{"id":837,"date":"2012-06-18T20:49:41","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T01:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/?p=837"},"modified":"2012-06-18T20:50:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T01:50:34","slug":"day-3-and-later-4-shaken-and-stirred-understanding-captivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/2012\/06\/18\/day-3-and-later-4-shaken-and-stirred-understanding-captivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 3 and later 4: Shaken and stirred: understanding Captivity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday morning I woke up at 7, in a nice and comfy bed in Denver. I expect that this was the last bed and roof I will see until I reach Fairbanks. Valerie and Neal had a very nice breakfast for me, and before I left, Valerie took the time to write \u201c2EndSlavery, Texas 2 Alaska, on one of my saddle cases.\u201d We said our good byes, and I was on the road. I took IH25 N, towards Wyoming, instead of the 287, because of the concerns from the huge forest fires in the Fort Collins area.<\/p>\n

It was a glorious day to be riding. The sun was up. Not a grey cloud in the sky, and the temperature could not be better. The projected 500+ mile route would take me up to southern Wyoming, and then I would turn West on IH 80, and finally head North towards the Tetons and Yellowstone.<\/p>\n

All was going great until I crossed into Wyoming. It was as if someone turned a swith. The minute I entered the state and started heading West, winds started hitting me with fury. Signs on the road warned of 35+ mph gusts. Riding above 50 mph became a luxury, and eighteen wheelers became my friends. Every time one passed me on the left lane a got a nice shield, and therefore a brief moment of rest. But try as I mightI could not keep up with them and so, soon the battle to keep the motorcycle on straight line would resume.<\/p>\n

My neck and shoulders started to hurt under the strain. The problem was getting agravated by my helmet, which had a beak that should keep the sun from my face. At that time, it was working more like a sail, pulling my head and litteraly smashing the helmet onto my left cheek.<\/p>\n

At some point I reached the Lincoln Monument where a visitor center is located. There, a trucker told me that things normally only get worse towards Laramy. However, the attendants at the vistor center had different news. The wind should be decaying as I moved West. Futhermore, once I turned North at Rawlins, it would all be good.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, they were all wrong on all accounts. I made it all the way to Rawlins with pretty much no change. By then it was noon and I still had about 350 miles to go to the Yellowstone East Park entrance. Things did not improve on the Northern road. So, at some point I pulled to the side of the road, and pocket knife in hand, proceeded to do a beekerectomy. It was amazing how much this helped. Not having a sail attached to my head increased the control on the bike and reduced the stress on my body.<\/p>\n

Just before Lander the wind dies off. The road started winding down, with beautiful red rocks on the sides. Oh what a joy. This is what riding should be like, all the time. I was enjoying myself, finally, after hours of nothing more than trying to stay on the tarmac strip. Coincidentally, at some point I looked down at my speedometer, just to see it go from 65 mph to 0 mph. Plunk. From there on, all speed, and distance information are to be provided by Mr. GPS.<\/p>\n

The wind did pick up at some point, but things were not as bad as earlier. Eventually, I made it to the Tetons. I rode into the park, crossing it towards Yellowstone. The entrance into Yellowstone is absolutelly gorgeous, with aspens and pines lining the road, and large drops into beautiful, foamy rivers. I reached the Yellowstone entrance at 8 pm. Twelve hours after departing I was there. Or so I thought. Upon consulting my papers and the parks directions, I still had 66 miles more to go. At 45 mph speed limit in the park, that was another hour and a half. I really felt I did not have it in me. But there was not choice.<\/p>\n

With the sun creating wonderful fiery skies, and reflections of streams and pools of water, I rode into the park and headed to my camp site. While the day was streneous and pushed me to my limits, I was feeling the glory of his creation as I rode. At some point I managed to see two young elks, their antlers covered in fuzz, grazing by the side of the road.<\/p>\n

By ten o’clock I had finally made it to the campsite. I pitched my tent, and managed to get to sleep by eleven thirty.<\/p>\n

While I rode through the wind earlier in the day, I had this anger in me, feeling cheeted because I could not enjoy the unique landscape I was riding through. Once the wind ceased, it was as if I was in another reality. Beauty was sttreaming all around me, and the glory of creation was there to be embraced. It was at that point I though about the captives, and the enslaved. When opression and cpativity make your life such a struggle, such a battle, the soul and the mind have no time, nor the ability, to embrace creation. This is what I hope we, as abolitionist, can bring to people.<\/p>\n

Today was a day to rest a bit and enjoy. I spent it riding through Yellowstone, catching bisons on ‘film’ and talking with people here and there. This majectic place merrits another visit.<\/p>\n

Funny anecdote of the day was provided courtesy of these to cute Japanese girls, who, when they noticed I had caught them sneaking a picture of me had to say, \u201cSorry, to cool\u201d \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Miles covered by today, 1698<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I woke up at 7, in a nice and comfy bed in Denver. I expect that this was the last bed and roof I will see until I reach Fairbanks. Valerie and Neal had a very nice breakfast for me, and before I left, Valerie took the time to write \u201c2EndSlavery, Texas 2… Read More »Day 3 and later 4: Shaken and stirred: understanding Captivity?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-33","category-journey","category-photography"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2o6Hc-dv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}