DAY 2

My alarm went off at 6:00 AM and I got out of bed and got dressed. Jan followed soon after. We packed up our stuff and loaded our Motors. We quickly realized that it was very cold outside and were very thankful that we were NOT leaving at this time. We all were up and packing the Motors at this time. When we finished, we walked over to the Continental breakfast, which was located next to the motel lobby. We enjoyed our breakfast and then it was time to get ready and leave. We returned to our rooms and made sure that we were fully packed and not forgetting anything.

Bruce was leading again and we left at 8:25 AM. We headed east and 7 miles later at 8:33 AM we stopped at a gas station to fill up. We left at 8:50 AM with Jan in the lead.

Jan lead us east through a very scenic part of Colorado. There were mountains all around us with snow capped peaks. We continued until we reached Pagosa Springs, CO at 9:49 AM after 54 miles. This was a much needed pit stop. After leaving at 10:15 AM, we could see that Pagosa Springs was a very beautiful, scenic, green and quiet town. I have some relative living here and I can understand why they do! As we were headed eastbound, there was a large snow capped mountain ahead of us that we needed to cross. This mountain had "Wolf Creek Pass," which has an elevation of 10,550 feet. The road through the pass was winding and had snow on either side of the road, up the mountains and on top of the mountains. The road was dry and in good shape. We needed to watch for the falling rocks! The temperature at the top of the pass was 37 degrees. I was taking pictures as we rode and making the sharp turns, avoiding snow balls on the road and the other traffic that I thought that it was prudent to put the camera away and pay attention to the road. There was one part in the road where there was a tunnel. There was a sign which read, "Watch out for ice in snow shed." As soon as we entered the tunnel (snow shed) it was dark and we had to make a quick right turn. We were all wearing our sunglasses, which made it darker. The rest of the "Pass" was gorgeous! What a ride. As we were going downhill, the temperature started to warm up.

Jan continued leading us and we stopped in Del Norte, CO for a pit stop at 11:19 AM and after 68 miles. Not only did we stop for the pit stop, but we talked about Wolf Creek Pass. We left at 11:31 AM and headed for Alamosa, CO, where we intended to stop for lunch. When we arrived at 12:05 PM, we stopped at Wendy's. As we were eating lunch, a gentleman walked up to us and asked us if we were riding the Harley's. He identified himself as Robert Jackson and gave me his business card. Robert is the Support Services Commander for the Alamosa Police Department. We told him who were were and what we were doing and he gave us notice of some heavy winds and three fires in the direction that we were going. We thanked him for the information and I gave him a Phoenix Police patch. We left at 12:54 PM.

As we left Alamosa eastbound, we found that Robert was right about the heavy winds. We experienced heavy winds and strong gusts. At one point, I was at the rear of the pack and rode next to Chuck. I stuck my left thumb up facing southbound and told Chuck that my "calibrated thumb" was telling me that the wind gusts were approximately 47 mph. We later found that the wind gusts were up to 50 mph! I guess my thumb is still calibrated...:) We arrived in FT. Garland, CO at 1:25 PM after riding 28 miles. This is generally what we usually do after lunch. we like to stop after about 20 miles so that we can "wake up" after lunch. We also stopped for gas and an after lunch pit stop.

It was now Jim's time to lead. We continued east and stopped in Walsenburg, CO. at 2:31 PM after riding 47 miles. This was a needed pit stop. Yes, we stopped for another pit stop. We had to. We had a lot to drink for lunch! We didn't stop for very long and continued at 2:46 PM. As you can tell from our past few stops, we didn't ride for very long. We also had to ride at slower speeds, especially over Wolf Creek Pass. At this point, we also shedded our jackets because it was very warm. According to Bruce's thermometer on his Motor, it had reached 90 degrees.

Los Animas, CO. was our next stop at 4:15 PM after riding for...get this...94 miles. Do you believe it? We actually rode for 94 miles. We covered some ground! Yeah, you guessed it. This was another pit stop. We left at 4:37 PM.

Jim took us to Lamar, CO. where we stopped at 5:13 PM after riding 36 miles. NO, this wasn't for a pit stop! It was a needed stop for gas. At least we thought that we needed gas. We were riding a a very flat roadway and going about 65 mph. Don't worry, the speed limit was 65! When we had gassed up in Lamar, we all averages about 3 to 3 1/2 gallons of gas each. We all had great gas mileage. We left at 6:28 PM with Chuck leading again.

Chuck took us east towards Kansas. The sun was starting to set, but we had intentions of getting to Dodge City, Kansas. We passed the Kansas State Line at 6:00 PM and at 7:15 PM after riding 50 miles we stopped in Syracuse, KS. Jim had radioed Chuck on the CB and asked Chuck to stop because Jim's load needed to be checked. Jim stated that he saw a jacket flapping in the wind and he wanted to secure it. Also, as we entered Kansas, we lost another hour. We left at 7:28 PM. As we rode eastbound, at about 8:05 PM, we encountered strong winds again. We were battling the wind gusts. The wind gusts took its toll on us because of the long day that we had. We arrived at Garden City, KS., which is about 47 miles shy of Dodge City, at 8:29 PM after riding 56 miles. Most of the 56 miles were with heavy winds and strong gusts. We stopped at a Best Western to check for three rooms but they didn't have what we needed. The nice clerk referred us to another Best Western a mile away. The clerk had checked and found that the other motel had rooms for us. We rode to the BW Wheat Lands Hotel and Conference Center. We checked into the motel and asked for a good, close place for dinner. The clerk told us that The Grain Bin Restaurant, next door, served dinner until 9 PM. We collected our room keys and rode our Motors next door for dinner. After dinner, we went back to the motel and checked into our rooms. We unloaded our Motors and tucked them in for the night. It was, again, windy and you should have seen us put the covers on the Motors. It was a chore!

Well, today we saw some beautiful country in the west side of Colorado. The east side was very flat and had a lot of farms. We saw a lot of road kill, mainly deer. The first part of Kansas was also very flat, however, there were a lot of farms and some beautiful homes. We did manage to ride for a total of 460 miles. We didn't make it to Dodge City but we will tomorrow. Chuck called J.B. and told him where we stopped for the night. J.B. told Chuck that he (J.B.) is "biting at the bit" to ride. I think that J.B. will probably ride west for a distance in hopes of meeting with us to ride back to his home with us. We will see...

Until tomorrow...