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My trip to and from SumSum2


Lee 2002

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My trip to Summer Summit 2 started out on Monday morning at 8:00am. I needed to get to Denver Colorado by at least 7:00pm to get to the Iron Maiden concert at Fidler's Green.

I guess I was in a hurry to get there.... or my Wife isn't the best photographer in the world.....

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Kansas is a wide state and contrary to popular belief, there is actually quite a bit to see as you cross the state... If you plan ahead and know where to look.

I was even able to find a US Navy F-14 Tomcat in the middle of landlocked WaKeeny Kansas. I have no idea how it got there or why it is there....????

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Of course anyone who has ever driven across the midwest portion of the USA knows that the wind never stops blowing. That makes the midwest prime real estate for wind turbines. They are showing up by the hundreds here. You can't drive down the highway anymore without seeing turbine blades and towers heading somewhere. Sometimes they're headed north, sometimes south, sometimes they pass each other heading east and west.... It really makes no sense to me at all.

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In Goodland Kansas there is the biggest painting I have ever seen... So I took a photo.. I don't know a thing about art but I guess this was painted by some local guy name VanGogh. I've seen plenty of sun flowers in my day (the field around the house I grew up in was once planted in oil sunflowers when I was a kid). This has to be the worst rendition of sunflowers that I've ever seen. I hope this VanGogh guy has some other skill to fall back on. If I were that bad of a painter I'd cut my ear off or something.

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I wanted to let people know where I was going. That way in case I got lost some helpful officer or citizen would be able to point me in the right direction...

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Luckily, my GPS was functioning perfectly.

I got to Denver in time to take the hotel up on the free food and drinks provided with my room booking... I was then able to con a ride to the concert and start enjoying the show.

I'm not the type to get a tattoo... but I'm often interested in what other people fiind fashionable....

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The show was great! This is the fifth time that I've been fortunate enough to see Iron Maiden live. They never fail to give me my money's worth. I'm hopeful for a sixth opportunity to see them in the future.

Their half-dead mascot, Eddie, strolls across the stage as fireworks highlight the song.

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There was a different backdrop curtain for each song,... a really nice touch

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If you're even remotely an Iron Maiden fan you would not regret driving across your home state to see them live.

The next morning I was scheduled to meet Miguel at his house and then he would lead me toward Montrose via a better route than I could have ever found.

I even got to test drive Miguel's new scooter... You can't see it in the video, but I have a smile a mile wide. Too much fun. I hear that Axel7's wife Tammy is really intersted in getting one. She really seemed interested in it.

You can see the video here--- (I think) https://www.facebook...v=4506430818012

Anyway... the scooter is cool and I want one. Here is a photo of Miguel showing it off.

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Miguel set me up with the pair to his Scala bluetooth intercom system... so I got a narrated tour of the route to Montrose. I'm sure the other riders in our group (ldsrider, panamawing, reddog) were entertained by seeing Miguel pointing and gesturing at things all along the route. I think that the intercom system was awesome and I would love to get my own set up.

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We crossed the continental divide at Independence Pass....

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An important part of attending any VFRD meet is food, beer and friends.... Here I got to kill three birds with one stone at the Horsefly Brewery. Horsefly was the official beer of the Summit and we had an opportunity to consume plenty of it.

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The Canadians were allowed across the border. They immediately set up "South Canadia" in the parking lot of the hotel. Here you see (l-r) Didit, KiSpeed (ronimal is seated behind Ki), Clwesel, Maxswell, Hispanic Slammer, Shade and my roomate for the meet Gswanson.

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Didit does an amazing job with the Summer Summit meets. At this meet beer was provided.... yeah, like there is a keg and cups and you drink all you can hold. So .... all those blue cups you see are filled with Horsefly beer and my bike served as a coffee table.... I couldn't have been happier at this point.

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I had the great pleasure of meeting rangemaster and looking over his pristine '97 750. Oh so sweet. He rode in that day just for dinner and had to return to Albuquerque the following morning. What a guy.

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We rode up to Purgatory Mountain. On the way down I joined RedDog and Panamawing as they did some shopping in Silverton. I didn't have any shopping to do so I walked around with my camera.

The Durango & Silverton tourist train. It apparently holds 12,000 people per trip.

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There were a large group of dual sport riders in Silverton. Many of them were from Kansas. I had an opportunity to talk to the very aged rider of the unit in the front of this photo. He told me he was from Wichita, KS and they were getting ready to cross over Black Bear pass. He told me this would be his last crossing. He didn't show any emotion at all but I choked up a little.

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More sights from Silverton.

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Silverton city hall.

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I got the opportunity to ride some really amazing roads. They ranged from 15 mph posted switchbacks to super high speed sweepers. We rode the Black Canyon, "the river section", the Million Dollar Highway, Purgatory Mountain and others that I can't really recall. I know others will post up better photos of those group rides than I was able to get so be sure to check out the other threads.

