How Will We Live Tomorrow? | 48 States * 2 Wheels * 1000 Possibilities | Page 18

Trip Log – Day 336 – Taos NM to Ghost Ranch NM

Posted on October 9, 2016 by paulefallon

October 6, 2016 – Sun, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 73

Miles to Date: 17,472

States to Date: 45

When Google informed me I had 73 miles and a half-mile of vertical rise and fall, it did not convey the beauty of today’s ride. The going was rough, the wind grew strong, but the ride was so beautiful I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Rio Grande Canyon in morning shadow.

Fourteen miles through the Rio Grande Gorge

The Museum of Gas in Rinconada

The best $5 green chile burrito north of the border

Rio Arriba County Road 40

Crossing the Rio Grande

Red Rock cliffs along US 84 north of Abiquiu

La Chama River from the top of the mesa

Ghost Ranch labyrinth at sunset

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged Ghost Ranch NM, Museum of Gas NM, Rio Grande Canyon | 4 Comments

Responses: How will we live tomorrow?

Posted on October 9, 2016 by paulefallon

How will we live tomorrow?

“Maybe our dreams will give us a clue.”

Bryant, seven year old, St. Charles, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Hopefully with a clutch in my car.”

Curtis, broken car owner, O’Fallon, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I am going to get up with a smile on my face and take care of my three-year-old.”

Jessica, waitress at Marley’s who’s had four back operations, two hip replacements, and nine miscarriages, Ferguson, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I think we should life live tomorrow just a little better than today; a little more understanding, a little more compassion, a little more empathy. We as a whole don’t always do that, but imagine if we could.”

Kyle, oil truck dispatcher, Belleville, IL

How will we live tomorrow?

“I hope we live with more thoughtfulness.”

Eric, engineer, St. Charles, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Great.”

Bennett, four-year-old who took the training wheels off his bike, St. Charles, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Tomorrow will be determined by how we live today.”

Christina, mother of three, St. Charles, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I am going to live like today. Better than today.”

Kirk, Coors light drinker, Belleville, IL

How will we live tomorrow?

“I will life tomorrow when it comes.”

Lisa, barbeque aficionado, Belleville, IL

How will we live tomorrow?

“Smarter. We have to have faith in each other. I’m ex-military. We have a brotherhood.”

‘Shorty Italian’, 44 years in a wheelchair, New Florence, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I want to be a scientist.”

Remy Chevalier, eight-year-old, New Harmony IN

How will we live tomorrow?

“Same as today.”

Sandy, Dad’s Junction Cafe, New Florence MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Well, its nice meeting you. Have a safe trip.”

Raymond, Amish farmer, New Florence MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“We will live by continuing to breathe, eat, and drink.”

Don Jewel, Jewel’s Transport (drives Amish), New Florence MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Good.”

Ely, second grader, Columbia MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“To the best of my ability.”

Celeste, patient tutor, Columbia MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“We need water. We are destroying our landscape.”

Karen Moreland, Community of Christ Temple, Independence, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Better than today.”

Travis, Manager of McDonald’s Kansas City, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“We will live in community in the grace of God.”

Deborah, silver-haired grandmother, Kansas City, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“Surviving. That’s all I do day to day.”

Natalie, mother of six-month-old, Cameron, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I will live today in the moment.”

Donna McMillan, nurse, Kansas City, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I wouldn’t even know how to answer that question.”

Cole, insurance agent in blue jeans, Junction City, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“We need more wind and solar. We’ve got a big wind farm here in Lincoln County, but the State of Kansas won’t take the energy. We ship it to Chicago.”

Cindy, jeweled in turquoise, Lincoln, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“Good question. The way we’re going, I wouldn’t even venture a guess.”

Lois, jet-black fashionista, Lincoln, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“You just be safe out there, sweetheart.”

Steph, Pink Heels waitress, Lincoln, KS

Posted in Responses | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 335 – Arroyo Seco NM to Taos NM

Posted on October 8, 2016 by paulefallon

October 5, 2016 – Sun, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 22

Miles to Date: 17,399

States to Date: 45

When I arrived at Taos Pueblo before 10:00 a.m. stocky guys in orange vests were directing cars to dusty parking lots. One hailed me down and demanded I pull my bike on the sidewalk. “How did you come here?” Apparently pedestrians and cyclists are supposed to take a van from the Plaza to avoid the shoulderless roads and barking dogs. I had simply followed a sign with an arrow to ‘Taos Pueblo.” Eventually David stopped barking himself, gave me a place to park my bike and store my bags and when I asked him “How will we live tomorrow?” he extolled the virtues of tradition and a slow life. Then David directed me to the ticket counter, where the woman pushed the Master Card slip for my $16 entry at me. “Hurry up, I have a bus coming in.”

