Project America

Several years ago--the Summer of 2009--my son and I with some friends rode bicycles from San Francisco to Telluride, CO.  On a blog of that adventure I reflected on the trip and the future of America.  The financial crisis and our government response to it disturbed me and I wanted to do a book of koans called A Month Across America in which I reflected on the question -- Whither America?  I felt something important had been lost with 9/11 and the financial crisis and I wanted the feel of a new more hopeful direction.  Obama had tapped this feeling but we live in complex times and it was a little harder to deliver.  The idea was I would try and ride 100 miles a day and write a meditation on current ideas infecting, awakening, or even disturbing the rough consensus on American exceptionalism. - Something like, what is  the role of religion in America--are we experiencing a New Awakening that is sending us back to fundamentalism in order to join the clash of civilizations or are we joining Europe in the secular modernity project? Now America is going where it will whatever I think but I think it is helpful to have a set of hopeful beliefs about the Future to  encourage ourselves and inspire our children.    I am not a doom and gloom kind of person and the “End is Near” predictions have been a staple of civilization since at least Paul wrote most of the New Testament.  But I do think we have some unique challenges that our leaders do not seem predisposed to tell us. 
      In the blog I came to the conclusion that we need a New Localism which would be a retrenchment from the growth forever crowd and the globalists.  I mentioned 4 issues I thought important:  the moribund and maladjusted economy, poor ecological stewardship of our natural world, challenges of peak oil and American identity (immigration) which is really not about foreigners but about citizenship and its responsibilities. We need a Project America.  Perhaps conditions now are so complex that leaders’ have as their highest goal not allowing things to fall apart on their watch.  This is hardly responsible and not the way clear eyed adults handle real problems.  The waste and malfeasance in our political system is debilitating.  Billion dollar political campaigns to convey NO relevant information about real directions for the polity are criminal. In fact that is what we have, an unimaginative overclass, fearful of their privileges, unwilling to stand up, say what they think, and lose an election.  The vast majority of voters seem more stupefied and inert and may go vote but don’t have any real belief it will make much difference. 
      So I would like to undertake Project America.  There are a number of individuals already hard are work on the new America and I’d like to join them from my little reactionary enclave here in Alabama.  We’ll see how it goes. 

Day 12 - July 11, 2009 (Moab to Telluride, CO)

Ralph was a little miffed that I got up and rode without him yesterday.  I should have said something but I just wanted to ride early.  I think the early morning before dawn reminds me of the years I spent throwing papers.  A friend and I threw the morning paper from 8th-11th grade and it was a good money making job that did not conflict with any activities.  All the papers had to be delivered by 6 so we would get up about 4:50AM, roll them, stuff them into a gigantic bag and then deliver them on our bikes.  The route was about 4-5 miles and I rode A LOT before dawn.  My father would take us in the car if it was below 20 degrees.  I love the dawn but don’t like getting up.  So what’s unusual about that?  I rarely regret the effort once I am up....

Ralph and I decided to do a little more riding along the Colorado R before heading to the state.  Hardy and Daniel were sleeping in so we left a little before 8 planning to return by 10 or 10:30 to start the ride to Telluride.  Slightly after our left turn off US 191 we were on a deserted road.  The road I took yesterday (to the right) had many people camping but we did not see anyone for 10 miles. Then we saw a  large group camping at a picnic area and packing up slowly.  Intermittent views of the river and the ubiquitous soaring cliffs on a flat deserted road make for ideal biking.  Several archeological areas were noted on car turnouts so we stopped to read the details of the cliff art.  Easter island statues are pretty impressive.  These cliff wall scratchings don’t look too impressive,  more like vandals marring the surface of perfectly good rock.  I have seen a lot better gang graffiti...  But the riding was  perfect and we even got a tailwind when we turned around.  A very nice 25 mile warm-up for the day.

We woke the boys and Daniel was planning to ride today.  We had been up and down US 191 several times and thought it made more sense to drive to La Sal, Utah and start from there rather than ride up the busy highway at mid-day.  It was about 30 miles and positioned to give us a straight shot into Colorado.  This would be the first time we had ridden off the Adventure Cycling Association provided maps.  The Western Express route had turned at Monticello to head to south to Delores and we were planning a straighter shot into Telluride.  We unloaded the bikes at the two building downtown La Sal ( a post office and grocery), stocked up on Gatorade, and hit the road with dark clouds threatening to the North.  We had not seen a suggestion of rain since Ely Nevada and that was all of about 20 minutes.  The rain held off but 5 miles into the ride we discovered they were paving the road to the Colorado border.  They weren’t working but the roads were torn up, tar was everywhere, and the roadbed was predominately gravel.  I had the 35cc tires but Daniel was on the 6-13 with 28cc and Ralph on the Quattro Assi had 23’s. Bummer.  Traffic though was non-existent.  Vistas of the LaSal mountains were beautiful to the North where the thunderclouds loomed and the scenery was finally changing to a little bit more green.  We finally saw a tree!  Of course along the Colorado R there were trees but this was a tree with no visible means of support.  You feel proud of this tree like of your son when he gets a job and doesn’t need money from you to go to the beach with his buddies.  This will be a great bicycle route AFTER they finish paving it.  The scenery is great.  The wind did not seem to be moving the clouds closer but put a crimp in the MPH.  A slow road with a headwind is a grind.  We left Utah with no notice except a new road sign that we were on a Colorado state road.  Three states crossed, the destination in view.  The twisting route through the  Canyons opened up into the Paradox Valley, a gorgeous scene with the mountains of Telluride in the distance.

