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| after the first afternoon of riding, at mountain view [mo],
200 mls sw of st. louis |
natchez trace parkway [ms] | on [al] hw 21n rear tire got punctured. no way for a make shift fix, which meant.. | ||
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| ..three days to spend in pleasant monroeville [al], waiting for the spare: clean, safe.. and well, boring. dry county too. oh lord | easley bridge [al]. - apart from those minor.. inconveniences:
indeed enjoyed alabama. from gulf thru northeast. all the warmth of both
climate and people there |
at camp near entry to great smoky mountains np [tn], fooling around with automatic release.. | ||
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| appalachians, somewhere in [va] | a new england camp site | now, posing on main stand makes not that much a highlight,
does it? [me] |
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| on ferry crossing lake huron, for northern shore road [on] | great lakes north. a zillion eventless (still somehow satisfying)
miles.. ok, couple of hundreds for sure: rest on handy outdoors furniture |
lake sakakawea [nd]: back in greenery after crossing manitobas vast cornfield areas. (though corn not that golden ripe yet, far as i remember) | ||
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| [nd] badlands | to straightness tending [nd] roads, yet not monotonous at all: not exactly crowded and pretty much a kick to ride. | [nd] deep saturated colors, causing mixed up emotions: glad
to watch this - and oh come on, where's some shelter please? |
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| badlands of [sd]. as mighty strange a concept of nature as witnessed before at the [nd] badlands unit | grand teton [wy] | in [wy], where even wildlife obeys the speed limit |
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| highline sra west of grand junction [co], great homeplace for a few nights | highline sra in the green | downtown grand junction [co]: one of those medium sized us
towns to suit me best - explorable, safe and friendly |
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| gunnison area, at an early stage of that [co] loop: the dunes,
mesa verde, cool twisty road stretches (ouray, silverton area) on ride northbound
closing the circle |
within great sand dunes np [co] | around moab [ut] | ||
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| arches np, moab area | arches np. - stayed few days at dead horse point state park nearby, convenient base for exploring the wonders of arches and canyonlands | tiny me in arches np. few minutes later.. | ||
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| ..weather suddenly would change drastically: bike parked
further down got blown over by the storm, luckily no damage done to |
some scenery from a hike around moab [ut]. | bmw r1100r down monument valley [az] struggling upward: not really made for this still doing fine | ||
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| [az] monument valley | back to [ut]. zion - a unique place on earth. featuring the
largest concentration of germans outside of berlin, somebody wrote on the
net. not then, it seems: met no fellow kraut during my 3 days camp &
drive & hike there.. |
weird rock structures in capitol reef np [ut] - plus for once more prominent visible what mentioned cam zoom failure resulted in | ||
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| on the road to green river [ut] | goblin valley [ut], funniest rocks i've ever seen | crossing inner [ut] nw bound, here along union pacific railroad
tracks |
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| kennicot copper mine sw of salt lake area [ut] | mormon church, or do they call this temple? paris [id] -
found a couple nice shots of that beauty online here
& there
- and so, according to sources mentioned, we take a look at a "tabernacle"
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jasper & banff [ab]: roaring waterfalls near by the road, literally around every other corner.. | ||
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| jasper np. used to be rainy & grim cold, those end of
july days. so, wet forest camps for the night.. |
eastbound a little for edmonton [ab] and bike inspection routine | heading north again [ab] | ||
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| alaska highway [bc]. all great for ponder issues: what's life's meaning, will i make it to the next gas station?.. | alaska highway [bc] - quite a few breaks due to road construction. fortunately 2wheelers always invited to proceed first in line, thus spared from to eat all dust & dirt when queue was to move on | needed me new boots sometime. styling don't fit, size does: beggars can't be.. [yt] | ||
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| no mere case of (mild) wide angle doing its common trick
with: some structures *are* built this slanted, up here at anchorage [ak] |
portage glacier. nowadays not that much left from anymore, i heard | train shuttle to whittier, not yet accessible by road then | ||
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| on ferry whittier to valdez [ak] | top of the world highway, 'downtown' chicken
[ak] |
tow hw. gold dredge, abandoned long ago | ||
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| jack wade gold dredge, inside | tow hw near alaska/canada border |
top of the world hw | ||
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| tow highway | picturesque houses they have here in dawson city [yt], some more fancy, some.. less | [bc] already. inside passage skagway - prince rupert (expensive
for cars, modestly priced for bike transport) been all fog & clouds |
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| [bc] more of mankind's traces than in alaska, still plenty
unspoiled scenic nature |
dwarfed around britannia, ne of vancouver [bc] | [wa] something between mounts of rainier and st.helens | ||
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| st.helens | st.helens: an opulent lesson on how nature strikes, nature
heals, given time |
st.helens | ||
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| basic camping out in the woods, up hills some 20 mls to the
se of waldport [or].. |
..basic breakfast | same location | ||
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| crater lake [or] | an exhibit in lassen volcanic np [ca], forgot what a story
it had to tell (something seismo) |
in lassen volcanic np | ||
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| [ca] headed once more from inner land direction coast, getting and devouring fat heavy summer - like for the first time in the year.. | bodega bay [ca] | san francisco [ca]. might be again mostly on account of some
wide angle distortion. still, something definitely works wrong here in the
west, things gravity and such.. |
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san francisco: all fire escape architecture inevitably catches the eyes of a german visitor, nothing alike back home |
san francisco | [ca] monterey | ||
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| [ca] san francisco area, this setting probably already on
the ride south, for sequoia/kings (but could be on doing some by-road, still
north of san francisco instead) |
[ca] sequoia | [ca] kings canyon. it *did* pump! charging an $1.98 per gallon all trip record, that is.. | ||