Before I even entered the gate, I witnessed the dichotomy of Taos Pueblo. It is amazing, miraculous really, that people have lived here for over 1,000 years. It is appropriate that it is a National Historic Monument and a World Heritage Site. But it’s horrific that Taos Pueblo is so commercial. Signs everywhere: don’t do this; buy that; give your guide a gratuity. For sixteen bucks you ought to get a half hour tour by someone trained and informed. Instead they tout how tours are given my tribal college students eager for tips. Mine integrated at least three plugs for tips into his spiel. The history of the place is all right; the tone of the place is all wrong. The hucksterism obscures the magic that the tour guides and shopkeepers proclaim. I want to believe that the natives’ commitment to this land, this place, this way of life, is genuine. But sincerity so polluted by the almighty dollar is difficult to swallow.

Luckily, a different parking guard was happy to let me ride my bike out of the area instead of making me wait for a bus. The rest of the day I toured Taos; a predictable mix of commercial, artistic, and alternative attitudes coexisting on thin air. I could definitely fit in here – the place is crawling with skinny white guys with wrinkled faces and disheveled grey hair – but after one day I was ready to pedal on.

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged Taos NM, Taos Pueblo | 2 Comments

Trip Log – Day 334 – San Luis CO to Arroyo Seco NM

Posted on October 7, 2016 by paulefallon

October 4, 2016 – Sun, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 84

Miles to Date: 17,377

States to Date: 45

Thirty-four degrees at 7:30 a.m. and the world stood still as a Watteau painting. I dug my thermal and windbreaker and heavy gloves from the bottom of my pannier and headed south in crystalline mountain air. By ten I was warm enough to stuff the jackets back in their bag. The wind picked up around eleven. Long descent into Questa and a steady climb back up through the pine forests. I was on the outskirts of Taos by 1:30 p.m., but didn’t go into town. Instead, I headed west to cross the Rio Grande Canyon Bridge and visit Earthship, a community of net zero permaculture homes on the high desert. Then I retraced my path and pedaled a few miles north to Arroyo Seco to stay at Snowmansions Hostel.

Earthship is cool, though I can’t imagine living in a place so consciously earthy. I cannot argue with the energy efficiency and sustainability, except that, as long as your vehicle burns petrol, living twelve miles from the nearest anything is unsustainable. The aesthetic works for some, but not many of us. Mostly, I felt the place would be an odd community. The low houses, paying reverence to the sun rather than each other, reminded me of guys sitting shoulder to shoulder at a bar, all looking the same direction, out of each other’s gaze. As one resident said, “People pretty much keep to themselves.” And then, as if she realized her oversight, she added, “Of course, unless you need them, and the then they’re the greatest in the world.” The whole point of an Earthship house is independence and autonomy. That they have built a collection next to each other seems like happenstance.

Snowmansions Hostel, on the other hand, is a very ordinary structure within which lies a community as well as a business. During ski season the place probably accommodates 40-50 people, but in early October there were less than ten of us, all men. Staff, however, was plentiful. They came to Snowmansions from all over to live and work in community with a level of consciousness I appreciated without being overbearing. Although I was the only guest taking dinner, Sam and Justine made a banquet of dishes. “It’s better to have leftovers then run short, and the staff will eat whatever’s left.” Sure enough, about 8:00 p.m. Snowmansion residents came out and devoured the beans, barley, quesadillas, soup, ravioli, grilled cabbage, and grapes I could not finish. I offered Justine the $10 donation requested of guests. “Don’t bother, it was mostly leftovers.”

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged Arroyo Seco NM, Earthship, Questa NM, Snowmansions Hostel, Taos NM | Leave a comment

Profile Response: Nicole Herzog, Education Director, Sloss Furnaces Birmingham, AL

Posted on October 7, 2016 by paulefallon

Birmingham has long been known as “Pittsburgh of the South.” All of the materials required to make iron are abundant within thirty miles. Unlike Pittsburgh, there are no major rivers. So Birmingham’s industrial might depended on the arrival of the railroad. Even today, 82 trains a day roll along the main line next to Sloss Furnaces.