It was here that we had a minor snafu.  We were snacking at the top of the descent to Paradox when Daniel decided he would head on out because he descended slower.  Ralph and I took a minute or two to get ready and then started the glorious descent through the canyons to the floor of the Paradox Valley.  We didn’t see Daniel up the road so when we made the final turn we picked up an incredible tail wind.  Like in Nevada, what had been opposing us, turned to our advantage on wide open roads.  Both Ralph and I put our heads down and started pace lining at 30-35 mph to catch Daniel.  We would come up over a rise and see a mile down the road--no Daniel.  What had happened to him?  Was he trying to stay ahead of us with his new found cycling skills and better fitness?  Had he crashed on the descent and slid over a cliff?  Was he taking a leak?  We should have caught him by now but we were having too good a time with the tailwind.  We finally stopped in Bedrock, figuring he would have stopped or we would have caught him by now.  We grabbed some lunch fixings and Hardy drove up with the Sag.  Had he seen Daniel?  No?  If he wasn’t behind us, where was he?  We sent Hardy back up the road to find him.  He found him and the story was that he had made a wrong turn at the base of the descent.  There was a small road turning left ( I hadn’t even noticed it) that headed to Paradox .  No wonder we couldn’t catch him!  Case closed.  Paradoxically, lost and found.

At the Bedrock store we met two couples from Italy doing a mountain bike trip from Telluride to Moab.  It was mid afternoon and they were headed to Moab for the night over the La Sal mountains!  One of their bikes had broken and they were waiting at the Bedrock store for a tour operator to come bring them another bike.  They could not believe how hot America was!  The women looked a little frazzled as if their dream trip in America was their husbands(boyfriends?) idea and needed a little more dream and a little less reality right at this moment.  Apparently there are hostels in the mountains for over-nighting and the scenery is incomparable BUT  I detected a certain tension, that the ladies had had about all the riding they wanted, and the guys were talking about getting to Moab tonight.  I could tell that was not happening except in a car... I didn’t want to mention a brutal headwind, OUR difficulties on the road(paving project) as well as the fact that we had skipped the first 30 miles AND ridden on the road! They had just descended on trails and had a 30 mile mountain bike slog against a brutal headwind to even get to the canyons that lead up to the La Sal Mountains.  We had gone around the mountains which is certainly longer but climbing over 14,000 foot mountains wasn’t going to be “easier”.  They were going to be sleeping somewhere besides Moab unless they took a car/truck. 

       Time to hit the road again. Naturita is just up the road and joins busier roads.  The Paradox Valley narrows down to urban congestion and soon we are on Colorado xxx dodging RV’s.  It’s only 20 miles to Norwood (uphill) but the bloom is off the rose--we are facing 50 miles uphill to Telluride--it’s time to quit, put the bikes on the car and start another adventure. Go to the condo.  Admire the Colorado scenery.  Hit the hot tub and the summer on the slopes in the mountains.  This desert crossing is done. The trip is psychologically over.  Time to move on. 
  I achieved almost nothing of what I intended to do when I visualized this trip.  My "dream" was to ride across the country in one month and every night do a reflection:   since 9/11, what has happened to America?   The financial crisis?  An existential event to me but this entire trip I have seen nothing but Michael Jackson retrospectives. Can he really be the most important person to die this month?    We don't seem to have processed the importance of what the government response to the financial crisis has birthed.  We are living in a Potemkin village, a make believe world like Truman.  I don't know how to get from old world view to new world view but someone in the media or at the leadership level should be discussing it. 
   The World is in the vise grip of the Limits to Growth projections: Pollution & population Up, Oil and food production-plateau, resources/rate of growth-down. It is time to address IEEE and all I hear are crickets.  Same old same old from leadership.  Just don't let this sucker go down on my watch and I'll slide out the back, Jack. Perhaps all disjunctive change is like this--a trend for 30 years--a discontinuity--the world is changed, changed utterly. Whether a terrible beauty is born is another question.  I feel a certain revolutionary animus but coupled with a palpable inertia.  As they say, conditions that can't continue-won't.  

Day 11 - Moab Meander

Today’s plan was a little different than usual.  We planned to ride the scenic Utah 128 along the Colorado River, visit Arches National Park,  ride to Dead Horse Point, backtrack to Canyonlands, and then return downhill to Moab.  We planned to hike some and return to the same Comfort Inn Suites before heading for Colorado tomorrow.  This was the day we wanted “in hand” to explore this area.  There are some incredible sights in this area and we wanted to take advantage of them.  Daniel needed some freedom to explore Moab so Hardy covered Sag wagon duties.

I had the idea, never yet acted on during this trip, that miles before breakfast were “easy” miles because you could come back, relax, and eat breakfast.  I had gotten used to this pattern in preparation for the trip.  So I resolved to get up early and do a quick 20 miles before everyone got up.  So I crept out at dawn-rode the 2 miles through the deserted streets of Moab to the North side of town to pick up the bike path along the Colorado.  It runs North East--I wasn’t sure how far.  The sun was just catching the top of the cliffs as I rode 9 miles out and back along the river.  I must confess that the Colorado looks a lot smaller and less impressive than our own Tennessee River but the 1000’ red cliffs give it a lot of panache.  The river seems to be swifter, which makes sense, because it has carved out about all the scenery out here.  Camping was prevalent along the river, cars just pulled over, and a tent perched along the banks.  If a permit was required I didn’t see any signs....  The ride was flat and relatively cool down in the canyons before the sun rose.  I got back to the hotel shortly after 7:00.  Our plans today were to have the autotransporter take us into Arches.  We would then all ride around, explore the Park, take some hikes, and Hardy would go back at lunch to pick up Daniel.  The entrance is only 4 miles from Moab but the road climbs 2,000 feet straight up into the Park on a narrow road packed with traffic and RV’s.  We had Hardy drop us off for a hike along Park Avenue while he met us on the other end.   We then drove 5 miles to Balancing Rock where we unloaded the bikes and explored all the roads in the Park.  We were going to hike to Delicate Arch but it takes several hours and we had left all but a few water bottles in the car.  We didn’t think a 1 water bottle hike was prudent.  So we rode to the Devil’s Playground (where there was water) and did a hike into the playground.  There are a good number of people hiking but it is majestic to get up close and personal with these rocks.  I had my touring cleats and they were fine for walking so I carried Hardy’s/Ralph’s  shoes. After a 2 mile hike,  we rode back to Balancing Rock, put the bikes on the car and carried them out of the park.  (As you get closer to the entrance, the traffic is worse on the two lane road.  The shoulder is soft dirt.  Perhaps comfortable to fall on but not conducive to moving over and letting cars pass.)

