Re: Travels with Stella!: Occupy New Mexico & a little Az.
Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:38 pm
For those of you who have not yet reached that pina colada, I mean pinnacle, of the human experience, let me share.
When your bloodline becomes of a certain age, there are many things in which we all dip our beaks to drink of the human experience.
One of those is having grand daughters young enough to be still babies in the grand scheme, but old enough to be MICE in The Nutcracker. My two oldest have reached that. Though I insisted to them and they vehemently denied that I smelled a rat, they still wore the mantle of rodent in the seasonal ballet. Living in different parts of town and having moms that worked different schedules mean that there were TWO Nutcrackers to deal with, so for the past two weekends I have been on Nutcracker duty.
Mariella arm outstretched
It has been hectic and fun, but I know now that Pete Tchaikovsky, a grim man
was decidedly tongue in cheek when naming his ballet, knowing full well the pain that countless dads and grand dads would endure for ages to come, attending.
No, I exaggerate, it is beautiful and there is a swell of pride and timelessness seeing your daughter watch her daughter in a role she performed, that is timeless and has been repeated for well over a century, generation after generation, and will for years to come.
But, damn, all that takes time...time that could be spent finishing a ride report, right?
So, back at it before something else, like a urology appointment back burners it.
First, last time I had left Chloride and visited Bosque del Apache
and was now heading west on a cold clear New Mexico Sunday morning.
Heading out US 60 I see it coming. The last time I was in this neighborhood was about a dozen years ago driving back from a meeting in Phoenix. I had just seen "what she could do" and was slowing down and to my right, unexpectedly it was suddenly there. The VLA...The Very Large Array Radio Telescope
"The Very Large Array, one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter."
ON those plains they are the only thing around. They are far enough away that they look small, but they are not.
an iPhone video
http://vimeo.com/33945207
If you enlarge this, on the antenna second from the left, Jodie Foster is doing a "round the world" with a Duncan yo-yo as Jake Busey "walks the dog." I thought Jake was Gary's brother and could only imagine under the tree at Christmas in the Busey household, but, turns out Jake is Gary's son and that is unfathomable to consider.
It was after this that the brake light went on whenever I applied the brakes. Although Stella! performed just fine, the light was troubling and bummed the rest of the ride. It stopped me from visiting Magdalena on the way back. It stopped me from having pie in Pie Town, how can you eat pie when your steed is telling you the brakes could be faulty and you're two thousand miles from home, as a drunken crow would fly. Now I had to plan the rest of the trip around the brake light.
I checked the usual suspects, like bulbs, and fluid levels and they looked ok, but a trip to a dealer was in order, as well as less "spirited" riding.
I still did the ride I wanted to do that day, but did so watching the the light, feeling no decrease in braking and listening to the Saints lose to St Louis...ugh. I lost my appetite for pie.
Pie Town does exist. It is not a hallucination. It consists of a few buildings spread like buckshot along a mile or so of US 60. As best as I could tell there were two pie shops, the more westerly had more cars, but, you know, that probably means nothing about the quality of the pies in these two confectionary establishments. It could be that Sal and Judy were riding along on their way to points west and discussed should they stop, not reaching a decision passing the more easterly shop, and coming to the inevitable, for them, conclusion by the second shop. Yeah, Judy, I want some pie. Me, too, Sal.
And my brake light was on, otherwise I, breaking with Sal and Judy, would have gone to the other place and had the, hell, I don't know. I wasn't there! I was watching my damn brake light and thinking do I want to go to Santa Fe or Albuquerque (Santa Fe) and is she behaving ok, Yes, and what if there is really something wrong...86k miles, 56 parsecs from home. I might have to trade her in. The things that run through your mind when exposed to Pie Town with no appetite and a girl that may be acting up. And why are motorcycle shops closed on Monday. No answers coming my way from my brain or from the ether
Come on, man!
I post my situation on this board.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24082&hilit=brake+light
I get back to Socorro and check her out again, now dusk, no way for the Capitol Bar tonight
The next am, Monday, now lots of light and I check her over again. I pull the cap off of the rear reservoir, is it a little low? maybe?
I stay in sections of town where it is very common to have a NAPA across the street. I avoid the O'Reilly parts of town. I do have standards.
NAPA: Dot 4 and a funnel, 7 bucks.
I put a few ccs in the reservoir, close her up and the light never comes on again, but I do not trust my diagnosis, nor my treatment, as I await the worst, but in truth feeling better with each passing light free mile.
