@Amos_Umwhat said: @CalvinAndHobo , seriously, the sheepskin is money well spent. I've had mine since 1992. It's kind of retired to the tractor now, but I could still throw it on the bike at any time. It's black, so it goes with anything. Some people say "it's ugly", but I don't have any eyeballs in my backside, can't see it when you're sitting on it. And, best of all, I can still feel my feet at the end of the ride, not to forget the aforementioned backside. Rolls right up and strap it to the trunk when you don't want it on. Keeps the seat cool when you're not on the bike, allows airflow and blood circulation when in use.
One question, say I forget it’s on my seat and it gets rained on and left there. How long does it take to dry? And will it start to stink?
@Amos_Umwhat said: @CalvinAndHobo , seriously, the sheepskin is money well spent. I've had mine since 1992. It's kind of retired to the tractor now, but I could still throw it on the bike at any time. It's black, so it goes with anything. Some people say "it's ugly", but I don't have any eyeballs in my backside, can't see it when you're sitting on it. And, best of all, I can still feel my feet at the end of the ride, not to forget the aforementioned backside. Rolls right up and strap it to the trunk when you don't want it on. Keeps the seat cool when you're not on the bike, allows airflow and blood circulation when in use.
One question, say I forget it’s on my seat and it gets rained on and left there. How long does it take to dry? And will it start to stink?
Not long, and no, not really. The wool sheds water pretty well, and it takes a lot of rain to reach the leather, especially if you cut it to drape over the seat so that the water can't pool up under the sheepskin.
For example, I used to ride my Electra Glide to work all the time. A couple times on rainy days the EMS crews would come in laughing "You're going home with a wet butt today". "Nope", I'd say. They were skeptical, but where the sheepskin drapes, most of the water wicks off, and when I got ready to go home I just rolled it up and bungee'd it on the top-case, dry seat beneath. Hang it out on the clothesline, or drape it over the fence after the rain ends and it's ready to go in a day.
Maintenance. I've washed it in the washing machine on delicate with Woolite, hang it out to dry. I have put it in the dryer on the "fluff / air" setting, no heat. However, the best cleaning method I've found has been deep soak and stir in a tub of warm water. After any of these kinds of cleaning it's best to treat it with lanolin, which can be hard to find. Go someplace with equine supplies, Tractor Supply or Co-0p, Rural King if that's available. I've only had to treat it 4 or 5 times in over 30 years. Vacuum cleaning at the car wash is usually enough to take care or normal wear and use.
Final note, good route up through Kansas. Much better than interstate. That southwest quadrant of Kansas is interesting topographically. Rolling hills that look like an endless field of buttocks in all directions to the horizon. lol Watch for critters.
WARNING: The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme. Proceed at your own risk.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
@CalvinAndHobo said: @Wylaff are these also wild? Any way to tell? They were outside of town east of Kayenta, AZ if that matters.
It's hard to be positive without seeing if they are shoed, but judging from the fact that there seem to be various levels of nutrition among the group, they are likely wild. Generally they owned herds you see are all pretty well fed.
"Cooking isn't about struggling; It's about pleasure. It's like sǝx, with a wider variety of sauces."
At any given time the urge to sing "In The Jungle" is just a whim away... A whim away... A whim away...
The stretch from Taos through the mountains was great.
There was a section where construction was going on and they had a pilot car going back and forth.
The funny thing was, at around 9:30 am on a Monday, there was no one doing any actual construction. It was just the pilot car, no work crews working on anything anywhere. It was very American.
Once I got to Eagle Lake, you could tell this is going to become a future work from home spot or vacation spot for the various upper management people who have the privilege of doing that. Some of those types of houses are already popping up.
After getting out of Cimarron, it turned into this.
And then just this.
Once the state line crossed over from Oklahoma into Kansas, farms instantly appeared. It went from just undeveloped land to wheat fields in the blink of an eye right at the border. I hope I remember to look that up when I get home. Maybe the state line is where it is because of something soil or water related?
Route 83 going north was way busier than I was hoping. Agricultural trucks everywhere, I guess it’s the fastest way to get straight north in this area? There was no real point in trying to pass any of them, because you’ll just get stuck behind another one. I think tomorrow I’m going to shoot east and take whatever the next road that runs north is, and see if there’s less traffic on it.
This is pretty much what all of Kansas looked like.
Half the time it was cows instead of crops, but you get the idea.
I went east for about 20 miles once I left the motel and then stumbled into route 23 going north. That was exactly what I was looking for, just straight nothingness. Set the cruise control for 90 and just slow down every 20 miles or so when passing through the farm towns.
