Sunday: Riding back in a storm

Sunday morning, I met my friend DaveC for breakfast in Fort Collins. It is always great to see him. We had a great breakfast and then I took off for Steamboat Springs via Walden. It was a spectacular day when I left and the weather was actually pretty great the entire way.

This is the movie that the Insta360 automatically made (supposedly with AI) while it was charging. I don't know if I like it or not. But since all I had to do is plug it in and wait 7 hours, I guess it is worth my effort at least. The music is bad. The shot selections don't make sense. It is too short. But I had to do absolutely nothing to get it.

I had never been up Highway 14 (Poudre Canyon) and it is a great road.

I had never been from Walden to Rabbit Ears pass, another great road.

I have been down Highway 40 to Steamboat, but it was a super clear day.

Heading west from Steamboat Springs I thought about spending the night in Craig, but it looked like I would get home at 6:00 pm, with an hour of daylight to spare. So I kept going.

There was a light rain from Craig to Maybell and water got into the crotch of my new, very expensive riding pants and you-know-what were wet. Not a big deal, but for what I paid they should be waterproof for more than a month. (Perhaps more on this later.)

I could see there was a huge storm in the distance, but somehow I threaded the needle and ended up just north of the storm and reached the dirt, 4 miles before my house just as it stopped pouring.

I have never ridden on that sloppy of a dirt road, but it was only 4 miles and I made it home without falling.

It was really, really windy so I rushed to get the keys and open the garage door so I could get the bike out of the incoming rain and wind (it was the kind of wind where the motorcycle might blow over.

And…

As I opened the garage door, I turned around and noticed that my 500 gallon gas tank was on the ground. This is the video from my security camera. Disaster strikes seven seconds into the video.

I always told Fernando Dos that it was just as windy where I live as on the coast road of Tierra del Fuego.

The tank was secured to the stand with a strap (which broke), but there was only 10 gallons in the tank when it blew over. In the past I have tied it down and I need to do that in the future also.

Oh boy.

56 MPH is 90 KPH.

It really can be windy here sometimes.

At the same time my CORS stations collapsed. (Watch until 32 seconds).

These tripods have been up since the 2nd week of Covid and the wind has blown plenty of times.

Oh well, this is a project for Future Mark.