Back in New Mexico, I get on the real bike again….back in the saddle. Leave the Jeep for the first time in weeks.

I live part time in a section of desert that – from the interstate – looks as desolate as the moon.

But within 15 minutes I can be in magnificent parts of the planet that most people have never seen.

Out here, the ecosystems change with altitude, not just season.

I left – dry – 102 degree heat at lakeside, and was soon in – dry – 80 degree mountain air that feels like 70 on the East Coast.

Miles of uninterrupted roads. No traffic. Amazing vistas and changing vegetation. No RV’s. Everyone waves. If you stop, everyone stops to help.

Folks have been living and ranching here long before the US was formed. Long before the first Anglos arrived (although some genetic research suggests there were Caucasians here 10,000 years ago, after our current glaciers and icebergs had finished their first 8,000 years of ‘global warming’ and the oceans here had dried – except around Utah).

I had been worried about my return to the Third World of the American East Coast.

In the saddle, this all goes away…..

Around the first few bends, free range cattle stand to attention – literally – as my bike approaches. I stop. Lift my visor. Talk to them (cut me some slack…you try it some time).

They all keep pointing in my direction. Staring.

Smile on a cow (like smile on a dog).

I start up and move….

…they line up to follow…

…I move…

…some scatter…others stay with me….like weather vanes, they all keep moving to point toward me….

If I was not restricted to the road…I’ll bet some of them would have followed me off into the range.

OK….this is good. Like the bears in Arctic, although probably safer.

Ride on.

Stop at the ranch store….also near a local mine.

This is the real deal. No 7-Eleven. Been here long time. Wonderful owners.

Then 85 miles of superb dirt road. Bike in the zone. Views that simply cannot be captured without a stadium size vidi-wall.

Being there.

Cross Plains of San Agustin. Amazing. Scary to ‘tree people’ but relaxing to ‘vista people’.

Arrive at Very Large Array. Collection of radio telescopes on rail tracks using an entire valley as a ‘lens’.

http://www.vla.nrao.edu/

This desert state has some of the highest concentrations of PhD’s in the country/world. One of the major sources of technology.

And, out here, free range cattle and government scientists co-habitate.

(Zero-risk advocates and treble-damage attorneys…please don’t mess with this balance. Cows and humans are smarter than you think and we don’t need to pay you millions to save us.)

Ride into high desert town of Magdalena. Music and happy people everywhere. Old Timers rodeo going on….like football at Bi-Coastal high schools. Big wedding with live Cowboy music. anglos in minority.

Dying to take pictures, but this is a clearly bonded community with all eyes on the new into-town riders. Respectful documentation would require taking the kevlar armor off, walking around a while, getting accepted by locals….in essence earning the right to capture some of their community fun …. without being the drive-by ‘oh mildred look at the cute indians’ tourista.

How does one know this?

One learns it from the body language of the locals after years of riding into their towns.

Get rid of the armor. Let them see the person. Buy a drink. Talk to people. Wander. Sit. After awhile you will notice that they have ‘grokked’ you. The postures of people across the street will relax, and they will continue what they are doing.

Then – as long as you convey in your body language that you are enjoying what they enjoy – you can start carefully documenting some of the surroundings.

That is respect for the community.

Today, I respect but do not have the time to prove it.

Maybe later when I can spend the afternoon at the rodeo….

Back 100 miles on dirt toward home…

Now THIS is land for sale. Not some 500 square foot condo for $400,000…

Keep riding. Mind wide open.

This is not the arctic, but it has some pieces that are darn close….I get the same reverence for things larger and more lasting than we humans.

I arrive back home. 40 mile long lake. Village of camping trailers builds every Thursday and goes away on Monday. Strict environmental controls. Extremely clean. Everyone knows their footprint and packs it out. Mostly families.

A very open community. Everyone cares. Norms self-regulated.

This is the “Hamptons” for people who live in the land… not in the city.

This is not the end of the yellow jeep road.

It is the second bookend in a very, very long ‘read’ of the earth and its people.

Thank you, whomever, for letting me do this…

Butterfly economics and ‘black swans’ indicate that large events always come from seemingly insignificant events.

This news story is perhaps the most important of anything going on in the world right now, in that small numbers of people could have a terrible impact on the largest number of humans in the shortest amount of time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/world/asia/11riotinto.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=rio&st=cse

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124723948786923911.html

I just drove 9,000 miles through mining country. This news story has very direct connections to that land. I read it in a very different light from the yellow jeep.