As I mentioned before, a big portion of any meet is Beer, Friends and food. Didit (and his burnt orange shirted helpers) covered two of the three by providing the beer and some great food on Thursday. BBQ ribs, BBQ chicken, Olathe corn on the cob, baked beans, potato salad, rolls and brownies. There was plenty of food for even the biggest appetite. It actually got pretty quiet at one point with everyone stuffing their faces.

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One of my goals at every meet is to meet some of the faces behind the screen names..... And it seems some people have the same idea because I was also fortunate to be approached by people asking.... "Are you Lee 2002 ?" This is the best part of any meet.

I'm sure there is a setting on my phone to make the photos a non-mirrored imaged. I don't go looking for it....

Axel7 (and his wife Tammy) are the fastest two people you'll ever see on one bike. We hit it off greatly and I thoroughly enjoyed their company all weekend.

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It turns out that Ziavfr lived in Kansas for a period of his youth. He spent many years in the small town next to the small town where my parents grew up. We had so much to talk about and hit it right off. Unfortunately the keg had already been tapped for quite a while by the point we met up.... I hope I didn't babble on too much. I'm eagerly awaiting a copy of his (grand)mother's memoirs of growing up in Kansas.

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Maxswell is a person I was interested in meeting... I knew he was going to be "my type of person" as soon as I saw he was wearing Aerostich's Nuke & Pave t-shirt.... My kind of guy.

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Didit - What can I say other than he's Canadian. No serious here..... I've had a couple of very small meets of my own and I can't even begin to fathom the amount of work this guy put into planning the perfect meet. When you show up at a Summit all you need to bring is your motorcycle and yourself... He provides the clothes you'll wear, the lip balm you need to return home to your wife with soft lips, the water and vitamin juice you drink during you ride, the food you'll eat, the beer you'll drink, and laminated tank bag maps of where you'll be going.

I don't know what I could ever do to thank Didit other than say "thank you" and I'll do everything possible to be wherever the 2015 meet is. Amazing, Amazing, Amazing man.

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Shade and myself. For a little while I had him confused with CVVFR.... but I finally got it straight in my head. I'm sorry if I called you the wrong name at any point.

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On my way back to Kansas I passed through Monarch pass. My new-found confidence from riding behind some great leaders had me bombing corners better than I ever had before. I'm still a guy from Kansas who practices riding on cloverleafs.... but I'm beginning to hold my own thanks to the great leadership from Slammer and RedDog. (My neck is sore, RedDog. I'm a listenin')

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On of the things that was important to me on my return trip was to hit a handful of places to get some shots for the 2013 calendar contest.

The first on my list was Monument Rocks in Gove county western Kansas.

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To get to Monument Rocks I had to drive up 13 miles of sand and then back out on 13 miles of sand. I ridden plenty of gravel in my life, but sand is a new element to me. I thoroughly enjoy this kind of riding.... but I almost dumped my bike on the way in. I survived... but I need a dual sport. I also need to figure out how to tell deep sand from hard packed sand.... they appear exacly the same but one will bury you and the other you can ride at 60mph.

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I quickly figured out that there was not enough daylight for me to accomplish all the sites that I wanted to reach for calendar shots. On my way to the next site after Monument Rocks I ran across this Catholic Church in Liebenthal. I could see the steeple for miles. So my plans changed and I started chasing down church steeples on the advice of some locals who saw me taking photos.

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The Catholic Church in Pfiefer, KS. All these churches were built by german speaking Russian immigrants around the turn of the century.

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This church is called the Cathederal of the Plains in Victoria, KS. It is a huge church for such a very small town.

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So, there you have it.... I got home on an 800+ mile ride in 15 hours including the photo stops you see above. I was able to maintain 90+ mph across eastern CO and western KS. You can really burn up some road at those speeds. The sight lines are such that it is not really a stretch to ride at those speeds. I suppose a jackrabbit could really ruin your day, but I'm a realist and am willing to accept some risk to make some time.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

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  • Member Contributer

Can I post my SumSum2 quotes????

Post those quotes!!!!!!1

Mark

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  • Member Contributer

Awesome post! SW Kansas is the best horse country that I have ever seen; but, your pics of the monoliths is a whole different level of cool. I really enjoyed being around everyone ,even if it was just for an evening.

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Thanks for all the kind words everyone.

SW Kansas is the best horse country that I have ever seen;

Have you seen the native prarie to the east? The Konza Prarie and the Tallgrass Prarie National Preserve represent some of the amazing grassland that made the huge biomass of bison that the plains were historically known for.

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  • Member Contributer

I have ridden through hiway US # 56 which goes the Cimarron Natl. Grassland - stunning horse and bison country. Hope you rocked ,Lee.

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  • Member Contributer

Nice job Lee, wish I could have made this one.

2015 for sure, if I pass the newbie test.

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