Sloss Furnaces, built in 1881, were the second commercial furnaces built in a city that eventually supported 66 iron ore furnaces. Early furnaces, based on designs from northern producers, had to be modified because the minerals from these hills were different. Nicole Herzog explains, “They were spending more time cleaning the furnaces than making iron, until they adjusted the process and the facilities.” The Sloss Furnaces continued to upgrade and expand well into the early1900’s as they optimized production.

But times changed. Now there are only specialty iron producers in Birmingham. Sloss shut down completely in 1971. The furnaces sat abandoned until they were named a National Historic Site in 1983. Now, Sloss Furnaces is a historic and educational center.

Nicole pointed out one attribute of iron production in Birmingham that was quite different form up north: the differences between accommodations for the Black workers and the White workers. “A lot of the Civil Rights work grew out of places like this. Blacks and Whites worked together and lived together, yet there were all these laws to keep them apart. They had separate baseball teams, but each group went to watch the other group play. 65% of the workers here were Black, but the first Black promoted to a management position wasn’t until the 1960’s. When you come out of the furnace, you’re all the same color.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“I think a lot like we live today, if you’re just talking about tomorrow. It’s amazing when you see what these men created in the 1880’s. Now, I have engineering visitors and they say, ‘This is the way we do it today.’ We used five million gallons of water per furnace per day to keep them cool. The fountains we have here are a small part of the cooling spray that was larger than a football field. The furnaces generated so much excess power they sold it. They dealt with all the same things we deal with, over a hundred years ago.”

Posted in Responses | Tagged Birmingham AL, Nicole Herzog, Sloss Furnaces | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 333 – Walsenburg CO to San Luis CO

Posted on October 6, 2016 by paulefallon

October 3, 2016 – Sun, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 29

Miles to Date: 17,293

States to Date: 45

One look outside my motel room in Walsenburg told me things had changed. Yesterday’s gentle stir of the trees had become a steady sway. I packed and left and rolled through town still not quite sure of the strong wind’s direction – until I turned west on US 160 and it hit me in the face. I settled into a Zen pace. I logged seven miles in the first hour. At this rate, I would spend hours in the shadow of Spanish Peaks and arrive in San Luis about 6:00 p.m. My Zen thoughts turned mathematical. Perhaps I should just get to Fort Garland? What if the wind got worse and I was stranded? Perhaps it will shift and my prospects improve?

I kept pedaling. It was still morning and adventure lay in moving forward. Five miles per hour. Four miles per hour. The gusts were strong. One caught me quick and I had to drop my feet to the ground. After it passed, I restabilized and pedaled on.

Twelve miles out, where Colorado Highway 12 veers to the south, I ground to a halt. The wind was steady at twenty-five to thirty miles per hour. Gusts were forty, maybe fifty miles per hour. Even when I could move forward, I was weaving too much to be safe. I dismounted, pushed Tom a few hundred feet, lodged him against a ‘Road Closed’ gate, thanked the fates it wasn’t snowing or raining, braced myself against the wind, and stuck out my thumb.

I am inpatient by nature, so rather dislike hitchhiking. It’s so passive. I waved at cars and trucks that could not accommodate a guy with a bike, and sprouted a big thumb to pick-up trucks. After fifteen minutes that felt like two hours, a red Toyota came up the rise. I knew intuitively he would stop.

Buddy Lane and I wedged Tom among the equipment in his bed. He drove me 35 miles to Fort Garland, over the spectacular Le Veta Pass. The orange Aspens were in peak foliage, bright against their evergreen neighbors. I might have bemoaned the pleasure of cycling through such splendor; except the wind was so strong I knew it was impossible.

Trucks travel so fast. Despite the wind rocking the two-ton vehicle, we were in Fort Garland in no time. Buddy and I hit it off; we sat and talked in Fort Garland awhile before going our own ways. After being so pressed for time against nature, I was only sixteen miles from San Luis at noon.

San Luis is directly south of Fort Garland, so my headwind turned into a crosswind; a different kind of challenge. Luckily, I enjoyed a big shoulder and little traffic, but riding was still difficult. I stopped every few miles to steady my nerves and absorb the amazing views.

By 2:30 I arrived at my motel. A very short travel day in terms of miles cycled, but an exhausting day in terms of energy spent. The lowest average speed of my entire trip: slower even than the day I ascended Loveland Pass: 6.9 miles per hour. Colorado is a fabulous state to bicycle, but it makes you pay for its glory.