We picnic’d in the car and then set out for Dead Horse Point.  US 191 North out of Moab is busy but the turn to UT 313 is a long but not brutal climb with minimal traffic.   It’s 19 miles to the Point but its worth the climb and heat on the plateau.  Once we made the turn to Dead Horse State Park, we didn’t see any other visitors.  Arches is impressive but why weren’t there mobs of people at one of the most compelling and impressive vistas in the country?  From the Point:  South- you can see the curve of the Colorado R entering Canyonlands and to the East--the La Sal Mountains on the border of Colorado.  (Check out the photos above) .  We were awed.  We rode back to Ut 313 and headed South to Canyonlands.  Ralph had branched off to go all the way to the last vista in Canyonlands and would meet us at the Green River overlook.  Daniel was going to be there with the car.  We got just a taste of Canyonlands before returning to Moab.  A total of almost 100miles today.  The cycling is stupendous.  We had eaten at an Italian place last night so as we ambled through Moab this night we decided a higher protein fare was indicated--Steak!  We did not do any tofu on this trip..... Burning 5,000-7,000 calories/day you can eat any old non-PC food you prefer.  7 oz. bag of Chips?  Fine- why share?  Eat the whole thing.  Parenthetically I could add that neither Ralph or I lost weight on this trip and in fact may have added 2 or 3 lbs.  Fortunately I started the trip a svelte 170 and Ralph had lost 20+ pounds. We might still be climbing in the Sierras if we hadn’t!

    So a reflection.  Honesty might not be a virtue because Life requires illusion to be tolerable.  If you strip it all down to evolution and DNA, throw out God, and only believe in what YOU know you’re left with materialism.  It’s interesting to keep clawing at the truth but tiring.  Think of Atlas.  What a great idea--a man bearing the weight of the world. Can't put it down. That's us humans--loaded up with responsibility and unable to shirk it. BUT if we imagine an ideal and live for that-presto-saved. Then there are the butterflies--all ephemeral and perfect- not an idea an “other” so sublime that any given moment can become perfect.  Just this, is  never happening again.  Every instant an infinity of possibilities and then--the Real blooms....

   I am fond of Stoicism.  But is it true?  All of us have to make a choice so we should be tolerant of how others approach the problem.  Our senses do what they can, they are not definitive of all we need to know.
    My desire on this ride was to explore the idea,  Whither America?  I wanted to reflect on what in retrospect was the American century.  It ended in my mind on 9 /11.  The financial crisis exposed our most central ideals as myths.  I began my professional public policy career in 1974 as an internationalist, a globalist.  The more we understood about others and connected with them in meaningful ways, the less likely war and conflict.This idea created the European Union and it created our involvement in almost every country in the world. Suddenly we are in the Age of American Empire and we don't want to give it up.  We rule the world with the reserve currency and a military industrial complex that operates in 100+ nations and provides the bulk of "professional" jobs for those still working.  China makes everything, we "keep the peace".  WE define what the peace is.  We are the new Romans.  Sadly our time will be up when the Aladdin's lamp of monetary largess cannot produce dollars that the rest of the world will accept.  The military industrial complex (MIC) can enforce rules of global order but when we cannot pay the soldiers, the world will go its own way.  I try to conceptualize when other countries will no longer agree that the dollar is valuable but I cannot see any other currency that is even as good.  I mentioned GOLD earlier in the blog and it is a currency but 95% (at least) of the population has no understanding of honest money.  They are content to believe in and use the fiat currency.  Who really wants to change?  Those who understand, have fiat money, those who have debts have little understanding.  I detect no revolutionary interest.  I detect no real interest in politics as a solution.  The times appear to be a' changing with very little awareness. Everyone seems content to wait for things to get "back to normal".  Personally I think it's not happening.  The world has broken we just don't know it yet and no one is mentioning what we should be doing about it.  We have  important issues like environmental stewardship, ecological sustainability, employment in a no growth world, increased displaced populations due to war and climate change, resource limits, and a wishful American exceptionalism mythos that is not helping us address our problems.  Conditions are worsening for more people while the rich dither.  Those close to me are fine but I worry about what happens when Reality bites....

Day 10 -July 9th, 2009 (Hite Recreation Area-Moab)

We are all a heartbeat away from being like John Belushi and yelling. “Roadtrip”! 
 

The Colorado River Crossing at Hite is a “camping area” that looks suspiciously like a boat ramp.  It is 50+miles from Hanksville and another 75+miles to Blanding.  There is a small store open from 8-5 at the boat launch area but it is a looooong way to a real grocery store and we saw only the one ranger lady tending the store. We had some supplies and bought only ice the next morning. A few trailers  suggest a “community” but there is not a lot of activity.   Shortly after we arrived we were joined by two guys from the Rhode Island School of Design on fully loaded bicycles slogging along for a cross country tour.  Our first cyclists of the trip!  Brothers in adventure!  They pitched their tent in the dust with us and we were glad to finally meet up with someone doing a cross country tour. These fellow cyclists were “going our way” and we enjoyed re-living the highs and lows of the route.  They had left San Fran on June 16th while we had left June 30th.  They were trying to finish the transcontinental ride by September 1.  It had been a hot, hot and long day and they had only their little canteens with a filter pump.  We were scarfing junk food and cold Gatorade while they prepared their whole wheat pasta on backpacking stoves.  Self supported on this route would be spartan.  We had coolers of cold drinks, flip flops to walk on the rocks down to the River for a swim and as I said earlier, we brought too much stuff  BUT having a fully stocked sag wagon is certainly a delight.
 