I love the charm of those, it’s always the same. There’s a diner that’s jam packed with people and probably isn’t very good. There’s a gas station where one of the pumps doesn’t work. There’s a farm equipment sales/repair place of some kind. There’s an insurance office and a law office. And then there’s some ancillary stuff. They all look the same, but each one has its own unique story, and there’s very few chains aside from whatever brand the gas station is.
I’ve kind of come to hate chain businesses. I don’t want them abolished or anything like that, I just don’t enjoy the experience of going to them. No one at the chain has a vested interest in the success of the business, so no one cares about the little things. Going to local stores and restaurants across the country has been much more fun, and it’s inspiring to see people “take a shot” and try to establish something.
This was a great example. Someone in Hoxie, KS (population 1,195) opened a somewhat gourmet restaurant called “The Elephant Bistro and Bar”. I saw it riding past, and turned around and ate there, and it was just incredible.
The Mac and cheese was spicy, which was great and very surprising considering the area, and the sandwich had a homemade dill/ranch combo type of sauce on it that I want to learn how to make. It’s not hard to find a restaurant like that in a big city, but here it was just randomly in the middle of nowhere. I hope it gets enough business, I’d 100% make an effort to go back there if I was nearby.
I enjoyed this truck stop sign. They’re embracing it.
Route 30 in Nebraska has the same problem that route 83 in Kansas did, there’s too many people on it. I might try to get lost again tomorrow, we’ll see.
Parked for the night in Des Moines. Going to play some poker until Saturday, or until I lose $200, whichever comes first, and then head home. Didn’t take any pictures today since I live in this type of area and see it every day, and it’s not very photogenic. I greatly look forward to being retired and being able to do this whenever I want. I wonder where I should go next? I’m not a huge fan of riding in the cold, since I’m already a naturally cold person, so that kind of rules out Canada. I’ll have to think about it.
Home sweet home. Forgot to take a picture of the mileage and I'm too lazy to go out and turn the bike on again, but it was about 4,500 miles total.
An interesting tidbit. I stayed at a nice hotel for 2 nights, unlike last year, and ate at 4 fancy restaurants, unlike last year. If I take that hotel and make it an $80 hotel, and take those 4 restaurants and make them $15 meals, this trip was still 26% more expensive than it was last year, and it was a day shorter. If I set the price as per day, the trip was 29% more expensive per day compared to last year. I guess if you measure inflation by the price of motels, 91 grade fuel, casual dining, and sugar free Gatorade, then the inflation rate is 29%? All I know is it sure as **** isn't 7% or whatever they're saying it is. That could just be anecdotal of course, since I could have happened to pick more expensive menu items, or something like that. It definitely felt more expensive though when I was buying day to day stuff, so I went and did the math on it and that's what it came to.
Yes, I'm weird, I know.
I have the same feeling today that I did last year though. I'm not ready to be back home. I want to just go do another month of that, but this year my backside is telling me it's good to be home. Now it's time to look up sheepskin seat covers.
Comments
One question, say I forget it’s on my seat and it gets rained on and left there. How long does it take to dry? And will it start to stink?
Not long, and no, not really. The wool sheds water pretty well, and it takes a lot of rain to reach the leather, especially if you cut it to drape over the seat so that the water can't pool up under the sheepskin.
For example, I used to ride my Electra Glide to work all the time. A couple times on rainy days the EMS crews would come in laughing "You're going home with a wet butt today". "Nope", I'd say. They were skeptical, but where the sheepskin drapes, most of the water wicks off, and when I got ready to go home I just rolled it up and bungee'd it on the top-case, dry seat beneath. Hang it out on the clothesline, or drape it over the fence after the rain ends and it's ready to go in a day.
Maintenance. I've washed it in the washing machine on delicate with Woolite, hang it out to dry. I have put it in the dryer on the "fluff / air" setting, no heat. However, the best cleaning method I've found has been deep soak and stir in a tub of warm water. After any of these kinds of cleaning it's best to treat it with lanolin, which can be hard to find. Go someplace with equine supplies, Tractor Supply or Co-0p, Rural King if that's available. I've only had to treat it 4 or 5 times in over 30 years. Vacuum cleaning at the car wash is usually enough to take care or normal wear and use.
Final note, good route up through Kansas. Much better than interstate. That southwest quadrant of Kansas is interesting topographically. Rolling hills that look like an endless field of buttocks in all directions to the horizon. lol Watch for critters.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
It's hard to be positive without seeing if they are shoed, but judging from the fact that there seem to be various levels of nutrition among the group, they are likely wild. Generally they owned herds you see are all pretty well fed.
