Blue Slough Road

Yeah, I know. My life really sucks.

I went down to Vancouver, Washington a couple weekends ago to meet with friends and eat very fattening foods. To get there, I decided to take the long way, out to the coast.

Here's one of many fine roads that I discovered along the way.

Blue Slough Road

Killer Cager Charged with Veh. Manslaughter

A Jerome, ID woman by the name of Karen Kump was killed on the 11th of April by a drunken cage driver.

Thankfully, it's been reported that the driver of the truck that killed her has been charged. I rather strenuously object to the paltry $25000 bond that was posted, but I can live with that as long as he doesn't run.

A Hailey man involved in a wreck that killed a Jerome woman has been charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Scott E. Miller, 44, was arrested Tuesday night by the Idaho State Police in Blaine County, and taken to Blaine County Jail.

He is charged in the death of Karen Kump, a 49-year-old Jerome woman who was killed April 11 when Miller's car bumped her motorcycle on U.S. 93 near the Flying J truck stop.

I like that word "bumped". You don't "bump" someone in traffic and cause them to be killed.

I'll posit that Mr. Miller was most likely traveling too fast for conditions and mis-judged his stopping distance. And a heck of a lot better analysis than that ridiculous "bump" that the journalist probably re-printed verbatim from the killer cager's excuse.

DumpStoppers

I like this group. This is exactly the kind of thing I've been pounding on for months. All the local homeowners always blame the outdoors people for dumping crap out on the woods.

What's being dumped out there? Household goods. Makes me wonder whether the people doing the complaining about the dumping are actually the ones who are too lazy to go the landfill or transfer station. Protesteth too much, or something like that.

SPRING, 2006 - The "Dual Sport Riders" members enjoy cruising forested backroads each weekend. It's simply a fun way to see the great outdoors.

"That's what we enjoy doing," noted the motorcycle club president, Dave Butt. "It gets us away from the city, out into the forest and the countryside. It's a great way to travel."

But recently, the motorcycle riders made a disturbing discovery in the forest near Molalla: piles of household garbage tossed across public land.

Dave Butt told KATU the scene angered his club: "We're sick and tired of seeing that kind of stuff and we wanted to do something about it." (Courtesy of KATU.com)

Good on ya, Dave.

Real Headlights

I got a lesson this morning in the merit of modern headlights. I had to come in early today, and it was still quite dark. I got on the little two-lane highway heading through the valley and found myself behind another rider on a ZZR-1200.

Once I caught up to him, I immediately noticed how well the ZZR lit up the roadway. Compared to the clearly-defined edges of his reflector-beam lights, the 20-year old 8" round standard halogen Kawasaki headlight on my bike was dim, yellow, and muddy and didn't even lit up 1/4 of the area the other bike could illuminate. His headlight threw a very white beam down the road, illuminating all of his lane and some of the oncoming lane. That bike is definitely visible to oncoming traffic.

Granted, HID headlights are supposedly a bad idea here because of the all the rain, but I understand people wanting newer setups for their older bikes. The difference was stark and inarguable.

Reflections on a Friday Morning

It's really nice to have dry roads to commute on. Riding in the wet is something that's necessary in Seattle, a necessarily evil if you will, but I don't enjoy it. Adding insult to injury, Seattle drivers sort out into 2 classes when it's raining: those who drive much faster than normal, and those who drive way under the speed limit. Neither of these are terribly appealing to me.

It's nice not to have to worry about ice either. Temperatures in the morning were flirting with freezing all winter. Dropped the bike back in mid-December on black ice, so it's somewhat understandable that I'm a little skittish about cold weather right now.

Spring. Winter in Seattle smells like damp, cold, and mold. Spring smells like growing things and warmth.

It's also nice not to have to run your choke for 4-5 miles because even though the thermostat isn't letting diddly through the radiator, the breeze is still cooling the engine off from the outside...

Sorry for the paucity of posting lately. Work's been kicking my butt.