    I slept completely comfortably all night on the ground without an air mattress. This might be a comment on the previous days effort and surely it was the dehydration that kept me from having to piss at 3AM, which was an unexpected pleasure.  The morning was pristine.  No activity anywhere.  I would have expected a number of early morning fisherman, boaters getting started for a day on the river, etc. but it was silent, the rocks like sentinels, waiting for the sun.  The tent zipper was loud as I crawled out.  Despite an urgency sending me to the enviro-porta potty some 1/4 mile away, I broke out the backbacker stove, screwed on the butane tank, and lit a fire under more than a quart of water, enough for  a LOT of coffee.  Then I ambled off for morning duty.  Returning, it was time to employ the coffee press.  The boys, like frogs in hot water, would not stir until the sun got up enough to heat the tent to unpleasantness.  I wasn’t sure about Ralph.  Drinking coffee and watching the sunrise on the Colorado as the grey cliffs turn fiery was at least as restful as sleeping.  Many mornings we were in some haste to pack up and move on but today we were headed to Natural Bridges for lunch and as far to Moab as we could get.  We did not have a schedule.  I ate my cereal and bananas and considered whether it was possible to have come this far without crash or flat.   I was grateful for our great good fortune.  I have been on club rides of 40 miles with six people and had 2 flats and needed to call my wife to rescue me, so we had been lucky.

   We packed quickly and were ready to go by 8.  No sign of the Rhode Island School of Design boys, still asleep. Today's ride would be uphill to Natural Bridges Nat’l Monument.  It was a beautiful morning and the grade was not bad at all.  The boys decided to do some canyon exploring so it was just Ralph and me on the bikes.  The scenery is pretty but not as dramatic as yesterday, gradually the vistas open up and we spot the only scenic reference point before lunch, Jacob’s chair.  There’s not a lot to say about Jacob’s chair.  It does look like an Egyptian throne but I find the slot canyons the most interesting.  All of the water is heading to the Colorado so as we gain altitude, the canyons get deeper.  This area of the country could use a few trees.  No shade on this route.  We met the boys at the entrance to Natural Bridges.  It’s about 2-3 miles into the Park so we loaded the bikes and portaged in to do the loop.  They had a nice picnic table on  the North side of the air conditioned gift shop so we ate peanut butter/jelly  sandwiches and a  bag of Doritos.  I wonder what that red stuff is on these chips?  You can’t get it off your hands without a scrub brush.  This was the least interesting National Park in my opinion.  The previous sights overwhelm the vistas from the road.  If we had hiked it probably would have been different.  
 

     On to Moab!  It now was pretty hot so we had the car take us to the entrance.  Half way to Blanding the descent to the Chisolm Wash is fantastic but the whole way down you can see the semi-trailers and RV’s climbing the cliff on the opposite side and it takes away from the joy of the descent knowing you have to go right back up.  The interesting rock formations start to disappear and finally going into Blanding there is just one left, a solitary hoodoo and goodbye to all that.  We join the main road to Moab and feel like we have returned to civilization.  There are actually stores on the road and traffic.  We were more used to occasional a/c ensconced travelers that blew by like dirt dervishes.   This route to Monticello is not fun.  We’re tired.   It’s a four lane highway.  We pack it up in Monticello.  Time for the auto-transporter.  We’ve done 90+ miles.  We  have not  reserved a room in Moab so we want to go ahead and get there to find something.  I slept on the ground the last two nights.  I’m thinking of something with a bed and maybe a jacuzzi and bar..... Comfort Inn has a suggestive name and I’m driving, so I stop. Home for 2 nights.   (It does not take us long to find the pool).  
 

