I'm not thinking about anything in particular today. In fact, this week I've had a lot of time to think about many different things.

For one thing. If I lived in Boulder, Colorado, I would likely give up biking. It's not that so many girls on bikes passed me, although that happened. It's more that there are so many bikers. Hundreds of them. Everywhere. And most of the guys are wearing spandex shorts. That match there jersey. Bright orange, red, purple, yellow and any other color you can think of.

In Wyoming I saw a ridge with several hundred of those big three bladed windmills. On the back side of the ridge there were several rows of windmills. My thought: Wow, some salesman really made out on that deal. How sick is that?

I mentioned the windmills to some folks in Denver. They told me that you could choose to have wind-generated power delivered to your home. It helps the environment. It's also much more expensive. Too bad.

Driving I-70 is fun. But is it my imagination or is there about 150 miles of downhill from the pass above Vail to just east of Rifle? That would be a fun bike ride east to west. But the west to east trip? No thanks.

John Gierach is a writer and a fly-fisherman who lives in Lyons, Colorado. I've read a bunch of his stuff and have always wondered if was true or made up. I found out this week that Lyons is just 12 miles north of Boulder. So Wednesday morning I road my bike to Lyons. It's just a small town.

I wandered up and down the main street. On the first pass I noticed a guy sitting on the front stoop of a store. He had a graying beard, a pony-tail and fly-fishing was featured on the sign above the door. So I stopped to talk.

Turns out that this was Mike Clark. Mike makes bamboo fly rods. Gierach writes about Mike. Turns out he's real.

And he sells fly rods for a lot of money. $1850 for an 8 foot five weight with two tips. But don't worry. All he requires to place an order is a non-refundable $200 deposit. Then you have 3 1/2 years to save up. Yep, that's how long it's going to take before Mike will build your custom rod.

Mike told me that he is cooped up in his workshop all winter, so when April rolls around he and his employees take off two days a week just to fish. Where do I get a job like that? And it's probably a tax write-off. That's one reason it takes over three years to get a rod.

Mike's prices go up after the first of the year. Get your orders in early.

Hauling a bike around will get you noticed. I stopped at a Wendy's in Grand Junction Wednesday night and parked next to a truck sporting two mountain bikes. On my way out the owner of the bikes strolled over and asked about my bike. He had a lot of opinions about both mountain and road bikes. We spent a few minutes in conversation. I finally said good-bye and got back on the road. If I hadn't made the move I'm sure we could have talked for hours.

Lance Armstrong seems to be off to a good start. No one has ever won 6. History is against him. Go Lance............
10:50:59 PM    comment []