A Colorado State of Mind - Sisko's Summer Experience
Covid-19 is probably the last thing anyone wants to read about at this point but it affected all of us. We’re lucky to be insulated from most of the effects, so please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not complaining about our situation, but Covid did cancel our 2020 plans.
The original plan was to take a trip up the west coast but as Covid became a more pressing issue, we’d been cancelled on for reservations we had made for our summer. Honestly, it’s disappointing but not the worst thing that could have happened.
When it came down to figure out what we were going to do with our summer, the answer didn’t take too long to formulate: Colorado is probably the best we’re gonna get for availability while still maintaining a reach to civilization. Wyoming seems lovely but internet connectivity there is unproven at best and Montana is a great place to spend your last dollars trying to keep campgrounds.
We went back to Colorado and Colorado welcomed us with open arms. It’s been pretty fascinating to watch Colorado react to Covid. A population like most, Colorado is pretty conservative in the rural parts we were staying in, and fairly liberal in the cities. We’d already met hostility in Arizona and Nevada over our insistence in wearing masks in public, so we were well prepared for the same resistance to consideration for others. And we received it. Actually, mostly I received it. Jakki had begun staying away from shopping trips back in Nevada.
It’s been interesting to watch, however, as Colorado has started to turn and people are more and more willing to wear masks. I wasn’t being accused of being a fascist in Walmarts anymore and the strange looks we were getting when we visited Pagosa Springs were replaced by people going on with their days by the time we reached Walsenburg.
Covid has asked of us one thing: Can you be considerate of others?
The answer is slowly turning to Yes in Colorado. And while it’s not as fast as I’d have liked, I’m thankful to have been there and not… Texas.
Despite some hard travel and some hard lessons from the last few months, we emerged from the mountains mostly unscathed. We pretty narrowly avoided Colorado’s largest wildfire but not its effects. And we continued to get lucky, visiting areas before they were closed down for one reason or another. The Solar Power system that I MacGuyver’d together is running. We have a leak somewhere in our water system. We actually ran out of power steering fluid. We’re leaking hydraulic fluid from our jack stands. Our parking brake does not work. But I love Sunbadges as I would love an airship. I feel like Setzer in Final Fantasy VI and Sunbadges is my Blackjack.
The Defiant herself purrs like a kitten… now that I’ve cleaned out her air filter. (Our incident in Arizona definitely left some scars on all of us. I’m still cleaning caked dirt out of nooks and crannies when I get around to maintenance there.) As a motorcycle is our only real transportation, it’s been important that I become a more skilled rider in every sense. And because it’s been our only transportation, I’ve been forced to acquire that skill. And I’m unendingly thankful.
Thanks to those experiences, I’ve been unable to do things I never would have attempted before.
We rode Independence Pass. In the rain. We rode the Highway of Legends. I did a marathon 10 hours of riding to Steamboat Springs and back from South Fork and rode to Ouray shortly thereafter.
We rode the Million Dollar Highway.
We rode Skyline Drive.
We… are still working on the best way to mount that 360 camera or I’d have more rides to share with you.
But Skyline is a particular victory for me. We had just gotten the Defiant in Denver a year ago and I still wasn’t completely comfortable with all of the power now available to the throttle. The weight distribution was so much different from the cruiser (who I affectionately called “Ganges”) and I could barely stop without almost toppling over. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the balance of this bike. It would have been easy to get hurt.
Colorado also saw us pick up our first drone and I’m currently working on getting a Drone Pilot’s License. But it changes the way you think of what you’re seeing. It helps you to remember that there’s more to appreciate than just your perspective.
From the perspective of what we had planned to do, 2020 was a wash. We were going to see new territories, foreign to both of us. Meet new people. Meet people we’ve known thanks to our experiences on Twitch. And that’s all pushed back to 2021. Maybe later.
But 2020 also got us to stop and take a look around. See incredible things. Fall off a trail. Hit my head. Learn twisty canyon roads until I could ride them in my sleep. Like the wildfires, Covid has ruined a lot for a lot of people. It seems like 2020 is an unending ride full of new disasters at every turn.
While you can respect that legitimate tragedies are occurring, the ash from those fires colored the moon orange. While you can empathize for the people who have lost a lot, it’s not a bad thing to step back and appreciate what you’re seeing. Make the best of what you have.
So here is a once-in-a-lifetime photo of the moon setting behind clouds at 2AM over the Great Dunes National Park, colored by the atmospheric ash from Colorado’s largest wildfire. Beauty from the ashes.