What does it mean to be an American?  I envisioned the ride across America as "linking" the disparate parts of America into one thing--a ride, a journey into the future that includes us all.  What is the goal?  I mentioned a multi-ethnic, eco-sustainable, substantially just "community".  But is it an idea, that includes everyone who commits to a unifying idea of America or does it only include the people that currently inhabit the space called the USA?  We have these myths of exceptionalism(the indispensable nation), these myths of inclusiveness(give us your tired, your poor..), these myths of freedom, myths of democratic citizenship and membership in the idea of America includes hopeful people all over the world that would like to share in the advantages of living in America.  But this idealistic imagining of a mythical America faces the hard task of inclusiveness in a very diverse population.  Diversity is typically not thought of as a strength, it could rather be considered a complication of effective citizenship.  If different groups are  politically struggling for different things, there cannot help but be major conflicts.  We seem to be there.  Touting our acceptance of each and every minority and losing sight of the whole.  Tolerance is a virtue BUT to fail to promote the essential principles of American citizenship leads to chaos.
     The problem of course is primary loyalty.  We can love all kinds of people and wish them well but there are some groups that are closer to us than others.  Our family may have a higher rank order than the national principles of inclusiveness for people different than ourselves.  So our ranking of our loyalties puts us at loggerheads.  We must be loyal to our God, church, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, local community, state, region, nation, and our moral idea of universal humanity.  If we are excessively tribal we claim that others just don't count like "we" do.  But again who is we?  That is America's problem.  Our history has made us E pluribus unum but our politics today focuses on our differences and the adjustment we "should" therefore make to accept other's values.  If everyone has a different conception of what America is and where it is going, can we actually become one?  Again the idea is, are we melting pot or stew?
   The melting pot idea has been challenged by the civil rights movement.  We included other Europeans when they gave up their attachment to their home countries:  but when it came to Afro-Americans--we balked.  Native Indians did not generally want to be like us so we quarantined them and killed them.   We(white folks) changed our essential modus operandi for making outsiders --insiders when it came to people of color.  We did not want to blend.  We wanted them to have their rights but we wanted a certain distance. We wanted our "space".  We did not want to accept the responsibility for discrimination: our parents had facilitated what our grandparents had caused and though we did not support the inequality, we were willing to live with it.  We did not feel we had influence on the  cultural pathology of broken black families during the civil rights 60's.   If Daniel Moynihan was worried in the 1950s about the breakdown of the black family it was commonly considered to be "their" problem, not "ours".  And now of course drugs and family breakdown affect both the black and white poor today.
   So we say E pluribus unum but we mean separate but equal.  As a Southerner I will be taken to task for saying that separate but equal can work.  It is a real strategy and it can work.  The "old" separate but equal was a fig leaf for discrimination but the new will have to be a partnership.  Lincoln used the phrase a house divided among itself can not stand and it is a valid metaphor.  What he also said was that a bundle of sticks can be broken individually but bundled together cannot be broken. So separate but equal has to work because  that is how it is going to be.  Groups are going to prefer their own.  A global elite can create a real diversity with enough money because they are not essentially dependent upon one another.  They are dependent on the money.  As long as everyone has the mega-bucks there is a recognized equality.  They are, in short, all together - rich.  But it is a small minority that can share in this Edenic world.  In a low or no growth world--riches are not going to accommodate us to one another.  We will have to make and have small belonging groups(communities)  and a larger national partnership that sustains everyone's rights.  We should celebrate the strengths of individual groups, not undermine them to seek an illusory universalism. We cannot be all things to all people.  We can admire and tolerate differences but we cannot be forced to accept them.
   I seem to have waded into race baiting waters which I have no real interest in propounding.  I have spent a lifetime loving the differences in other cultures and sharing mine.  Differences have their own strengths (and weaknesses) so we should be tolerant of all our many failures of inclusiveness but the goal cannot be homogenization in the short(5-10 year) and medium(20-100 year) time frame.  Perhaps in the long run.  We can get along right now and if we refuse to then we will be forming different political entities to achieve our goals.  We won't be talking about "America" anymore.
   The immigration problem confounds two issues--how to structure the political interaction of the disparate groups that are currently here and how and how many others to include?  If we look at successful multicultural  Switzerland it is in the context of different cantons with their own democratic traditions.  Multi-ethnic societies have much harder time building political consensus because of the underlying trust issues than more homogeneous societies like Norway or Japan.  Multi-ethnic America would require some real sacrificial leadership and I am afraid we have created a leadership elite that prefers its own group rather than the people it is supposed to be representing.
  So you will find me painfully torn between the promise of a structured international understanding in something akin to the UN, where differences are celebrated and a true humanitarian universalism is the goal and those completely and unalterably opposed to any such pie in the sky nonsense. Many do not want to lose their group identity.  Nationalism is NOT poised to evolve into a more structured internationalism.  Nations are breaking up into their ethnic components. The talk is globalism but the trend is localism.
   

Day 9- July 8th, 2009 (Escalante-Hite Recreation Area)

Today was the greatest day of bicycling in my life.  The most challenging, the most variegated, and the most stunning miles ever.  The easiest way to describe this ride is to say that it is like riding on different planets.  The scenery changes so remarkably that it is one breathtaking experience after another.  I suppose driving it would be pretty too but the immersion in the challenge of “getting to the Colorado R” and what you have to go through to get there, was worth all the cold mornings getting ready.  This is a must ride.  There are beautiful rides through Oregon and coastal Calif.  The going to the sun highway in Glacier is breathtaking, Vermont is so warm and inviting with its little vistas and charming towns, and France is lovely too through Burgundy.  This route though is a testimony to the greatness of the bike as transportation (able to leap tall buildings with a single bound), and the natural wonders of the American West. 

I wish I could have ridden the entire 163 miles but I did not train enough to try it.    We decided that we would auto transport the 27 miles from Escalante to Boulder, thereby skipping the dreaded “hogsback climb” up to Boulder.  The description was terrifying-8 miles uphill with 15‘ from cliff to cliff -2 lanes of traffic, no shoulders and a 3,000 foot drop if some RV has nowhere to go.  I am statistically inclined and would attempt it if no one has ever been killed trying it, but sight unseen I had some doubts....  We left Escalante at 8 after picking up Ralph and with the sun shining  in our face, this rough desolate country was sublime.  There was almost no traffic so it really is a fine bicycling route. The hogsback is not completely insane, it looked like you could pull your bike off the road a couple of feet to allow RV’s to pass without feeling you were teetering on the brink of a long fall.  But with a modicum of traffic it would not be a comfortable climb from the Escalante River to Boulder,UT. 

 

We unloaded the bikes in Boulder leaving an approx 2,500’ climb to the summit.  It was then 100 miles all kinda sorta downhill to the Colorado River.  This part of the climb did not feel steep, perhaps because the vistas are incredible and the landscape has a very Alpine feel. The higher we climbed the more trees and moisture in the air.  It was very similar to our experience in Great Basin.  At 5,000’ it’s blisteringly hot and dry with chapping winds and then, crossing 8,000’, everything starts to get verdant.  Pine trees and pockets of cool air in the shade.  Its invigorating and gorgeous looking back over the Grand Staircase .  Like a jigsaw puzzle, the sun's angle hides all the canyons and as the sun gets higher the relief map gets more colorful.  What a view from the summit.  We met a Harley motorcycle club at the turnout.  We bicyclists are not as clique-y as the motorized groups.  Why do Hondas, BMW’s, and Harley’s all have their own groups?  Is it spare parts or just that the people who buy the different motorcycles are so different they prefer riding with their own kind?  We Cannondale cyclists can get along with Serrotta, Felt or Trek folks.

