The Colorado General Assembly is in Session
Hello
Motorcycle
Enthusiasts,
Last
month,
I
mentioned the 62,000
mile road trip my wife
and I took, below is a
picture of our “ride”.
Since this was the late 1970’s things were a bit different and
we were embarking on a “who-knows-how-long” road trip; our
daily mantra was, “the less we spend today, the longer we can
travel”!
There were a number of things that were quite different at
that time. Firstly, there were about 1/3 less people in the USA
then. It was also conceivable to just pull off onto a dirt road in
a rural area, out of sight of passing traffic and just camp for the
night. We probably did this about 95% of the time on our trip,
which was the reason we were able to travel for so long.
One night we were in rural Georgia, camped in the woods
off a dirt road underneath some power lines. Anyone who has
traveled for an extended period of time knows that occasionally
you will encounter some bad weather that you cannot escape.
This particular night, a horrendous thunderstorm roared
through. Our little pup tent just could not withstand the storm.
The storm saturated the ground, and even with rocks placed
on top of the tent pegs, the tent just would not stay up. In
desperation, we decided to seek shelter somewhere else.
We noticed there were some cabins next to a lake we passed
about a mile down the dirt road, so we grabbed our sleeping
bag and headed in that direction. The first house we came
upon had a nice screened-in porch, so we knocked on the
door. A middle-aged couple answered the door. We explained
our situation and asked if we could seek shelter on the floor
of their porch. After much trepidation and asking to see some
identification, they declined, saying they were too scared and
probably would not be able to sleep with strangers on their
porch. “But if you’re around in the morning, please stop in for
breakfast”, they added. The second house was answered
by a very elderly lady, so we didn’t even try to explain our
situation. The third place was a mobile home and our knock
was answered by a younger woman and about 5 or 6 kids.
After hearing our dilemma, she said she didn’t have any room,
BUT there was a boat ramp with some small restrooms being
constructed nearby down by the lake. We found the shelter,
which wasn’t really big enough to stretch out in, but managed to
escape the weather on the cement floor next to the commode.
Being a new and unused restroom, we could stand the smell
and managed a few hours of dry rest (I’m not sure either of us
really slept that night).
Of course, the next morning we went back to the couple who
offered us breakfast and over a much-appreciated breakfast of
eggs, bacon & toast, we told them where we ended up trying
to sleep that night and they mentioned that they really didn’t
get much sleep either as they were worried about us! To top it
all off, they said their daughter and son-in-law traveled around
on his Harley and wondered if they encountered any situations
6 Thunder Roads Magazine® Colorado
similar to ours! We then hiked back to our “camp” to see how
our tent and bike survived the storm.
The Second Session of the Colorado 70th General Assembly
opened on Wednesday, January 13, 2016 with impressive
speeches given by the President of the Senate, Senator Bill
Cadman and Senate Minority Leader, Senator Lucia Guzman.
The speeches can be read in their entirety in the Senate
journals on the General Assembly web site (www.leg.state.
co.us).m I have
Senator Cadman first talked about the “Oath of Office” and
what it means to him. He then mentioned visiting Gettysburg
and the feelings he encountered at the battle site. The Senator
stated, “The soldiers who died there were not fighting for kings,
or for land, or personal possessions… they were fighting for
each other. They were fighting for the first place on earth
where the man matters more than the state” Senator Cadman,
quoting Union Army Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain, said.
“He told his soldiers, ‘We are an army going out to set other
men free—not for Kings, or land or personal possessions’”.
True freedom really hit home with Senator Cadman on that
visit to Gettysburg. Having visited the battlefield myself a
couple of times, I know the feeling.
Val and I rode through the battlefield on our bikes in 2002;
stopping to read some of the more than two-thousand
memorials, an unbelievable, surreal feeling surrounded us as
we learned about these three most bloody days in our nation
history. If you’re ever in the area, I strongly encourage a visit
to Gettysburg. I am going to remember Senator Cadman’s
expression about fighting for our freedoms the next time I
need to testify on a bill threatening to take away our freedom
to ride the way we want to.
Senator Cadman went on to quote President Kennedy, “Let
us not seek the Republican answer or the Democrat answer,
but the correct answer.” He then mentioned a few areas where
“we didn’t seek Republican or Democrat solutions and instead
sought the best solutions and we succeeded” Such topics as,
public school issues and police reform. Obviously, his motive
February 2016
www.thunderroadscolorado.com