Given:

1. China is the largest manufacturer of everything in the world – the world depends on them for ‘stuff’
2. China is the largest single buyer of the top commodities in the world – the world depends on them for income.
3. China’s commodity buying has kept the sub-prime fueled ‘worst recession in decades’ from becoming ‘complete economic depression’ by keeping a floor under global commodity prices. Its core demand for iron, copper, etc have kept commodity prices from collapsing despite the crash in home and industrial construction elsewhere.
4. China – with its unique mix of ‘communist’ and ‘capitalist’ culture – does not have legal boundaries between ‘business secrets’ and ‘state secrets’ – and therefore can do pretty much what it wants  with the world’s commerce – within their boundaries and laws.
5. China is a de-facto owner of the lion’s share of global commodities and has essentially conducted a peacetime invasion of Africa and other resource rich regions.

Then:

This little ‘tiff’ is has much more immediate damaging potential than Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, banking crisis, and a host of other headlines.

1. If commodity prices were really negotiated 45% downward as China demand, then the recession we see now would extend far beyond only those humans who were rich enough to have brokerage accounts or a mortgage.
2. If trade with China slows down even for a month or two, because people fear getting arrested, or fear that their assets will be effectively nationalized….then retail everywhere drops significantly, industrial supply chains and financial markets freeze again.

In 1940 the US cut off scrap steel and fuel sales to Japan. That was a pivotal event in creating a world war. Butterfly economics had started long before that policy move.

The moves by China this week – arresting Rio Tinto executives and holding them incognito – are still very small.

They are not likely to stimulate world war.

Most likely the executive detentions will result in back room negotiations and exchange of significant funds.

But they have implications far beyond this now second-page news story.

You can really buy these rockets. Expensive but you can buy them.

Many campgrounds now have wireless. That’s one of the key points of this trip…to be at the edge of electricity and see what innovations are happening.

Home-bought fireworks exploding over my head. No Eastern restrictions here.

Rode across Montana and half of Idaho today. Was really beat. Then saw huge field of parked trucks/cars and heard loud crowd noises.

Big combo dirt track and rodeo stadium.

Demolition Derby. Home grown.

Had to stop. Parked about half mile away at only parking I could find. Cost me $6 to get in. Probably 2000 to 3000 people in three large sets of bleachers.

I got to see one “run”, or “match”, or “heat”.

I had never seen one up close. None of that namby-pamby put-the-crowd-behind-glass stuff here. Real life. In your face.

Some shots.

One of three bleachers:

Car being intro’d before action:

Action video – click to play:

demo derby action clip 2

Car at end of action:

In the land where time is measured, I just realized it is the “4th of July”.

When driving for hours I had been trying to see if I could remember any of the following document. It has all kinds of flaws and biases, but it still makes pretty good reading. While kvetching about “bulgaria” – I still realize that on the scoresheet below, we, and most other nations including the real Bulgaria, are doing pretty well in 2009.

For all those who have taken the ultimate risk that allow us to blog….

…this by the way is not copyrighted….I’m pretty sure you are allowed to quote any and all of it in any form whatsoever without being sued or having to pay someone for ‘intellectual property’….

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

The ‘don’t sue me’ boilerplate in the lodging form for a motel is staggering waste of trees.

Food purveyors must provide web and mail documentation that there are actually dead animals in their hamburgers (does anyone actually read this stuff?)

Also – I almost forgot – one should never spill fresh hot coffee on one’s lap. Glad they told me. Glad to know it would be my fault if I did that.

Regulation sign posted on a community campsite is evidence some attorneys are gainfully employed managing the great outdoors.

Road signs probably doubled.

Cops everywhere.

I saw maybe 15 cops, literally, in 2000 miles of Canadian driving (not counting alleged ‘bait’ cars I never saw). Saw two speed traps.

Have been seeing one police vehicle every 20 minutes or so in US…..in rural areas.

Watching the cellular system trying to log me into the phone network was instructive. Layers of contracting and liability.

And this is traveling in the places where a presidential candidate once said they still cling to their guns and religion……

…the new Bulgaria….

I have been right in the middle of mining and drilling country for the better part of 9 days.

Over the past 5 years this has become familiar territory for me on four continents.

If you have never been in such areas, it is almost impossible to conceive of the technology and cultures along dimensions of scale, kindness, community, and globalism.

Scale:

The ability we humans have to move around large parts of the earth is staggering.

The size of personal vehicles is at the larger end of the scale. As I write, big diesel engines surround me. These are the regions that keep Chrysler alive by using so many Dodge RAM trucks.