The downhill to Torrey in the coolness was amazing.  Seems like the best place to live in the summer.  Winters are probably brutal this high.  Descending through Grover we notice a huge rock with an American flag on it.  When we meet up with the boys in Torrey, it turns out they had gone to the base and climbed it.  Torrey has a number of vacation homes and looks like a lot of terrific mountain biking and hiking.  We cooled at the convenience store.  Fairly active store at the turn onto Utah 24.  The guys were enjoying exploring and did not feel like riding  yet.  Nothing special for about a mile out of Torrey-wide open and Nevada feeling and then all of a sudden into these huge red rock cliffs.  The road follows the base of the cliff for ten miles and then the cliffs turn to sandstone and we pick up the Fremont River.  The road along the “river” with the barest amount of water has turn outs for historical markers.  Cabins from pioneer days and ancient cliff art.  But its the now white cliffs and slot canyon formations that just keep getting more and more other-worldly.  We break away from the river and in a few miles it feels like we are in Arabia-vast sand dunes into the distance.  We pass a couple of communities with abandoned hotels.  It just feels as if it got too hot and too remote to live here.   Tucked between two dunes was a funky looking restaurant just after Caineville.  Not open.  Shade however.  Its really cooking now as we roll into Hanksville for lunch.  This is a hot dry bedraggled looking town.  The map says its 50 more miles to the Colorado R.  Ouch!  Not a world class lunch at the Red Rock Cafe but getting a seat in air conditioning is reward enough.

It is really hot now and doesn’t feel quite so downhill.  A slight headwind perhaps.  This is wide open country with a few Monument valley-like formations.  I’m getting into focusing on the road 3’ft in front of me or on Ralph’s wheel.  Two lane road is not real busy but it seems every single SUV or F-110 pickup is hauling a gigantic boat.  We have fishing boats in AL.  These look like 35’ runabouts with deep V- hulls.  It seems we can see 20 miles and with the heat blasting down the landscape seems completely devoid of water.  Boats everywhere going and coming.  Every other car has a boat.  It does NOT feel like a lake anywhere.  Slowly we seem to be heading into canyon country.  The road grows some walls and in places, shade, as the late afternoon sun can’t quite reach the road.  Enough heat has already been applied in my mind-I can feel it radiating up through my shoes on the downstroke.  I have just about had enough fun --but these canyons are amazing.  A sudden turnout and we have a glorious overlook over the Colorado.  We can see our campground below us and the bridge in the distance.  All downhill.  I have had enough.  We’ve done 100+ miles through incredible countryside.  Ralph hates to give up a downhill and pushes on.  There are more givebacks than you would think and a few miles on he calls it quits.  Pack up the bikes and go looking for this camping area.

Just before driving over the bridge we pass two very tired looking cyclists, fully loaded.  (No, not that kind of loaded)  They are making incremental time.  The Hite recreation area is really a boat launch.  Surprise!  No wonder all these boats.  Interestingly once we turn off we do not see any more boats.  There is one boat in the river and one pulling out of the water as we head to the parking lot at the end of the access road.  It looks like a pleasantly lonely spot.  Ralph will be forced to camp tonight with us.  I give him the air mattress because that’s the kind of friend I am BUT I wouldn’t a done it if the dirt wasn’t pretty damn soft.  We go down to the river to pray (I mean play) and we just chill watching the sun sink behind the cliffs on the opposite shore.

    Nighttime has a full moon.  I thought we’d get some stargazing in but it was pretty bright. The wasted guys on the road showed up for dinner.  They left San Francisco two weeks before us and were headed to Rhode Island where they were in school.  They appreciated the cooler beers--sorry Mom.  Another downside to having to carry everything on your bike.  The four boys stayed up playing guitar and talking.  Ralph and I zonked.  They didn’t do 100+ miles in withering heat.....

     I have a personal code I live by but I’ve come to feel that it’s a little threadbare and understated to accomplish much in this world. It is First, do no harm. Whatever big plans you’ve got in mind consider what could go wrong and don’t do anything if  the probabilities of harm are too high.  It’s a justification for not doing much I fear.   But in other things, fear of doing harm curtails necessary risk taking.  The ant that follows the trail finds what has always been found. No risk, no reward.  Our willingness  to take risks sometimes actually ADDS to other peoples risk.  Because we are linked social creatures, when we fail, we take out innocent bystanders.  This “collateral damage” is often thought just an unfortunate accident but risky behavior will have personal consequences and impact other people.  When everyone is doing their own thing - where is the social goal?  Is Adam Smith right? The invisible hand will create - Society-when each seeks his own?  He probably presumed a lot: People would be honorable and not lie, change would be slow, religious principles governed everyday life, normal people would continue to want to please God-and the church would continue to control the rhythm and rituals of life. Commercial life was not as all consuming as it is today.

  So those of us who do not dare disturb the universe-don’t.  But by nature I am a contrarian.  You say blue skies ahead-I say storm warnings.  I pull against the grain.  Pride undoubtedly.  You think everything is hunky-dory, I say probably not.  I try not to ruin all the parties I attend but trying to do no harm and being a revolutionary are not perfectly compatible.  Virtue of a legalistic sort is not sufficient.  It requires a REAL sacrifice.  If there is a heaven and hell, virtue is not really necessary.  We can be our flawed selves and get what we deserve.  But if not, Virtue - Honor- Nobility all require a sacrifice (if we want them).  They don’t just show up.  What are our American sustaining ideals? Go shopping?(Yes, that will really irritate our enemies) Freedom for all to do what we like?   Show me the money? Christians believe in helping your neighbor and forgiving your enemies.  I see bigger defense budgets putting the lie to that.