At any given time the urge to sing "In The Jungle" is just a whim away... A whim away... A whim away...
The stretch from Taos through the mountains was great.
There was a section where construction was going on and they had a pilot car going back and forth.
The funny thing was, at around 9:30 am on a Monday, there was no one doing any actual construction. It was just the pilot car, no work crews working on anything anywhere. It was very American.
Once I got to Eagle Lake, you could tell this is going to become a future work from home spot or vacation spot for the various upper management people who have the privilege of doing that. Some of those types of houses are already popping up.
After getting out of Cimarron, it turned into this.
And then just this.
Once the state line crossed over from Oklahoma into Kansas, farms instantly appeared. It went from just undeveloped land to wheat fields in the blink of an eye right at the border. I hope I remember to look that up when I get home. Maybe the state line is where it is because of something soil or water related?
Route 83 going north was way busier than I was hoping. Agricultural trucks everywhere, I guess it’s the fastest way to get straight north in this area? There was no real point in trying to pass any of them, because you’ll just get stuck behind another one. I think tomorrow I’m going to shoot east and take whatever the next road that runs north is, and see if there’s less traffic on it.
This is pretty much what all of Kansas looked like.
Half the time it was cows instead of crops, but you get the idea.
I went east for about 20 miles once I left the motel and then stumbled into route 23 going north. That was exactly what I was looking for, just straight nothingness. Set the cruise control for 90 and just slow down every 20 miles or so when passing through the farm towns.
I love the charm of those, it’s always the same. There’s a diner that’s jam packed with people and probably isn’t very good. There’s a gas station where one of the pumps doesn’t work. There’s a farm equipment sales/repair place of some kind. There’s an insurance office and a law office. And then there’s some ancillary stuff. They all look the same, but each one has its own unique story, and there’s very few chains aside from whatever brand the gas station is.
I’ve kind of come to hate chain businesses. I don’t want them abolished or anything like that, I just don’t enjoy the experience of going to them. No one at the chain has a vested interest in the success of the business, so no one cares about the little things. Going to local stores and restaurants across the country has been much more fun, and it’s inspiring to see people “take a shot” and try to establish something.
This was a great example. Someone in Hoxie, KS (population 1,195) opened a somewhat gourmet restaurant called “The Elephant Bistro and Bar”. I saw it riding past, and turned around and ate there, and it was just incredible.
The Mac and cheese was spicy, which was great and very surprising considering the area, and the sandwich had a homemade dill/ranch combo type of sauce on it that I want to learn how to make. It’s not hard to find a restaurant like that in a big city, but here it was just randomly in the middle of nowhere. I hope it gets enough business, I’d 100% make an effort to go back there if I was nearby.
I enjoyed this truck stop sign. They’re embracing it.
Route 30 in Nebraska has the same problem that route 83 in Kansas did, there’s too many people on it. I might try to get lost again tomorrow, we’ll see.
Parked for the night in Des Moines. Going to play some poker until Saturday, or until I lose $200, whichever comes first, and then head home. Didn’t take any pictures today since I live in this type of area and see it every day, and it’s not very photogenic. I greatly look forward to being retired and being able to do this whenever I want. I wonder where I should go next? I’m not a huge fan of riding in the cold, since I’m already a naturally cold person, so that kind of rules out Canada. I’ll have to think about it.
Home sweet home. Forgot to take a picture of the mileage and I'm too lazy to go out and turn the bike on again, but it was about 4,500 miles total.
An interesting tidbit. I stayed at a nice hotel for 2 nights, unlike last year, and ate at 4 fancy restaurants, unlike last year. If I take that hotel and make it an $80 hotel, and take those 4 restaurants and make them $15 meals, this trip was still 26% more expensive than it was last year, and it was a day shorter. If I set the price as per day, the trip was 29% more expensive per day compared to last year. I guess if you measure inflation by the price of motels, 91 grade fuel, casual dining, and sugar free Gatorade, then the inflation rate is 29%? All I know is it sure as **** isn't 7% or whatever they're saying it is. That could just be anecdotal of course, since I could have happened to pick more expensive menu items, or something like that. It definitely felt more expensive though when I was buying day to day stuff, so I went and did the math on it and that's what it came to.
Yes, I'm weird, I know.
I have the same feeling today that I did last year though. I'm not ready to be back home. I want to just go do another month of that, but this year my backside is telling me it's good to be home. Now it's time to look up sheepskin seat covers.
Thanks for sharing your trip Calvin, great seeing you again!!