The Ranch Life Today was our last day at Red River Ranch. We will all roll out of here literally heading off to all the compass points some time tomorrow morning. Some may leave before breakfast if they are trying to get home in one day. That would be Mark & Jeanne, who are heading due south 557 miles to Phoenix. That’s a long day on a bike, but at least it’s a Harley dresser.…
Burning Up the Burr Trail Yesterday, riding buddy Steve had a head of steam to do the Burr Trail from Boulder down to Bullfrog Landing on Lake Powell. Actually, Bullfrog Landing USED to be on Lake Powell and now its on some small broadening of the Colorado River in Glen Canyon that used to be Lake Powell. Lake Powell was formed in 1972 by the Federal government deciding that they needed to dam the Colorado…
Open Range As you all know, I chose to call my blog The Old Lone Ranger when I launched it in 2019. The reference is not so hard to figure out. Most men of my age probably watched a lot of TV cowboys, and few titillated us more than The Lone Ranger. There was both an air of mystery about him and a strong sense of righteousness. He was open-minded enough to have a Native…
The Gang’s Almost All Here This is our first real gathering since COVID. Twenty-three of us on a motorcycle ride in Southern Utah have come together for five nights in a classic Western Lodge set on a lazy river with Cottonwood trees and a large pasture in front with a small herd of American Bison. This lodge has fifteen rooms, a large three-story Great Room and a good-sized dining room with an old model railroad…
A Trip Through the Cathedral Zion. It is a word and a concept all at once. As a word it can mean Cathedral or Temple, but then again, also desert or river. Like the term Ithaca to the Greeks of Homer, Zion can mean the holy City of David to the Israelites. To me, Zion will always be the holiest of places where God, as I know him, shows himself in the canyons of Southern…
Pride of Ownership For a long time I have pondered the lease versus buy decision involved in home ownership. I have owned many homes, both primary and secondary. For a long time I have said to anyone who would listen, that multiple home ownership is a false idol and should not be coveted. I found myself saying that again today about the ownership of a pied-à-terre. I like to do the math for people to…
The Gift that Keeps on Giving I wrote a story almost two years ago about my saga of trying to get Mercedes Benz Escondido to install a trailer hitch on my new GLS 450, as they had promised they could and would when I bought (actually leased) the car. The outcome of that story involved MB Escondido splitting the outrageous $3,600 cost to install what is a $575 factory option. Today is the first time…
Trailer Travails Today I am getting ready for our one-year-postponed 25th Anniversary gathering of my motorcycle club. The plan is that on Friday we will drive with our friends Chris and Ann (and, of course, Betty) to Las Vegas with our motorcycles (actually, both of the bikes are mine since Chris will ride my Kawasaki and I will ride my BMW) in my motorcycle trailer. We will unload the bikes in Las Vegas and then…
One More Go It’s Saturday night and we have nothing on. I drove son Thomas to the airport this morning for his return to NYC after a wonderful week with him here. I’m a little sad to see him go, but I am a big believer in the concept that birds gotta fly and at 26, Thomas is out of the nest and winging his way into his life. In fact, as I look at…
Laborers One should never be too old or too set in one’s ways so as not to be open to learning and improving oneself. When I wrote my story yesterday and mentioned that I would be hiring a pair of Mexican laborers, a term I view as only descriptive and not in any way derogatory. Being half Venezuelan and often being mistaken by marketers as having a Hispanic surname, it would be hard for me…