 Human ideals require big ideas, the biggest idea you can think of and the courage to live in a manner to accomplish it.  I do not want to be an ugly American, so I’m not pushy.  I think a substantially just, ecologically aware, multi-ethnic democracy would be a satisfying goal for America. This is an inward not outward focus. How do we include everyone that is an American?  If others won’t leave us alone or want to crash the party we need to be “creative” in our opposition.  Brute force in extremis may be necessary but otherwise a light touch. Get the army out of 80+ foreign lands.  Let others suffer with their own internal contradictions. A nuclear world is dangerous but we should be resolved to take our warhead count as low as deterrence will allow.

  We are currently creating a lot of enemies.  I read that Afghanistan has a GDP of $12 billion a year (is 10% or 60% of that heroin?) and we are spending  3 billlion $/month there.  Does this make sense?  I know if we paid them to be our friends they’d quit when we stopped paying them but they might remember us fondly. Or was that our strategy all along? What if we sent  our new unemployed college graduates over there to drink tea and see how they could help, like the Peace Corps.  Would we make some real friends? How about if we are so interested in Afghanistan a few American cities adopted sister cities and sent church groups to build clinics and schools?  You say Taliban-I say, see what each town council there really wants--help them get it.  Greg Mortensen did it and whoever is setting IED’s hasn’t blown up any of his secular schools..... Sending body armoured teenagers with AR-15's into people's homes has not made us popular.  Blow back is coming when we can't afford to pay our enemies to be friends...

  

Day 8- July 7th, 2009 (Bryce Canyon to Escalante, UT)

I’m looking for one glorious sentence.  And one glorious ride.  So I can repeat them whenever I like and then go find another to an even better destination.  This morning we are going to ride into Bryce Canyon National Park and check out all the overlooks.  Then we’ll head on up the road. 

 

We wanted to make sure we saw all the sights in Bryce Canyon so the plan was to ride all the way to the Yovimpa overlook (27+miles) checking out the trailheads and vistas and then having the car come pick us up and drive back to Ruby’s Inn. Our problem then was how far to go?  Like Nevada, there are only a few reasonable places to stop.  The biggest problem on this route is the Colorado R crossing at Hite Recreation Area.  It is is the only stopping place for at least 70 miles each direction.  In short we HAD to stop there. (Well we didn’t HAVE to but I wanted to swim in the Colorado and camp) So where should we stop the night before?  Boulder was 74 miles from Ruby’s Inn with a punishing uphill for the last 18 miles.  Escalante was closer but then the next day would be over 100 miles starting with a brutal uphill.   We thought Escalante made the most sense because we could use the auto transporter to Boulder to start the next day.  Escalante was only 47 miles away, combined with the Bryce National Park ride, we’d do 74 miles.  Great Plan--let’s ride.

Hardy and Daniel camped but were angry that a lousy spot next to an RV cost $35.  Ralph and I stayed at Ruby’s N to do wash, and knit the raveled sleeve of care.  One of our air mattresses had been losing air by morning, so we donated our other air mattress to the boys and slept in a bed.

On September 1, 2007 I am embarrassed to report that I became a “gold bug”.   For a long time liberal like myself, it’s embarrassing. I can’t believe I’ve joined the “frothing at the mouth” crowd.  Gold is just a hunk of metal, usefully rare. Plutocrats are supposed to be the people that like gold. I just want my wife and my savings to be worth something when we need them. I’ m also saddened at how important money is to me.  I thought I was above all those little pecuniary considerations but I am guilty of caring about all those sweet dreams bundled in bank accounts.   Could I blame it on my mother and grandmother?  My grandmother gave me old coins and a blue collectors album for pennies. She carefully marked how much each was worth.  I looked at a lot of pennies and gradually realized I wasn’t finding any that were worth more than a penny.  My mother gave me proof sets for every Christmas and birthday. In inflation adjusted terms they are worth less than what was paid for them. I was a lackadaisical collector from 1962-1964 and then suddenly all the old coins disappeared.  There was no point to being a coin collector.  My books of dimes, quarters, halves were partially filled but now you had to go buy them from some store.  I gave up on the whole enterprise.  I kept getting proof sets from my mom until 2000 when SHE realized the Mint was just another overpriced scam.

But when I realized the world financial system was going to fall apart, here I was chucking contributions into my 401-K and by  the time I needed it in 10 years it would be worth substantially less like those coins.  What company made sense to invest in? What a load of BS this “diversification” mantra is--Everything went down in 2008.  Money market funds were at risk until they were backstopped by the gov’t. These stock mutual funds make it seem as if it is my fault for choosing an inappropriate asset allocation.  They want to know my “risk tolerance” so if they lose my money it’s my own damn fault. Seems to me a bad recession and currency crisis will lay them all low.  Bonds? Toast.  Deflation then inflation or the opposite?  I didn’t know but savers have a huge target on their back and are going to get hosed. That was me and my hard working wife. The only people making money are the people making money (as in leverage).  They are letting society pay the insurance on the risk. Gold seemed to be a selfish choice that did not recycle my savings into loans for my community and fellow citizens. I’d like a local Grameen Bank with a reasonable interest return, not financing for a shopping center conglomerate that would end up in Chapter 11 or a CD at 1%. Remember the story of King Midas? His gold lust was foolish. I felt shallow thinking about gold.  I also didn’t want to be a miser.  Misers are pathetic creatures who count their money and miss the point of life. Money is merely a tool but instead of encouraging excellence it has become perverted.  It’s all that matters.  No money means  No success.  No dreams.