Sandia BMW is a combined motorcycle and car dealership. Of course, the automobile side is wide open for business on this beautiful Monday afternoon, so having checked out location, I decide to stay close, a couple of blocks away and set up a time to bring in Stella! and get a rec for dinner, the aforementioned Horseman's Haven with their green chili cheeseburgers (no pictures of food).
When life gives you lemons, make chicken salad, or maybe I have that somehow screwed up, but I am in one of my favorite cities, Santa Fe, and while Stella! gets attention and I await the phone call from Greg, Thanks Greg and all you guys at Sandia, I visit.
Santa Fe is a great city and has what I have decided I think important in a city: history, food, music, culture.
Santa Fe's got that and more.
It's a very pretty city, easy to get around, a concentrated downtown area and a real nice feel, a vibe that is at once cool, but welcoming and comfortable, it could be pretentious if it wanted to be, but it doesn't. It is the kind of city, I think, where "airs" are unimportant, just be yourself, no one to perform for, or standard to meet. Behave and it will behave back.
It is an adult place, but not in any sense other than it has adult tastes, though with the green green square, children can run around and make noise and climb on the bandstand and be children. And that's cool. It is the kind of place where art shops and native crafts flow into the street, but there is not a huckster in sight and tourists do not wear "I'm with Stupid -->" T shirts.
Red chilis abound, but this is New Mexico and they look in place, and in truth the red is such a rich color that it matches and warms even more the golden adobe walls.
It is a city for the eye and the ear and taste. In a sense it is much like New Orleans, but where New Orleans is Catholic and French and creole ( and that is a real gumbo of a term ), Santa Fe is Catholic Spanish and Native American and forms its own gumbo. There is a unique comfort to a city that is hundreds of years old.
I like it tons.
I take the bus downtown
no idea what this is, but my first thought was "get a room."
so good
so good
I get the call back from Greg. Stella! lives to ride another day. They could not find anything wrong with the brakes or ABS. (They continue to perform fine).
We replace the rear pads as they were getting thin. They have trouble believing that a minimally low fluid level on the rear triggered the warning. I get a new PR3 for the rear, New sidestand switch, new clutch switch, and a general going over and by Wednesday afternoon I am on my way out of Santa Fe and heading for a couple of ruins and beyond.
more to come
When your bloodline becomes of a certain age, there are many things in which we all dip our beaks to drink of the human experience.
One of those is having grand daughters young enough to be still babies in the grand scheme, but old enough to be MICE in The Nutcracker. My two oldest have reached that. Though I insisted to them and they vehemently denied that I smelled a rat, they still wore the mantle of rodent in the seasonal ballet. Living in different parts of town and having moms that worked different schedules mean that there were TWO Nutcrackers to deal with, so for the past two weekends I have been on Nutcracker duty.
Mariella arm outstretched
It has been hectic and fun, but I know now that Pete Tchaikovsky, a grim man
was decidedly tongue in cheek when naming his ballet, knowing full well the pain that countless dads and grand dads would endure for ages to come, attending.
No, I exaggerate, it is beautiful and there is a swell of pride and timelessness seeing your daughter watch her daughter in a role she performed, that is timeless and has been repeated for well over a century, generation after generation, and will for years to come.
But, damn, all that takes time...time that could be spent finishing a ride report, right?
So, back at it before something else, like a urology appointment back burners it.
First, last time I had left Chloride and visited Bosque del Apache
and was now heading west on a cold clear New Mexico Sunday morning.
Heading out US 60 I see it coming. The last time I was in this neighborhood was about a dozen years ago driving back from a meeting in Phoenix. I had just seen "what she could do" and was slowing down and to my right, unexpectedly it was suddenly there. The VLA...The Very Large Array Radio Telescope
"The Very Large Array, one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter."
ON those plains they are the only thing around. They are far enough away that they look small, but they are not.
an iPhone video
http://vimeo.com/33945207
If you enlarge this, on the antenna second from the left, Jodie Foster is doing a "round the world" with a Duncan yo-yo as Jake Busey "walks the dog." I thought Jake was Gary's brother and could only imagine under the tree at Christmas in the Busey household, but, turns out Jake is Gary's son and that is unfathomable to consider.
It was after this that the brake light went on whenever I applied the brakes. Although Stella! performed just fine, the light was troubling and bummed the rest of the ride. It stopped me from visiting Magdalena on the way back. It stopped me from having pie in Pie Town, how can you eat pie when your steed is telling you the brakes could be faulty and you're two thousand miles from home, as a drunken crow would fly. Now I had to plan the rest of the trip around the brake light.
