcycles 2009-06-04T14:19:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_monday_day_four/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_monday_day_four/#When:14:31:00Z 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.” Motorcycles 2009-06-03T14:31:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_sunday_day_three/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_sunday_day_three/#When:13:04:00Z As we wake up in Walla Walla and get ready for breakfast, I am still chuckling about a rest stop incident yesterday. We had stopped along the Columbia River to stretch our legs when a van of elderly ladies drove up ... six of them ... think about the ladies in the movie Calendar Girls. They were smiling and laughing and generally having a good time. At their request my daughter snapped a photo of all six with one of their cameras. At that moment, I strode over behind them, stood with three ladies on my right, three on my left, wrapped my arms around them and smiled while my daughter took another photo. Me in my full riding gear, including helmet, ... the ladies loved it! I have a feeling they’ll talk about it for some time. We enjoyed the Breakfast Buffet at the Marcus Whitman and thusly fueled, headed toward Grand Coulee Dam. Being the road less traveled our first intermediate stop was Waitsburg. Another charming town that time forgot. Home to the WHOOPemUP Cafe and other delights. Our route took us in turn to Starbuck (no coffee), Delaney, Chard, Dodge (as in get the heck out of Dodge), Central Ferry (where there is no ferry), Dusty (a town we rode through but none of us remember), and St. John. At St John we had lunch at the Rialto. At the suggestion of the waitress we sat at the counter so she wouldn’t have to carry our food very far and chatted with her. She was born here, got married and moved to Rosalia, had a couple of kids and moved back. The way she said Rosalia, it was as though it was the big city and we should all know about it. None of us surrendered to the momentum of curiosity to ask where it was. No need to as it would turn out. Leaving St. John, we got lost and rode through Rosalia by mistake. We paid for our (er, my) navigation mistake with brutally straight roads from Rosalia all the way to Coulee Dam. At Coulee Dam, we found out it was possible to be bristled at … Motorcycles 2009-06-02T13:04:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_saturday_day_two/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_saturday_day_two/#When:14:00:00Z We’re up early Saturday morning and blast east on State Route 14 (the Lewis & Clark highway), following the north banks of the Columbia. This is the twisty cousin of Interstate 84 which follows the south banks. Along the Columbia Gorge, it’s often windy and today is no exception. There are plenty of wind surfers on the river and at times we ride leaning in to strong crosswinds. At Lyle, we turn left on 141 to follow the Klickitat River. This is one of the prettiest parts of our ride. We wind up a twisty canyon through little towns that time forgot: Klickitat; Wahkiacus; Blockhouse; and into Goldendale. This is beautiful country: Rolling hills; Newly planted fields; Lots of hawks and eagles in the air. We stop for lunch on the lawn of the Klickitat County Courthouse in Goldendale. Last time I was here on a motorcycle, it was a 102 degree August day and all I could think about was getting cool. Today it is cool and comfortable. And it’s here that the second amazing coincidence of our journey occurs … Motorcycles 2009-06-01T14:00:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_friday_day_one/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour_friday_day_one/#When:14:00:01Z No plan of battle survives … Our first riding day started with a detour. Intending to ride along the western shoulder of Mt. Rainier and the eastern shoulder of Mt. St. Helens we found an avalanche of snow over the roadway on FS 25 (Woods Creek Road). So instead, we headed down I-5 where the straight conformation of the road was crushingly boring, the speed exhilarating. Our boredom was interrupted by a truck-afire south of Olympia. We ran up fast on a semi that appeared to be on fire … like the trailer had cargo burning furiously … but as we passed, the acrid smoke was coming from its stacks. It was a minor diversion … but only briefly entertaining. Our goal for the day was the “Bridge of the Gods,” at Cascade Locks, Oregon. It turned out to be a dynamite ride as you’ll see if you ... Motorcycles 2009-05-31T14:00:01-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/road_less_traveled_tour/#When:07:29:00Z Road Less Traveled Tour Ducati Monster – Ducati Supersport – Ducati ST3 May 22 – 26, 2009 Friends who do not ride motorcycles are bemused by the notion of a road trip. They ask, “Why would anyone climb aboard a near-death-experience for 24 hours and ride it in a loop around Washington State?” The reasons are complex, and I am searching for answers as much as the next person, I guess. None of this introspection changes the joy of the ride my daughter, son-in-law and I just completed on these magnificent machines. Don’t you dare blow past this without clicking on the photos to expand them ... Our original notion was to circumnavigate Washington State on secondary roads, forest service roads … two lanes rather than four … twisted highways rather than interstate … in short on “roads less traveled.” Our plan was to eat diner food, stay in budget accommodations, and touch Americana. Here’s our planned route. Of course, no plan of battle survives the first encounter with the enemy ... and our plan was immediately blown by mother nature. For the next 5 posts, experience at least vicariously our story; our adventure; my introspection. Motorcycles 2009-05-30T07:29:00-08:00 http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/my_love_affair_with_seattle/ http://www.digitalquixote.com/system/blog.php/site/my_love_affair_with_seattle/#When:06:29:00Z Click to expand any photo ... I am unabashedly in love with Seattle ... as a photographer. Besides all the great stuff to shoot here, there is great, dramatic, weather to shoot it in. Here are a few pictures I shot over the last few days. Out and About 2009-05-24T06:29:00-08:00