Well.  OK.  I’m guilty.  What’s the solution?  The solution is visualize a local economy and invest your money at home.  Improve your corner of the planet.  The world is flat (interdependent) but it has gone far enough. Its now time to find a local sustainability model. Time to suck the lifeblood out of globalization and give up on mutual interdependence.  Too vulnerable.  It’s not wise to be dependent on people who don’t like you (or you don’t like). Bring your money home.  The sad truth is, before everyone gets rich enough, we will have destroyed the natural world.  Globalization is too complicated.  That said I’m not really interested in returning to the farm or giving up my four day work week BUT what’s got to change is the structure of our economy.  My town is defense industry based.  Good jobs come from Washington.   We need good eco-sustainable jobs. What the heck are they?  There really is a lot that needs doing but I don’t think it’s selling each other garbage at retail and dreaming up new derivatives.  A new localism is going to make us a lot poorer.  Therefore we need a social ethos that admires frugality and sacrifice.  Success is more like the honey a bee produces-Extra for the whole society, not the honey you get to eat. Is Anyone going to work in this society?  With sacrificial leadership - perhaps.  With an “I’m Most Important” mentality, it’s every man for himself--nasty, brutish, and short.  Let us admire farmers, craftsmen, teachers, innovators, scientists and work toward creating social eco-capital--the best life as close to Nature as possible.  If it’s austere, so be it.

 

We left Ruby’s Inn smack into a headwind.  It’s a slight uphill grade to the Park and Visitors center and we were SLOW, even in the paceline.  The traffic is not bad at all but you can’t see anything from the road.  You have to branch off to each of the overlooks.  This entails some elevation challenges, up and down to get to each of the vistas.  Throw in a steady breeze and our plan looked time consuming.  If we all rode to the terminus we’d obviously have to ride back before starting our ride to Escalante.  We’d have already ridden 50 miles in the Park.  So at the half way mark, Ralph rode back to Ruby’s to get the car and met us at Yovimpa point. We clawed our way to the Park terminus. Perhaps we should have realized that the word “canyon” could mean some ups and downs.  When he arrived we were mighty glad to see him although we toyed with the idea of  taking advantage of the tailwind.....We didn’t.  We opted for lunch at the Lodge.  It’s close to the trails and overlooks and seems to be a fantastic place to stay.  We were one of three parties in the large dining hall and had a great lunch.  Load the bikes and head to the main road for our trip to Escalante. 

From the turn at Ruby’s Inn the road heads downhill to Tropic and the views back up into Bryce Canyon are stunning.  It would be better to be riding the other direction because most of the vistas were at 4 to 5 o’clock over your right shoulder.  I love these dusty mesas.  We pass the Dixie Forest but it is not really what I would call a “Dixie” forest.  I don’t see any wildlife moving in the heat of the day.  Presumably there are coyotes but we never see one.  There is so much space.  In the Smokies, the kind of forest I am used to, it is always drippy and you don’t expect to see any animals because they are smart enough to stay 50’ away out of sight behind a tree. 

I loved Westerns as a kid.  TV shows like Bonanza, Rawhide, and Have Gun Will Travel.  Actually being out West though makes me realize that these morality plays were fundamentally flawed.  You would always see good guys and bad guys jump on a horse and ride out of town at a gallop.  Where were they going?  There is nothing to ride a horse to.  When I leave towns on my bike I don’t see any rivers, wells, shade, water of any kind, nothing to graze a horse.  In fact I can often see as far as you could possibly ride on a horse, to say nothing of getting back without water or feed.  One canteen is not enough to go from Ely to Baker or Minersville to Cedar City.  In fact there would be no reason to chase the bad guys because you would KNOW where they were going, the closest water hole.  I understand Conestoga wagons with barrels of water but I don’t see a posse heading out into the desert unless they had a death wish.

I have spent a lifetime as an internationalist.  I took the saying Think globally, act locally to heart.  It strikes me that my dream of better international understanding was naive.  What has happened is that the elite (1%-5%) in all countries share a global ideology at odds with their fellow countrymen.  An Apple executive interacts with the factory owner in Shangai.  Their children go to Penn or Cal-Berkeley and join international conglomerates of entertainment, business, and NGOs. The unemployed, unskilled American is "foreign" to the American business executive at his Davos conference and Arizona golf country club. The Chinese businessman has a house in Vancouver.  When asked, Americans know that the distribution of income is skewed, what they don't realize at all is how incredibly unequal it is.  The richest 1%of the population owns 35% of the assets.  The top 10%--73% of the assets. The top 20% owns 84% of the assets.  The next 20%-owns 11% of the assets leaving 5% for the bottom 60% of the population.  We could say that the interests of the 5% and the middle are not congruent.  American "leaders" appear content to be well rewarded facilitators of the status quo.

     

When I was doing development economics some 35 years ago it was clear that the poor would never catch the rich even with 8% growth rates for the poorest billion and 2% rates for the richest billion.  We did not forecast that far ahead because we knew infinite growth was not possible.  Limits to Growth had given us 50 years to get our house in order and looking back,  we have essentially squandered it.  There is no techno utopia for the future, no Jetson future with robots at our beck and call and all receiving a livable wage.  The future is the shrinking richer and richer and the majority growing poorer. So what did we international think tank busybodies consider was necessary?  Alternative development strategies.  We needed to consider appropriate technology for the level of development in each country.  We, rich countries, needed to embrace our own eco-sustainable models of future growth and assist poor countries to avoid the mistakes of growth that we had made.  The 1960's strategies of import substitution and export led models had a tendency to increase inequality.  The foreign aid we lobbied so hard for was creamed by the elites in poor countries and the big UN projects subsidized business and increased indebtedness that we can now see impoverished even more.  Internationalism today has been co-opted by business as a way to access resources.  And to protect it we have invested heavily in militarism.  The blow-back from selfish policies to establish a world spanning empire will be painful for us "innocent" American Exceptionalists. So globalism is gradually becoming a fetter for citizens in ALL countries. It appears that the game is "pay to play" and fewer are being given the wherewithal.  If everything can be monetized then we are all dependents on the numbers in our bank account and the permissions of our governments to access the "good life".

Polygamy Porter-one is not enough....

The road to Escalante passes slot canyons and twisted sandstone piles of rock.  We are looking for a campground a mile or so outside of town and find it tucked next to a cool refreshing lake.  The boys dive in while I take Ralph into town to find an hotel.  We will be back for dinner.