I checked the usual suspects, like bulbs, and fluid levels and they looked ok, but a trip to a dealer was in order, as well as less "spirited" riding.
I still did the ride I wanted to do that day, but did so watching the the light, feeling no decrease in braking and listening to the Saints lose to St Louis...ugh. I lost my appetite for pie.
Pie Town does exist. It is not a hallucination. It consists of a few buildings spread like buckshot along a mile or so of US 60. As best as I could tell there were two pie shops, the more westerly had more cars, but, you know, that probably means nothing about the quality of the pies in these two confectionary establishments. It could be that Sal and Judy were riding along on their way to points west and discussed should they stop, not reaching a decision passing the more easterly shop, and coming to the inevitable, for them, conclusion by the second shop. Yeah, Judy, I want some pie. Me, too, Sal.
And my brake light was on, otherwise I, breaking with Sal and Judy, would have gone to the other place and had the, hell, I don't know. I wasn't there! I was watching my damn brake light and thinking do I want to go to Santa Fe or Albuquerque (Santa Fe) and is she behaving ok, Yes, and what if there is really something wrong...86k miles, 56 parsecs from home. I might have to trade her in. The things that run through your mind when exposed to Pie Town with no appetite and a girl that may be acting up. And why are motorcycle shops closed on Monday. No answers coming my way from my brain or from the ether
Come on, man!
I post my situation on this board.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24082&hilit=brake+light
I get back to Socorro and check her out again, now dusk, no way for the Capitol Bar tonight
The next am, Monday, now lots of light and I check her over again. I pull the cap off of the rear reservoir, is it a little low? maybe?
I stay in sections of town where it is very common to have a NAPA across the street. I avoid the O'Reilly parts of town. I do have standards.
NAPA: Dot 4 and a funnel, 7 bucks.
I put a few ccs in the reservoir, close her up and the light never comes on again, but I do not trust my diagnosis, nor my treatment, as I await the worst, but in truth feeling better with each passing light free mile.
Sandia BMW is a combined motorcycle and car dealership. Of course, the automobile side is wide open for business on this beautiful Monday afternoon, so having checked out location, I decide to stay close, a couple of blocks away and set up a time to bring in Stella! and get a rec for dinner, the aforementioned Horseman's Haven with their green chili cheeseburgers (no pictures of food).
When life gives you lemons, make chicken salad, or maybe I have that somehow screwed up, but I am in one of my favorite cities, Santa Fe, and while Stella! gets attention and I await the phone call from Greg, Thanks Greg and all you guys at Sandia, I visit.
Santa Fe is a great city and has what I have decided I think important in a city: history, food, music, culture.
Santa Fe's got that and more.
It's a very pretty city, easy to get around, a concentrated downtown area and a real nice feel, a vibe that is at once cool, but welcoming and comfortable, it could be pretentious if it wanted to be, but it doesn't. It is the kind of city, I think, where "airs" are unimportant, just be yourself, no one to perform for, or standard to meet. Behave and it will behave back.
It is an adult place, but not in any sense other than it has adult tastes, though with the green green square, children can run around and make noise and climb on the bandstand and be children. And that's cool. It is the kind of place where art shops and native crafts flow into the street, but there is not a huckster in sight and tourists do not wear "I'm with Stupid -->" T shirts.
Red chilis abound, but this is New Mexico and they look in place, and in truth the red is such a rich color that it matches and warms even more the golden adobe walls.
It is a city for the eye and the ear and taste. In a sense it is much like New Orleans, but where New Orleans is Catholic and French and creole ( and that is a real gumbo of a term ), Santa Fe is Catholic Spanish and Native American and forms its own gumbo. There is a unique comfort to a city that is hundreds of years old.
I like it tons.
I take the bus downtown
no idea what this is, but my first thought was "get a room."
so good
so good
I get the call back from Greg. Stella! lives to ride another day. They could not find anything wrong with the brakes or ABS. (They continue to perform fine).
We replace the rear pads as they were getting thin. They have trouble believing that a minimally low fluid level on the rear triggered the warning. I get a new PR3 for the rear, New sidestand switch, new clutch switch, and a general going over and by Wednesday afternoon I am on my way out of Santa Fe and heading for a couple of ruins and beyond.
more to come