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| kings canyon, roadside | [ca] red rock state park | red rock sp. one "drawback" to some of those fabulous red rock areas: without no real trees one feels rather naked and exposed.. | ||
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| [ca] somewhere between red rock and joshua tree monument |
[ca] death valley | death valley, huge and amazing by any standards | ||
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| death valley: no-gear-aboard afternoon sidetrip from las
vegas base - means way to short a time granted, whole northern section had
do be skipped.. |
death valley | must be past las vegas [nv] and before williams [az] on us hw 93 or interstate 40. looks like the latter, for the big truck stop | ||
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| cheap (wal-mart) replacement tent used for the first time, nf 30 mls ne of prescott [az]. cause old one slipped off unnoticed along the way.. | sky south of phoenix, over [az] hw 86 | state hw 86 south. skies & light are really something
special round here - not that my images capture this anywhere near |
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| organ pipe cactus nm [az] sky | organ pipe camp | burial grounds, hw 86e to tucson |
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| kitt peak observatory, southern [az]. nice steep ride up, great vista from atop | kitt
peak observatory. very much open to the public then, with areas to watch
instruments & scientists at work |
vail near tucson [az] | ||
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| vail vicinity. empty road, no law enforcement in sight: did
that particular stretch couple of times back and forth, fast. felt just
great in the stomach |
in tucson [az] | a bit of morbid late evening scouting: cemetery near dos cabezas, on my way to chiricahua nm [az] | ||
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| east on i10 into [nm] and then back again northwest to [az]:
lyman lake state park |
towards petrified forest np [az] | at petrified forest, another must see, for those drawn by color & structure | ||
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| petrified forest - something i noticed in wonder: why so
many descriptions & warnings all over the country doing nothing but
state the obvious? |
el morro nm (inscription rock) [nm] | albuquerque [nm] atomic museum | ||
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| atomic museum | coronado state park, just north of albuquerque |
coronado sp, first class home at night for almost a week. | ||
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| another cemetery, santa fe [nm]. me not in the jolliest of moods it seems, those very days | gas station on trip albuquerque> santa fe> taos> los alamos> bandelier and back | near albuquerque. no idea what this is. looking mean, probably not cattle's idea of a garden of eden, exactly.. | ||
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| back to coronado state park for the night. stray cat.. |
...fed.. | ..on brave night watch in exchange | ||
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| by chance right in time for the big annual albuquerque balloon fiesta | balloon fiesta | i25 rest area, a 60 mls south of albuquerque, on the way
to white sands and carlsbad |
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| talking snakes: so this one lost the fight! well, picture
shot much later on. and to be honest: specimen probably been cold dead already.
now come anyone to tell me that *wasn't* even a rattlesnake! |
sp located near alamogordo [nm] | in the hills east of alamogordo, near sunspot observatory | ||
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| obviously me doing road only too long by now: seeing things. carlsbad caverns [nm] | southbound: a roadside rest area somewhere along river road, approaching big bend np [tx]. as with many places like this: nicely set to fit the surroundings | hw leading deeper into big bend np, rio grande. - big
bend national park home, to my opinion the richest individual nps
site |
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| this was shot at the so called "contrabando movie set" | cemetery belongs to a small big bend settlement, terlingua | too small for ice bear tracks, not alaska anyway: dryed out
portion of river bed at st. elena canyon |
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| in the very heart of big bend np (chisos basin) | reckon i'm in the south here: on the way to del rio [tx] | plenty more ambitious graffiti was on display in metropolitan areas, back then already | ||
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| tent with a view. on private campsite about 35 mls north
of austin [tx]. mosquito net recommended, sure - but them buggers came way
worse a plague en route north to alaska |
austin | mission san jose, san antonio [tx] | ||
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| mission san jose | [tx] south of san antonio | farm land south of san antonio |
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| rio grande sunset near town of mission [tx]. across the river
is mexico |
small village between corpus christi and houston [tx]. no time to spare for the nabukov museum, though.. | texana lake state park. all journey long those nf/np/sp camps
were top choice for the night: roomy as can be as a rule. nothing like this
anywhere in germany & all over europe. often free (no additional services,
still in general nice location to stay and build a campfire), or priced
in the range of $5 and even less to $12 then. could afford this |
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| palacios, in a south eastern [tx] bay area | palacios | around palacios. strange laws down here in southern [tx]!
hit the road in a hurry.. |
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| downtown houston [tx]. one of only a few big cities visited.
mostly just passed them by. everything at the proper time: city life simply
regarded off topic on *this* journey |
once tall is now small. inner houston, streetcar thing not implemented yet. - pretty much enjoyed city of houston - in fact the whole great state of texas | bayou scenery at sam houston state park, near lake charles [la] | ||
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| 'kinder' spells 'children' in german - that's why this caught
my eyes - at town of kinder [la] |
[la] along gulf of mexico, southeast of lake charles | taken during some off i55 north cruising in [ms], approaching lexington | ||
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| off i55, in charming rural mississippi | lexington [ms] - that fragile chaotic wiring (at least to
my ignorant eyes so) all over north america makes wonder: does anything
work, *can* there? probably not - suppose that's why cell phone had to be
invented.. ;-) |
one really entertaining afternoon, strolling laumeier sculpture park, st. louis [mo] | ||
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| laumeier sculpture park | time left for cruising: here's at dutzow, near st. louis | more attractive [mo] fall foliage to please grandma at home |
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| last night quarters in america were provided
me by bmw motorrad of st. louis. just adjacent to, with view out over dealership's
backyard. (by now the new bikes are sold by an all new shop along, it seems:
different naming, location, managment) |
odometer at rest | to fill this final row: scan off t-shirt received as a gift in tucson [az], when 30.000 ml service was performed | ||
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