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged Bicycle Touring, Fort Garland CO, headwind, La Veta Pass, San Luis CO, Walsenburg CO | Leave a comment

Profile Response: Scott Myers, Executive Director, Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Birmingham, AL

Posted on October 6, 2016 by paulefallon

Joe Louis, Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Donald Hutson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Carl Lewis, Mia Hamm. All sports legends born or made great in Alabama. Not to mention the equally famous coaches, Bear Bryant, or John William Heisman, father of football’s most famous trophy. All are enshrined in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame; over 300 inductees showcasing 6,000 items of memorabilia since it began in 1967. Every year, eight inductees get a plaque and a showcase of memorabilia. The ASHOF has no permanent collection; each inductee selects his/her own memorabilia and can get it back at any time.

Scott Myers was a three-season high school athlete, played football at nearby Samford University, and spent a year in missionary work with street kids in Costa Rica, before returning to Birmingham for a career in sports administration, the last eight as Executive Director of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Among the biggest changes he’s seen, “America’s pastime was baseball; now it’s football. Alabama has a long baseball history, but it’s now a football state. Collegiate basketball is big, but collegiate football drives all of college sports. The upside of collegiate football is huge. It is the front porch of the universities. It is the revenue producer that enables all of the other sports to happen.” At the time of our conversation, University of Alabama was ranked #1 in college football.

Scott spearheaded the effort to bring the 2021 World Games to Birmingham, only the second time they have been held in the U.S since their inception in 1981. “The World Games are sports at the highest level that are not included in the Olympics, for example certain gymnastic styles and Lacrosse. We will host 4,000 athletes from over one hundred countries in 35 sports.” Unlike the recent Olympic bid in Boston, which faltered for lack of public support, the City of Birmingham is fully behind this endeavor “We did two economic impact studies; the numbers work fine. We partnered with Samford, UAB and Alabama Southern to house the athletes, we don’t have to build any new venues.” Birmingham has a huge stadium, Legions Field, that’s already seen world class action: as a soccer location during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. “This is a great opportunity for the city of Birmingham to represent the country.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“It’s a great question. I don’t think we spend a lot of time thinking about how we will live tomorrow. What will sport look like tomorrow? Just as football took over baseball in the later 20^th century, what will the sport of the future be? The athletes have changed. They are bigger, stronger, more adapted to their sport.

“My fourth grader plays football. On the way to practice he asked if people could have superpowers. I told him we only use a small part of our brain, maybe 10 percent. If God let us use 12 or even 15 percent, we could have more powers.”

Posted in Responses | Tagged 2021 World Games, Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, Birmingham AL, Scott Myers | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 332 – Pueblo CO to Walsenburg CO

Posted on October 5, 2016 by paulefallon

October 2, 2016 – Sun and clouds, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 57

Miles to Date: 17,264

States to Date: 45

I woke this morning to rosy pink light highlighting the stucco surfaces of the houses in the new subdivision north of Pueblo. As I admired the light my eyes fell on the emerald oval of grass, a front lawn sparkling wet from dawn-timed sprinklers. The brilliant green, so false in this high desert, left a sour taste in my psyche. My hosts are conscientious people; recycling advocates new to an area of the country where recycling is still news. But if you move to Pueblo and buy a subdivision house, it will be big, it will have conventional heat and air conditioning, it won’t be oriented for solar, and it will have a lawn. Unsustainable development is not just allowed. It is the norm. It is all that’s available.

My remedy for feeling adrift is, of course, riding my bike. I began with fourteen miles of delightful Sunday cycling traversing the length of Pueblo from its northern limit through empty downtown past the riverwalk (the Arkansas River runs through Pueblo), along historic Union Street and the Victorian mansions of South Pueblo.

By the time I passed a gas station / convenience store cloaked in stylized font as ‘Mindful Eating’ that also touted 99 cent fountain Pepsi and free lighters with cigarettes, my endorphins had pressed me into good enough mood to laugh at such folly. Obviously, the proprietors have never read Michael Pollen’s In Defense of Food which contains the sage advice, “Never fill up your car and your stomach at the same place.”

Finally, the pavement gave out and I had to ride the I-25 shoulder. Okay, okay, I didn’t HAVE to ride the I-25 shoulder. But when the three options to cycle from Pueblo to Walsenburg are: a) 119 miles on two lane mountain roads, b) 75 miles of dirt roads in the plains, or c) 55 miles of smooth pavement, half along I-25, I opted for the easy choice. On a Sunday morning with a faint tailwind and excellent shoulder, I-25 was as good as Interstate riding gets. I tuned out the passing noise and focused on the breathtaking landscape beyond.

Walsenburg is a sweet little town that gained some notoriety a few years ago for downzoning to accommodate tiny house neighborhoods. I rode to the areas where the proposed tiny house villages would be built: nothing yet. Still, the town has a cool library carved out of a defunct school and nice mom and pop motels that beat the chains. No sprinklered lawns here.