Kindness:

On average, if you need something in mining country, people will bend over backward to get it for you – if you get past the surface images of ‘hardened’ people. Watching two – intimidated – people from California weave their way through the locals at the fast food joint this morning was interesting. Not sure they had ever seen mud before, and wish I could hear their conversation when they got back into their large diesel pusher motor home. Must have been like swimming with sharks for them. They are really missing out by fearing mud and sweat.

Community:

People tend to cluster and chat. And the bulletin boards are full of cooperative swapping and bartering.

Lots of ‘guys’ hanging out in groups. Very chatty. Cracker barrel and wood stove politics survive here. (And in Canada, they have somehow avoided the absurd ‘red’ – ‘blue’ bifurcation of the US population. People can still discuss issues without bi-polarization.)

This is not unique to mining country – it dominates rural communities everywhere – but it seems accentuated here when contrasted to the industrial strength equipment all around.

Globalism:

I’ll bet mining has always been global. The Klondike heritage of 100 years ago was clearly a global phenomenon. Sort of the ‘dot.com’ of the last industrial era.

Now, this is even more global. I am seeing people at work in ‘remote’ areas driven fundamentally by money from China.

New York and London, despite the ego-trip, are not in charge of this next phase of the global economy. They – and Washington DC – tried extracting too much rent from the global economic flows, and they lost it in an inflated stock market. This morning I’m seeing hard tonnage paid for in hard cash – from the new manufacturing leaders in Asia.

Cap and Trade – and the Future of Kings:

Note: the following is written by someone who desperately does not want drilling in ANWR or Atacama…..

Those working in ‘centers of power’ (some might say ‘environments of self delusion’) have decided that of all the millions of variables in this complex universe, ‘carbon’ has become public enemy number one. (30 years ago it was sulfur, then it was nitrogen – which gave us the emissions laws that biased emissions toward then-safe carbon dioxide.)

Unable to perform real work, they have come up with the world’s largest administrivial jobs program – ‘cap and trade’. It takes no longer than about 10 minutes of reading to see where this one is going. Some self-appointed experts will form small committees (hundreds of people out of 6.5 billion on the planet). These committees will pay ‘consultants’ trillions of dollars to ‘measure’ ‘bad’ things like ‘carbon’. Then these few hundred humans will decide how much ‘carbon’ the entire species can emit, and they will create a tax-and-favors program that allows these few hundred powerful people to support about 100 million administrativial jobs…….minions….supplicants……etc.

And the whole thing will break down under its own weight in about 30 years, just as the – mostly successful – clean air acts have given us large doses of carbon dioxide.

Sitting here here in the mud – watching the demand from 6 billion people reflected in the reality of 4000 kilometers of mining and drilling, the architecture of human power is very, very clear.

6 billion people want the same things we all have. Wiring in houses. Vehicular mobility. Clothing. Fertilizer.

The mining and drilling of the last century was driven by only about 700 million humans.

The demand from the next 2 billion is reflected all around me this morning.

The people I see this morning are not the ‘enemy’. They are extremely nice, dedicated people who are trying to serve what others around the world want.

We passed through periods of monarchy and dictatorship. We may have passed through a phase of nation-states. This morning in the mud – I can see that we are moving into a new era of ruling class – in which minorities who have never been in the mud play chess with the money created from the mud.

Some images of the future…..

Today…..

In an earlier post I said the ‘lower’ ALCAN had been domesticated. Turns out that is only the section nearest Whitehorse, YT – that is, nearest the ferries at Skagway and Haines. I was wondering how so many people could afford the $2000 or so for gas to drive those RV’s all the way from the States. Turns out they probably don’t drive them. They take the ferry or rent them.

Found that the stretch of the Alaska Highway from Watson Lake to Fort Nelson is spectacular.

This one is a definite motorcycle road.

Some sample shots from moving Jeep.

OK, so I’ve gone a bit native here, but the whole point of this exploration is to experience communities of all kinds.

Think about ‘community’ from the bear’s point of view…  You’re very territorial, and you communicate this with unmistakable markings.  You have dominated all the other species around you: caribou, cougars, rabbits, squirrels.

The only things that keep invading your space are these fast moving noisy organisms that race toward you on those long smooth strips of land without trees.  Often, they stop right in front of you and make strange noises as they dare to invade your territory.

What do you do?  It’s very logical.  Make sure you mark their pathways with excessive vigor.

Two representative samples. The locals say these are from bear.

They appear most commonly where lakes meet the tarmac….where all animals need to protect their links to life-giving watering holes.

See also some shots of a bear near the Jeep this afternoon. He seemed most interested in getting his vegetables.