Crossing The Continental Divide - May 13

Sunday, May 13

Continental Divide gift shop. (For Europeans; This is where a drop of water would split into two, and one half would end up in The Pacific, and the other half in The Atlantic).

Off we ride, Travis on his blue Nimbus Sport, I on the MZ, the trailer in the back of the van's trailer. We cross The Continental Divide, coast downhill to Salida. Nicest part of the ride on Rt. 50 is through the canyon along the Arkansas River, and around 6 in the evening we reach the small town of Guffey. I'm on fumes when Travis turns off the tarmac and onto the dirt road that leads to his house.

Microbreweries abound, like this one based in Durango.

Arkansas River, popular amongst river rafters.

At the end of those dusty 5 miles of twists and turns his strawbale* house appears, a two-storey house he spent 3 years building himself, with a separate garage/workshop. He's off the grid, but pumps water from his own well, electricity comes by way of solar panels. Travis has lived here for 20 years after moving from California, that state's helmet law being one of several reasons for the change of scenery. A minimum of government intrusion being another reason.

A third reason is the diversity of the population here: Rednecks, hippies, cowboys, lesbians, retirees, farmers, preppers**, Texans (damn them), Californians (damn them too), even a frozen dead guy waiting for technology being able to revive him. Both of the two latest mayors elected were black, in an overwhelmingly white community: A labrador retriever and a cat named 'Monster'. Apparently no humans wanted the job.

Travis worked for decades as a carpenter, then drifted into buying, restoring and selling Harley Hummers (the small DKW-derived twostrokes H-D built from 1948 to 1966), an activity eventually replaced by doing the same with Danish Nimbus motorcycles. The Nimbuses are, of course, how we got to know each other. Aside from this he also does occasional carpentry and handyman jobs, mainly helping out neighbours.

* The house frame is timber, while the walls are built up of straw bales with lime based plaster on the outside, and adobe on the inside. Passive and active solar heating is used.

** People preparing for the inevitable breakdown of society by stocking up on all sorts of survival gear.