Road Kill-Day 4 of the Ride or Die Tour….

Greetings from Texas!

Yes, it’s been a long while between posts. There have been trips, art shows, workshops and the flu….but this is our most ambitious bike tour and so it’s worth some dedicated sharing. I’ve found a new app that does more than this WordPress can do in regard to showing you our route. It’s also a really easy way for me to journal daily, so please explore the link below (then click on the map waypoints, and be sure to click on the cover thumbnail image for each waypoint to see additional images) request to follow, (it’s a private link) I’ll accept your request, and you can ride along with Nard and me to St Augustine, Florida!

Apparently Colorado cleans up road kill from their highways. In Texas that is left for the vultures and coyote. We pass dead cats, deer, possum, and a LOT of skunks. And an occasional armadillo.

Follow our ride at https://www.polarsteps.com/shearycloughsuiter/472197-the-ride-or-die-bike-tour?s=34e39f0a-23e5-4531-827f-3ba530fc24d3

Would love to hear your comments!

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Public Land and National Monuments

 

America has a lot of public land set aside for wilderness, for recreation, for beauty, for animals. This is a uniquely American Idea to set aside a peace of beauty and if one believes in God Creating the World. Then  this setting aside is a monument to God’s Creation. Now we see the American Idea of preservation and monuments is not permanent. When a mining company says they would love to make money if only they had a national monument to destroy. And the powers that be said National Monument be damned there is money and profits to be made here. So Bears Ears and Escalante Grand Staircase National Monuments are going to transforms into an open pit mine to profit a few. Well maybe more than a few as some fine government officials had to grease the corruption lines and that only happens under the table exchanges. So there were profits to be made there also. It is an opaque government we have full of secrets, but secrets get out. This is the land that belongs to America and it’s citizens, taken from us.

Where does that leave me. I spend a lot of time painting, taking pictures, walking, biking, and camping on public land. When it is all fenced and belongs to corporations and individual Estates my life will change. And where does that leave the children and grandchildren. Oh they have overlords who keep them in line and working, working, working. Idle hands make no profits and therefore the work of the Devil.

Amsterdam Netherlands

A charming city which we visited in August and September of 2017.

This is a city of about 1.5 million in the urban area, but it is quiet and peaceful. People are not in a rush, people take time and talk to each other and make eye contact. The Netherlands has a higher standard of living than America but costs are similar to America. Everyone rides a bicycle and bicycles have the right of way. After WWII there were some deaths on the roads of cars hitting citizens and a plan was devised to correct the unacceptable deaths by cars. The country has many long range plans that focus resources.

There are a few exceptions: health care is considered a human right and there is no cost for care or medication. Education improves the country and the citizens so education if free, and in fact young people are paid to go to high school and college. In converstion to Dutch people they can not understand a system or society where health care and education is considered an arena for profit making: They are human rights not business.

The Netherlands are self sufficient and sustainable on food for the country, and are in fact the leader in exporting tomatoes. The nation sold their last oil Company as they move to renewable resources of wind and solar power to power the country forward. The trams, trains and some of the bicycles are electric. This makes for clean air and a quite city. So people can talk without shouting and sit in cafe’s and chat without interruption. I feel a sense of calm and peace.

Hill Country

Some great parks just outside of Austin. McKinney Falls and Pedernales Falls.

COASTAL REDWOODS

These living things that are taller than the Statue of Liberty and live for up to 3000 years at 370 feet tall. The tallest living thing, Redwoods. The Redwoods stood to watch Dinosaurs roam and once covered the whole west coast. Now they are only in a few hundred miles of the coast, 3% are saved. These temples made in nature, by God have been cut down by man, but remain more sacred the great temples of the world. Redwood simply stands to witness life, to show dignity and residence, surviving floods, fires, and earthquakes. 

NORTH WEST COASTLINE

Rocky rugged

Sea meets water

Rub rub

Wear and friction

This is all plastic from the sea

Padre Island

Once 13 million acres of grassland across Texas and Louisiana. Now only 2 % of the grasslands remain. Lost through development and over grazing.