jasper national park isn't a place that you can really take a picture of. imagine a range of sharp snow-covered mountains on either side of a valley:



this picture doesn't do it justice. there's a really cool section where it looks like a flat sheet of rock just got bent up into a 40 degree angle. i can't imagine how cool it must look to climb up to the corner... i hope to know someday:



went to denver and got a little upside-down with the cousins:




joshua saved us from viewing a moment of marital bliss:


the way back to texas was flat and i went kind of fast:


alice in the toot and totum has a son in kansas and made me promise to stop by when i came through amarillo again:


caught some rain on the flat, wide, straight road back to austin:


so i drove straight through two full tanks of gas on the way back, made it to cisco and the hwy 183 turnoff and didn't want it to be over. there was a dirt road headed south one turn before 183 and i figured i couldn't possibly get lost when i knew i was just west of the highway. the grass was green, the hay was bailed, and the cows were happy:

(picture to come)

this farm implement looked cool:


a (formerly) private moment between dolores and i:


i took these at a closed gas station, and a neighbor drove by soon after to make sure i wasn't messing with anything. i called these people to see if they needed any help, and they said they were all set. i don't know why you'd bother to get married unless you were driving away in an old enough vehicle that this might happen:

Am safely home in Austin. Will put the rest of the pictures and such up shortly.

left anchorage to find that dolores is about the same size as denali:



i thought i was about 120 miles from denali when i took this and that the mountain would be clouded over. imagine my surprise when i realized it wasn't a cloud in the distance. i nearly dropped the motorcycle stopping and getting down and jumping around.

i rode as far into the park as one can without getting on a bus, then did yet another gravelly side road up the hill. i dig those side roads:



went to fairbanks and saw beth from the peace corps. she is in an administrative position with americorps, and i really enjoyed the reindeer sausage and conversation with her. dolores hates bimbos, but she loved beth:



you have to be a pretty hardcore non-tourist not to take this picture:



how did the roof burn and structure get all messed up, but the pumps are fine?



no pictures for a while. i was tired from a long night with the mosquitoes, it was raining a lot, and i didn't feel any good. i "only" made the continental divide about 100 clicks before watson lake. it was one of the neatest things that happened -- i ended up in a bar with 4 of the 13 people who live in a 250 square mile area year round. there were bear stories, dirty jokes, really good dogs (one puppy would play freakin' volleyball with her owner -- hitting the ball back to him like she'd seen the people do when they played. i saw some glinty eyes when they talked about how good of a dog she was), people who mutually worried to me privately about each others' drinking, and a strong sense of community.

community is what it's all about. i was ready to stay there for a while and worry about the consequences later, and made plans to help dale put some timbers up to support his new porch at his cabin. the next day it was raining hard and didn't look like it was going to stop, so i moved on with a real appreciation for the place.

i went towards champagne, looking for a nap. got to town and it was dead quiet, like being the stranger in an old western. some guy has a bunch of hubcap totem poles. note the "not for sale" sign. it was neat, and i hung around for a little while hoping that some little kid would appear, smiling.



none did, and i went up this hill for a nap. in texas, there would be a locked gate. here, it was just this sign. you could, of course, see forever and have fun in deep sand on top of the hill:



there are some wildlife preserves along the roads. i rode my motorcycle through a herd of BUFFALO. buffalo are big and have big horns and they make it look easy. i couldn't dig the camera out quickly, i thought there'd be more, i wanted to get down the road, and i didn't get a picture. i won't ever forget it.

i did get lots of unspectacular pictures of animals in the preserve--i didn't really have the focal length for good wildlife pictures (not the first time i've come up short). these sheep were right by the road, and smelled like they could use a bath (they thought the same about me):



i took lots of side roads and looked from lots of hills, and this was the best one. it helped that i was about to ride into the storm on the left, so i 'had plenty of time' to relax. i'd click on this one to see the big version the forest goes on forever and the sky was just perfect. it was my first try at panorama mode and it isn't perfect:



the road was messy, with some deep ruts and some big loose rocks. if i'd had a bash guard it would have saved my engine from an unavoidable tap. i was scared, but took it easy and stayed calm until the bottom, where i was pumped:



i was excited when my trip odometer got ready to flip over 10k miles. i watched it go to 9999.9 and it paused for a couple seconds. it flipped and i snapped this:



this isn't a good picture. jasper national park if phenomenal