Browsing Archive: September, 2010

Tubby Schmubby – West to East

Posted by Brienne Thomson on Thursday, September 23, 2010, In : Trans-Am Trail 
Tubby Bottom, the notorious impassible Mississippi TAT road that has been the bane of end-to-end adventure enthusiasts since before I heard of the Trans-Am, is now passable … well, at least in the dry season.

I was jamming along rut-less and solid gravel farm roads on my way to Tubby, and was almost surprised by the first water crossing I came to just before Little Egypt Road. The hard-pack went soft-n-sandy pretty quickly and then splish-splash. The crossing was not even two-feet deep in th...
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“Can You Buy Squirrel Meat?” I Asked

Posted by Brienne Thomson on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, In : Trans-Am Trail 
I love how I start, or just am, drinking something special, or cheap, when I start writing. I began scribbling this in the midst of a micro-brewery flight at Vino’s Brewery in Little Rock, Arkansas; as I’m sure my rambling will illustrate. By the way, speaking of Arkansas, or more generally this region of the good ‘ol US of A, can someone tell me the age range one must appear to have entered in order to receive the “ma’am” title? “Yikes!” I say, which pretty much sums up the t...
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Wetneck Sliding in Arkansas

Posted by Brienne Thomson on Saturday, September 18, 2010, In : Trans-Am Trail 
I arrived on a Sunday night and hid from the showers in a Tulsa Best Western for two nights, breaking my traveling streak of no hotels; can’t complain about the microwave and coffee maker though. By late morning on Tuesday, feeling a little boxed-in since my Monday spin through the recommended “center of action” in Tulsa … well, simply had none, I said, “Screw it,” in a more vulgar way, “I have rain gear!”

I rolled the highway north to Salina, Oklahoma through the drippity-drop...
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Flashes from the Windy Road In Between

Posted by Brienne Thomson on Monday, September 13, 2010, In : The Road Between 
I don’t usually take people I just meet up on generous offers for fear of an, “I didn’t really mean it” suggestion or imposing. Although, when I make similar gestures I feel flattered when they’re accepted. I take it as a “company compliment” – that they enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. Long story short – woh, a huge preying mantis stick bug just crawled onto my water bottle; crazy!



Sorry for the interlude; creepy camping surprises. Anyway, I called up Mark and Mar...
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Adobe Diversion

Posted by Brienne Thomson on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, In : The Road Between 
I’m in Taos, New Mexico. I took a diversion after Trans-Am-ing the eastern half of Colorado because I didn’t really want to buzz the grasslands of western Oklahoma on straight-line fire roads; info brought to me by past-doers and the unceasing flat lines on the map … not one squiggle compared to Colorado.

So, I want to start with my 8.5-hour in-the-saddle day from Westcliffe, Colorado into New Mexico, instead of how I ended up here, enjoying a plentiful amount of red wine with my tomato ...
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Purple Mountain Reality

Posted by Brienne Thomson on Tuesday, September 7, 2010, In : Trans-Am Trail 
September 4, 2010

Three of my tail trunk bolts and one of the two mounting brackets had already fallen behind somewhere, so I was a little late for brunch with my lawyer friend Rebecca in Denver while I shuffled through Luke’s spares and locktited the nut-n-bolts back together. I gave her a call.

“I’m sorry I have a hangover,” was her initial reaction to my call, thinking that I was already in the area.

I explained that I was calling because I was late and she told me about a fabulous, c...
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Boulder the Beautiful

Posted by Brienne Thomson on Thursday, September 2, 2010, In : Boulder the Beautiful 
My stopover in Boulder came early, but became more of a, “Well, I don’t really have to go yet” week-long pause of getting spoiled.

I rolled into Luke and Janine place in Lafayette on Saturday night after an iron butt ride from Moab. By mid-afternoon on day-one, I was harnessed-up rock climbing in Boulder Canyon with a great group of veteran climbers showing me the ropes … (perfect example of when a cliché is unavoidable). On Monday Luke and I shined up my little motor, took a trail r...
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