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged bicycling I-25, bicycling Interstate 25, I-25, Mindful Eating, Pueblo CO, Walsenburg CO | Leave a comment

Profile Response: Randy Gorman, Mountain Brook, AL

Posted on October 5, 2016 by paulefallon

If I loaded all the books Randy Gorman recommended for me to read in my saddlebags, they would probably slow me down a full mile per hour. Randy is an upbeat guy with a can-do attitude and a trove of useful books, videos, and philosophies to stay on track as a businessman, a father, a Christian, and a worthy human being. “You have to have a positive attitude. Balance it with realism, but stay positive.”

There’s nothing preachy about the Auburn educated SAE who served cocktails on the outdoor deck on the late summer evening I stayed with Randy and his wife Cleo (a longtime friend of mine) and their daughter Ellie. Randy’s a jazz lover with a poetic spirit. “Jazz makes me wonder who we are. Cicadas remind me of summer.”

Randy’s had a variety of careers – banking, employee leasing, financial planning, and commercial insurance. Currently, he represents a national firm that provides energy and preservation tax credit and depreciation guidance for commercial properties. I don’t know where he finds time to work given the number of books he recommended to me. Fortunately, Cleo reminded him I travel light.

So, he started quoting his favorites directly. I had never heard the Optimist Creed. When he quoted it, I decided it describes Randy perfectly.

Promise yourself:

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble

How will we live tomorrow?

“I’ve got a pretty good book you might like to take on your journey, A Man in the Mirror. It’s really good. Another is Half Time by Bob Buford. It’s you, it’s what you’ve done; a Biblically based book on how to apply yourself wherever you are.”

Posted in Responses | Tagged A Man in the Mirror, Bob Buford, Half Time, Optimist Creed, Randy Gorman, SAE | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 331 – Pueblo CO

Posted on October 4, 2016 by paulefallon

October 1, 2016 – Sun, 80 degrees

Miles Today: 15

Miles to Date: 17,207

States to Date: 45

When I began my journey last May I targeted a visit to each of my twelve nieces and nephews. At the time, eleven of them were scattered across seven states, while eldest nephew James, who has a troubled history of homelessness, was unaccounted for. I’ve visited seven of my nieces and nephews so far, as well as their spouses and children, several for the first time. This spring James surfaced in Pueblo Colorado where he’s currently serving a thirteen-year sentence at San Carlos Correctional Facility. His story is a tragic example of how our society fails its most fragile citizens, yet our visit offered a sliver of hope and gave my mind some ease.

Here’s the tragedy. James, 41, has suffered schizophrenia since high school. He’s been in and out of treatment facilities and prison, lived with family and on the street, attacked people and been attacked. He is the spitting image of my brother, his father, except for his nose, which has been broken several times. Like so many people with mental illness, James feels better when his medication is stable; then he grows independent, goes off his medication, and deteriorates into delusion or violence. I have never witnessed James as anything but a mellow soul, though I know enough about his unleashed anger to admit it is real.

According to James, two years ago he was living on the streets of Denver with winter coming on. He decided to go to jail, so staged a modest theft in a convenience store. When the clerk did not call the police, James pulled a pair of scissors from his pocket, which escalated his actions to assault. An action designed to provide a warm bed for a few months turned into a long sentence.

Here’s the sliver of hope. James is incarcerated at San Carlos Correctional Facility, a federal prison within the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, a college-like campus that includes an array of inpatient, outpatient, youth and penal facilities. Every aspect of my experience, from the initial application to visit I made months ago, through the guards good humor when I arrived on a bicycle, through the respect they show my nephew, was dignified and humane. James looks better than I’ve seen him in years. He has the sluggish response of a person heavily medicated, but he’s coherent, logical, and healthy looking. After talking to strangers all over the country for more than a year, I was anxious about conversing with my own nephew through glass for an hour. The time passed well. We had a few laughs.

San Carlos is a medical institution; regular therapy and group classes are part of James’ routine. Within a year he will be transferred to regular prison. He is not looking forward to that. Hopefully, his time at San Carlos will give him the skills to better cope in his next placement, and eventually, in some capacity in the open world. James will never participate in our society as he might if his head wasn’t plagued by voices. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could find a way to offer him the stability and contentment he needs without being behind bars? It seems to me being able to see the mountains just beyond his walls could do him so much good.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Pueblo CO, San Carlos Correctional Facility | 5 Comments