Two Weeks and a Day

Day 16 Sunday, May 2, 2010

I forgot to mention on yesterdays blog that yesterday marked 2 weeks since we started this ride. From our end, it sure doesn't feel like it. Time has flown by!

Jan and I woke up at 6:30 AM. We got dressed and packed. As we walked to the breakfast area, the others came out of their rooms and met us. We took our time to have breakfast. Cold cereal in its plastic container and silverware. We didn't need to get the plastic spoons. Cloth napkins and stemware. How hoity toity! After breakfast we all got our bags from our rooms and loaded our Motors. We rode south to a Valero gas station to fill up. We left at 9:11 AM with C.E. in the lead.

We rode through flat country with mountains in the distance. It was cloudy and when we left the gas station, it was 52 degrees. The scenery changed slightly as we traveled west. After riding 60.4 miles, we stopped in La Junta at 10:10 AM at a Wal Mart Super Store. It was time for a pit stop. We went into the store in shifts because we were parked far from the door. We left at 10:30 AM.

C.E. was still leading us and we went farther west into Colorado. The scenery became nicer to look at. There were more clouds and they were darker. We rode into Pueblo, CO. and C.E. stopped at a Subway at 11:34 AM after riding 65.6 miles. We discussed riding over Monarch Pass, which is at 11,312 feet. Chuck checked his toy, Droid, and found that the temperature in Monarch Pass was 31 degrees and was ice packed and had snow. The last city before climbing up to Monarch Pass is Salida, CO. We discussed maybe stopping in at Salida, early, and spending the night. We could tackle Monarch Pass tomorrow. The Droid said that it would be clear tomorrow. Chuck told C.E. that he needed to stop in about 40 miles so that Chuck could get gas. I thought that we got gas at the Subway! We left at 12:19 PM.

We continued westbound. The landscape was greener, the clouds got darker and it looked as if it was raining at a distance. There were two banks of clouds and a clearing in the center. Luckily, we were headed towards the center. We stopped in Canon City at 12:53 PM after riding 35.7 miles. We stopped at a gas station/mini-mart. We all gassed up and parked at the side of the mini-mart. It was 57 degrees and it was getting colder as we rode west. We all put on our rain gear and warm clothes. We were prepared! We left at 1:21 PM with Chuck leading. C.E. was very happy that he was no longer leading.

Once we passed Canon City, on the map the road is dotted, it was a very scenic road. We passed the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park exit and we were in a canyon following the Arkansas River. As we rode through the canyon, the road had many curves and twisties. Unfortunately, we had several vehicles in front of us so we couldn't go very fast. It sprinkled on us a little and we rode through snow flurries. It wasn't bad. It wasn't enough to make us stop and wait for it to stop. We continued. There were many people in the Arkansas river fishing. Some of the fishermen were standing on the banks of the river while others were wading in the river fishing. Some were even on rubber boats fishing. The speed limit in the canyon was 45 mph and we were actually doing the speed limit, or slower. We finally rode into Salida and stopped at a Holiday Inn Express at 2:29 PM after riding 61.1 miles. Without saying anything, we all decided to stay here for the night. We checked in and got our bags out of our Motors and took them to our rooms. We moved our Motors so that they would be parked by our windows of our rooms. We relaxed, had coffee, hot chocolate and spicy apple cider. The hotel staff baked cookies and gave us some. The staff recommended a steak house named, Quincy's. We will ride there and have dinner. When we return to the hotel, we will park our Motors and tuck them in for the night. The hot tub is operational, as is the pool. This is an early day for us. We WILL rest tonight.

Today, we rode for only 223 miles. We didn't want to continue and rode Monarch Pass with the snow and the ice packed street. We will wait for the snow to thaw. We were told that the road is plowed on a regular basis and sand is placed on the road. If all works out, we should be out of Colorado tomorrow. We will see. So, until tomorrow...

Addendum: I just had to add this. We were getting ready to ride to dinner. As we walked out of the hotel, IT WAS SNOWING! We got to our Motors and the seats had snow on them. We had to dust them off. We rode south for 1 mile and it started to snow harder. I made a video of part of the ride. I hope that the snow shows on the video. We were treated very well in the restaurant. We finished dinner and rode back to the hotel and tucked our Motors in for the night.